I want to echo what many other commenters have said -- this is a perfectly wonderful instructional video. Clear, thorough, organized, and everything articulately explained. And your replies to questions raised in the comments are a great help also. Really, this video should serve as a prime example of how to do instruction right. First time I've viewed a clip from your channel, and I am now subscribing. Well done, Matt!
Very helpful. Discovered that my Xotic SL and EP pedals only use 5ma each. Polytune = 50ma. 1 x 9v 100ma socket to power 3 pedals. Now I can keep my ISO-5! Thanks.
I run the pedal power 2+ like you but then I also added in the new x4 from VooDoo.. I plug it into the courtesy port on the the PP2+ and get 4 additional ports in its own little hub. So far its been pretty good!
The difference between voltage and current is: voltage is available power. Current is how fast that power's electrons (and thereby the electricity itself) move. You can safely give a pedal too much current. No problem, the pedal will only suck up the current it actually needs. Too much voltage WILL fry a pedal, usually faster than you can kill the power to stop the damage. NEVER plug into something with a higher Voltage output than what is required...unless you like replacing gear.
Voltage is the pressure of the electron flow, current is the rate of current flow. Running too much of either voltage or current can damage the pedals resistors due to higher wattage value than the resistors is rated for. Wattage is the product of votlage and current.
Really appreciate this man. I’ve had unpowered pedals on my board for way too long. This is so much better than getting another power sup! Thank you my friend
Great explainer! I use VL splitters and a current doubler to power my HX Stomp and about 10 smaller pedals off an MXR ISO brick. I used 3rd party splitters in the past but it made me feel like I was putting my pedals at risk.
It’s a relief to know someone else has thought about combining two power outputs AND then separating them for different pedals. Well, not only thought about it, but done it.
Great video. Clear, to the point, and well organized. I'm going to do some research and put a spreadsheet together just as you suggested. I think that will be good both for putting my current (pun intended) board together, but also as a great reference for future modifications of the board. Many thanks!
Nice thought in doing this, also spreadsheet is very cool. Im adding an HX Stomp to a small board Im putting together using Pedal Power 2 Plus. I added an X4 to be sure, but using your math, I may have been able to run with just the PP2 Plus. Well, with the X4, I have provide expansion for sure. Thanks!
Center negative means that the center of input that goes into the pedal is negative. It's isolated from the chrome outer ring. Sometimes this polarity is reversed, that's why it matters to double check what the power supply and the pedal say.
Excellent vid! Just wanna confirm that your logic makes perfect sense - been doing this for years now, even with far less expensive stuff and if you manage to calculate your power draw under 70% on a single output, you should be hum'n'noise free! Sure, trial'n'error, cables and all that jazz - don't mix digital and analog, keep'em separated and ya'll be good. In general a good rule is to know propper gain staging, fxloop for time and modulation and you should be ok.
That all looks really cool! I learned so much about the Voodoo Labs product line, thank you! HOWEVER That gray plug unit from the hardware store looks dangerous. You are probably in no mortal peril, don't worry. But by lifting the ground (which is exactly what this looks like), you are leaving your board exposed electrically. If you want to keep everything protected then you really should plug it into a surge protector. Be safe!
Thanks! Yeah no I was only using it to plug in a wall wart for a pedal, which only have two prongs in the first place so there’s no ground I’m defeating. I wouldn’t use it on anything that had that ground plug. Good advice!
I’ve powered a Strymon TimeLine and BigSky using the 250mA outputs (5&6) on my PP2+, and didn’t notice any problems. But I wanted to say that each manual says those pedals need 300mA, not 250mA. Cool video!
You use terms like, powering things and pedal power thing. I suppose you mean power supply. You also use the term, hydraulic digital. The last one, I have no idea what that is. And what is a "screen capture thing" Dude, I'm just breaking your balls. You make some very important points. Like the fact that the total amount of current that is supplied by the Power Plus is 1,100 MA. As long as your pedals don't exceed that amount, your good to go. The daisy chain off of the True Spot for low current pedals is a good idea. Also, I love the spread sheet, makes good sense. Thanks for an awesome tutorial.
From an old novice perspective... Excellent video! Best pedal board explanation I have found. Got my spreadsheet together and am well on my way with wiring! Can you tell me where you got the color coded, sticky back, velcro wire ties? What a great way to tighten up the underside! Well Done and thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks! I believe the velcros are from Amazon - these ones, or something really similar: www.amazon.com/Mmei-Multi-Purpose-Reusable-Fastening-Straps/dp/B01FLKNJ8S/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=velcro+ties&qid=1575405699&sr=8-6 And then the rubber cable clips are some version of this: www.amazon.com/Cable-Clips-Management-Nightstand-Accessories/dp/B00NVKHLP8/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=cable+clips&qid=1575405685&sr=8-5
@@LeFeversAudio one thing you could have mentioned. You are adding up a scenario of having all pedals on at the same time when you actually only use a few at a time, technically you have more power to work with. Great video!
With the daisy chain you use, are all of the chain's available spots spoken for? If not, is it okay to leave some dangling with nothing occupying them? Thank you for this amazing video.
excellent video! thanks so much. seems so simple when you explain it like this. Question: the EHX silencer pedal on the bottom of the board, is it alway on since its underneath ? maybe you did a video on this that i havent seen? thanks!
Thanks! And yeah, the Silencer is always on. It's just removing noise from my pickups, before it goes on to get amplified by all the other pedals. Sometimes when I switch guitars I'll have to reach under and adjust the threshold but otherwise I just forget it's there.
Great video! Very informative but I have searched Google all night long looking for "weird little gray thing" and I can't find it. Where can I buy this thing?
Try searching "grounding adapter" or "cheater plug", I think those are the correct terms. Keep in mind I have no idea whether these are safe to use with any kind of three-pronged power cable, I'm using it with a wall wart that doesn't have a third grounding plug so I figure it's fine for that.
thanks for the heads up on the milliamps required to power the echoplex...240....i confirmed on the website. i would have just plugged it into the normal 100 outlet , who knew....
@@LeFeversAudio interestingly, I just plugged the Echoplex into a 100Ma terminal on my VooDoo Plus 2, and it worked just fine. But there were no other effects plugged in at the time. I'm thinking that what probably happens is , the Voodoo funnels all available juice to that one terminal, if its the only one being used. As other effects are connected, the power going to that 100 Ma terminal will probably drop until its down to 100, and at that point the Echo probably wouldn't work, until it was changed to the 250Ma terminal.
Been searching for this kind of instruction....finally!!! Thnx! One question. Is it possible to install two power supply boxes underneath the pedal board and have the 2nd power supply box powered by the first one so you only need to use one wall socket.
Is that a pedal? I've never seen something need 1000mA. I'd put it on its own adapter probably at that point, and then maybe plug it into the courtesy outlet of a power supply like this one.
Matt LeFevers Yes it is a digital multi effects unit. The adaptor for the Yamaha Magicstomp has those specifications on it. Whether or not if it draws that amount is unclear. Perhaps somewhere between 500 and 700mA.
@@JOAQUINARMIJO - wow, I don't know then. I know some of the OneSpot supplies can go up to 500mA per output but I'm not sure of any that go higher than that for just one output
Thanks! Just a mix of velcro ties and gummy cable clips. Something like this: www.amazon.com/Shintop-Computer-Electrical-Charging-Colorful/dp/B00YJ1CS10
Very useful, thanks! I just don't understand the difference between daisy chain one output with the one spot cable, or use the voodoo lab output splitter adapter/ground lifted. Is there any difference or it's essentially the same?
The minimum multiplugs I'm finding have 5 plugs; are there daisy chains available with only 2 or 3 plugs, or can I just power a few pedals and leave some plugs unused?
Great video! I've just got a question: The Korg Pitchblack tuner has a 200mA DC output. Am I able to plug in, say, my EHX Holy Grail Nano with a current draw of 105mA, or is it safe to put on say the 7/8 100mA outputs of the PP2?
I use the output on my tuner to power a drive sometimes, you just have to make sure the total of the tuner plus the other pedal(s) you're running off of it comes in under the max. So like I have my Polytune on a 100mA output and the tuner itself draws about 50, so I can power anything that's under about 50mA off of it. I usually just stick an overdrive there.
No, I think the DIP switches have more to do with voltage instead of the mA of current available. A current doubler on two 100mA outputs with the DIP switches set normal is how I get 200mA.
thanks a lot man, ive got a lot of questions about how to connect many pedals in just a power supply like that, just ine question, what brand of patch cables are you using? they look very flexible
The 1/4" patch cables between the pedals? A mix of Planet Waves and Hosa. The power ones between the Voodoo Lab unit and the pedals are all from Voodoo Lab, I just order them off their web site or Sweetwater.
I have no idea where to look for the info I need. My board is a MESS, but I need to know where to put a Jerry Cantrell wah pedal... Mine was working and I think I may have "melted 😞" it
Yikes! That's surprising. As far as current draw goes, wah needs almost nothing. The manual for the Jerry Cantrell one says it needs "1 mA", which is the least I have ever seen for a pedal. Pretty much any supply or adapter should work for that, as long as it's not some crazy voltage or the wrong type plug...
I'm not sure what you mean by double the current... the number of milliamps (mA) that the power supply is providing just needs to match or exceed what the pedal draws. A 200mA power supply can power a 200mA pedal but a 100mA supply could get fried, or at the very least the pedal wouldn't turn on.
@@LeFeversAudio I'm referring to the video "That pedal show how power your pedals properly and the legend of VCPI" at 7:41 in the video. They say the double it? Thank you!
Mine were from RadioShack but I’ve seen similar ones since - something like this: www.amazon.com/dp/B00NVKHLP8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_1K938BVKEQREDAKWZRJW I wasn’t purposely trying to keep the power cables and patch cables apart - though now that you mention it, it is doing that - I was just trying to keep the underside of my board tidy. And I switch things around semi often so I wanted something I could rearrange as needed.
That EHX Silencer is center positive. All EHX pedals I’ve seen and have are center positive. But according to Voodoo lab, since its an isolated power brick, negative or center work ok. My only question is, what if you daisy chain 5 with mixed polarities? I’v been doing that for almost 1 year on my Mondo brick and its all been working fine. Because the Mondo brick has isolated ports?
The Silencer is center negative, at least per the manual I have. I’ve had several of their octave pedals and phasers that were the same, maybe it varies. (I know they make a thousand different pedals, hah.) Anyway I would have thought daisy chaining mixed polarities would be a bad idea... but to be honest I don’t know much about the center positive / center negative thing, other than that I always confirm mine are negative before I plug them in...
@@LeFeversAudio hmm yes you’re right, I just checked and the manual says center negative. Then why does the polarity on the pedal itself say center positive? Are all the other EHX pedals the same way?
@@LeFeversAudio It looks like the diagram on EHX pedals is different from what I’m used to seeing. The - is in the middle which means center negative. The + is to the right of the pedal meaning the outside is positive. Typically, the + is on the right with a solid line connecting to the outside of the plug and there is a solid line connecting center dot on to the right, towards the -
Thanks! I don't think there are any that output 18 volts as is, but you could use a voltage doubler cable to combine two of the 9 volt outputs. I'd use two of the lower current ones so you're not tying up a huge output for that. Maybe 1&2 or something? The cables are here: www.voodoolab.com/shop/index.php?cPath=22_24_32&osCsid=264ilsbkah20snd31lun1pn914 Make sure to check if the Deja Vibe is center-negative or center-positive power input, there are different cables for each.
Does the the voltage doubler cable result in ground noise? Mine seems to cause a lot of noise when I try to power my Catalinbread SFT at 18v so I never use it. Also, the Digitech SDRUM says it needs 500mA but I'm able to power mine off of just one of the 400mA slots on my Pedal Power Mondo, will this damage the pedal or cause it to otherwise misbehave?
I don't know much about voltage doublers, sorry - I run everything at 9v. As far as the SDRUM, I'm not an expert but from the research I've done, I don't think it's possible to actually harm the * pedal * by underpowering it, I think worst case scenario it would turn off or not work just right. Though you could potentially harm the power supply. I've overheated a wall wart before to where it started melting, by drawing too much from it.
I have a pedal that requires 300mA but unfortunately the 2 high current outputs are already spoken for but I have 3 100mA outputs available. I was wondering if I could run a 3 link daisy chain to those outputs and then to the pedal considering there’s not a 3 link current doubler
I think you'd need a three-link current doubler (tripler?)... which I've never seen either, you're right. The daisy chain wouldn't be combining the three, I think it'd just be taking the power from the first one and feeding it into the other two, so you certainly don't want that! Are you using the courtesy outlet on the back already? That can be useful for getting one more high draw pedal on there.
I have the voodoo lab pedal power 2 plus and a fender tre-verb pedal that need 310mA. Is there a way to boost.the current in the power supply to make my pedal work efficiently or I need another power supply?
I'm not familiar with the Tre-Verb but you could get to 310 by combining one of the high current (250mA) outputs plus one of the regular ones (100mA) to get a total of 350mA. One of those Voodoo Lab current doubler cables should work...
I got them from Radio Shack but I've seen similar things on Amazon - something like this: www.amazon.com/Shintop-Computer-Electrical-Charging-Colorful/dp/B00YJ1CS10
Hits from the Bong I’m not familiar with the Truetone one but I don’t see why not. From a quick search, the CS12 seems to divide up power differently (the max power draw from each outlet isn’t really a max, it seems?) so the double might be unnecessary but a splitter could certainly work. I read that with that one the key is for your total pedals not to exceed to total current draw of the unit (1900mA? Don’t quote me on that)
Yeah, that makes sense. I think as long as the current draw of each is accounted for then it’d be fine to run them at the same time. but daisy chains can be temperamental, it’s not a bad idea to spread them out like that.
