Daisy chaining off a power supply

ElectricXII

Fingers657 said:

Sorry I’m not into splitting off one socket of a none or isolated power supply to more than one pedal per socket.
It’s a health risk .
My advice for what it’s worth is buy a decent isolated power supply with the right amount of sockets for your needs.
Dont mess with electrickery.

You do what's good for you. I've done it for years, and electrically, it's perfectly safe.

JonB

Thanks all, was having a boring time in Alicante airport and decided to begin with will just get a 3 daisy. I'll put a couple of analogs on the daisy/splitter then use the isolated ports for the others (Inc delay, reverb). Once I'm happy I might invest a bit more time on making it neater etc.

I think my main concern on using a daisy/splitter was fixed/limited length which is what I had on my previous powered daisy cable as I had 1 pedal with a side power connection and my old Morley wah also had a side power (so used battery). Have found one with 30cm distance which in theory should be fine.

PetGerbil

Sporky said:

There's no connection between the different outputs, basically. Including the ground. That means no ground loops, and no clock noise from one pedal getting into any others.

Typically done by having a transformer with multiple separate taps, each into its own regulation. It can be done electronically too.

Aaah..Cheers.

Snags

Beexter said:

Another option is a gigrig isolator - you get 4 isolated outputs from one connection to your power supply of choice.
Overkill? Possibly. Silent and problem free? Yes.

If you do use an isolator be aware that each output is only 100ma (possibly 110). Which is fine if they're analogue, but if they're analogue then you can daisy chain them anyway. 

NelsonP

Alexlotl said:

I run 8 pedals from a 1Spot CS6. I have two Y-Splitters, so my Wampler Ego Mini and Ibanez TS Mini are sharing one port, and my Keeley Super Phat Mod and Ibanez 850 Fuzz Mini are sharing another. No issues with noise.

One of the Y splitters came with the CS6, the other is a Mooer brand one off Amazon, as the Truetone ones cost a fortune. 

I was always told it was fine to daisy chain analogue, non-time-based effects, which is why I’ve stuck to drives and compressors.

Same

Wazmeister

My advice is always the same here; buy as good a power supply as you can afford.

At some point, down the line, the cheaper one will let you down. Especially as you start buying/adding more power hungry pedals.

Gigrig and Cioks are king here.

YMMV

stickyfiddle

Honestly we never used to worry about this in the old days of pedals & pedalboards (by which I mean 2007, not 1970..!)

As long as you're not giving anything the wrong voltage or polarity and you're not getting loads of noise then it's probably fine. 

I agree that a good isolated PSU makes life easy and does help keep noise down, but there's no problem in daisychaining a couple of pedals if needed, rather than going an buying a whole extra PSU because you need one more output. 

Wazmeister

stickyfiddle said:

Honestly we never used to worry about this in the old days of pedals & pedalboards (by which I mean 2007, not 1970..!)

As long as you're not giving anything the wrong voltage or polarity and you're not getting loads of noise then it's probably fine. 

I agree that a good isolated PSU makes life easy and does help keep noise down, but there's no problem in daisychaining a couple of pedals if needed, rather than going an buying a whole extra PSU because you need one more output. 

 In fairness, in my early pedal days, I never even noticed noise !

It was the 1890s, but the ability to record on cassette was witchcraft

viz

english_bob said:

Fiddlesticks_ said:

I’ve always just used normal daisy chains in this situation. For neatness, if I have a daisy chain with more connectors than I need then I just chop off the bit I don’t need and isolate the cable end with some electrical tape. Of course that means them extra taps are gone forever, but I’m ok with that.

If you're using a big PSU with female connectors for the cables then you can just trim the cut wire down and use the offcuts as another mini daisy chain. 

Yes, and some pedals (like the boss tuner) with two power ports in parallel can help joinnold bits of daisy chain together again if needed. 

thermionic

“Daisy chain” is becoming like “treble bleed” to me, I don’t like it. The term suggests that the plugs are connected in series when they’re just connected in parallel. Illustrated by the post above - the two dc outputs on a Boss tuner are exactly the same connection as a “daisy chain”!

downbytheriver

I have used Gigrig Distributors and Isolators to do this without problems - not the cheapest but dead reliable and neat. Get a cheapo daisy chain to see which pedals play nicely together without isolation - if you can find some that do, go Distributor, otherwise Isolator. I’ve done this with 1-Spot pros and Trex fuel tank juniors. 

Good candidates for non isolated supplies include switchers and tuners. 

Sporky

downbytheriver said:

Good candidates for non isolated supplies include switchers and tuners. 

Plus analogue dirt, eq, compression. 

ScreamingDave

I just buy a daisy chain with the right number of plugs and then when I’m sure everything is positioned where I want it I use the smallest available black cable ties (or lacing cord, if you’re a pro) to tidy up the loom.  

Never have a problem with noise.  

Behringer do a good kit they call something like “Power the World” which has quite a powerful power supply (2A output, or something like that) a couple of daisy chains and the a bunch of adaptors to mini jacks, etc. and polarity reversers.