High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

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HarlowTheFish
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High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by HarlowTheFish » Thu Feb 18, 2021 4:22 pm

Hey y'all,
Looking to maybe put together a pedalboard, and the centerpiece is gonna be my favorite overdrive, the Elektron Analog Drive. There's a . . . shall we say small problem with this plan: the Analog Drive needs 12V 1A center-positive, and pretty much the only things I can find that would power it are wall warts -- I'd really rather avoid this and go for an isolated supply that can fit underneath the board. It's gonna be all DIY for the board itself, so I'm happy to make some space. I need power for some 5-odd pedals, a MIDI controller, and a switcher, plus the AD (happy to overbuy a bit in case I want to go bigger), I just don't really know what to go for.

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by marqueemoon » Thu Feb 18, 2021 6:32 pm

I used to work for a company that installed a lot of video walls. We’d often use these for behind screens.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WattBox-WB-200 ... 4354976506

They’re pretty slim and the jacks are oriented correctly for fitting behind a screen. It also uses a detachable IEC cable.

In short, if you got something like this you could use the stock adapter in one outlet and use the other for the power supply that powers all your other pedals.

Not the most elegant solution, but it would work provided you have space for everything.

There are other pedals out there with outside the box power requirements like the H9 that people have gotten to work using summing and polarity reverse cables. I’d search for info specific to your pedal though and ask the manufacturer if available.

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Thu Feb 18, 2021 9:19 pm

Cioks makes power supplies that run 9-12-15-18. I have one that powers 8 pedals. Half run on 9. The Strymon I think runs on 12, and the 2, Eventide are either 15 or 18.

Anyway, they’re all different and they are powered just fine. At least one is center positive. The Roger Mayer maybe? The Cioks has no issues powering them and is designed to fit under a board.

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by timtam » Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:37 pm

There are inexpensive isolated pedal supplies that could do 1A with a current doubler/polarity flipping cable spanning two 12V/500 mA (or higher mA) outputs (the cable would probably need to be custom-soldered). But it's the sort of problem that is usually much more easily managed with a high current wall wart.
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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by HarlowTheFish » Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:25 pm

Okay so the consensus is I'm a madman who'd be better off just using the original power supply unless I wanna get into custom cables and DIY fuckery.

Deal. I'd rather sledgehammer the darn pedal than deal with the original PSU if it's going on a board, the thing is the volume of an MXR Iso Brick by itself and noisy as all hell.

Fun as that would be though, aside from the fire hazard and dead electronics, if I'm understanding correctly, the GigRig power supply might let me get away with this stupid idea. I'll hit them up and see what they tell me -- their Generator does 5A total, and I'm not 100% on how that gets divided between each output, but I'm pretty sure that I can at least swap the + and - leads to get center-positive. Any of y'all have one to confirm?

Let's see how this goes, I'm thinking the Analog Drive, a Zoia, and a TC Plethora with a Dual Fusion, a Thunderclaw, and a Bogner Harlow, a Voodoo Labs Hex switcher, and a Morningstar MC-8 to run the whole thing. Will take me a while to put everything together, but I think it'll turn out to be pretty sweet.

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by timtam » Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:59 pm

OK possible solution. Elektron specs say it only draws 440 mA "typical". The "1A" is just on the box as it's presumably what their 12v wall wart can do. You can check with them to see if it ever draws more, maybe at startup.

If not, any supply that can do 500 mA at 12v should do, with a polarity flip cable. Even the (fully isolated) Harley Benton ISO-2 Pro can do that (as long as total draw from all pedals is < 2A).

BTW gigrig generator only does 9v AFAIK. You need another box to get 12v from it, and that's at 550 mA.
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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by CorporateDisguise » Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:52 am

The newer Cioks supplies can do 500ma at 12v. I have the Eventide version and it works well. I think the model you want is the DC7.

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by øøøøøøø » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:38 am

timtam wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:59 pm
OK possible solution. Elektron specs say it only draws 440 mA "typical". The "1A" is just on the box as it's presumably what their 12v wall wart can do. You can check with them to see if it ever draws more, maybe at startup.

If not, any supply that can do 500 mA at 12v should do, with a polarity flip cable. Even the (fully isolated) Harley Benton ISO-2 Pro can do that (as long as total draw from all pedals is < 2A).

BTW gigrig generator only does 9v AFAIK. You need another box to get 12v from it, and that's at 550 mA.
I was just coming here to say that I highly doubt that pedal draws an amp of current. That would be more than a Princeton Reverb at full tilt, and more than an iMac at idle.

However... if it truly does draw 440mA typical, that implies that it could draw more under certain scenarios.

So running a 500mA supply might be some degree of "borderline."

Typical "best practice" is to have a 2x safety margin built in, which is probably where the 1A recommendation comes from. I'd contact the manufacturer directly and see if they'll give you some kind of meaningful answer (beyond "the manual recommends...")

Or if you're willing to accept the risk, you could just run it with the 500mA supply, stress test it for awhile (leave it running for 24 hours, say) and see what happens. Very likely there's a small amount of margin designed in and you'll be fine

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:41 am

CorporateDisguise wrote:
Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:52 am
The newer Cioks supplies can do 500ma at 12v. I have the Eventide version and it works well. I think the model you want is the DC7.
If a Cioks will work that’s great. I have two DC5s and have been really happy with them.

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by Singlebladepickup » Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:31 am

I have a pedal that uses 12v +polarity, the Surfy Bear, and I just plug into the extra ac outlet on the Voodoo Labs pedal power 2+. I put a small tie on the ac cord so it doesn't really take any extra space. works great

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Re: High amperage power supply for a weird impractical pedal?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:51 am

marqueemoon wrote:
Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:41 am
CorporateDisguise wrote:
Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:52 am
The newer Cioks supplies can do 500ma at 12v. I have the Eventide version and it works well. I think the model you want is the DC7.
If a Cioks will work that’s great. I have two DC5s and have been really happy with them.
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