Powerbank powered pedal boards.

NickB

I have been thinking about pedal board power recently and before I splash the cash on a CIOKS DC7 what are the upsides and downsides of using a couple of power banks of suitable output? Thank you and HNY! 

Kittyfrisk

Not sure if this helps, but it has been discussed before  https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/3262505/#Comment_3262505
Happy New Year!

NickB

Thank you! If anyone has any real world experiences of power Bank pedal boards I would love to hear! 

ICBM

You mean the old non-isolated Power Bank supplies that were about all you could get 25 years ago?

I’m still using one. However, I upgraded the filter caps, I do not use pedals that are fussy about power, and I run it well below capacity. If you don’t do those things it will most likely cause hum… I wouldn’t really recommend one now unless you understand its limitations.

digitalscream

If you're talking about batteries...yes, it can totally be done. As noted at the end of the linked comment above, I powered a board with an HX Stomp, Keeley Eccos and TC Flashback (all heavy-draw pedals) from a USB-C power bank capable of Power Delivery (PD). I think it was rated at 28,000mAh at 5V, and in total it gave me about 7-8 hours with everything running.

I had to use a ZY12PDN trigger board to get the USB C output to switch to 9V, which is not the same as those plugs that just convert 5V to 9V - they're rated at no more than 800mA (or 500mA in some cases). This can handle the full USB C PD spec, so it can do 9V @ 2.1A, which is what I needed. You can get the boards here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cucioki-Converter-Trigger-Polling-Detector/dp/B0CJ2Z6MNV

Of course, it's never that simple. I ran two pairs of leads in parallel from the board - one straight to the HX Stomp (which didn't care about dirty power), and one to a Joyo ZGP isolator, from which I ran a daisy chain to power the pedals:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-ZGP-Guitar-Effect-Supply/dp/B07CS6T95Z/

Total cost was about £40 including the power bank, but it's well worth it because you can keep as many spare power banks around as you like for backup/forgot-to-charge-the-main-one duties and they're dirt cheap. And, not only that, but you can buy USB C power banks which have way more capacity than the Pedaltrain Volto etc, and at a fraction of the cost.

It also fixes most ground loop issues by design, and you're never going to be at the mercy of dirty stage power at the venue.

NickB

digitalscream said:

If you're talking about batteries...yes, it can totally be done. As noted at the end of the linked comment above, I powered a board with an HX Stomp, Keeley Eccos and TC Flashback (all heavy-draw pedals) from a USB-C power bank capable of Power Delivery (PD). I think it was rated at 28,000mAh at 5V, and in total it gave me about 7-8 hours with everything running.

I had to use a ZY12PDN trigger board to get the USB C output to switch to 9V, which is not the same as those plugs that just convert 5V to 9V - they're rated at no more than 800mA (or 500mA in some cases). This can handle the full USB C PD spec, so it can do 9V @ 2.1A, which is what I needed. You can get the boards here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cucioki-Converter-Trigger-Polling-Detector/dp/B0CJ2Z6MNV

Of course, it's never that simple. I ran two pairs of leads in parallel from the board - one straight to the HX Stomp (which didn't care about dirty power), and one to a Joyo ZGP isolator, from which I ran a daisy chain to power the pedals:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-ZGP-Guitar-Effect-Supply/dp/B07CS6T95Z/

Total cost was about £40 including the power bank, but it's well worth it because you can keep as many spare power banks around as you like for backup/forgot-to-charge-the-main-one duties and they're dirt cheap. And, not only that, but you can buy USB C power banks which have way more capacity than the Pedaltrain Volto etc, and at a fraction of the cost.

It also fixes most ground loop issues by design, and you're never going to be at the mercy of dirty stage power at the venue.

You Sir are a legend! Thank you

Jonathangus

I'm using one of these:
https://www.joyoaudio.co.uk/joyo-jp-05-guitar-effect-pedal-power-supply-8-outputs-9v-12v-18v-usb-and-rechargeable

A charge lasts several 2-hour rehearsals, and will easily get you through a gig.

Alvin

I use one of these M-Vave pedal power (splitters).    Just a normal powerbank into this and it does then output 9v .   I have (i think) a 20,000mah powerbank and it seems to last between 5-8 weeks , used a few hours most nights.     Ignore what they say though , they are not isolated outputs , but it is a very easy solution .

  One thing to watch is the power draw , a lot of the powerbanks switch off if not enough load (i think you can get low power ones but they seem hard to come by) .   I tend to use three overdrives on all the time - or two and a clean boost  so this works great for me .  It does shut down if i only use two stompboxes .  Only around a tenner from Aliexpress.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005200728882.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.4d455a59Uy94ma&algo_pvid=ac96a23a-b87f-458c-af00-50524366eaaa&algo_exp_id=ac96a23a-b87f-458c-af00-50524366eaaa-1&pdp_npi=4@dis!GBP!15.36!9.98!!!18.99!!@211b812f17041314874796671e7da6!12000036721443432!sea!UK!4611254645!&curPageLogUid=NdC6zbT0NHik

NickB

Thank you kindly both. I am thinking that I need enough juice to power this little lot.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53424913171_4e92849c3e_k.jpg

ArchtopDave

If it was me, i'd get a decent power supply with isolated outputs. I've had a Zuma for quite a while and it's never let me down.

If you want to get things in perspective.........add up how much you have spent on those nice Pedals, and how much extra will a CIOCKS, or Zuma,  add to the bill?

Wazmeister

ArchtopDave said:

If it was me, i'd get a decent power supply with isolated outputs. I've had a Zuma for quite a while and it's never let me down.

If you want to get things in perspective.........add up how much you have spent on those nice Pedals, and how much extra will a CIOCKS, or Zuma,  add to the bill?

Wisdom.

This every time, if you can afford it, the Cioks, Zuma, Gigrig are the way to go, imho.

Good luck

NickB

Wazmeister said:

ArchtopDave said:

If it was me, i'd get a decent power supply with isolated outputs. I've had a Zuma for quite a while and it's never let me down.

If you want to get things in perspective.........add up how much you have spent on those nice Pedals, and how much extra will a CIOCKS, or Zuma,  add to the bill?

Wisdom.

This every time, if you can afford it, the Cioks, Zuma, Gigrig are the way to go, imho.

Good luck

As usual you kind folk have given me some sound advice! Thank you.