Power Supply Questions

BeatBuddy Help, Questions and Bugs
1

Hey there folks,

I’m new to BeatBuddy and of course, this forum so hello from England.

I’m going to put my BeatBuddy on a pedal board. I’ve been using it with its own power supply so far. The original BeatBuddy power supply is 9volts DC and 500ma.

The pedal board power supply I’m going to order does either 9 volts DC or 12 volts DC and limited to 100ma on each outlet. In fact, so far I’ve not found a good quality PSU that also would have a 9 volts 500ma outlet!

The last PSU I ordered which had a 500ma outlet worked great with the BeatBuddy but Buzzed like hell when connected to my Boss Looper and Tuner!

So I’m wondering:

  1. Can a BeatBuddy be connected to a 12 volt supply?
  2. Also, does it need 500ma to drive it or would there be enough power to drive it if it’s connected to a 9volts 100ma power outlet like most pedals?
  3. Any recommendation on Pedal Board PSU that’s not going to break the bank and is BUZZ free?

Cheers
Ed

2
  • Do not use anything above 9v. You will damage your pedal.
  • It should have 500mA but you might be able to use 300-500mA from an isolated port PSU (no daisy chain type pedal as several—but not all—users report having noise issues with their BeatBuddy; this is probably due to the lack of isolation).
  • A Strymon Ojai will do the job though but it might be more than you want to pay.

Some users reported problems getting a reliable electrical connection from the power connecting jacks. Quite a bit written about this on the forum.

This probably is not what you want to hear, but for consistent performance from your BB pedal, best to use the power supply that came with it.

3

Thanks for the response PERSIST, I really appreciate it. I found a Truetone brick PSU which is not cheap but not too expensive either for £114 which is About $150 US that’ll give me the current it needs from one of the outlets and it’s an isolated PSU which means hopefully that it’ll be Buzz free.

I was reading conflicting information that pedals can take higher voltage but it didn’t make sense to me. That’s why I though it would be best to ask the folks that use the BeatBuddy and know about it.

Thank again
All the best
Ed

4

I agree that power pedal requirements and solutions can be confusing.

Generally speaking, pedals specify minimum current requires (the mA).

Some, but not all distortion and fuzz pedals may specify a voltage range from 9V to 18V.

Let us know how well your PSU works with all the pedals on your board—especially if you’re using the MIDI on your BB

5

I have my BB and footswitch on my pedalboard along with my TC helicon VL3X, radial bigshot IO, and a donner noise killer pedal. It’s all powered by a Truetone CS 12 PSU. I have had no probs at all.

Cheers

6

Would a power supply with this spec. work OK for BB? I am more unsure about the connector size and its centre polarity than the V/A which look OK to me:
[SIZE=5]Features/Specifications[/SIZE]
[LIST]
[]Input Voltage: 100-240V
[]Input Hz: 50-60Hz
[]Output Voltage: 9V
[]Output Current: 2A
[]DC Polarity: Negative Centre
[]Connector Width: 4.5 mm
[/LIST]

7

That 2A—that’s quite a bit.

Usually need somewhere in the range of 300-500mA

8

(I realize this is an older thread and that the OP (Original Poster, @Edward Farshi ) may no longer need the info, but it may be relevant to others who are presently searching for answers to this.)

Just today I began looking for a power supply with the following qualifications:

[LIST]
[]Each output completely isolated.
[]Able to supply at least 9V, 250mA from one of the outputs (which I will use to power my Shure GLXD16 wireless system).
[*]Able to fit under a Pedaltrain Nano.
[/LIST]

I was not anticipating finding a power supply that met the above qualifications and was also able to support the needed 9V, 500mA the BeatBuddy needs. However, I found that the strymon Ojai has 5 outputs, all of which are rated at 9V 500mA. I’m not familiar with the power connecting issues @persist is talking about above, but despite that, the Ojai does not fit underneath a Nano unless you raise the Nano a bit by changing the feet, etc. so it won’t work for me.

(Note: I’m talking about the Nano, not the Nano+.)

For information purposes, I saw the strymon Ojai being sold today by Prymaxe for $149.00 US.

I then stumbled upon a power supply by TrueTone (the makers of 1 Spot power supplies). They are now producing isolated power supplies and have a model the fits all of my needs as outlined above (including fitting under a Nano), as well as having 2 outputs with 500mA! The model is the Truetone Pro CS6. It has 6 outputs configured as follows:

[LIST=1]
[]12/9V 200mA (12V or 9V switchable with a toggle switch)
[]12/9V 200mA (12V or 9V switchable with a toggle switch)
[]18/9V 100mA (18V or 9V switchable with a toggle switch)
[]18/9V 100mA (18V or 9V switchable with a toggle switch)
[]9V 500mA
[]9V 500mA
[/LIST]

Maximum total current output = 1600mA

I checked Amazon just now and found the CS6 to be $129.95 US.

Truetone also has larger versions that support more outputs if you don’t need one that fits under a Nano, Mini or Metro. They are the CS7 and CS12. The numbers represent the number of outputs each power supply supports. Of course, at that point (larger size) there are other power supplies that might better fit your needs.

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9

I’ll vouch for TrueTone’s 1 Spot. I have the CS7 and I love it! It powers my BB and all my other pedals including an 18V Supro Boost.

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10

^^ &
^
Any problems with how the barrel seats in the power input jack of the pedal? Some users have reported that not all power supply connectors seat firmly enough to provide uninterrupted power during performances.

11

I’ve been using it just over 2 months and haven’t had any problems. In fact the connection feels the same as the one that came with the BB, snug and firm. As far as power interruptions, I’ve had that problem with the original power supply if the connection moves even just a bit.

12

How about gaffer tape? I’ve seen it used to secure electrical connections in pedalboards, computers, etc.

13

Thanks again Persist. I found a good power supply, with superior cable quality and not needing the strange adaptor for British power plug. Anyway, I bought it, however the connector plug, although it’s 4.5mm, does not connect within the BB socket. Do you know what the spec. of the connector is? So I could buy one and solder it onto the cable from my new power supply…
Thanks for all your useful input to this forum BTW, much appreciated.

14

Hi, Tim. Thanks for the kind words. Although Singular has in the past said that the default power adaptor that comes with the pedal is a standard power connector plug and jack, several users have reported that this is not the case and that the tip of the plug either does not fit or does not seat snugly enough to provide a good electrical connection. emacnevin reported in this thread http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?threads/power-supply-connector.6242/#post-25825 (post 15) that he bought a power adaptor from Guitar Center with a standard 2.2 mm plug (center-negative) that fits snugly. I could not find an individual plug but you could probably buy the daisy-chain plug (sold for the Outlaw) and cut and splice it so it works: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/outlaw-effects-outlaw-9v-dc-5-way-daisy-chain-cable

15

That’s really helpful Persist, thanks. I’ll look for an electrical supplier that will sell me a 4.5 dia, 2.2 centre conductor. Much appreciated.
On another matter, I am trying to upload a .drm file but the upload tool on this forum says the file is too big (4096 KB), suggesting I put it on a cloud server somewhere. That will inevitably, in time, lead to broken links to the file, error 404 and many frustrated users, just like the disaster on the old forum. Also having to add a file suffix “.jpg” to the .sng suffix (to allow it to upload) just seems so nerdy for what should be an easier to use forum. Can you use your wizard powers to communicate with the sysadmin to suggest that they allow .sng files up to the max size the BB allows.

16

You could try to upload it in Resources on the old forum and post a link here on Discourse. I know, it’s a real pain. Every time I try to do something on Discourse, I find that the capability was either not implemented or was poorly done.

17

Thanks, I’ll try that or perhaps put it on my dropbox, or both! It’s not a hard problem to solve, I’ve worked on several online repositories including this which is run on a Presto platform (which NASA used for the pics of all the Shuttle tiles) - https://www.foodandfarmingfutures.co.uk/Library/home/home.aspx
It’s basic bread and butter stuff really.

18

I can confirm 1 Spot Pro CS7 is quiet as a mouse. I’m using it for both Aeros and Beatbuddy (500ma) outputs.

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