DIY Pedal Board Distribution Box

[GusRus]

Hi There,

New to the forum. I'm currently in the process of overhauling my pedal board as it's getting a bit tired. I have designed a new pedal board and I am in the process of building this (think pedal train but with aluminium channel and 18mm ply supports). I'm now thinking about redoing the power distribution. My current power supply is the 3A Diago Powerstation which is a pretty hefty supply and has everything I need the only thing that annoys me about it is having to use daisy chains which may leave unused plugs or have points of failure in them. I wish to replace this by using a distribution box so that if one cable fails I can replace it alone and use custom lengths when and where I need to. The only thing is I haven't seen anyone make a DIY distribution box or seen any circuit diagrams for it. My background is in mechanical engineering and while at university there were nice enough to teach us some electronic skills in the fabrication of components but nothing to do with design and this is where I am struggling. Basically I need a box that has 1 9V in and then maybe 12 9V outs. If anyone has a circuit diagram of something like this or built something similar then your help is much appreciated.

[PRR]

Welcome.

> points of failure

Depending how "point of failure" is defined, I am not sure you are reducing your PoF count? Connectors are often PoFs. A 12-out daisy-chain is 13 connectors. 12 separate cables is 24 connectors.

Yes, if the 13th connector on a daisy chain fails, the whole rig goes dead.

> unused plugs

Unused power outlets are normal. Sitting here looking at my wall outlets I see three unused in the wall, four un-used in my 10-way power strip, two un-used on my 4-way strip. Behind me there's one at the head of the couch and two at the far end. When brothers come, they can charge their phones/tablets. Yes, I wired this room like I was gonna live in it, installing over twice as many outlets as Code calls minimum. A pedal board does not have to be that over-ample. But I'd have no shame in a few spare power points.

> a circuit diagram

Hardly worth drawing. Polarity IS important. Conventionally we use red rubber for "+" and black rubber for "-". Connect all the reds together. Connect all the blacks together.

A power distribution box is really more of a "mechanical" problem. With the extra requirement that an electrical connection must be both a kick-resistant mechanical connection (lug wrap) and a bare-metal solder connection for the electric. Solder is mechanically weak and historically never trusted to take stress. Tarnish is even weaker mechanically and electrically.

The real issue is layout. How to make a dozen pairs of wires come together without an uninspectable snarl. We often use the "bus" concept. Two heavy copper bars (wire will do you) the length of the box, and sub-circuits coming out off one or both sides. Your home fuse-box is one example. Boat wiring offers power bus boxes. (Cars also, except the metal body begs to "be the return" and we don't often see a "-" bus on cars.)

[blackieNYC]

Unused plugs, not jacks, is what I think theOP is talking about. They are a pain. When they touch something, all my digital commercial pedals turn on.  Plug covers do exist, but we need a dealer to pick them up. My favorite plug cover is another pedal.
That said, I'm surprised how well my one-spot and daisy chain cables perform.

[vigilante397]

I had tried a few DIY options for power distribution, but then I discovered these . I now have a couple of them mounted underneath my board that power all of my pedals and my wireless receiver. It is a lot of connections that can possibly go wrong, but I like to keep my board clean by drilling holes on top where necessary and running all cables underneath. I can post a picture in a bit (my wife thinks I'm doing homework right now so I can't go downstairs to grab my board right now ), but it's been a very reliable method for me to power a lot of pedals at once.

[duck_arse]

Unused plugs, not jacks, is what I think theOP is talking about. They are a pain. When they touch something, all my digital commercial pedals turn on.  Plug covers do exist, but we need a dealer to pick them up.

plug covers - this sounds like a 3D printer job.

[Tony Forestiere]

Unused plugs, not jacks, is what I think theOP is talking about. They are a pain. When they touch something, all my digital commercial pedals turn on.  Plug covers do exist, but we need a dealer to pick them up.

plug covers - this sounds like a 3D printer job.

Unheated shrink tubing slid over the plug barrels.

[deadastronaut]

+1 Exactly what i use too....

[Tony Forestiere]

+1 Exactly what i use too....

I always knew you were another cheap ba$tard. Effective and cheap. 

[deadastronaut]

Yup...

[Processaurus]

3d printed plug covers would be great, but they do sell a common size of surgical tubing at the hardware store that fits snug on the barrel power plugs. If you did 3d print some though, you could build in a retaining ring to slip over the plug, to keep it from getting lost when they aren't on the plug? There's this filament for the 3d printers called "ninjaflex", that is rubbery.

Building DC cables with the barrel connectors is a thankless task. And you can't really get good right angle 2.1mm plugs, they are big and clunky.  They weren't any less money than just buying the cables, but at one point I'd gotten some premade, right angle plugs on wires from Mouser, they were good for custom length dc cables.

Idea, for a distro box, if you do make one, is to have the plugs hardwired in, through loose holes in the box, that way you could keep the cables long, but stuff them into the box whenyou didn't need some of the slack. Then when you change the board around, you can just pull some slack out of the box.

[EBK]

Unused plugs, not jacks, is what I think theOP is talking about. They are a pain. When they touch something, all my digital commercial pedals turn on.  Plug covers do exist, but we need a dealer to pick them up. My favorite plug cover is another pedal.
That said, I'm surprised how well my one-spot and daisy chain cables perform.

Gaffers tape

[GusRus]

I would like it to be neat and tidy hence wishing to use a distribution system (Gaffa tape, black maskers or duct tape are a no go). When I first started going down the rabbit hole of effects the best power supply I could lay my hands on at the time was the Diago one and since then the likes of the DC Brick types came along. I had something that I felt offered versatility at a good price point. I'm now at the stage where I want to change stuff up and instead of forking out £100 or so for a new power supply I would rather keep my power supply and spend £20 and an afternoon to make a piece of equipment that does the same job. The reason for the distribution splitter is that I feel I can make the cabling look neater than using a daisy chain system as I can cable tie the cables to the supports and rails of the pedal board. Soldering up the cables and jacks I don't mind, if an afternoon or weekend spent doing a mind numbing task will give me something that looks the way I want it and operate the way I require it to then I'm happy. The advantages that such a solution would give me are worth the time I would put in. If someone could tell me which wires to solder to which lugs and then complete the circuit and any other components I should consider that would be helpful