Aloha!
As I recently posted on the "My acoustic pedalboard" thread (
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...ostcount=302):
"Here's my new dream board! I'm really excited to have pristine processing of my K&K in such a compact, lightweight package, with the Flashback Mini and the Turbo Tuner Mini powered by an inexpensive, rechargeable phone charger/external battery power bank. (The Red-Eye would usually be phantom-powered, but I have a rechargeable 9v inside just in case.)
This is possible because of the lovely 5v USB to 9v adapter I found, from myvolts.com. I believe I'll do a separate post about this power solution."
And here is that post!
The rig:
The external battery/power bank:
What's exciting to me about this is that I can power my pedals for quite a while without needing to plug in to the mains or deal with recharging 9v batteries. (Mini pedals like my delay and tuner are too small for internal batteries anyway, and would ordinarily need to be plugged in.) Instead, I'm using the Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6400mAh Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank (whew!) This, and other similar products, are designed for recharging smartphones and tablets on the go. They're cheap and powerful, and will only get cheaper and more powerful, because people buy them by the millions for their phones. But with the right adapter (below), they are also perfect for pedals
I don't know how much playing time I'll get between charges yet, but I think that because the tuner is used so seldom as to be almost negligible, and TC pedals need a max of 100mA… probably much less for the Flashback Mini, really… I expect to go well over 15 hours of use before I need to recharge the Anker.
If you are familiar with the (discontinued?) Pedaltrain Volto, you'll see that this is a similar idea. But the Volto costs around $100, if you can find one, and stores 5000mAh of juice. The Anker I'm using costs about ⅕ of that, and stores more power, at 6700mAh. You can get versions from various makers with up to 25000mAh or so, for not much more money. I went with this one to save space and weight. The output of the battery is 2A (2000mA) which is typical for the batteries, and the same as the Pedaltrain Volto. You should be able to power a good number of pedals from this, though of course your going to want a more capacious battery if you've got the Starship Enterprise bridge at your feet like some of you folks seem to.
The catch has been that while the Volto was purpose-designed for pedals and had the proper output rating and plugs, these phone recharging batteries put out power via USB cables and at only5v, while most pedals need 9v plugs of the type we know so well. (What are those called, anyway?)
If only there were an adapter... sigh... but wait!
Enter myVolts (myvolts.com) and their lovely little USB to 9v adapter (The shipping email calls it the "448 - AA905ML Sunny DC UK 5V USB to 9V 0.7A C- converter", while on the Web site you search by device. I believe all 9v pedals would use this adapter, though):
This gadget totally and painlessly mediates between the disparate worlds of 5v USB smartphone batteries and 9v pedals. I now have a compact board with mini pedals that would ordinarily need to be tethered to a power strip, but now can spread their little wings and fly freely.
I hope this gives you some food for thought!
Mahalo ā nui loa,
Pili
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Product links as requested -
Battery:
http://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Capac...ds=anker+astro
This unit was very well reviewed, including on Amazon, where it has 4.5 stars with 3,564 reviews. Anker also makes larger capacity versions that would last even longer. I chose this one because I was going for the smallest pedalboard possible.
USB to 9v adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/power-cable-El...A30ZWK69TIG5AK
Note that this is listed as being specific to the TC Electronic Flashback Mini, but you'll find the same myVolts unit if you search for any number of devices. Apparently they thought this would make it easier for people to find what they need.
The company that sells these, myVolts is in Ireland, so buyers who can't or don't want to use Amazon US can go directly to myVolts:
http://myvolts.com/product.php/19814...B_power_supply