9V power supply for breadboarding?

[monksanto]

Wow what a great forum, so many replies. Thanks, guys! Lots of info/suggestions here!

[CodeMonk]

This is what I use to connect the In, Out, 9v, Gnd to my breadboard.

[monksanto]

I think I will go the regulated 9V breakout board route (rather than just plug the wallwart straight into my breadboard). Thanks again.

Of course, eventually I guess I'll buy a benchtop power supply. I found this, which is pretty cheap? Would this be ok do you think? Or are there more reputable & recommended units?

[PRR]

> I found this, which is pretty cheap?

That's 10 times the power a small-audio hacker needs, and I don't see $99 as "cheap" when paying for more than I would reasonably need.

Their $49 job may be ample, but it isn't clear that it is filtered, and you do sometimes need/want more than 12V.

I'm in favor of stealing a 18V-24V wart from a printer or laptop and building your own LM317-like regulator. On-box meters are nice when your boss buys them, but for self-amusement your multimeter is handy and fine.

FWIW: for decades I used a battered battery-charger, modified for +/-18V (I did a lot of bipolar) and a pair of 4,700uFd caps. Mounted the breadboard right on it. Solid wire from supply to breadboard as needed.

[GibsonGM]

Jeez, Larry, we might as well let 'em know that you can find a nice analog oscilloscope from the 80s on Fleabay for < $150, too!     Nice equipment you have.  )   

I actually have an old analog oscilloscope from the 80s 70s that I bought through Craigslist for $20. (I didn't build my own)

I looked into the PC oscilloscopes as well as the PC function generators......I'm a bit old school, (and old) I like to build things, and my office desk with my PC is on the other side of the room from my work bench.

I got a Tektronix 2213 for very cheap on the 'Bay. 1982, I think, with a clean CRT.  Not even any dust inside!  Of course one of the channels didn't work.   So I opened it up, found a bad diode on the input board, and used a BJT junction as a low-capacitance diode.  Didn't even mess up the calibration, and it's right as rain!  )    An old PC can be had for a few dollars....mine is a 766MHz that I use for beating on - crack into the USB, use the soundcard and all that. If it croaks, oh well.  It's proven to be a great way to see what's happening with bias, clipping and doing sweeps in the audio range.    One day I'll fork over $400 for a nice one, but it works for now! 


I paid about $100 15 years ago for a 0-30VDC, 5A supply (regulated and well-filtered, short protection etc.).  It was WAY too much for me at the time, and mostly I ended up using batteries as it was simpler and less hassle than setting the thing up on my test bench.  But over the years I grew into it, and use it for ALL kinds of things, in the garage as well as 'the lab'.   So, if you're staying "in" for the long haul, that can be ok, but it's also good advice to just live with the 'wart/battery thing until you KNOW you want to expand...

[duck_arse]

I use a 12V6 2amp alarm panel power supply/sla charger. lm723 with 2n3055 for current. modified the circuit for adjustable, added a pot and terminals, an indicator and load switch, and a recalibrated vu meter. 3V ~ 22V.

[TheBigMan]

I am utterly amazed given how popular a website it is round here that no-one else has mentioned the runoffgroove breadboard supply.   

http://www.runoffgroove.com/bb-pwr.html

[tommycataus]

I'm a bit late to this conversation... but better late than never.
One of the first things I built was a so called break out box modelled on the Beavis Board:


Mine is a lot simpler, but still has the 9V input socket which eliminates the need for you to cut up your power supply lead. I have just included the in/out sockets, a spdt power switch, a dpdt on/on switch that toggles effect/bypass, and four terminals that go directly to the breadboard (in, out, 9v+ and ground).

Also (until I can afford a decent power supply, or grow the balls to build my own) I added a semi-permanent box in between my power supply and whatever pedals I'm powering in order to filter the cheap ass noise out. I have a certain special guy to thank for that:

As shown, the Huminator doesn't add enough filtering to properly clean up a wall wart. What you want is a fairly large filter cap, like 1000 mf., followed by a 7809 three-terminal regulator, followed by a 10 mf. output cap. My Small Wart 125:

https://www.smallbearelec.com/Projects/SmWart/SmWart.htm

shows this on its output, only you don't need the resettable fuse because the wall wart has its own current limiting.

Does the trick nicely.

[monksanto]

Thanks for that

[therealfindo]

don't strip  the wallwarts ends, just use a dc socket (even one of those metal dc soxkets that are useless for anything else) with wires to your board. (watch polarity)

build this true bypass board..makes real life testing/prototyping easy....not the neatest, but it was an early one..





diagram.

Oh, nice! I think I just found my next little project... 

[deadastronaut]

You wont regret it...

very handy for a quick test of a circuit before commuting it to pcb/vero etc..essential bit of kit .