A little help needed with power supplies

[MarshallBTB]

May be a stupid question - but using a power supply that gives 1000ma (diago micro power) and only powering one pedal won't do any damage will it? Does the pedal only draw what it needs or would this overload the circuit?

[mart]

No, there's no risk of damage - the pedal only draws what it needs. So the only danger is if your pedal is supremely hungry and wants more than 1000mA, in which case the power supply may overheat. I don't know of any such pedals, but in any case google should help you find the typical current your pedal requires.

[MarshallBTB]

Ok that's good then, thanks. I wanted to check as I have a pedal that won't work unless its daisy chained with the rest of the board, I use it alone and get nothing. It was handmade though, by a friend so I'm guessing its probably a fault in the pedal.

[mart]

That's curious. If its not too awkward, I would try removing the other pedals from the chain one by one and see what this fussy pedal actually needs to make it work. It seems just about possible that it needs a certain volume level, which other pedals provide. But, I have to say, it seems more likely to be a loose connection that just happens to have been made when you've got the rest of your board connected, and broken when not. In other words, the daisy-chaining is likely to be just a coincidence. Not guaranteed, but more likely than the alternatives.

[MarshallBTB]

Unless I have the power daisy chained to other pedals, and another pedal connected to the output of this, I get nothing. Going to have a look over it with its creator tonight now so hopefully it'll be sorted.
Main thing I wanted to clear up was the possibility of overloading the circuit by using my power supply, as that was suggested to me, so thanks for that!!

[Guest FretNoMore]

Sounds very unusual ... some kind of problem with grounding perhaps as you need another pedal connected to make it work?

[Mog]

Have you tried the pedal at every output along the chain? Could be a bum adaptor. Other than that I reckon the 9v socket on the pedal is wired incorrectly.

[Guest FretNoMore]

Some pedals have an input (sometimes output) jack that cut the (battery) power unless there's a cord plugged in, maybe also something that could be wired incorrectly.

[mart]

Yep, maybe the ground on the DC connector on your pedal is not connected to anything. But when you put a cable between this pedal and another, it links the ground of the two pedals, so if the other pedal is daisy-chained with this one, then it completes the ground connection with the power supply, enabling the first pedal to get some power.

I'd check the wiring on the power input on your pedal.

[MarshallBTB]

Loose ground wire, noise is as it should be now for a fuzz pedal...unless I use the diago on its own.
Still a bit odd, gets noisy with just the diago plugged in. Once other pedals are daisy chained, or I use a smaller ma supply this doesn't happen. Probably wont be an issue as it will be on with the rest of the board, still strange though.
Thanks a lot again for the pointers.