what cable/wire ?

[Ruskin]

Hi , I´m Ruskin and pleased to meet you all   . There goes my question : I´m building a pedal board for my busking equipment and meed some cable advise. I have a Sanyo/eneloop PEdal juice ( http://us.sanyo.com/Pedal-Juice ) which gives me two 9v outputs . one I use for a Tc electronic HOF (reverb) and the other a daisy chain with 6 outputs of which I only use 3 (Tc ditto loop; E.H. Freeze ; and A/B swich) . MY QUESTION is : what gauge and type of cable/wire should I use to build extend the length of daisy chain cable?,can it be 2m long ? if too long/ thick will it consume power ?  photos : (cable in question is the red & black)
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[Mike Burgundy]

Hi, welcome.
Don't worry too much about DC cable - as long as it is good quality stuff and you're not pulling much current (which you aren't with most effects) you'll be fine. I dunno, 30 Gauge and lower? <Edit: lower gauge means thicker wire, means lower resistance>
I'd select for physical sturdiness (as in more copper than a hairs width), electrical will most likely be beyond adequate for a sturdy cable. How long do you want the extension to be? If you know the length, you can google wire gauge, find it's resistance per meter, and use Ohms law (V=IR) to calculate the voltage drop. Lets say the wire we've selected has a specified resistance of 300mOhms (milli-Ohms) per meter, and you want a 2 meter extension. Resistance will be 300mOhms times 2 meters = 0.6Ohms.
Say your effects combined are pulling 250mA (just an arbitrary guess), that means voltage drop cause by the extension will be V=250mA*0.6Ohms=0.15V. I wouldn't be surpised if the plug connections drop more. The stufff in the picture looks like speaker cable, which is a LOT thicker and should not be a problem at all.
Do take great care not to switch polarity (most effects and supplies for effects have center-negative connections) and because the *outside* of the DC plug is +, make damn sure any loose plugs can never, ever touch a grounded metal surface such as one of your effect boxes.
does that help?

[Ruskin]

That´s a great answer , spot on !   cheers Mike 

[Ruskin]

this is my power supply : http://us.sanyo.com/Pedal-Juice       with the speacker cable I´m using as extension ,will it run out sooner ?

[PRR]

When in doubt: use stuff similar to what's already there.

When extending, or when you can't get "similar" stuff, use something better (more copper and plastic).

Mostly, for pedal loads, any wire you buy or scrounge is more than enough for the eletricity involved.

Often it is not about the electricity.

30 gauge is "just right" for pedal loads at 6 feet. It would give "small" voltage drop for half-Amp loads, which covers a lot of pedals.

30 gauge is pretty weak mechanically. If you yank it, it breaks. In some situations (network cords) they add a nylon strand to take a good yank. In simple 2-wire cords it is cheap to just go 26 gauge, 24 gauge, which is a lot more robust than 30 ga.

You could use 18 gauge Lamp Cord. It's pretty rugged. The cost won't kill you. But it is mildly bulky around pedal connectors. And it can be hard to tell one side from the other, which you NEED to get the polarity right. But lampcord was always my go-to wire for loads somewhat larger than pedals.

Likewise we always pick more plastic than the voltage needs. 9 Volts can be stopped by a coat of paint. But stomp on it, the paint sheds, shorts happen. We pick the plastic for the mechanical stresses it may face. Cars with 12V systems use small-wire good for over 200V. I ran 300V vacuum-cleaner cord to my 12V fuel-pump. The battery cable rubber may stand-off 1,000V.... not for voltage but for bumps/rubs and runaway wrenches.

> will it run out sooner?

For others: this is a battery-pack not a wall-power supply.

If the wires are doing their job, they lose less than 2% of the energy that flows through them. The effect on battery life is negligible.

[Ruskin]

    my box was stolen 2 weeks ago in Spain ...   ...think I ´ll have to get Ditto & Freeze again, but won´t build another case/box, I´ll just use a PC soft case....