Cheap Power Supplies

[jposega]

Having struggled long enough powering my board with a Godlyke PowerAll and a daisy chain, I went ahead and did some interweb sleuthing. I've spent the last couple weeks waffling about on what to buy.

My plans are complicated by the following considerations: I will be heading back to the US in May or June, and want something that's switchable or automatically works at 110v and 220v; I am using a handful of pedals, analogue and digital, on a Pedaltrain Nano (non +); I will likely be going back up in pedalboard size once I'm settled back in, so having extra outlets is a plus;  there are not that many good reviews of the plethora of cheap(er) power supplies that are sold under the brands Mosky, Fame, Memteq, Vitoos, Caline, and so forth.

Having had pedalboards with as many as 16 pedals on them, I've always tried to use high-quality name-brand PSUs; the last one I had before leaving the US was a Truetone CS12 mounted under a Pedaltrain Novo 24, powering 16 pedals quite happily. Since coming to the UK, my little Nano is a humming, buzzing nightmare. Running just 5 FX on a chain is plagued with a buzz that can be as loud as 12db when monitoring through a DAW depending on what's engaged and how the board is oriented. I take this as a sign that, A) The power in my building is dirty and B) I desperately need to isolate my pedal power. But, I just can't afford a great PSU like the Truetone, Voodoo Lab, or T-Rex offerings.

With this in mind, I Googled. And Googled. And Googled. Reviews of the likes of the Caline/ Memteq/ Joyo innumerously-rebranded power supply suggest it's one of a plethora of daisy-chain-in-a-box power supplies with zero isolation. Diving deeper down the rabbit hole, I started to find PSU's branded as Vitoos sometimes sold under the moniker Ammoon. As it turns out, some users over at The Fretboard have reported that, in fact, the Vitoos DC8 (aka Iso8, which seems to be the same as the DC8) does offer isolation. This is backed up by others over at The Gear Page, too.

With this information, I've gone ahead and ordered one on eBay. This link is the best price-to-shipping time ratio I found, as it is reportedly shipping from Ireland. If that's true, then I anticipate it'll get to Belfast a lot faster than what they quote in the listing.

I don't anticipate fitting it beneath my Nano without much larger feet and all-right-angle wiring, I might just Velcro it with the cables sticking up on the end of the board. We'll see. Since I'm not gigging, I don't even need to mount it to the board. 

My only desire is that it can power the following without the horrendous noise I'm getting now: Polytune Mini Noir > Broughton Broughctave > Southampton Fifth Gear (v2 three knob) > DIY Madbean Big Muff > Broughton Joshwah and maybe a Zoom MS100BT if it'll fit on the board and there's a jack with enough juice.

Once it's in hand, I'll be able to report back with the details. Until then, discuss your thoughts on the matter!

[T-Bay]

My Moskey one is great, there is noise that I can detect at all. I may be lucky I suppose.

[dannybuoy]

Only the Zoom pedal out of that lot should need isolation, the others should be perfectly fine sharing power.

I had a similar issue and found that my noise did not go away after investing in an isolated power supply. Instead I found the noise was due to either a specific pedal with a grounding issue, or from certain patch cables, and only kicking in when my dimmer switch or certain household appliances were on!

[ben4343]

That DC8 has been the star of quite a few threads in the last 12 months. It's outputs, as far as I can tell, are not strictly isolated - rather the 6 lower ones are together isolated from the 2 higher. That said, I am still very pleased with mine and haven't had any issues other than needing to tape over the LED, which is thermonuclear in its brightness.

[jposega]

4 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

Only the Zoom pedal out of that lot should need isolation, the others should be perfectly fine sharing power.

I had a similar issue and found that my noise did not go away after investing in an isolated power supply. Instead I found the noise was due to either a specific pedal with a grounding issue, or from certain patch cables, and only kicking in when my dimmer switch or certain household appliances were on!

“Should be fine,” yes. Are fine sharing a chain, no.

I’ve gone through and swapped out each cable for brand new ones I brought with me and replaced the daisy chain. No dimmers in the apartment, I’ve even tried turning off everything but the refrigerator. Each pedal is virtually noise free on its own save for the Muff but every one I’ve played has been a bit noisy. I’ve tried them in various combinations, different orders. I’ve not been using the Zoom since getting here since it was certainly noisy on its own, but even with just the other ones it’s awful.

If the PSU doesn’t solve it, then it’s probably a fault with one of the pedals but then I’ve no idea what could have gone wrong because they’ve all worked perfectly until I brought them here.

2 hours ago, ben4343 said:

That DC8 has been the star of quite a few threads in the last 12 months. It's outputs, as far as I can tell, are not strictly isolated - rather the 6 lower ones are together isolated from the 2 higher. That said, I am still very pleased with mine and haven't had any issues other than needing to tape over the LED, which is thermonuclear in its brightness.

It will be interesting to see what the reality of the isolation is. Even if it’s just two ‘banks’ of isolation, it’s likely just one pedal that really needs to be on its own. It’s funny how everything is using retina destroying blue LEDs now when these high intensity varieties didn’t come around until 1993. Maybe everyone thinks blue looks less menacing than red or orange or yellow, who knows. I’ll have the tape close at hand though.

[dannybuoy]

If you have an extra 9v supply or two knocking about, the kind you sometimes get bundled with pedals, you can do an experiment. Set up a simple chain of two pedals on a daisy chain, find a pairing where the noise is introduced - you shouldn't need to rig up the entire chain to see the issue, just to simplify things for now. Then power one of those with the separate supply and see if the issue goes away - if it does then you've got yourself a noisy pedal that needs isolation. Maybe it has digital innards or an internal voltage doubler - e.g. I found that the RMI Basswitch compressor doubles to 18V internally but produces a high pitched whine into the signal when sharing power. Which leads me to another thing - there is more than one type of noise. If it's a buzz that gets worse or goes away when touching the exposed metal parts of the pedal, that suggests a grounding issue. If it's a hiss or whine, or chirping sound then that's more common of noise from the power supply.

[jposega]

 

Everything I’m using runs at 9v plain and simple, no internally voltage doubling, no digital hoohaw except for the Zoom. Unfortunately I don’t have any extra PSUs. Since I moved from the US, I had to pare down my gear significantly. I’ve found that I can run my Broughctave, Fifth Gear, Muff, and Joshwah with a very low level hiss or buzz.

It seems, oddly enough, that the Polytune being on a chain with 2 or more other pedals causes the most horrendous noise. But this does make some sense since it is digital. Even if the new PSU doesn’t totally quiet the Polytune, it’s not a major loss since I can just use the tuner in ProTools or Logic. 

Its definitely not the same sort of buzz that comes from a poor ground and shielding in the bass itself, and there is no noise when I plug straight into my interface.

Edited April 9, 2018 by jposega

[dannybuoy]

My Polytune does introduce a bit of weird digital clock chirping type noise but only when it's on and tuning.

Btw most 9V supplies work on 110-240V, so if you have a US one you might be able to use it with a plug converter.

[jposega]

8 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

My Polytune does introduce a bit of weird digital clock chirping type noise but only when it's on and tuning.

Btw most 9V supplies work on 110-240V, so if you have a US one you might be able to use it with a plug converter.

That’s what I’m doing now. It’s a Godlyke PowerAll plugged into a travel adapter. Some people have commented that the travel plug could also be introducing noise. We’ll see, hopefully in about a week.