Now we can power our pedals with inexpensive, rechargeable smartphone power banks

[denmalley]

Originally Posted by Marty C

Denmalley,
Great idea. I never thought of that. I just started to use a looping pedal at the end of my chain prior to the speakers I use. I wanted to record a complete song during sound check, to allow playback where I could walk out and hear what everyone else does. I never thought of using a zoom recorder for this purpose. Where do you place this device?

Yes, I can bet this battery pack would be a perfect fit.

Yeah I do have a little looping routine I go through for my soundcheck, and its kind of a fun play with the audience as I walk out from behind my rig while the sound is still going. I like to keep the recorder going for the night so I can listen back and make sure things sounded ok all night. And occasionally I can lift a song or two from the recordings to add to my reverbnation page.

I used to use one of those gorilla tripods with the flexible legs and wrap it around the top part fo a mic stand. I also had but lost a great little adapter that came with the recorder that was basically a microphone handle with a standard camera thread at the top of it so you could just screw that onto the bottom of the recorder and place it in a mic clip:


I recently just got one of these and it is much better than either of those options. I just leave it screwed on the the end of a spare mic stand and take it to all my gigs:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001GWCC4I

Very adjustable. I usually try to find that "sweet spot" but also try to keep it close to a wall somewhere so it doesn't get bumped by the crowd (very noisy when bumped) and I used to have to look for an outlet (yay this thread!). I raise it up over everyone's heads.

[BluesJammer]

Just received the 5 to 9V adapter from MyVolts, will test today!
Thanks for sharing, Uncle Pauhana! ;-)

[bearclaw87]

Fellow MyVolts users, need your help. Does anyone know of any power banks which will not auto shut down when the current load is too low?

My stripped down board consists of just a tuner and Boss GE-7 (total current draw less than 20mA?) and my el cheapo power bank doesn't detect enough current draw to stay on.

[kurth83]

I had a 9v battery die on stage a few weeks back so this thread is timely for me. It was a new pedal and I didn't realize it had half the battery life of the others.

So I bought one of these USB-9v converters from Amazon, branded MyVolts and has the correct polarity.

I bought a USB battery pack with a battery gauge on it, and can use the batteries in the pedals as a backup.

Funny how things creep up on you, I started with one pedal a year ago, now I am up to three, that is too many to be fussing about with 9v batteries in gizmos with no battery gauge.

While I was at it I bought a small 4-pedal board, the addition of those power cables made too many cables for me.

I might just buy a t-rex jr power supply and ditch batteries altogether. But the portability of batteries is cool, with my THR-10 I can play without power anywhere, a good capability to have IMHO. And only having to charge one battery is a big improvement.

Edit: FYI for 9v battery lovers, the new EBL li-ion 9v batteries hold 3x the charge of NI-MH's, putting them on par with Alkalines. I am switching to those for my guitars.

[Uncle Pauhana]

Originally Posted by BluesJammer

Just received the 5 to 9V adapter from MyVolts, will test today!
Thanks for sharing, Uncle Pauhana! ;-)

My pleasure!

[Uncle Pauhana]

Originally Posted by bearclaw87

Fellow MyVolts users, need your help. Does anyone know of any power banks which will not auto shut down when the current load is too low?

My stripped down board consists of just a tuner and Boss GE-7 (total current draw less than 20mA?) and my el cheapo power bank doesn't detect enough current draw to stay on.

I don't seem to have that problem with the Anker battery that I referred to in my original post. It's only powering a TC Flashback Mini (on continuously), and the Turbo Tuner (on occasionally), so not much load, I assume.

[BluesJammer]

Originally Posted by Uncle Pauhana

My pleasure!

Just tried it with the MXR Carbon Copy - PERFECT!
I think the most obvious solution would be one small pedal (tuner, etc.) that is constantly powered by the power bank. My volume pedal has an additonal output for tuner.

[bearclaw87]

Originally Posted by Uncle Pauhana

I don't seem to have that problem with the Anker battery that I referred to in my original post. It's only powering a TC Flashback Mini (on continuously), and the Turbo Tuner (on occasionally), so not much load, I assume.

Just did some quick research, seems like those tc mini pedals draw close to 100mA each! Guess my solution will be to stick a HOF or spark mini on this rig.

[Spook]

Originally Posted by bearclaw87

Their shipping is pretty messy, my first package got lost in the mail. MyVolts is pretty responsive usually so they should send you a replacement.

They did send me a replacement without hassle. Just took awhile to get here from overseas. Thanks for the inputs.

[myersbw]

You can do this (basically a charge pump to up your voltage), but (and this is my take only related to "why" I would go battery), you really just negate one primary reason for going pure DC and that's to eliminate noise.

Just like one poster, I, too, have an ISO-5 supply on my Pedaltrain board. It has isolated outputs, but it is a switching power supply (employing high frequency techniques) to get you that voltage variety & such.) It is not a noise-free supply.

By that, here's my real scenario... park a wah or a direct box or any pedal with a coil in side it. The ISO5 emanates enough RFI to create a nice very low buzz in some pedals, thus pedal placement is key in regard to it. (Or, employing better magnetic shielding between the boxes)

The second is simplicity. I think running battery-only is awesome for a few pedals of the same voltage. It stays simple...a decently small battery can indeed buy you a few full gigs before it needs recharged. Yet, when you add a charge pump...add enclosure...pop the jack in the box, you've now gone past the simplicity stage (yet, not by much)...and you've alienated the pure-DC voltage advantage of just a battery.

At that point, and when an AC plug is handy (and it will be unless I'm going FULL battery for the PA, too)...then, other obvious thing we end up creating is the fact that we need to hope the battery is reliable in it's charge state AND still watch out for the RF radiation.

For me? Yes, I really really really dislike switching power supplies as many are not done quite right and hardly ever with respect to emanating frequencies that have the possibility of interfering with audio equipment. Still, I'll keep using the ISO-5 as....once you're past the layout issues of interference...it doesn't get much simpler for me than plugging in one AC cord to the backside of my pedal. (If only 2-4 pedals...of the same voltage...then YES...I'd go battery in a heartbeat!) But, if you want to build some add-ons for voltage variety AND keep it quiet...go with a higher voltage battery system (say 24 volts - two 12 volts batteries "the SAME" can work here)...then build a couple simple voltage regulator circuits to vary or step-down the voltage...and can be isolated, too...AND, is old school "analog" in nature with no charge pumping and no additionally radiated noise.

That's the way I'd do it.

Originally Posted by vbakh

If you are Ok with soldering, you can DIY by adding a tiny voltage step-up converter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011EBSKK0 (or a similar one) and a two-wire cable ending with whatever connector your MXR accepts and a small project box (radioshack or any other).

I use an USB battery for powering my Zoom A3 and Ditto X2 looper exactly how it is described in this thread.
In addition to that, am building an adapter with that converter for powering up a Cool Tube preamp in my Takamine guitars from USB, primarily for practicing at home and not changing AA batteries all the time.

[woodenstrings]

Just bought a USB to 9v adaptor from Amazon after reading this . It came from myvolts.com company. I was concerned that the pic on amazon showed center pin positive, but it delivered as center pin negative. All is well.
The one I ordered was ordered as specific for TC Ditto looper pedal. What a Great option to run a pedal that does not normally run on battery power. I'm thankful for this kind of information that gets shared on AGF...