Daisy Chain Wiring

[hessodreamy]

I'm building a pedal board for my many pedals. At the moment I'm using a daisy chain to power them, which is a little bit awkward as some pedals have different polarities/connections, so things get a bit messy sometimes.

For when I'm building my board, would it work to take the power connections from a central node, rather than the daisy chain arrangement? This would give me a bit more flexibility in the pedal arrangement and simpler wiring.

Oh if only I could remember my lessons on kirchoff's laws...

[Robert_the_damned]

I'm building a pedal board for my many pedals. At the moment I'm using a daisy chain to power them, which is a little bit awkward as some pedals have different polarities/connections, so things get a bit messy sometimes.

For when I'm building my board, would it work to take the power connections from a central node, rather than the daisy chain arrangement? This would give me a bit more flexibility in the pedal arrangement and simpler wiring.

Oh if only I could remember my lessons on kirchoff's laws...

ah kirchoff where would we be without you.

a star network should work just the same as a daisy chain network. Personally I like daisy chain as its a lot less wires to run and if I have a pedal that's a differant polarity I'd make a short converter lead (so if I want to re-arrange things I just disconnect the converter and move it with the pedal). Though all my 9V pedals currently run the same polarity (though I do have one pedal on 4.5V and will soon have a couple with individual 18V supplies, which is why I'm screwing a 4 way mains socket to the middle of my pedal board!).

[Xanthus]

Solution: Buy a Pod All your multi-effects units in one.

kidding, kidding. I know nothing about wiring/chains/ground loops or anything of the sort, but I used a daisy chain for my effects board before I switched to an XT Live. By a star network, do you mean something like this?

http://www.music123.com/Pedal-Pad-Power-Pad-II-i148579.music

Sorry if I'm asking a question when the thread's already been "solved." Just curious.

[hessodreamy]

Yeah, something like that, but it's a bit overboard! Unless you need to power AC pedals as well.

I was just going to get a regulated, high current supply and wire everything to a central node, though i do like robert's idea of using polarity changers just before the pedal. Anyone know where I can get some in the UK? Maplin don't seem to do any.

The supply Xanthus was talking about says

This power supply cycles so far above the range of human hearing that ripple-based buzz (60 cycle hum) is eliminated

How's that work? Is it possible to feed your circuits whatever frequency supply you want? Just curious.

Edited December 11, 2006 by hessodreamy

[Robert_the_damned]

I was just going to get a regulated, high current supply and wire everything to a central node, though i do like robert's idea of using polarity changers just before the pedal. Anyone know where I can get some in the UK? Maplin don't seem to do any.

make them. All you need is the 'female' version of the 2.5mm barrel plug (ie what you can plug a boss power plug into, I think maplins might still have them...its a shame they're stopping selling components) and then wire that to whatever it needs to go to (audio type jacks for old EH effects ect.).

Edited December 11, 2006 by Robert_the_damned

[hessodreamy]

Hokey Kokey. 1 more thing (as columbo would say): It Will work, won't it, to daisy chain 2 daisy chains? ie take a 5-way daisy chain and plug one of those connectors ( i don't think it matters which one) to the input of a second chain.

oh and 1 MORE thing: Any suggestions on places to buy components, now that maplins has gone bad? Can't think of any shop. And it seems like such a waste to pay a fiver's postage on £1.50 of components.

Edited December 12, 2006 by hessodreamy

[Robert_the_damned]

Hokey Kokey. 1 more thing (as columbo would say): It Will work, won't it, to daisy chain 2 daisy chains? ie take a 5-way daisy chain and plug one of those connectors ( i don't think it matters which one) to the input of a second chain.

as long as the total power drawn by the pedals isn't more than your power source can provide and is less than the maximum power rating of the daisy chains then yes.

oh and 1 MORE thing: Any suggestions on places to buy components, now that maplins has gone bad? Can't think of any shop. And it seems like such a waste to pay a fiver's postage on £1.50 of components.

you can still get a few bits from maplins. I'm going to go over to Rapid electronics as they're about the only alternative that sells to people rather than companies.