More Pedals ... More Adapters....Grrrrrrrrr :(

Now that i am all set with 6 pedals I need 6 adapters or a power supply which would supply power to my 6 pedals.

Adapters are messy and difficult to manage. A real pain.

Carl Martin Power supplies and Daisy chain costs a bomb almost 2500/-

After some research i realized that instead of spending loads of money on this stuff make your own Daisy chain and get some adapter from the Local Electronics shop.

eg. For 5 outputs i am planning to buy a 9V - 2A Adapter(approx 300/-).
Get 2.1 mm jacks from the shop and make a Daisy chain out of it(100/-). Any guy in the electronics shop would solder and make it for you. Just need to take care of Barrel +ve or Tip -ve depending upon your pedal requirement.

My questions:-
1) Firstly will this work?
2) Are the branded products which are way to costly modified in anyway?
3) Will i be risking my pedals using such setup?

Experts please comment coz i am fed up of using soo many Adapters and i dont want to spend on such costly power supplies(unless they are really worth it)

 

Hehe.. Thats exactly what I did a long time ago. There is no harm to your pedals and the setup should work. There are some things you need to take care about though..

Firstly, you don't need 2A to run the 5 pedals. Very few pedals (mainly high end delays/modulation with a lot of processing) consume 100mA or above.
Secondly, hum is your biggest enemy. Hooking up so many pedals in a chain will cause your gain pedals to hum. (Good luck if you are powering a Wah in the chain).

So you might have to use a second adaptor to power the sensitive pedals. The best long term option is to try and save up and get a nice, filtered power supply with isolated outputs like the Voodoo Pedal Power + or the T-Rex Fuel Tank Jr.

 

I am actually planning to make a 8 output Chain. So probably i will use something greater than 2 Amps. Coz i am sure i wil add a Wah pedal in the future.

The reason that i chose 2A was because Carl Martin outputs 1650mA of current for 5 outputs.

I don't understand why it should add HUM coz i read on other threads as well that say Daisy chains add HUM.. Didnt understand why. Its just a power supply after all.

 

Unfortunately, I am a mechanical engineer and do not understand either how these intricate electronic things work

But it is true (from experience) that if you hook up a lot of pedals, you get a lot of noise. Something to do with 60 cycle hum, ground loops etc. The hum will be very annoying especially when you turn on high gain pedals. Wah is just terrible with the hum. So you might have to run it on batteries or on a seperate adaptor.

 

1 Spot from Visual Sound... I use one... See if you can find it here.. i got it from US..

 

i bought this:

https://www.musicstore.com/en_EN/GBP/Fame-DCT-200-Multi-Power-Supply-/art-GIT0019066-000

stupidly enough, the only method of payment they accept is a bank transfer to a german account. luckily i have a bunch of friends there. with shipping, this thing works out to around €54... because the 19% VAT is slashed on export

 

Well.. bought 2.1mm power jacks yesterday will be getting a daisy chain made out of it. And once that is done. I will connect all the pedals to the 9V adapter before buying it and check if all works . If it doesn't then i will have to buy branded stuff.

 

@mymusicmyguitar:

not a good idea at all if your adapter doesn't supply enough current. also, i can GUARANTEE you that your adapter is a lousy POS for 300/-. every indian adapter i've opened lacks adequate filtering and regulation. i opened up a furtados adapter once cause the voltage was way off and i was truly disgusted - that thing was built appallingly. i took pictures too i think. i embarked on a project to build an 8-output isolated supply but then found the power supply linked above and snapped it up - for €49, it's a brilliant deal. i still have the transformer for my project but not enough time to build the stupid thing, will do it at some point though.

daisy chains can definitely induce hum and other noise too. not uncommon at all. seen it happen pretty often. it's called a ground loop. read more about it here: https://www.geofex.com/article_folders/spyder/spyder.htm

isn'T always the case but happens more often than not with large signal chains and high gain pedals.

"it's just a power supply" - you need to understand that the sound that comes out of your speaker is essentially rectified and modulated AC voltage hum is basically unfiltered/badly filtered 50 Hz AC mains voltage.

thus, in fact, your power supply is ALWAYS the main source of hum. the second source would be pickups, usually when you play them near sources of hum like tubelights, motors or other transformers.

anyway, i think you should invest in something better. the cheapo indian stuff sucks balls. not just noise, but reliability issues too. cheap thin underspec wires, humming transformers, no regulation so you'll have voltage drops with larger loads, inadequate filtering for large current draws... it goes on.

 

@flood - U r absolutely right. The 9v 2A adapter costs around 220/-. There is one which is for 550/-(heavier than the 220/- one) Do u really think its a waste of money? Or should i atleast try it once before i go for buying some DC power stuff. What if the adapter is good and it work out fine.

Just checked on Boss site and saw that the maximum current drawn by a single pedal is approximately 20mA. I do have a Roland Adapter which i got it with Roland Microcube Amp. This one is 9V 600mA. I think i will try hookin all the pedals with this one first and then go for some higher current Adapter.

If it doesnt work out any suggestions for some specific 9v 2A adapters. Any better brands that i should look for?

 

what do you mean by DC power stuff? is the adapter you're looking to buy an AC adapter with 9V AC output? DO NOT USE IT! YOU WILL FRY ALL YOUR PEDALS BEYOND REPAIR!

you MUST use an adapter that provides 9V 2A DC voltage as an output!

it isn't, and it won't. i've owned a few and trashed them or smashed them up to salvage the transformer for small future projects. they hummed like hummingbirds with just one pedal connected.

if the 9V 2A is not regulated then under low-load conditions, your actual output voltage can go as high as 11-12V. this may or may not harm your pedals but i prefer not to risk it, unless it is common knowledge that a specific pedal can handle the extra few volts and sounds better that way.

if you want to buy an adapter then these are the minimum requirements: 9V DC output, 2A, filtered and REGULATED. i've seen adapters with as little as just a diode bridge and a 100uF cap inside.

this is NOT true of a number of effects, particularly delays and some other microprocessor based effects. or even my zoom tri-metal for that matter - all analog, but can suck a battery dry in a couple of hours.

most people i know who use them are happy with the visual sound 1-spot and the price is pretty good too.

 

I meant the branded DC power stuff like Carl Martin, Dunlop DC Brick and others and not the local DC adapters. Now that i have anyways got the 8 2.1 mm power connectors i better try and see. Just the matter of me getting it soldered and getting a chain made out of it. I already have a Roland Microcube(9V DC 600 mA) Adapter as mentioned above. Even if i am successfully able to connect 3 pedals with that i will buy a better Adapter to power 8 outputs.

 

make sure you get the polarities right while soldering. don't invert them. that WILL let the smoke out.

 

https://www.be3amplifiers.com/accessories.html

 

@insatanity - Thanks for that link. This link pops up for everythin . I think its time for me to go and check that shop and the adapter looks great as well(Filtered and Regulated as mentioned by @flood)

One thing that i don't understand is why the BE3 stuff which is made locally is as costly as the other branded stuff? Why can't there be some price difference?

I couldn't get that daisy chain made yest(Monday shops closed). Will go today and get it done. If it doesn't work out then be3 works out for me for sure..

 

how is it as costly? Rs. 1800 is pretty damn cheap compared to anything mentioned on this thread.

the fame supply i posted is €49, which works out to about 2800. it's less than half of the big brand names mentioned here.

also, stop thinking things should be cheap only because they're made locally. exactly that line of thinking is what makes the locally made stuff such shitty quality.

 

Ansar makes pro quality stuff ..please don't insult him by comparing his work to *local* things... When he says it'll run without any noise he means it..plus he;s giving you warranty for 3 damn years.. where do you get it in the *local* shops..?

 

@flood - Well said..I completely agree with u. Yes there is a price difference. I will definitely consider that BE3 product.

@rickkkyrich - My bad. I take my words back. If he is giving good quality stuff then definitely price cannot be compared to local stuff. No doubt. Its just our indian mentality that we think US made or Japanese made products are good in quality and we don't mind spending a lot on those.

I really need to experience BE3 products myself to believe coz i have had bad experiences in the past with our other Indian made electronics stuff.

Well the fame supply that u mentioned has many additional features so it cannot be compared with a simple Daisy chain adapter supply.

 

Also check out the Brat+. I highly recommend it after you sell your Roland and Marshall...but you have to give the order of the amp to Ansar as he is very busy taking orders.

 

the fame supply is tops, getting it is a pain in the ass though. my dad was in cologne on business so i asked him to stop by - it was out of stock at the store. then i tried to order it online. it took my CC details, but i never got a card swipe notification. at some point an employee mailed me to tell me that non-EU cards or paypal will not be accepted and that i would have to transfer the money via bank transfer. since i have a bunch of good friends there, i asked one of them to do it for me. he forgot to transfer the shipping charges, so the thing was on hold a bit longer. shipping was only some €12-15! came in bombproof packing via DHL post parcel, the value was too low for customs to care i guess.

so yeah, only if you know someone in continental europe or england.

also, i don't think ansar actually manufactures that power supply - i am inclined to believe he simply found and sourced a good quality one. he's very interested in quality as a person, be it playing or equipment, which inspires buying confidence for me at least.

 

Hi There,
Most pedals draw power in term of mA, milliAmps. So a 2A Adapter is fine, and just as wylder said, u'll get a lot of hum if you start sharing your adapter between pedals. What you need to do is build a rectifying filter for each output by having a diode and a 24V 1000uF Cap in place . This makes sure that each pedal is getting it's own filtered power supply and you'll have less hum if not, none at all. I have done this myself with a 500mA adapter, 500mA coz that was what was at hand and i use only 2-3 pedals, therefore not drawing much power. Remember each output get 1 diode and 1 cap. google the wiring schemes .