Pedal Board power supply (not sure where to ask this)

[cold]

ok heres the thing, i know theres power supplies such as the 1spot or dunlop's the brick. but they only power DC pedals. i have a digitech whammy which uses a custom 9v AC adapter. what i am looking for is like a power supply box that can dasiy chain 9v dc pedal put also have like a normal wall jack to plug in this special 9v AC adapter so i dont have a bunch of wire strung across the room to power my pedals. so can anyone help me with some info to make one or something, any reply will be apreiated. thanks

[Peter Snowberg]

Welcome to the forum.

When you have a pedal that uses AC, internally there is usually a power supply that provides a + and a - voltage. The variation in how those supplies are wired makes them really hard to integrate with other supplies so you're better off not sharring that one.

Look for a transformer that has two secondary windings. Each winding will put out the same current, so figure the size of the transformer by looking at the maximum draw (either for the pedal that uses the AC, or from the rest of the pedals added together), and multiply that by 2. Use one of the secondaries to feed that AC pedal, and use the other to create DC for the other pedals.

For more info look up the "spyder" supply on GEOFEX (see link at the top). Also try the search function here.... this question comes up all the time. The search for the forum isn't the best, so hopefully somebody will post a link or two for some other supplies.

[niftydog]

can anyone help me with some info to make one or something

given this is your first post I'm taking liberty and saying that you're probably not the most experienced DIYer around, right? So, if that's the case, I would have to recommend that you DO NOT attempt to wire up mains power. I say this not to be a snob, but to try to protect you from what is a potentially lethal mistake!

Having said that, if you know an electrician or a qualified electronics engineer with some experience of mains power, you may be able to bribe them into helping you out. The job itself is pretty straight forward, but it must be absolutely safe and correctly wired or it's VERY dangerous.

In the meantime, I would suggest that the best way would be to get a double adapter or a power board and mount it somehow to your pedal board or power supply. That way you can plug in the AC adapter at the board and not at the wall.

The other option is to construct something like The Spyder and include another transformer (or secondary tap) that will provide the AC you need. It's simply a matter of omitting the rectifier/filter/regulator circuitry, provided you have the right AC secondary voltage to begin with.