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First pedal board power supply question


BillyBass
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Hi all,

I'm about to buy a compressor pedal and when it arrives I'll have a Beat Buddy Mini2, a Boss TU-3 tuner and the compressor.  So I think its about time I put them on a board.  I don't understand the power supply requirements though.  The Beat Buddy Mini 2, apparently, requires a 9V, 500mA supply, that is straightforward enough.  It says on the Boss TU-3 that: 'Total of consumption current must not be exceeded the rating current of PSA adaptor you use'. I think Boss are Japanese, hence the English mistake.  Should this be 'exceeded by the rating current...'  or, 'must not exceed the rating current...'?

So I am not sure what current the (9V) TU-3 needs and whether plugging it in to a 500mA psi will damage it.  Due to the Beat Buddy's requirements I will have to get a PSU with at least one 9v 500mA port and the ones I am looking at from Strymon just have 500mA ports (some with adjustable voltage: 9, 12, 18v).

Would any compressor I buy (looking at the Ampeg Opto Comp) have issues with being plugged into a 500 mA port?

Thanks

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You are ok. A pedal will only draw as much current as it needs. You can't damage a pedal by plugging into an outlet that supplies "too much" current.

NB a strymon power supply might be overkill for your needs. Compressors and tuners will generally be fine on a daisy chain, I'm not sure about the beat buddy though. You may want to try it and see if you have any noise issues 

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3 minutes ago, AJ567 said:

You are ok. A pedal will only draw as much current as it needs. You can't damage a pedal by plugging into an outlet that supplies "too much" current.

NB a strymon power supply might be overkill for your needs. Compressors and tuners will generally be fine on a daisy chain, I'm not sure about the beat buddy though. You may want to try it and see if you have any noise issues 

The beat buddy is the issue.  It needs a 500mA supply and I've read lots of reports of noise issues, particularly with power supplies lacking isolation. 

I might try the True Tone Pro CS6, as, anecdotally, it seems a good fit but I may end up sticking an extension lead on the pedal board and using the power supply the beat buddy comes with.

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45 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

The beat buddy is the issue.  It needs a 500mA supply and I've read lots of reports of noise issues, particularly with power supplies lacking isolation. 

I might try the True Tone Pro CS6, as, anecdotally, it seems a good fit but I may end up sticking an extension lead on the pedal board and using the power supply the beat buddy comes with.

Ah ok. You could use a daisy chain and put a Joyo ZGP adapter on the beat buddy end. Neat little problem solver! It's cheap too and I think someone posted a joyo discount code on here recently.

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Think about amperes as watts in your amp. You do not have to use every single mA (watt) the supply (the amp) has, but there is the reserve for different effects (loudnesses).

It is always good to have some extra reserve in your PSU, so it does not have to push everything in the whole time it is on. Then it is cooler and lasts longer.

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1 hour ago, BillyBass said:

The beat buddy is the issue.  It needs a 500mA supply and I've read lots of reports of noise issues, particularly with power supplies lacking isolation. 

I might try the True Tone Pro CS6, as, anecdotally, it seems a good fit but I may end up sticking an extension lead on the pedal board and using the power supply the beat buddy comes with.

id stick with your original idea, the strymon stuff will serve you well as well as powering anything you may want to get in the future, they are also much smaller than the true tone stuff.

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I've had / still have various really good isolated PSUs including the 1Spot CS6, Ciocks DC5 and 8, and MXR IsoBrick.

I've recently been very pleasantly surprised by the HB IsoPro5 from Thomann which is tiny (will easily fit under your board), noiseless, has different voltage settings on a couple of outputs (9V, 12V and 18V) and delivers a fair chunk of isolated power (1.9 amps in total). And it costs around £50 including P&P, which makes it incredible value.

image.png.2d66b5a9dde7056c63bbc0d891341065.png

 

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