Pedal board Power Question

[Nixa_Miami]

Looking for some guidance on how I am powering my pedal board. So I purchased a Voodoo ISO 5 awhile ago for a smaller board I was using. I have since added a few pedals and a bigger board. Since the ISO 5 is limited to outputs I have been looking for ways to keep using it. Is it safe to daisy chain a few pedals into one output? It would be 5 pedals and from what I can remember their current draw combined is def over 100ma so I'm using the 9v 400ma output. Just want to confirm if this is safe. Another reason also for the daisy chaining is two older boss pedals in the chain.

[Grrface]

Daisy chaining is absolutely safe. Worst thing that happens is you underpower things on that channel. I think almost all of my dirt on my board is on a single power output.

[Holy Schnikes]

^This.

You may introduce some noise/hum/hiss as well since daisy chaining eliminates isolation and some pedals simply hate being daisy chained. OD/dirt/fuzz are generally good to go in my experience.

[rfurtkamp]

I have 14 things on a single daisy chain on my main board.

From a Boss or Dano adapter, zero issues.

If I was touring and shit I'd have something fancy but...it works just fine for me.

[Glenouille]

The number of pedals you plug on 1 output is irrelevant as long as the combined current draw does not exceed the current supplied by the output.

If you overload an output, some pedals might not work correctly or might not even turn on and the ISO-5 could also shut down (it is purposely designed to do so).

If you daisy chain several pedals on one output, you will lose the benefit of isolating them from one another. Pedals will now have contact with ground through the signal cables and through the power cables. It opens the door to possible ground loop (hum/noise). Before crying wolf it does not hurt to try, it might work seamlessly too, it’s difficult to predict.

The highest current output on the ISO-5 is 300mA and not 400mA.

From the latest pic of the pedalboard you posted, I can see you have:

• Boss DD-2: 55mA
• Boss PH-1r: 11mA
• Boss RV-3: 70mA
• Boss Tu-3: 30mA (85mA in high brightness mode)
• Blackout Effectors Mantra: From builder website <50mA (I suspect it draws much less)
• Blackout Effectors Musket: 10mA
• Blackout Effectors Whetstone: 45mA

(55+11+70+30+10+45+50)=271mA

There are many ways to power this lot from your ISO-5:

You could daisy chain all these pedals from the 9V – 300mA output which would free all the other outputs*.

You could use couplers or Y cables and daisy chain some of these pedals 2 by 2 on different outputs.

Note also that the Blackout effectors effects can all be powered with more than 9V. So it might be interesting to have the Mantra and the Whetstone on a coupler powered from the 18V output (100mA max) for instance. This in turn would also free some space on the other outputs.

You could daisy chain all the low current draw pedals on the same 9V – 100mA output: PH-1r + Musket + Tu-3, etc.

*This is partially true, the 12V output could not really be used anymore. The combined output of the 9V output and the 12V output labelled 300mA should not exceed 300mA. They work together (well it could still power 1 low current draw pedal @12V)

[Nixa_Miami]

The number of pedals you plug on 1 output is irrelevant as long as the combined current draw does not exceed the current supplied by the output.

If you overload an output, some pedals might not work correctly or might not even turn on and the ISO-5 could also shut down (it is purposely designed to do so).

If you daisy chain several pedals on one output, you will lose the benefit of isolating them from one another. Pedals will now have contact with ground through the signal cables and through the power cables. It opens the door to possible ground loop (hum/noise). Before crying wolf it does not hurt to try, it might work seamlessly too, it’s difficult to predict.

The highest current output on the ISO-5 is 300mA and not 400mA.

From the latest pic of the pedalboard you posted, I can see you have:

• Boss DD-2: 55mA
• Boss PH-1r: 11mA
• Boss RV-3: 70mA
• Boss Tu-3: 30mA (85mA in high brightness mode)
• Blackout Effectors Mantra: From builder website <50mA (I suspect it draws much less)
• Blackout Effectors Musket: 10mA
• Blackout Effectors Whetstone: 45mA

(55+11+70+30+10+45+50)=271mA

There are many ways to power this lot from your ISO-5:

You could daisy chain all these pedals from the 9V – 300mA output which would free all the other outputs*.

You could use couplers or Y cables and daisy chain some of these pedals 2 by 2 on different outputs.

Note also that the Blackout effectors effects can all be powered with more than 9V. So it might be interesting to have the Mantra and the Whetstone on a coupler powered from the 18V output (100mA max) for instance. This in turn would also free some space on the other outputs.

You could daisy chain all the low current draw pedals on the same 9V – 100mA output: PH-1r + Musket + Tu-3, etc.

*This is partially true, the 12V output could not really be used anymore. The combined output of the 9V output and the 12V output labelled 300mA should not exceed 300mA. They work together (well it could still power 1 low current draw pedal @12V)

I have it wired up like so:
The RV3, DD2, PH1R, Musket and Mantra on a daisy chain into the 9v 300ma output. The TU3 is going into the 9v 100ma and the Whetstone into the other 9v 100a. So far everything is working great and sounding awesome! I have a Earthquaker hummingbird repeat on the way and one output left for it

[Glenouille]

Good stuff!
You should try your Blackout Effectors on the 18V output just to see what the added headroom brings as they can handle 18V.
Hummingbird's current draw is 3mA, I would daisy chain it instead of using a 100mA output just for that.