My New Pedalboard Power Supply

Started by Paul Marossy, April 29, 2008, 10:50:51 PM

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Paul Marossy

I've had my two power supplies fastened onto the upper left hand corner of my pedalboard for several years (one is my 200mA 9VDC BOSS power supply and the other one is my 800mA 13VAC power supply for my Shaka Tube pedal). Recently I had to play in a big room and had to turn up my amp way louder than I nornally would, and I was getting a fairly loud hum when I wasn't playing anything (with humbuckers). I immediately knew why, though - because the power supplies were basically too close to a high gain pedal.



Now I had a series of various sized black finished steel enclosures sent to me pro bono, and I had one that I didn't know what to do with for the longest time because it was kind of an odd size for a stompbox, and it had on 1" dia. hole on the bottom and two 3/4" dia. holes on two sides. When I got home the other night, I was thinking that I needed to find a way to get those power supplies off of the pedalboard when in use, and then it dawned on me! I could use this last oddball enclosure, which was just the perfect size for what I wanted to do. It was a bit tight working inside, but I managed.

Here's the top. I had to round up the allen head screws for the cover.


I put an IEC socket on it and a power switch, too. Gotta love the Dremel Tool for stuff like this!


This is where the cords from the wall warts come out of the enclosure.


A couple of shots of the internal AC wiring. Most of the time was spent on finding an easily reversible way to mount and connect the wall warts together inside of the enclosure. I also made sure that nothing can accidentally short out inside the box.



I didn't take a picture of the sides, but the back of the wall warts plug the 3/4" holes and I used a plastic insert to plug the hole in the bottom. Nothing can accidentally get inside of the enclosure now, unless it's a liquid.

Now I can move my power supplies a good distance from the pedalboard and that did the trick for getting rid of that hum. Now I just need to fix where I said I have 100mA 9VDC - it's really 200mA. Oops... 8)

trendyironicname

I have gear lust.  I used to look at pictures of naked ladies.    Now, I look at pictures of pedalboards.




At least it doesn't get me kicked out of the library anymore.
There are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Paul Marossy

A little dab of mineral spirits and a Q-tip took care of getting off the "1000". I changed it to say 200mA. My memory failed me that time.  :icon_redface:

Morocotopo

Hi Paul, nice work. i´m planning to take the power supply out of the pedalboard too. Some questions:
- You will place the power supply outside the board (for example close to the amp and plugged into the same outlet), and then run a long two conductor cable carring 9V DC to the board, right? If so, will you have a "power distribution box" in the board itself (like, 1 DC in, 5/6/whatever DC out jacks)?
- Will you have a space for the power supply on the board, for carrying purposes or will it travel in a separate place(gig bag for example)?
- The enclosure is metal just for the strongness, or also for shielding purposes?

Morocotopo
Morocotopo

Paul Marossy

#4
Quote from: Morocotopo on April 30, 2008, 10:08:50 AM
Hi Paul, nice work. i´m planning to take the power supply out of the pedalboard too. Some questions:
- You will place the power supply outside the board (for example close to the amp and plugged into the same outlet), and then run a long two conductor cable carring 9V DC to the board, right? If so, will you have a "power distribution box" in the board itself (like, 1 DC in, 5/6/whatever DC out jacks)?
- Will you have a space for the power supply on the board, for carrying purposes or will it travel in a separate place(gig bag for example)?
- The enclosure is metal just for the strongness, or also for shielding purposes?

Morocotopo

Power supply to the pedalboard is provided by the two cables coming from the wall warts. The IEC socket is where the 120VAC comes from. I can use any computer power cord for the cord that plugs into the wall receptacle.

The space where the two wall warts were formerly fastened to the board is where this new power supply sits when I pack up the pedalboard. That enclosure just fits there, so that worked out very well. In fact, it's on the pedalboard in that top view picture.

The metal enclosure is for strength and for shielding. Even with the wall warts in the metal box, I still get a little hum with it right next to me TS808 clone, though. Or when any of my distortion pedals are engaged.  :icon_confused:

Morocotopo

Oh, I see, you just put your old wall warts into the case, plastic boxes and all, so the power cables are already in place...
What I´m thinking is a really long 9V cable (4/5/6 meters), detachable at both ends, so that i can get the pwr supply/xformers as far as possible from the pedals, to minimize hum.
did you ground the metal case?

Morocotopo
Morocotopo

Paul Marossy

Quote from: Morocotopo on April 30, 2008, 11:04:33 AM
Oh, I see, you just put your old wall warts into the case, plastic boxes and all, so the power cables are already in place...
What I´m thinking is a really long 9V cable (4/5/6 meters), detachable at both ends, so that i can get the pwr supply/xformers as far as possible from the pedals, to minimize hum.
did you ground the metal case?

Morocotopo

Yep, it's a fancy box for my wall warts. I wanted something completely reversible in case I end up doing something different in the future. You could do a double ended 9V cable, too. My transformers only need to be about 18" away from my pedalboard to eliminate any hum problems from the wall warts. I did ground the metal case, the ground pin on the IEC socket is grounded to the enclosure.

Paul Marossy

#7
I used it last night at practice for the first time, in the real world, and it worked just great. Well worth the effort.  :o

jefe

#8
I really like this idea. One power cord, an on/off switch, and you're able to position it away from the board.

Quote: "Most of the time was spent on finding an easily reversible way to mount and connect the wall warts together inside of the enclosure. I also made sure that nothing can accidentally short out inside the box."

I'd be interested to hear some more details about how you did this. I'm having a bit of trouble seeing it in the photos. It looks like the prongs on the wall warts are exposed - and very close together! What did you do to ensure that they won't come in contact with each other? Also, are those some kind of clips attached to the prongs? They look kinda brass colored?

Paul Marossy

#9
QuoteIt looks like the prongs on the wall warts are exposed - and very close together! What did you do to ensure that they won't come in contact with each other? Also, are those some kind of clips attached to the prongs? They look kinda brass colored?

They are exposed. I used some pieces of sheet rubber to keep stuff from moving around when the cover plate is on. The wall warts almost won't go anywhere because of the stiffness of the wires, but I didn't want to take any chances. They're not as close together as the picture makes it appear - there's about 1/4" inch minimum between them. There's teeth on the side of the BOSS power supply that grabs the rubber under the cover plate. It's not going anywhere, and the other wall wart doesn't have any room to move around.

Those brass pieces are from one of these gizmos:


This is what I was previously using to connect my regular old extension cord to the two wall warts - I was just plugging this onto the wall warts which were fastened to the pedalboard with a piece of metal pipe strap and I would plug the extension cord onto that. Anyhow, I dismantled it and chopped up the contacts and soldered wires to them. Then I put zip ties around those so they can't somehow pop off of the prongs. That allows for a very easily reversible setup, which is what I wanted. I probably won't ever undo this, but I like the idea that I can...  :icon_cool:

EDIT: This is what the enclosure looked like originally. It measures 4.75"x4.25"x2.25" high.