Power bricks and the portable table-top pedal user

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

So I bit the bullet, and instead of starting yet another daisy chain I bought a proper isolated power supply. (Power is fine at home, and I've mostly been lucky playing gigs, but there's at least one room that I play at that has given me trouble in the past.)

Anyway, given that I don't use pedal boards, now I'm thinking about how I'm going to stow and deploy this thing so that it's as easy as possible to set up/tear down.

I have an idea or two, but I figure there must be other people on here who have dealt with this before so I'd like to hear other folks' solutions.

[D.o.S.]

Depends on the dimensions -- are you just using the things in the plastic box? I'm looking at building up something like this again but in the past stuff like old suitcases can work fine. Probably too small for what you're looking to use, unless you can simplify your setup at all?

[lordgalvar]

In the past I've used power tool cases (which can be had from tool repair or home Depot for just a few dollars sometimes...sawzalls and boschammers). I put some risers in the bottom with aluminum studs or wood blocks and put a piece of plywood that I carpeted from office remnants on top. Drilled some holes with a holesaw to get down into the riser section and ran all the cabling under there.

I think the first one I did was from a $3 suitcase from a junk store. The liner started to corrode and got everything dirty though.

There are some cheap knock off pelican cases on eBay too. The military surplus stuff is getting too expensive (but looks the coolest...nothing like rolling us with a demolitions/munitions case).

I would also setup a locking hinge on the lid of things like suitcases and tool cases (something like a good stand on a car or a locking bar on a card table).

Dandolin mentioned something to me the other day about my trogotronic stuff which led me to kinda plan a popout passive rail patching system inside my old boschammer case. Won't get to do it for a few years probably though.

[ibarakishi]

this has nothing to do with your question, but i use the same roland recorder and love it. Roland brothers for life

[$harkToootth]

You can find lots of inspo from Power Violence / Noisy Grind bands of today. Lots of those dudes have portable solutions for their noise boxes.
Posting this because it's cool and the front man is doing the 'noise interlude' thing.
[youtube][/youtube]

[retinal orbita]

The “portable noise box” is a great idea - I have two “rigs” and I’m debating making something like that for my second noise/terror rig.

I have a similar issue where I use a PP2 for my main board but I’m constantly ripping everything apart and I hate it. I was sort of thinking of buying a second set of PP2 cables so I could just swap the main box out and just plug everything in between two rigs. But that also is like.... what if I need both? Yet buying a second PP2 seems ridiculous.

So many stupid not-actually-problems in my life.....

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Depends on the dimensions -- are you just using the things in the plastic box? I'm looking at building up something like this again but in the past stuff like old suitcases can work fine. Probably too small for what you're looking to use, unless you can simplify your setup at all?

I've got two plastic bins o' pedals, plus this-and-that depending on the needs of the gig. And a mixer as well. In theory I could simplify, but "a whole heap of stuff" is kinda my shtick. (Plus there's a few other more serious reasons as well.)

In the past I've used power tool cases (which can be had from tool repair or home Depot for just a few dollars sometimes...sawzalls and boschammers). I put some risers in the bottom with aluminum studs or wood blocks and put a piece of plywood that I carpeted from office remnants on top. Drilled some holes with a holesaw to get down into the riser section and ran all the cabling under there.

I have a similar sort of solution for transporting gear... I have a big-ass rolling toolbox that serves as the carry case for everything, but I've never been so ambitious to actually "install" anything inside it.

this has nothing to do with your question, but i use the same roland recorder and love it. Roland brothers for life

I record a fair number of live shows, so it gets a lot of mileage on it. The R-05 replaced an R-09HR that is still my backup unit, even though its screen is really messed up, but I really loved its rugged body. I feel like the R-05 is going to get destroyed in a couple years just from getting bumped around in my bag.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Meanwhile, I had an idea yesterday that might work for what I do... I used to have all these pedals daisy-chained, so when I got to a gig I'd just have to find the end to connect to the 1-Spot and I was good to go.

Given that I want a certain amount of flexibility ('cause I need to be able to fit the rig into whatever space I have at venues) my feeling was what I really wanted was to have the power brick on the floor and just have a bunch of long cables that live in my plastic case while travelling + then just get plugged into the CS-12.

I did some poking around... Truetone doesn't seem to have anything longer than the 26" cables that come with the brick, but it turns out that cables with our 5.5 x 2.1mm BOSS-style adapter ends are also popular with other things, like CCTV systems. So I looked on AliExpress and there's no shortage of options there. I could get 1m long male-male cables for, like a buck apiece or 2m cables for <$2. So getting like ten of those isn't too expensive and then I'd be able to put the brick wherever I need.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

Update, just in case someday someone is rooting around for info like this and comes across this thread...

My first batch of long/cheap cables arrived. I got ten 2m male/male 5.5 x 2.1mm (i.e. standard boss power) cables for C$1.63 apiece from Aliexpress.



The only downside on these is there's no right-angle connection at either end, so there needs to be some space in your pedal rack (or equivalent!) to plug them in. Otherwise the cables are working fine... they seem no better or worse than the ones that came with the CS12.

I managed to get my case more organized with the power cables all on the bottom (leaving fewer cables in the way to interfere with knob twiddling) and fed out together to go to my power brick, which can now be wherever I want it to be, like on the floor or otherwise out of the way.

[alexsga]

mind posting that aliexpress link?

[the raytownian]

Seconding or fourthing the power tool case. I got one off of someone's curbside trash, cut out a lot of the molded plastic interior by hand using a razor blade, and lined the inside with velcro (though I don't use velcro on pedals anymore, and the case is snug enough that the pedals stay in place fine anyway). I even drilled a hole to mount a 1/4 jack to so I could plug right into the case, though I never had much luck with it (I need to re-do it, now that I can afford to buy halfway-decent cabling and jacks).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGbrjWyDJM4[/youtube]

The only challenge, using a brick, is managing a breakout board without having a lot of cable spaghetti coming out of the case. The above setup in the video was pretty perfect, though, because I was using a 1spot, and had the right # of pedals on the breakout board (which I used as a vocal FX board for the telephone mic), to where I could just detatch the daisychain right where the case ended and the vocal board began.

Either way, a simple case goes a long way. I spent a lot of time just getting that setup ready, but that time and effort spent at home made setting up and breaking down outside of the house a breeze, and I was able to get drunk and perform a mediocre set with few delays. I didn't spend half an hour trying to set up everything to do so, as I usually do when I get too drunk to function effectively in these situations.

Planning the quickest way that I could essentially plug into the wall and go made it so much easier. I guess I'm stating the obvious, but I'm off today, and I'm 9 AM-drunk, having woken up drunk and continued drinking to stave off the incoming hangover (excuses, excuses!).

[Jero]

I got some cheap daisy chains a while back, and idk if the tolerances for the barrel dimension is slightly off/bad connection or what...but I have to twist/plug unplug sometimes to get it to let power through. Not using that on my main board, but I do still use it regularly on side chains.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

mind posting that aliexpress link?

Yeah, it was from this shop: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-Power ... 57493.html

But there are several others selling the same ones for about the same price.