Will this power source idea work?

[PlaidBicycle]

Alright I have a 12v power supply and was wondering if this would work better than those one spot setups. The 7809 will drop the voltage to 9v, but before that I'm placing a diode to stop each pedal from creating interference for the other pedals. Presumably each pedal would get a full cable rather than the one spot style daisy chain setup. Will this work?

[amptramp]

You will also need the recommended capacitors from input and output to ground from each regulator.  The output capacitor should be 1 µF film.  The input capacitor should be electrolytic, at least 10 µF 25V.  This system will not give you any relief from ground loop and grounding issues.  For that, you would have to go with separate isolated outputs for each stompbox.

[R.G.]

Alright I have a 12v power supply and was wondering if this would work better than those one spot setups.

The problem is tied up in that word "better". Better how?

Those 1Spot setups have been designed, tinkered with, tested and improved over years to do what they do.

The 7809 will drop the voltage to 9v, but before that I'm placing a diode to stop each pedal from creating interference for the other pedals.

Diodes will not stop each pedal from creating interference with other pedals necessarily, because the diodes are conducting all the time if your 12V supply is already DC, so they look like a small resistance to any small AC disturbances on either side of them. Anything small enough to not force the diode to turn fully off goes right through.

Presumably each pedal would get a full cable rather than the one spot style daisy chain setup. Will this work?

It can be made to work if you work at it. However, it will not necessarily be any improvement in terms of non-interference. The ground side of the 12V is still going to each pedal, and any ground issues are still there.

As an item of full disclosure, I work for Visual Sound, who makes the 1Spot. I will be the first to admit that no product is perfect; however, the real 1Spot (I don't know about the imitators) has satisfied a lot of very picky musicians. As I said at first, be sure you know what "better" means to you. The 1Spot has been thrashed pretty thoroughly to make it work well on pedalboards.

It's funny - I recently got email from a guy who was taking me to task for the 1Spot, telling me I was being hypocritical about them, and extolling how only an isolated output like the PP-2 can give you isolated power. I don't know why this didn't strike me before, but it just popped into my head then. I told him the going market price lets you buy eight 1Spots for the price of one PP-2 and get your isolated power, as well as redundancy in case something breaks. He was pretty sure that woudn't work at all, but couldn't say why he thought that. 

[bluesman1218]

Quote from R.G. It's funny - I recently got email from a guy who was taking me to task for the 1Spot, telling me I was being hypocritical about them, and extolling how only an isolated output like the PP-2 can give you isolated power. I don't know why this didn't strike me before, but it just popped into my head then. I told him the going market price lets you buy eight 1Spots for the price of one PP-2 and get your isolated power, as well as redundancy in case something breaks. He was pretty sure that woudn't work at all, but couldn't say why he thought that. 

R.G., you are the man!

[PlaidBicycle]

Those 1Spot setups have been designed, tinkered with, tested and improved over years to do what they do.

Fair enough, I'm not that educated about electronics. I've mostly just fixed (and sometimes broken a bit more) electronics I've had around the house. I haven't even used a 1 spot, but I've read reviews from other (probably even less informed than me  ) who have been quite critical.

If my idea is not better than a 1 spot then I may just buy one and see how good they are. I don't even have that many pedals (5 +2 getting built up).

Thanks for the replies, just wanted to vet this idea.

[R.G.]

I'll tell you what I tell everyone - there is no one answer to any technical question, and even more so when you're talking about music. The right answer is to try stuff and find what works for you. Take your amp and your pedalboard and your guitar to a dealer and try out the thing you're thinking about adding. Your ears know what makes them happy.

[MikeH]

One spots are great -  I have one.  I also have 2 boss adapters, 2 Danelectro adapters, and one no-name thing that came with a small powered mixer I had, but has the same polarity, voltage and current specs as the others.  They ALL work great and do the job perfectly, and quietly.  I think people who are picky or critical about power supplies might be using them beyond their typical performance capabilities.  If you try and run 10 pedals off one supply, you'll likely get noise.  I try to keep it to 5 or less, splitting up the high gain from the clock noise generators, and I do just fine running 12-15 boxes.

The one spot does get bonus props for the slim footprint that only takes up "1 SPOT" on your power strip.  That's it's true advantage.

[bluesman1218]

I'll tell you what I tell everyone - there is no one answer to any technical question, and even more so when you're talking about music. The right answer is to try stuff and find what works for you. Take your amp and your pedalboard and your guitar to a dealer and try out the thing you're thinking about adding. Your ears know what makes them happy.

+++

[boogietone]

I like the 1 Spots quite a bit. Spent quite a bit of time looking over the different options a few years back. It is what I gig with. Prefer them to the Boss PSAs, in a big part due to the size.

Did just have one go out on me, though. Probably shorted it to ground. My bad for using it to power my breadboard. Any thoughts on how to determine what went bad?

A stop a GC to get a replacement is in the near future.

[CynicalMan]

Did just have one go out on me, though. Probably shorted it to ground. My bad for using it to power my breadboard. Any thoughts on how to determine what went bad?

I've shorted mine dozens of times and it's fine.

[boogietone]

I suspect that there is some short circuit protection in them but don't know.

[R.G.]

The 1Spot is essentially immune to short circuits. When shorted, they shut down and repeatedly try to start up again, about once per second or two. I've left them shorted deliberately, as well as running them into a diode short (to simulate reverse connection in a pedal) for days, and they come back up.

I'm sorry to hear that yours died. Is there any chance it was in warranty?

[boogietone]

Probably not after my dremel tool had a go at it.

Good to know about the short circuit protection. I have no idea why it died then.

[R.G.]

Probably not after my dremel tool had a go at it.

Bad idea, in general. As you know now after opening it, it's stuffed with, well, stuff. And part of that circuit board is hot to the AC power line, with "features" like sudden death by electrocution if you touch it.

Good to know about the short circuit protection. I have no idea why it died then.

Unfortunately, everything stops sometime. How old was it?

[boogietone]

Probably not after my dremel tool had a go at it.

Bad idea, in general. As you know now after opening it, it's stuffed with, well, stuff. And part of that circuit board is hot to the AC power line, with "features" like sudden death by electrocution if you touch it.

I did unplug it first and it sat overnight on my workbench. Thinking about it now, there is a pretty decent sized cap in there that I would not want to cross sideways with a dremel or anything else. Definitely a do not try this at home item. 

Nonetheless, it is, in fact, quite stuffed with stuff.

Good to know about the short circuit protection. I have no idea why it died then.

Unfortunately, everything stops sometime. How old was it?

Yes, everything does stop. That persnickety entropy thing and all. I must have bought this one sometime the summer of 08.