Good Cheap Pedal Power Supply?

I'm using 3 x Caline CP-05 for semi-isolated power and 2 x Donner ISO8Plus for fully isolated.
Why so many ? I have three boards, in theory ...
In practice there's only one or two ready for operation at any one time

EDIT
It's worth mentioning that many pedals will work happily with semi-isolated power supplies i.e. Separate smoothing and/or separate regulation but common Ground.
A lot of digital pedals aren't so forgiving OR they themselves send interference back up the power lines and upset other pedals.
THAT's when fully isolated becomes neccesary.

 

I have a couple of the Calines, the work fine and are noise free

 

You might be surprised at just how small of a thing you need. First it helps to figure out how many total milliamps (mA) of current draw you need. There is a very helpful website for that, this guy has a large collection of brands and pedals all figured out:
http://stinkfoot.se/power-list

Another place you can find the current draw in mA is the manufacturer's website or the owner's manual that came with the pedal. Many pedal makers have their specs like that either on the website or in a free downloadable manual for each pedal.

As a rule of thumb, distortions/fuzzes/overdrives take a very minimal of current, usually around 10mA or so.

As the pedal gets more complex, the current draw goes up. Phasers/flangers/chorus use more... then digital delays and such use even more.

I think the best thing going is the OneSpot Combo Pack. It has a thin walwart you can plug in just about anywhere, and comes with an 8-way daisy chain cable. It produces 1700mA of power total, so if all you have is a few overdrives, etc it has plenty of power to power up all kinds of stuff. About $30-40 (cheap) most places. And the kit comes with some 1/8" mini plug ends and some regular 9v battery clip ends for older pedals that don't have the negative center plug.

They are $29.99 on Sweetwater:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/1SpotComboPk--truetone-1-spot-combo-pack

Best bang for your buck you can get IMHO. And if you don't need all the connections, just zip tie the end of the cord and voila, no muss no fuss...

 

I know even less about what I'm talking about, but I used to have all kinds of problems in my old house with pedals picking up radio stations and other noise until I got a proper isolated power supply. Everything seems to have quieted right down. It's really worth the money to do it right.

 

Both the Caline and the Joyo are not truly isolated, no matter what the blurb says. I’ve had both, and both were noisy. Swapping out for a better wall wart made a difference but never really got rid of the noise completely. I had a BBE Supa Charger on a previous incarnation and it was brilliant. But my current rig is designed to be as small as possible. So in the end I went for this PSU unit. It’s much quieter than any of the others I mentioned above, other than the SUPA-CHARGER.



https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_2_pro.htm

as a rule of thumb, if it takes power from a wall-wart it generally won’t be a truly isolated supply no matter what it says. For the true isolation supplies you’ll need to look at ones that take direct mains power. YMMV ofc

 

Voodoo 2Plus! I bought it cheap and well used many years ago and it has been in used steadily since. One of the 9v outs went bad several years ago, I called Voodoo. The guy said send it to us and we’ll fix it. I had it back in a couple of weeks and all it cost me was postage to California one way.

When you get product support like that and the product is made in the USA by musicians; why would you buy anything else? Shameless plug for good products made here at home.

 

I use a one spot, and run 6 pedals. Perfectly fine, no noise, no issues.
I ran 11 off of an old Boss Power Supply and Master Switch. Never had any issues with that, either.
View attachment 825179

I ran pedals off of wall warts and a power strip, and not the ones that were meant to run then, just any I could find that would work. I played many a bar or club that way for 30 years or so.
Most clubs you play in, the wiring is so old or jack leg it doesn't matter what kind of power supply you run, you're going to have "issues" with noise, even if you just plug straight into the amp.
If you're playing stadiums and cutting CDs (or whatever the current thing is), by all means, spring for the good one. But a board you're going to jam at home, or play local gigs with, it doesn't matter, IMHE, YMMV,etc.

 

Here’s a top tip. Velcro tidies cables away nicely. Glue the loop to your board, then tuck cables away using the hook!

 

I use 2 Donner power supplies for my board. I paid approximately $35 for each of them on Amazon 2 years ago They power 8 9V and 1 18V each. I have 16 pedals on my board. They work flawlessly. No complaints.

 

Stinkfoot are a great resource.
For pedals Not on their lists I would do Google Searches for "pedal name" and "mA".
Of course sometimes the results would show the recommended PSU rating but the actual current draw spec would usually show up without too much effort.
Some companies though would just paste up say "30mA" for all their products in a particular range of theirs But a little but of VOM meter work would sooon show that to be 'less than accurate"

 

So they are basically doing what Strymon is doing, then?

 

Cheap and good don't go together if it comes to psu's. All the cheap ones I have tried are noisy as hell.
Made a regulated psu myself. Only downside is the size and weight of the f***er. But as quiet as a mouse.

 

Any details on what you built?

Back in the day of linear supplies, it seems that building a power supply used to be a common beginner electronics project. Various switcher supply issues seem to have killed that idea.

On that note, I wonder if anyone here is running a linear supply for a pedal board.

 

Joyo Power Supply 5, Rechargable battery power supply 8 isolated outputs. $65 on Amazon

SUPER Quiet!!!!!!

https://www.joyoaudio.com/product/94.html

 

I bet it is quiet, but if I had one I would definitely want a backup in cases where the battery is drained.

Oh, I guess it can run from a wall wart too.

 

There have been numerous posts in this thread alone where the direct experience of users has been that "cheap" and "good" have indeed gone together for them. And Strymon would be an example of pedal power supply manufactures maturing and getting away from the old way of designing power supplies using isolated transformers, which as I think about it is pretty wasteful and crude approach to the problem.

It is typical that as a technology matures, it gets cheaper. The first CD players cost a small fortune, now really excellent units can be had very cheaply. Power supplies should be the same story. And from the experiences here, I'd suggest that maybe it is the same story.

 

I am using this Godlyke daisy chain type:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051MOJ7C/?tag=tdpri-20

I use it with 4-5 pedals and have never had noise or any issues.

I saw it used by some Youtube rs and gave it a try. So far it works great.

 

I went tbe DIY route with some cheapy kits off of flea bay.
Supposed to go from 3 to 12 VDC.
Nope only goes to 9 VDC...
Cheap crap from china, luckily I only need 9 VDC.
Pretty quiet so far

 

I used a One Spot daisy chain and it worked perfectly fine powering six effects...until I got a DigiTech Mosaic 12-string emulator pedal. It created a high-pitched noise, so I had to get a Truetone CS6. Best investment I ever made. Not cheap at around $130 but now my pedalboard is absolutely silent. I wish I would have bought it years ago. You might be looking for cheap but there's something to be said for a quality long-term investment.