Powering multiple pedals off one adaptor

[mr_sooty]

I have this pedal board that has those little leads and plugs (3.5 mm?) you can power pedals off. I plug one adaptor into the board and up to six pedals run off the board. I bought a decent adaptor, a big fat regulated one with 600 ma output, enough for all my pedals. The thing is though, the plugs on the pedal board are a bit dodgy (break regularly), and I need a better solution. I was going to buy a Godlyke PA9 (still might), but then I thought, why not just daisy chain the pedals form my current adaptor? It can handle the draw.

But it doesn't work. I don't get it, the adaptor is good enough to power the board with no problems, but I can't even daisy chain one single pedal to it. I put the female end of the daisy chain into the adaptor, and one of the plugs (the first one in the chain) into a pedal, and, nothing at all. Dead as a dodo.

Maybe your daisy chain is broken you say? Well, this is where it gets even weirder. If I take one of the leads from my pedal board, one that's coming off the board as it's being powered by that same adaptor, I can hook the daisy chain up to that lead and then into a pedal, and it works. It's not enough current to power up multiple pedals without sag issues, but it works, where as if I try to run the daisy chain straight off the adaptor, I get nothing.

This adaptor is not made especially for my board, it's just a high quality effects pedal adaptor I bought from a music shop. I'm scrathcing my head, I just don't get why daisy chaining pedals straight from my adaptor doesn't work. The end of the adaptor is surely the same as the end of the pedal board plugs because both plug into the pedals fine, and the adaptor has no problems just going straight into a single pedal and powering it. Any thoughts?

[JohnH]

Ive got one of those daisy chain adapters, to power up to 5 pedals off one supply. One socket in line with 5 plugs. It works OK for me. Is that the sort of thing you have?

How about testing the voltage between the barrel and centre connections of each plug, when the socket end is plugged to the power supply. See if you get a voltage at all, and is the + and - the same way round as the plug directly from the power supply. It should be + to the outer barrel and - to the inner.

John

[andy]

I once bought a pedal board with a built in adaptor, and had a very similar problem. I couldn't work it out, so returned the board, but found a great little 5 output adapter for about £30 in my local (at the time) music shop.

It has one mains plug, a box at the other end with the five barrel outputs and has five barrel-barrel leads which plug up the pedals.

Its worked fine, with any number of pedals 1-5.

If you want to have a look for one I can post a photo so you know the thing I'm talking about! Just let me know.

[mr_sooty]

johnh said:

How about testing the voltage between the barrel and centre connections of each plug, when the socket end is plugged to the power supply. See if you get a voltage at all, and is the + and - the same way round as the plug directly from the power supply. It should be + to the outer barrel and - to the inner.

John

Not really sure how to do that. I did buy one of those voltage tester thingees, but it's kinda pointless because I have no idea how to use it!