How to wire a "DC Jack"

[Kai]

Hello!

I purchased a big muff pi AND a small stone reissue a few years ago, and now i want to fit a dc jack into, i am just unsure which wire goes to which terminal any help is appreciated

I have a red wire going from the battery snap, and a black and a red one coming from the board.

here's the link to the dc jack i am using.

http://www.zippyimages.com/54930.html

[Mark Hammer]

E-H pedals generally come with a mini phone jack for connecting the external power supply.  In many respects it is probably an easier matter to adapt the PS to the pedal than the pedal to the PS.

The kind of power provided to the pedals is certainly no different, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, we're talking about a negative ground.  So, ultimately, all we're really talking about is chopping off the barrel plug and wiring the lead to a phone plug.  If you want max flexibility, make sure you leave 6-8 inches of wire lead on the "snipped" plug, and run those wires inside the new mini-plug jacket.

The major differences between the two plug/jack systems are that each switches the battery out of the way/circuit using a different part of the plug/jack.  In the case of the phone plug, the tip of the plug physically moves the contact so as to disable the battery, so the shaft HAS to be ground.  In the case of the barrel connector, the shaft of the plug has to do the pushing, so the shaft has to be V+ and the inside has to be ground.

To wire yourself up a dual-plug type adaptor, find the lead that carries the V+.  This will either be marked with a white stripe (Meg, because she's "hotter"  :roll:  ), or else you can simply identify with a meter, which lead on the snipped part goes to the outside/shaft conductor.  That lead now gets soldered to the tip lug on the added phone plug and the other lead to the shaft lug.

I would say "That's it" but before I do that, I'll suggest running both the snipped lead and the bare lead coming from the wallwart through a bit of shrinkable tubing on their way to the new phone plug.  Incidentally, there is no reason why you couldn't daisy chain several phone plugs in this manner, just being sure to have all V+ leads going where they should and all ground leads going where they should.

Of course, if you've already done the machining, this is pretty moot advice, isn't it?

[Kai]

E-H pedals generally come with a mini phone jack for connecting the external power supply.  In many respects it is probably an easier matter to adapt the PS to the pedal than the pedal to the PS.

The kind of power provided to the pedals is certainly no different, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, we're talking about a negative ground.  So, ultimately, all we're really talking about is chopping off the barrel plug and wiring the lead to a phone plug.  If you want max flexibility, make sure you leave 6-8 inches of wire lead on the "snipped" plug, and run those wires inside the new mini-plug jacket.

The major differences between the two plug/jack systems are that each switches the battery out of the way/circuit using a different part of the plug/jack.  In the case of the phone plug, the tip of the plug physically moves the contact so as to disable the battery, so the shaft HAS to be ground.  In the case of the barrel connector, the shaft of the plug has to do the pushing, so the shaft has to be V+ and the inside has to be ground.

To wire yourself up a dual-plug type adaptor, find the lead that carries the V+.  This will either be marked with a white stripe (Meg, because she's "hotter"  :roll:  ), or else you can simply identify with a meter, which lead on the snipped part goes to the outside/shaft conductor.  That lead now gets soldered to the tip lug on the added phone plug and the other lead to the shaft lug.

I would say "That's it" but before I do that, I'll suggest running both the snipped lead and the bare lead coming from the wallwart through a bit of shrinkable tubing on their way to the new phone plug.  Incidentally, there is no reason why you couldn't daisy chain several phone plugs in this manner, just being sure to have all V+ leads going where they should and all ground leads going where they should.

Of course, if you've already done the machining, this is pretty moot advice, isn't it?

nah, i havent done the machining yet! thank god ^_^

So basically, change 2 of the multi power supply connectors to EH standard pins and that should work? i wasn't sure if it was a ac/dc current or an ac/ac

Thanks for the help mark =D

[Mark Hammer]

No, those mini-phone plugs on the E-H pedals are for DC from a regulated supply, and in that respect not one iota different that what all those Boss, Dod, and Danelectro pedals want.  

The barrel plugs are often preferred from a safety perspective because there is no risk of anything shorting out inappropriately during the plug-insertion process.  The jacks are plastic and the jack chassis is not electronically connected to the pedal chassis.  As well, the female part of the plug doesn't stick out so it can't contact anything unless it is properly seated in the socket.  The various sources of risk that accompany phone plugs are all minimized if you simply make it a point NOT to stick the phone plug in your mouth at any point in time, and make sure the wallwart is always disabled or unplugged until AFTER you insert all power plugs into their respective jacks.  

As with so many things in commercial products these days, design is often a reflection of perceived public liability, and attempts to either avoid lawsuits, or bypass demands on your service and support department.

If you anticipate that unplugging the wallwart might be a nuisance in some manner, then I'd suggest whipping up a little plastic junction box that you can plug the wallwart into.  The junction box can have a couple of different jacks (barrel and phone) you can plug power patch cables to.  You can also stick in a power indicator LED and an "on" switch.  This means you can turn the switch off when you need to monkey around with the power connections, then turn it back on when everything is properly seated/inserted.  The indicator LED can also be helpful for identifying when it's the pedal, the adaptor lead, or some damn fool just kicked the plug from the power bar out of the wall.  Steve Daniels implemented this in his Small-Wart project/kit (after the two of us talked it through extensively, actually).  If you have a bunch of pedals, it's a nice feature.