Powering pedal chain question.

[Swampy]

My Snark tuner has a 9v out to power another effect. So if I use my Boss 9v adapter to power the tuner, can I then power 5 more effects after it with something like a One Spot Multi-Plug 5 Cable? Or would that be too much power shared from the Boss 9v adapter? If all effects were powered at once, of course.

My plan is to do away with batteries.

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

You would need to look at the maximum output of the power adaptor (should say on the label), and compare that against the total consumption for all of the pedals. In the worst case you could overload the power supply and burn the thing out. I'd recommend giving serious consideration to buying a power supply designed to do the job, like the Voodoo Labs products.

[dystrust]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Another consideration is noise as there are certain pedals or groups of pedals that don't play nice with others. These problems can crop up when using a daisy chain like you're suggesting or similar power supply (One Spot and Powerall are examples); the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power line have isolated outputs which prevents these type of issues. Isolated supplies are also expensive, so you may want to try the daisy chain first and then consider upgrading if you do in fact have noise problems.

[DeadandBuried]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Check the power draw of each pedal. Boss ones don't tend to use alot but it does pay to get a good quality power supply. I use the T-rex fuel tank junior and its completely noiseless, and utterly reliable.

If you can't spend as much go for the Diago micropower station, will give you 1000mA of power and you can daisy chain, more than enough I think for 5 pedals.

[Swampy]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll look into these options. I was hoping to not drop a lot on this so Diago sounds interesting.

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

You would need to look at the maximum output of the power adaptor (should say on the label), and compare that against the total consumption for all of the pedals. In the worst case you could overload the power supply and burn the thing out. I'd recommend giving serious consideration to buying a power supply designed to do the job, like the Voodoo Labs products.

Nuts to that! I've got 8 pedals on my board running off a Boss PSA-120s which puts out 250mA. You do have to know the power consumption of your pedals (it's usually found right on the label on the bottom or in the specs). You'll need to look for the mA rating, not the voltage. A One Spot handles about 1700mA. Generally speaking, modulation effects tend to draw more juice whereas dirt boxes (OD, distortion) tend to draw fairly little. The only time I'd consider going to a dedicated power supply box is if I were running both 9v and 18v effects and/or I was having issues where a pedal was generating signal noise due to sharing power with other effects (a few are known to do this). If you are going to go the dedicated power box route you kinda need to know what you're buying and a decent one costs a bit. I've read that some units aren't much more inside than a splitter so pretty much like daisy chaining.

[Swampy]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Toast, what are you using to daisy chain from the first pedal?

[LesStrat]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

I use a One Spot for most pedals, but the SD Twin Tube Classic requires its own adapter.

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Toast, what are you using to daisy chain from the first pedal?

Boss PSA -> Boss TU-3 tuner, then just using a standard pedal power chain. It has like 8 connectors on it. I use a couple of extenders because the layout of the board and some pedals just lend themselves better to an L-connector.

[Swampy]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Is the power chain you're using have all "male" plugs? Or is the first in line a "female" that you just not using? I'm not sure if the voltage can start at the first "male" plugged in, or if with something like I'm describing, it needs to start at the "female".

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Is the power chain you're using have all "male" plugs? Or is the first in line a "female" that you just not using? I'm not sure if the voltage can start at the first "male" plugged in, or if with something like I'm describing, it needs to start at the "female".

The daisy-chain plug has a female jack first where you would connect your wall-wart. Other than its "sex", this connector is the same as the others on the line - they are all connected in parallel. You can leave any of them disconnected if you aren't using them, though you may want to cover them with tape or those little rubber boots to prevent accidental shorts to your power supply.

EDIT: And to be clear, yes, you can use any one of the male plugs as the power input to the chain - plugged into the power out jack on your tuner.

[Swampy]

Re: Powering pedal chain question.

Thanks Dr.. I picked up a Roland(Boss) connection cord at GC last night. It was marked down to $11 from $22. 8 jacks, all male. Works great!

For some reason I didn't even think of plugging the "female" straight to the adapter. I just had "From tuner on" in my head. Thanks again.

Next for my board is to order some solder-less 1/4" jacks (to route my fx looped pedals) and a input power plug. Then the only thing my board will be missing will be......um.......more pedals!