battery enclosure

[upspoon12]

So my buddy had this idea. He all the time gigs with his pedals, some of which don't have batteries, and hates shotty power supplies at clubs.

He asked me to design him a box that houses batteries that you could hook up to a pedal via the +9v input jack

My theory is i put 4 9v batteries in an enclosure, with 4 2.1mm power jacks (standard pedal ones)
can i just use the regular power cables to hook up to the input of another pedal and it will work? or are there somekind of shortcomings i'm not taking into consideration?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

OR...

Something like these...

[upspoon12]

essentially yeah, the only reason i want to do it in an enclosure is so that its nice and neat and there aren't rogue batteries kicking around everywhere,

also he asked about integrating an led for when a given battery is in use

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Well... if he wants and LED for each battery "when it is being used" now you are talking about switches, LEDs, etc.

Awful complicated and pricier for the function 

[upspoon12]

certianly sounds about par for the course being a tech for a session/gig musician.

hahah
build me this: i don't care what the cost is give me a PO number

[mth5044]

An LED is going to drain the battery way faster than it needs to. Wouldn't seeing a plug in the socket be a good enough indicator?

Or, go the other way, and get a dieing battery LED indicator for each battery section.

[upspoon12]

thats a better idea MTH

do they make these as a part? or is it a small circuit that must be built?

[MrStab]

iirc there are threads on this, where 6xAA batteries are recommended over 9V because of the higher mAh. if you're thinking of an external unit, where you probably won't have the space restrictions you'd have inside a pedal enclosure, then it's probably a good call.

i made something exactly like that adapter to give an unused pedal to my bassist the other day, Lacky - i just don't get why he insists on using batteries when stuff happens like he's busy, forgets to charge them, then they die before soundcheck!!! lol

[upspoon12]

Interesting. i'll definitely ahve to check that out. thats exactly what he's looking for a little box to go under the pedal board with a power wire to feed. The Only problem is he wants one with 4x9v i suppose i could do 2 enclosures at 2x9v.

[mth5044]

The search function should yield some dying battery circuits, if not, I'm sure google will.

I think you should be able to fit 4 9V's into one of the 4.7" x 3.7" enclosures, no? I forget the number.. 1590 maybe?

[upspoon12]

yeah they would fit. Colatted and on they're side. 2 jacks on top end and 2 on bottom end. I will definitely search for dead batter circuits thanks for the heads up!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Have you looked at the GGG 4-output isolated power supply?

It is basically 2 transformers and supporting circuitry that will provide 4 clean and filteres +9VDC outputs. It DOES plug into the wall but... it is reliable and it is CLEAN power no matter where you plug it in.

Not much more of an investment up front than the 4 x 9V battery idea but, it will save money on batteries in the long run AND it is far cheaper than most power bricks on the market. Plus, you could incoorporate an LED indicator for each output 

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/projects/24-power-supplies/23-four-output-isolated