Daisy chain question.

K-2

K-2

Nov 30, 2016
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Vilnius, Lithuania
#1
Hello guys,

Sorry for such a stupid question. I tried to search for answer but not to sure how to even describe in short what Im asking, so search didn't really helped me.

Will try to explain my question in short.
I have power supply with 5 outputs. I have 7 pedals now. I wanted to used Y split cables, but only have 1 and in my country seems no music store have such cable. Yet there is a daisy chain that was supplied with a power plant (Harley Benton). It is made of 6 cables/outputs (not sure how to call it). I understand that I can use one output of power plant ant connect up to 5 pedals - but I understand that there wont be enough power. On manual says 1 isolated output gives 120mA.

So the question is - Can I connect this daisy chain to 2 outputs of power supply - leaving me with possibility to connect 4 pedals. Will it distribute power equally? Like each output will give 120mA distribute to each cable, so 60mA to each. Or am I missing something?
Don't want to fry something, whether it would be a supply itself or one of my new pedals.

Thank you in advance!
 
#2
First off, you're not going to fry anything. You can damage pedals by giving them too much voltage (as in, plugging an 18v power supply into a 9v pedal) or giving them the wrong polarity signal (plugging a center negative supply into a center positive pedal -- center positive pedals are pretty rare).

You can negatively impact the pedals performance or cause excessive noise with other mistakes in powering, but no permanent damage will be done.
 
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#3
Second, current is additive, as in, as you connect more circuits to the same chain, the sum of their current requirements will be the total need.

So if you have ten pedals that require 12ma of current, you'd max out the daisy chain off one of your outputs.

In practice current usage tends to fluctuate so you probably don't want to approach the theoretical limit.

Many simple analog circuits like overdrive distortions and the like use very little current, >10ma, so if you have five of them on a daisy chain you'd be more than fine.
 
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#4
If possible, try to find out the current usage of your pedals (its often published in the specs).

Then, take your lowest two pedals and plug them into the daisy chain, and give the rest their own outlet.

If you experience issues with the pedal performance or sound, or noise during operation or switching, try two different pedals. You cannot damage them this way, so you might as well try different combos if your first attempt doesn't work.
 
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#5
K-2 said:
So the question is - Can I connect this daisy chain to 2 outputs of power supply - leaving me with possibility to connect 4 pedals. Will it distribute power equally? Like each output will give 120mA distribute to each cable, so 60mA to each. Or am I missing something?
Don't want to fry something, whether it would be a supply itself or one of my new pedals.

Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...

Do not do this!!

If you want, you can cut the daisy chain in half allowing you to connect two pedals to one output.
 
#7
Alien8 said:
Do not do this!!

If you want, you can cut the daisy chain in half allowing you to connect two pedals to one output.
Click to expand...

So basically - 1 daisy chain is for 1 output of power supply? Not sure if I understood the "cut" part. Do you mean literally cutting the daisy chain in half? Wouldnt it damage the chain as there would be, well cut wires. Thanks
 
#8
Pacodelivery said:
If possible, try to find out the current usage of your pedals (its often published in the specs).

Then, take your lowest two pedals and plug them into the daisy chain, and give the rest their own outlet.

If you experience issues with the pedal performance or sound, or noise during operation or switching, try two different pedals. You cannot damage them this way, so you might as well try different combos if your first attempt doesn't work.
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking time to explain this in depth. As my main worry was damaging anything unintentionally
 
#9
K-2 said:
So basically - 1 daisy chain is for 1 output of power supply? Not sure if I understood the "cut" part. Do you mean literally cutting the daisy chain in half? Wouldnt it damage the chain as there would be, well cut wires. Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, cut the wire. It will still function as a chain, just with less ports - 3 males on one cut piece, and one female with two males on the other. If you cut really close to the jack, you don't need to worry about covering it up, or put some electrical black tape on the end if you are worried.

I made short 9V cables out of old daisy chains I had, some 2 & 3 long daisy chains too, works great.
 
#10
Don't ever connect together two outputs of a stiff voltage source unless there is enough resistance between them to mix the currents and not short between any voltage variation between them. You can do it with batteries only because they are relatively well matched when fresh and only become more resistive as they wear down and the voltage drops; why it's recommended not to mix old and new batteries.
 
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