Power Supply, Cheaper To Buy Or To Build?

[blearyeyes]

Anyone know of a schematic for a decent multi 9v+ isolated PS?

Or is it cheaper to buy one? If so whats good?

[m-Kresol]

thomas of thcustoms has a PCB for a power supply. And it's for sale atm: http://diy.thcustom.com/shop/pedal-power-supply-pcb/
I think it depends on how many pedals you want to use... you can build one huge box with multiple of these boards and have a lot of outputs or daisy chain a few pedals per board (often creates a humming noise though)
When it comes to commercial supplies, I can recommend the Palmer PWT 12 though. I wrote a little about it here:
Klick here!

[alanp]

The other part of it is what you want it to do.

When I was looking for a better PSU than my OneSpot, I wanted 12VAC and 15VAC, for a Schumann PLL board (not bloody working, still) and a Infinitphase (working nicely!) So I got a Cioks AC10, since I'd heard good reports about them. I then found it did very well as a transformer for my Eurorack DIY synth (12VAC adaptors aren't the easiest thing to find, for 240VAC mains.) Plus it has the option for 12/15 VDC, as well as normal 9VDC.

Long story short, the more you pay, the more options you have.

[PhiloB]

I was considering this at one point.
https://www.generalguitargadgets.com/projects/24-power-supplies/23-four-output-isolated

[Willybomb]

They're easy enough to build, but as Alanp said, it depends on what you want it to do, plus you're probably not going to get anywhere close to the size of the commercial units.  I build S.L.O.P.P.Y because I needed 16vAC for my Blackstar and 9vDC for everything else.

What bugs me is that a lot of the commercial units run off a wallwart... defeats the purpose imo as a wallwart lead is about the most fragile thing around.

Speaking of which... I wonder where my 1spot has gone.

[Leevibe]

I did an 8-tap spyder with the weber transformer and it cost me around $80.

[davent]

I've done a nine output Spyder as well using 5 dual secondary transformers , cheaper option for me, LM317 regulators as opposed to 7809's. As to total cost, not the point but probably not too different then Leevibe's.

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/spyder/spyder.htm

[alanp]

I've been wondering, what is the benefit (other than using one part across multiple levels of voltage) of using a LM317 as opposed to a 78xx regulator? I tend to prefer the 78xx ones, as they seem fairly dummyproof in that you can just use the one part and be certain of what voltage you get out (as long as the input is sufficient), whereas the LM317 depends on you getting the circuitry around it right.

[brucer]

Full disclosure: this comment is going to seem really lame to some/many/most readers.  Nonetheless, here goes:

I'm also pretty keen on building a power supply for a small modulation pedal board (I've got a Voodoo Labs ISO-5 on my main board; works great).  I did a fair bit of searching before giving up, even finding and reading up on the Spyder and TH Customs projects.  However, this is the lame part I guess:

1. I couldn't find a transformer to order that I was confident would work with the TH Customs PCB; and,
2. I couldn't find a simplfied wiring diagram for the Spyder (e.g. which transformer leads do you use and which (if any) do you heat shrink and bundle out of the way).

I'm not a complete newbie to working with high voltage supplies, etc, having successfully built a Weber amp kit and swapped transformers on my Princeton Reverb RI, but I need a little more detail/guidance than what I was able to find online.

Any chance one of you wiser folks could point out a Mouser or Small Bear transformer that would work with Thomas's PCB and/or post a wiring diagram for the Spyder?  That'd be much appreciated!

[davent]

Why make it simple when you can make it complicated?

The LM317 is a newer device that is suppose to be quieter and measure better then 78xx in many regards. Whether or not that matters for our applications, probably not...

So it comes down to one device for all applications (except 78l05's), and that's both positive and negative rails in a pinch.

Some discussion here.  http://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=36536.0

dave

[alanp]

All good things, but what I don't like is that if you get your resistors etc wrong, you could kill the rest of the circuit with the wrong voltage :/

[davent]

You could test the power supply before putting it into use.

[Leevibe]

Full disclosure: this comment is going to seem really lame to some/many/most readers.  Nonetheless, here goes:

I'm also pretty keen on building a power supply for a small modulation pedal board (I've got a Voodoo Labs ISO-5 on my main board; works great).  I did a fair bit of searching before giving up, even finding and reading up on the Spyder and TH Customs projects.  However, this is the lame part I guess:

1. I couldn't find a transformer to order that I was confident would work with the TH Customs PCB; and,
2. I couldn't find a simplfied wiring diagram for the Spyder (e.g. which transformer leads do you use and which (if any) do you heat shrink and bundle out of the way).

I'm not a complete newbie to working with high voltage supplies, etc, having successfully built a Weber amp kit and swapped transformers on my Princeton Reverb RI, but I need a little more detail/guidance than what I was able to find online.

Any chance one of you wiser folks could point out a Mouser or Small Bear transformer that would work with Thomas's PCB and/or post a wiring diagram for the Spyder?  That'd be much appreciated!

Nothing lame here at all Bruce! I was a little unsure about mine too when I started in.

Here's the schematic for the 120vac weber. It has tons of wires coming off of it, but once you understand them, it's really simple.

- 2 black wires are the primary winding. These connect to your AC line. It's very important that you understand how to safely do this. Sounds like you've messed with PT's before though.

- 2 light green wires. These are a 2 amp, 9VAC winding for powering pedals that run off of, you guessed it, 9VAC. I bundled this one off and am not currently using it. I think there's Line 6 stuff that runs off of 9VAC.

- 8 pairs of brown wires. These are the 11V windings that you will rectify and regulate down to 9VDC. Even though they're all the same color, you can easily identify which wires pair together by their proximity to each other and you verify by checking for continuity.

The downside to the weber transformer is that it isn't exactly light or tiny, but each 11V tap supplies 300mA. That's a lot.

As far as which leads to bundle out of the way, just use what you need and bundle what you don't, making sure the ends are well insulated. I wouldn't use this transformer unless you plan to use most of the leads though. It would make sense to go with smaller, individual transformers unless you need at least 5 taps I would say.

[flanagan0718]

I have a vero layout for a multi 9v somewhere. It's not isolated but it works.


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[brucer]

Thanks Lee, that's an awesome response!  I'm definitely feeling a power supply build coming on.