Millamp drama!

You have to be very careful when trying to power these things externally. The best thing to do is to send me the pedals. I have several guitars and a couple of different amplifiers. I'll do a complete analysis of their power requirements. It may take me a while so you'll have to be patient. It's really in your best interest to do this. Really.

Bob

The batteries ? They certainly won't supply that much for very long !

No it won't. Can't in fact. It's simply the maximun rating it can supply. The same way an ac mains socket can supply 15 amps ( USA ) but the equipment plugged in just draws what it needs.

They'll be fine.

Graham

Nope, it means that each one can cope with feeding a device that wants to draw up to 500 mA before getting into "You just might make this supply explode" territory.

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn\'t on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn\'t contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry...  for more info

It means that it is spec'd to supply its rated voltage when loaded to

500 mA. Note that many wall-warts aren't tightly regulated and may deliver, say, 12 or 15 VDC when lightly loaded on the 9 V tap. Shouldn't normally be a problem but it's wise to match the supply's load rating with the load that it will be driving.

Shouldn't wear them down but it might heat them up. If you have access to a voltmeter, check the actual voltage delivered to the pedals in use.

--
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA

those batteries can give much more than 300mA. The effects pedals are unlikely to want even 300mA though.

500mA is the "max carrying capacity" exceed it and it'll not work so good and possibly soon stop working.

equipment for 9V batteries it typically protected against the battery being reverse connected.

So the worst it can do is not work or cause a hum sound. (but regulated probably won't hum much, so it'll most likely work)

you're pretty safe there.

once it's working put some glue, or reinforced tape, on the voltage switch so it doesn't get bumped into the wrong setting.

Bye. Jasen

It was wise to ask before just plugging it in to see it it works or blows a pedal. If the "transformer" is really regulated then go for it, it'll be fine. It will supply 9v with a load up to 500ma and a pedal is very very unlikely to need that much current. A 9v batter wouldn't last long at all if the pedal were drawing 500ma from it. Regulated just means that it will hold the output voltage fairly constant as long as you draw 500ma or less from it. Mike

Everyone, thanks a lot for all the help you've given. Really appreciated.

The key word here is 'regulated' in the original post. This means constant voltage is assured up to the rated current at least. They'll be fine for the pedals.

--
Australia isn\'t "down under", it\'s "off to one side"!

stanblaz@netspace.net.au
www.cobracat.com (home of the Australian Cobra Catamaran)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cobra-cat/

No I won't force current in, thats the max current the transformer can supply. Notwithstanding wrong voltages, shorts or anything else, the pedal (or any load) will take as much as it needs.

If you have a pedal taking 300mA, then a 500mA will do. It is never a good idea to have a 500mA load on a 500mA supply as it cause heating. A 600mA load on a 500mA supply will give your transformer a cardiac arrest, lots of smoke and maybe a fire. Not a good idea.

To be honest, you biggest problem here is polarity. Guitar pedals (like ones I use) really don't see the funny side of getting + and - the wrong way round and you need to find this out before plugging in. I actually have a voltage regulator connected to my PC supply to give me 9v for my pedal and the output drives into my soundcard.

Graham.