Which Power Supply?

singemonkey · 2010-05-06T11:51:58+00:00

I just got a new Boss FRV1 reverb pedal. A tremolo pedal and, I guess, a pedal tuner, and I'll have my whole set up. But it just emphasised the urgency of getting a power supply and jumper leads so that I can actually use them all simultaneously :? I have the following now: The FRV1 A TS9 An Ibanez AD9 Analogue Delay A Fuzz Face (battery only) A Vox Wah (battery only) In addition to the fact that I want something that can hook up to the battery connectors in the Fuzz Face and the Wah, I just might go for the MXR Tremolo, which is 12V. I want the smallest, lightest power supply I can get. What about the 1-spots and Godlyke power systems? What else should I be thinking about?

JoeyBones

matta wrote The problem with all cheap SMPS's like the One Spot, Godlyke and Meanwell is that they are self sacrificing, or should be, but I've seen several fail, just search the net and you will see and hear horror stories, inrush currents killing pedals, in fact I has a SMPS take out a R16,000 mic pre, thankfully the 10R resistors self sacrificed on 3 of the 4 pres, but the last require a R700 opamp to be replaced.

You have ore faith than I do in them, it was for this reason I ended up buying Cioks and bringing they other,s I own a Mod and Timefactor, those pedals are stupid expensive, and I'm not going to trust R100 supply on them... the risk is far to great... but to each his own.

This makes for interesting reading and the author seems to share my views: http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/articles/trans.htm

Cheers

Matt

Good food for thought here. So what would you guys suggest to cover my requirement. Obviously trying to find the best trade off between cost and quality :

Disc Power Req (Center - or +) Power Draw (ma)
XDS 95 Receiver -9v 100
Tuner -9v 35
ISP Decimator -9v 35
Screamer Fuzz -9v 10
Keeley comp -9v 30
Joyride -9v 100
OD 820 -9v 19
Mojo Drive -9v 25
PB1 -9v 40
Carbon Copy -9v 26
Timefactor +9v 1200
Modfactor +9v 1200
T-Rex Replica -12V 110
Musicom EFX MKII -12V 300
Digitech Whammy +9Vac 750

AlanRatcliffe

I'm still very happy with my CIOKS DC10. It's what a PSU should be - stick it on your board, hook up your pedals and relax knowing that everything is working well, sounding good and is reliable and safe. Fuggeddabout it.

@Matt - Thanks! I've read some of Andreas' other articles before and I trust his take on things.

@Joey - You obviously haven't skimped on your pedals. You (and they) deserve the best power you can get for them - and that is CIOKS. Failing that, probably a PP2. You might still have to use an additional supply or two (definitely for the AC powered Whammy, possibly for one or other of the higher current draw pedals too), but at least get most of your more valuable pedals running off something truly trustworthy (and quiet).

As Matt has intimated, once you see the remains of a pedalboard after a power supply "incident", price instantly becomes your smallest concern when choosing supplies. And on a R20K+ pedalboard, is R2.5K - R3K for the best supply that will last you at least a decade really a lot of money?

JoeyBones

Alan Ratcliffe wrote I'm still very happy with my CIOKS DC10. It's what a PSU should be - stick it on your board, hook up your pedals and relax knowing that everything is working well, sounding good and is reliable and safe. Fuggeddabout it.

@Matt - Thanks! I've read some of Andreas' other articles before and I trust his take on things.

@Joey - You obviously haven't skimped on your pedals. You (and they) deserve the best power you can get for them - and that is CIOKS. Failing that, probably a PP2. You might still have to use an additional supply or two (definitely for the AC powered Whammy, possibly for one or other of the higher current draw pedals too), but at least get most of your more valuable pedals running off something truly trustworthy (and quiet).

As Matt has intimated, once you see the remains of a pedalboard after a power supply "incident", price instantly becomes your smallest concern when choosing supplies. And on a R20K+ pedalboard, is R2.5K - R3K for the best supply that will last you at least a decade really a lot of money?

I'm definitely gonna go for a good quality power supply. I had no idea that anyone had had these kind off issues with wallwarts. It would break my heart to have my board go up in flames, not to mention the bank. I'm gonna hold off on buying the whammy for now, but the AC-10 is looking like a definite for the near future (Within the next two to three months). I'll see how well it handles the load and add another supply if necessary.

I think I knew what the right thing to do was, I just needed a nudge in the right direction.

Thanks for the advice guys !

AlanRatcliffe

I'm a firm hater of wallwarts in general and especially the modern switched mode stuff. It just screams "not pro gear" to me. I know why they are used and it has nothing to do with audio quality (although some manufacturers try to claim that) or suitability for the job. It's a real dealbreaker for me in most cases. Aside from pedals, the only device I've bought in the last 15 years that uses a wart was my Roland GI-20 (and that because there was no other option).

It always ticks me off when I see an otherwise good piece of kit with a wart. This is especially true of rack gear - It kind of defeats the whole purpose of using racks (portability and reliability) if you have warts bouncing around inside a rack case, skinny cables with minimal strain relief and DC power plugs. This is all compounded by the fact that warts are almost always two pin mains plugs, moulded directly into the PSU casing - unstable and take up too much space on most power strips.

JoeyBones

So here's a question. What can the guys who just can't afford a high end power supply do to protect their pedals.

I was in the process of making a distribution box with a single IEC plug which has a fuse in the power jack. Would this help ?

aja

Remember (relatively) slow or very short voltage changes may not blow the fuse but will still damage equipment, much the same way computer power supplies die after exposure to many brownouts...

JoeyBones

aja wrote Remember (relatively) slow or very short voltage changes may not blow the fuse but will still damage equipment, much the same way computer power supplies die after exposure to many brownouts...

That's what my brother said and he was also very weary of daisy chaining too many pedals together.

JoeyBones

One more option, the gig rig generator :

http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/index.html

They have a solution for every type of pedal I have and it's pretty small. looks like a basic desktop power supply, so that worries me a bit. Any opinions?

JoeyBones

Ok, so after looking at a few more options, the CIOKS AC-10 comes out tops (Cheers all around !!)

Outlet 1-2: 9V DC / 100mA each
Outlet 3-4: 9 or 12V DC / 200mA each
Outlet 5-6: 9 and 12 or 15V DC / 600mA*
Outlet 7-8: 9 or 12V AC / 800mA*
Outlet 9-10: 9, 12 or 16V AC / 800mA

So the 1st four outlets should handle all of my low utilization 9v pedals easily.
5-6 will be used for the timefactor (Need to confirm if 600ma will be sufficient when using midi)
7-8 for the modfactor (Need to confirm if 600ma will be sufficient when using midi)
9-10 for the whammy 12VAC (When I eventually get one)

I just need to source a smaller power supply to run the Musicom (12V 400ma) and the T-REX Replica (12V +-110ma). Will run these two of the meanwell 12V for now.

Of course all of this is gonna have to wait till I do some clever math $$$$ ?

JoeyBones

Just when I thought I'd seen everything :

http://us.sanyo.com/Pedal-Juice

My brother and I have been working on something similar, but this is excellent for a small board or buy a few and power a bigger board. Not cheap, but I'd really like to here the difference between this and a power supply.

JoeyBones

If there's one lesson I've learned in life, it's "don't be afraid to ask questions, no matter how stupid they may seem".

I mailed Cioks to check what they had to say about the pedals I'm trying to power. Here's Paul Ciok's response :

Hi,

You've got quite many pedals and some of them need a lot of power and one is AC, so a rather complicated set-up. We haven't got any power supply which would e able to handle all this in one unit. I'd recommend one DC10 and one AC10 for your set-up to do it properly. The AC you'll need for the Whammy.

Please have a look below how I'd set it all up.

AC10

Whammy -9Vac 750mA, outlet 9
Musicom EFX MKII -12V 300, outlet 6 @ 12V
T-Rex Replica -12V 110, outlet 4 @ 12V
XDS 95 Receiver -9v 100, outlet 3 @ 9V
Tuner -9v 35, outlet 2
ISP Decimator -9v 35, outlet 1

DC10

Timefactor +9v 1200m the actual current draw is 300mA @ 12V and this voltage is approved by Eventide
Modfactor +9v 1200 same as Modfactor

one goes into outlet 8 and the other to outlet 10 on the DC10 @ 12V

Joyride -9v 100, outlet 6
PB1 -9v 40, outlet 5

the remaining 5 goes to outlets 1-4, where two of the pedals will be in parallel using the Split Flex.

Screamer Fuzz -9v 10
Keeley comp -9v 30
OD 820 -9v 19
Mojo Drive -9v 25
Carbon Copy -9v 26

Best regards,

Poul Ciok

_____________________________________

Just for your information Eventide has tested our DC10. Here are their

comments:

I was able to power four factor pedals from Cioks DC-10 with a VAC down to 100VAC with no ripple, and down to 98VAC before reset.
The DC-10 does get warm running four pedals but seems stable, I would say three is ideal especially if it is onstage and in the sun.

Tomorrow, I will run dScope test while doing the low-power test just to be sure.

Joe Walts - Eventide

Later I got this from Tony Agnello:

Hi Poul,

Joe's testing with Dscope went well. Congratulations on designing a fine product.

And one day later from Ray Maxwell, Vice President, Sales & Marketing:

Hi Poul,

I hope

JoeyBones

JoeyBones wrote One more option, the gig rig generator :

http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/index.html

They have a solution for every type of pedal I have and it's pretty small. looks like a basic desktop power supply, so that worries me a bit. Any opinions?

I've never quoted myself before ?

I'm going to perform one last test this weekend. I have a 2.2Ah battery at home. Gonna test running some of my 12V gear off it this weekend.

guitarboy2828

Instead of starting a new topic, will just reopen this one..

I'm needing a small power bank, just not sure where to look.

I have a vox wah, boss looper and about to get a tonebone classic. The first 2 are 9 volts, the tonebone is 15volts..

So.. What powerbank powers 9v and 15v? I've only ever seen 9, 12, 18? What am i missing?

AlanRatcliffe

Looks like you are limited to the original supply or a CIOKS:

Q: Why does the Tonebone require 15VDC to work?
A: Even though we are starving the tubes, we still need sufficient voltage to get the heater coils to work. The typical 9V supplies just do not have sufficient voltage to do the job.

Q: Are there any manufacturers that make multi-power supply bricks for Tonebones?
A: Yes; The Cioks DC10 and AC10 both have 15V outlets for Tonebone pedals.

Q: What happens if I run an 18V or high voltage to the Tonebone?
A: You will overheat the internal power supply circuitry and damage your Tonebone.

ActionArnie

Looked into powering a tonebone quite extensively myself, as Alan said, looks like the Cioks is the only option unfortunately.

kayDUB

FYI - I know Matta is listed as the official SA agent for CIOKS, but last I heard he wasn't bringing any in for a while.
I ordered one from guitareffectspedals.com a while back, guy was great - even though the order was delayed quite a bit, but I think this was more on CIOKS side. I ended up paying just under 2K.

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