Purchasing Boss-Style Wall Warts

[yano]

I'm in the market for a boss-style wall wart (center pin -, ring +, 9V) and was wondering if anyone knew of a good place to get them for a reasonable price.
Seems like mouser only has pin +, ring - supplies.

[phillip]

I like the Visual Sound One Spot adatper.  It only takes up one spot on a power strip, and it supplies 9.6V at 1A:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040210161414012077094157499559/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/151692/

It has the negative center pin and postive sleeve like the Boss, Ibanez, Dunlop, etc. pedals use.

And here's the Boss PSA-120...9.6V at 200mA...won't power a whole lot of pedals, but will work fine with two or three:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040210161332012077094157499309/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/151370/

Phillip

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Hard to beat http://www.jameco.com/ for plugpacks. Good on-line catalog too.

[Mark Hammer]

IMPORTANT!!!!

It is typical of BOSS pedals that they come with an advisory to use THEIR wall-wart.  Why is this?

When a pedal CAN use a battery, and uses a closed-circuit switching jack to disable the battery when a wall-wart plug is inserted, inserting the wall-wart plug lifts/bumps a connection so that the battery is taken out of circuit and replaced with the external power source.

In the case of mini phone-plugs, it is the TIP of the plug that does this physical action.  In the case of barrel plugs, it is the outer SHAFT that does this.

Because of that reality, the outer shaft of the barrel style plug MUST carry V+.  However, because the overwhelming majority of barrel-style jacks are plastic and insulated from the chassis/box, when the plug does not HAVE TO physically switch power sources, the manufacturer has a choice of whether to make the outer shaft V+ or ground.  Because of that, there are TWO types of plug orientations/polarities out there among second source wall-warts.  The reason why Roland/Boss and others make a stink about using *their* wall-wart is to guarantee that you don't accidentally use one with the wrong plug polarity and fry the pedal.  Of course it is also because they simply can't guarantee that if they explained all of this to the customer in an instruction manual that the customer would understand it or even read it for that matter.

So, you should obviously aim for a plugpack/wall-wart with an appropriate degree of regulation (for least hum) and voltage/current, but also be aware that the polarity of the plug MUST match the requirements of the pedal and that not all "unauthorized" supplies do.  

Having said that, you CAN simply modify the supply by either installing a new plug with the connections flipped, by cutting and reconnecting the leads in-line so the power connections are reversed, or even by making yourself a junction box which allows you to select plug polarity via a switch.

[smoguzbenjamin]

I use an old, regulated 250mA PS that delivers 9.3v with no load, and it powers 5 boss pedals including a DD-2 and also a wah alongisde. It's doing fine!

I'd say just make sure it can deliver enough current and that the center pin is negative

[Ansil]

i got a sack full of transformer wallwarts..  all different values you can have two or three for th e5 bucks it cost me to ship it to ya.  us for that price..  you may have to solder and end for it but i got from 200ma all the way up to 4 A

[drew]

I most recently bought a hundred 9v wall warts from jameco for around $2 ea... 9v, 2.1mm barrel plug... you can get center-negative (this is the boss type, right?) for a similar price.

www.jameco.com



drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[Impaler]

What I wound up doing is buying a buttload of those DC power jacks and some plugs to go with them. I Wired them in parallel in a plastic enclosure so I could use 1 DOD PS200R to run all my pedals. That wallwart will put out 300mA. With a bright blue led, and an on/off switch, It works fine. I have gigged using the one with TEN outs with no buzz or hum. (Yes, I shielded the enclosure). In my rig, there is NO way I'd use all 10 items at the same time. I also made a 4 out one for my practice rig. This is an easy project if you wanna do it. I could post it on my site when I get time if ya's like. =)

[yano]

Ansil:

So I take it the transformers you have are fine for powering pedals (low noise)?