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  #16  
Old 10-31-2015, 09:54 AM
Yamaha Man Yamaha Man is offline
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I used to work as a wireman for Rockwell Automation...wiring up power circuits was one of my specialties. I used to wire up 1000 horsepower motors to computerized assembly line control circuits for motion control systems...wiring up a few foot pedals is a piece of cake for me.
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  #17  
Old 11-02-2015, 09:54 AM
MikeBmusic MikeBmusic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Pauhana View Post
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 6700mAh 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 50 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

*********

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
Very cool solution (and that is one TINY board you use!) How do you split the 9v from the USB converter - just a standard daisy chain cable? I've got a DittoX2, a chorus and a tuner (and looking to add a delay) that all use 9v and I''d love to power them all that way, wondering how long they'd stay powered from a charge.
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  #18  
Old 11-02-2015, 11:45 AM
Spook Spook is offline
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With a mid-sized pedal board I'm pulling too many amps for this solution but I still really like the idea. I had a Pedaltrain Volto for a portable setup but the connectors failed rather quickly rendering it useless. Think this rig would be better overall.

And things will only get better.

Thanks for sharing. What a great idea
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  #19  
Old 11-02-2015, 08:54 PM
Uncle Pauhana Uncle Pauhana is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeBmusic View Post
Very cool solution (and that is one TINY board you use!) How do you split the 9v from the USB converter - just a standard daisy chain cable? I've got a DittoX2, a chorus and a tuner (and looking to add a delay) that all use 9v and I''d love to power them all that way, wondering how long they'd stay powered from a charge.
Yes, standard daisy chain to distribute the power.

How long you can power the pedals depends on what capacity battery you choose, natch... mine is on the small side at only 6,400mAh, because I wanted to go really small. You can get models from the same brand with varying capacity up to 20,000mAh or even more. I need to do some more testing, but I think it's safe to say that I can get at least 15 hours.

You can almost ignore the tuner, since you'll only be using it for a minute now and then; the Ditto may be more of a power suck, but you can research what it and the chorus draws (or measure it with a multimeter if you know more about that stuff than I do!)

Besides capacity, the other thing that matters with the batteries is output. I doubt your pedals would draw more than the 2 amps (2,000mA) that mine puts out, but if necessary you can get larger models with 3 or 4 amps.

Aloha!
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  #20  
Old 11-02-2015, 08:58 PM
Uncle Pauhana Uncle Pauhana is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spook View Post
With a mid-sized pedal board I'm pulling too many amps for this solution but I still really like the idea. I had a Pedaltrain Volto for a portable setup but the connectors failed rather quickly rendering it useless. Think this rig would be better overall.

And things will only get better.

Thanks for sharing. What a great idea
Glad you like, Spook!

Your situation my not be so hopeless... what is the total power requirement of your pedals? Some common pedals, like the BOSS GE-7 Equalizer draw only a minuscule 7mA. And although my little battery only puts out 2 amps (2,000mA), other models put out 3, 4.5, maybe even more.
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  #21  
Old 11-03-2015, 01:45 AM
Spook Spook is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Pauhana View Post
Glad you like, Spook!

Your situation my not be so hopeless... what is the total power requirement of your pedals? Some common pedals, like the BOSS GE-7 Equalizer draw only a minuscule 7mA. And although my little battery only puts out 2 amps (2,000mA), other models put out 3, 4.5, maybe even more.
Digitech Vocalist - 800mA
TC Elec Flashback X4 - 300mA
TC HoF - 100mA
Empress ParaEQ - 100mA
Joyo American - ~10ma

Much of these are superfluous toys to screw around with. Only really use the TC HoF and ParaEQ so if I were to set up a mini-pedalboard I could get by for 2-3 hours on a $20 670mAh battery. Bring a spare and swap after the second set and should be good to go. Thing is I already have a Pedaltrain set up with a Voodoo supply so things are wired for now. Still.. a good future project.
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  #22  
Old 11-03-2015, 03:42 AM
bearclaw87 bearclaw87 is offline
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Inspired by TS, I did some additional research. It seems like there are powerbanks in the market which already has a 9v output with 2.1mm plugs. E.g:http://www.amazon.com/Anker-20000mAh.../dp/B005NGLTZQ

Can these be used or do I have to worry about the center negative/positive issue?

Really like TS' solution but it will cost $30 to get the USB-9v cable to my side of the world
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  #23  
Old 11-03-2015, 04:14 AM
sam.spoons sam.spoons is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Pauhana View Post
Yes, standard daisy chain to distribute the power.

How long you can power the pedals depends on what capacity battery you choose, natch... mine is on the small side at only 6,400mAh, because I wanted to go really small. You can get models from the same brand with varying capacity up to 20,000mAh or even more. I need to do some more testing, but I think it's safe to say that I can get at least 15 hours.

You can almost ignore the tuner, since you'll only be using it for a minute now and then; the Ditto may be more of a power suck, but you can research what it and the chorus draws (or measure it with a multimeter if you know more about that stuff than I do!)

Besides capacity, the other thing that matters with the batteries is output. I doubt your pedals would draw more than the 2 amps (2,000mA) that mine puts out, but if necessary you can get larger models with 3 or 4 amps.

Aloha!
The 'myvolts' adapter can only handle 350 mA, how do you get 2A out of the system?
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  #24  
Old 11-03-2015, 09:21 AM
zhunter zhunter is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sam.spoons View Post
The 'myvolts' adapter can only handle 350 mA, how do you get 2A out of the system?
Also, we don't get something for nothing. Stepping up the voltage comes at the expense of current. I did a quick look at the myvolts site and didn't come up with anything but at least one power supply provider sells a X2 (9v up to 18 v) step up voltage multiplier and that device basically halves the available current. Given this device steps up from 5v to 9v, halving the available current capacity is probably a reasonable, albeit conservative, assumption.

With some time based effects, the current draw can be pretty high. Boosts, eqs and the like are usually much less. That and some pedals really don't like to be daisy chained and can be real noise generators. I have used a chain and gotten good results only to have the whole thing become unusable when I added a specific pedal.

Still a good idea and if it works for your system then you are golden.

hunter
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  #25  
Old 11-03-2015, 09:27 PM
bearclaw87 bearclaw87 is offline
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Googled the cable for pics on the web, and it seems like the max output is 6.3w. Which means that at 9v usage, max current output is 700ma. Not too bad actually. In terms of practical use, most power banks come with 2 usb outputs, so with 2 cables, you can run 1400ma worth of pedals I believe. In an even more extreme scenario, you should be able to use a USB hub and run 4 cables concurrently.

Hope I understood this correctly.
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  #26  
Old 11-03-2015, 11:12 PM
midwinter midwinter is offline
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Whoa! Thanks for the tip! I just ordered one of those.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
Battery technology is getting scary good. My car battery died and a friend brought over an elegant little 4"x3"x1/2" wallet with a booster batt that will give fifteen starts without needing a recharge. Started right up.

Bob
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  #27  
Old 11-08-2015, 10:34 AM
Neon Soul Neon Soul is offline
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I'd need to test out the reliability in person.

Right now I prefer the reliability of a proper power supply with isolated outlets.

I use a Voodoo Labs Iso-5 at the moment. One plug for all pedals (was already using a wall wart for my preamp), isolated outlets so no added noise, and I can get the 18v required to boost the headroom of my preamp.
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  #28  
Old 11-08-2015, 12:28 PM
Turp Turp is offline
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Nice setup. I could use that battery idea in a pinch. Those Flashback DD's are nice. I could get away with just the 2290.
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  #29  
Old 11-08-2015, 02:53 PM
Uncle Pauhana Uncle Pauhana is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sam.spoons View Post
The 'myvolts' adapter can only handle 350 mA, how do you get 2A out of the system?
My myVolts adapter has 700 mA on the label rather than 350… but yes, that's much less than the 2A that the battery is capable of putting out. Plenty for my needs, though.
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  #30  
Old 11-08-2015, 02:58 PM
Uncle Pauhana Uncle Pauhana is offline
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Update: I tested the battery endurance by running signal into the rig in my original post, and the battery lasted about 23 hours. The battery was powering the TC Flashback Mini the whole time, and I also turned on the tuner occasionally to better mimic real-world conditions.
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