Inexpensive power supply

Chuck D. Bones said:
Single-coil pickups? If so, it's magnetic pickup, most likely from your amp. However, anything powered by the AC line could be the culprit, including fluorescent lights, fans, etc.
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Chuck D. - This room is all LED light, no flourescents, no fans. Mostly I use all humbuckers or stacked singles, I almost never use true single coils (metalhead). I have to spin my chair to face a certain wall to get rid of noise and if I swing into certain "hot spots" the noise gets super insane. I may consider running a dedicated 30A 120V circuit to my mancave. I have a cinder block home and my sub panel is 50' away. Could do it with external conduit and just run a dedi circuit instead of having my stuff share the line with whatever the hell else is on the ckt.
 
I had a caline power supply that was good unless you used more high gain effects or fuzz. It was also poor if you used all slots up and had some hum as a result. I lucked out recently and bought a pedal train novo 24 with flight case and a True Tone cs12 for £140. eBay can be worth it sometimes.
 
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I bought a caline over a year ago and outgrew it quickly, got myself into some noise. It also struggled to power my radial pre which, on paper should have been fine. 3 months later I ordered a gigrig set up. Expensive? Yes but I have no regrets. I'm already planning to get another isolator and will have the option to expand further if necessary..... aaaand let's be honest, with pedalpcb cranking out projects, it'll be necessary eventually.
 
If money was no object I would 100% go the gigrig route. For my set up i think it would have cost £350+ so I couldn’t condone that for just being a bedroom playa.
 
JamieJ said:
If money was no object I would 100% go the gigrig route. For my set up i think it would have cost £350+ so I couldn’t condone that for just being a bedroom playa.
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I'm contemplating picking up a generator and an isolator from the gigrig then picking up more bits every few months after that. It does look like an excellent adaptable system.
 
I really enjoy the pedals (5 built since starting less than a month ago as total noob!) and know when it makes sense to put $$ into quality stuff. The CS12 will do me well and give peace of mind on any noise/issues, etc.
 
My cheap Stagg 9v supply arrived and like my old one, dead quiet.

annoying that the budget-brand cheap supply is so much quieter than the name-brand one that’s double the price but there you go I guess.
 
You also could just build a power supply...
This one can be isolated and not isolated. I don't know where you would get the mini isolated transformers though. Might be able to email the site for the specs. I know you already bought one, but just posting this so people can build one if they want. They are ridiculously simple, that's why truetone can survive as a business selling power supplies. This one is not isolated. Take a look at the gunshots though. It is probably child's play for all the experienced members on the forum.
https://imgur.com/a/ksAK4lM
The transformer is cheap too.
 
Username123 said:
You also could just build a power supply...
This one can be isolated and not isolated. I don't know where you would get the mini isolated transformers though. Might be able to email the site for the specs. I know you already bought one, but just posting this so people can build one if they want. They are ridiculously simple, that's why truetone can survive as a business selling power supplies. This one is not isolated. Take a look at the gunshots though. It is probably child's play for all the experienced members on the forum.
https://imgur.com/a/ksAK4lM
The transformer is cheap too.
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I'd think twice before feeding 120VAC into a perfboard.

You could run an cheap 18V wall-wart into then split it into 10 outputs, each with their own 9V voltage regulator and choke to filter noise... all to create a work-alike of the $30 Donner unit.
 
Wouldn’t be 120vac on the veroboard just on the transformer primary, secondary is attached to the veroboard which should only be something like 12vac which then gets rectified, filtered, and regulated.

I briefly looked into Rg’s spider power supply diy, real cool but these days with the prevalence of cheap, small, isolated supplies there isn’t any cost or size savings there. 10 or 15 years ago though, it may well have been the best option for someone with the skills
 
mnemonic said:
Wouldn’t be 120vac on the veroboard just on the transformer primary, secondary is attached to the veroboard which should only be something like 12vac which then gets rectified, filtered, and regulated.

I briefly looked into Rg’s spider power supply diy, real cool but these days with the prevalence of cheap, small, isolated supplies there isn’t any cost or size savings there. 10 or 15 years ago though, it may well have been the best option for someone with the skills
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The thing is, the truly isolated supplies have a transformer, rectifier, filter and regulator for each output.

If you're not going to do that, then all of your DIY hours are going to result in something just as good or worse than the $35 Donner unit.
 
Big Monk said:
I’ve never found isolation to be an issue until I purchased my Strymon units. Digital pedals really need isolated taps.

My $35 otraki supplies are great for everything else but my digital pedals definitely need to be segregated.
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Strymon made me realize that the effects loop in one of my amps was creating a ground loop too 😞
 
daeg said:
The thing is, the truly isolated supplies have a transformer, rectifier, filter and regulator for each output.

If you're not going to do that, then all of your DIY hours are going to result in something just as good or worse than the $35 Donner unit.
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can you get by with just one transformer, but an individual secondary (and rectifier, filter, regulator) for each output?

I’ve seen diy projects both ways, just wondering if there is actually a difference.
 
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