DC Brick/Pedal Power question.

[milkwasabadchoice]

Hey guys, does anyone know how the DC Brick and the Pedal Power have isolated outputs? I mean they dont have a transformer for every output do they, but they say they are isolated? How can this be? How are they different than any old power supply?

Thanks,
Jason

[analogmike]

dc brick does not afaik.
pp2 does have seperate toroidal section  for each output.

[formerMember1]

i tried a dc brick, lots of hum, but others like them 

I would definitely go with the voodoolabs pedal power 2,

THey have dying battery simulation, you could power line 6 effects, any boss, PNP or NPN  it doesn't matter,  THey even send ya free plugs if you need them, unless you want custom plugs(lengths, etc), but low price anyway

reliable too, 

[cd]

Like Mike said, the DC Brick is not isolated.  Think of it as one giant 9V battery splitting power to the eight outputs.  Get a Onespot with two five way splitters, same thing as the DC Brick for 1/3 the price.  Nice marketing angle on the DC Brick, put the splitter "inside the box" and make people think it's like the PP2.

[Primus]

Somone posted some pictures of the inside in another thread.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=32336.0

Apparently there is a PCM chip that applies 18 V, then nothing, then 18V rapidly so that the circuit "sees" 9V. There are also some caps and a resistor in there for a simple buffer. What would it take to isolate the DC brick? Could you basically add a 12V, 200mA transformer and a regulatr section from the spyder?

http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/Spyder/spyder.htm

[cd]

Somone posted some pictures of the inside in another thread. Apparently there is a PCM chip that applies 18 V, then nothing, then 18V rapidly so that the circuit "sees" 9V. There are also some caps in there for buffer. What would it take to isolate the DC brick? Could you basically add the end stage of the geofex spider (full wave rectifier--->regulator--->output)? Would this be isloated?

It would take EIGHT DC Bricks to provide eight isolated outs like the Pedal Power.  The "18V/off/18V" thing in the DC Brick is better known as a PWM (pulse width modulation) regulator.  The DC Brick provides a single 9V out which is split eight ways.

If the DC Brick is a giant 9V battery split eight ways, think of the Pedal Power as eight indiviual 9V batteries, each providing a single out to eight different pedals.

[Primus]

It wouldn't take 8 DC bricks to modify one DC brick to be isolated... it would take one. What I am talking about is adding transformers and voltage regulators to isolate the supplies. You do need to have AC for the transformers to work, though... maybe it would be smart to just go with the 7 legged spyder design. Still, I don't have experience working w/ mains.

[smallbearelec]

If you need a lot of isolated outputs, check out R. G. Keen's article on using the Mouser 41PG006 transformer. I carry that and the other bits and pieces for rolloing your own. If you just need an isolated output or two for a particular job (and you have decent construction chops), try building a Small Wart:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Projects/ProjandProd.html

Steve Daniels