Battery or no internal battery, whats your opinion

[solderman]

Hi all
I am a bit curious about how you all think about how to box your projects and what is and is not important for you in this matter.
I have made about 20 projects now and after about 10 I decided to standardize on some things, these things were;

Put all Jacks (in-out-power) on the short top side of the box to be able to fit 10 Hammond B size boxes in two rows of 5, side by side  on my 11x7 inch (45x32 cm) wide pedal board that fits in my flight case.

To skip an internal 9V battery witch will leave more room inside and lets me use a Hammond B size box for almost all effects. The off-board wiring also gets easier and you can use 2 mono jacks witch makes putting the jacks on the short side less difficult. after som different tests I am now using the inner parts of a female DC plug (1/4 inch or 8mm hole) witch I superglue to the box to omit the nut and to save space.

Instead of internal 9V battery I have a 12V lead accumulator.  I am using a small size 7,2 Ah Panasonic LC-R127R2P. It costs the same as 10 good quality 9V batteries. I connect the battery to a Power supply circuit I found on Tonepad wit a LM317 leaving the rectifying diodes etc.  This way I have a clean, cheap and portable 9V and 12V power supply. (I can allso use a "huge" Ah car battery if I want to) I have also soldered a 9V battery clam to a male DC plug witch I use for testing and one pedal setups. ZVex has "power plates" to do the exact opposite.

Do you all build your boxes to work with internal batteries??
Is it important to stay true to the original box design when cloning???

What are your thoughts about this?

Some of my projects. The early ones has the power jack on the side.



Inside s Dubble D (runoffgrove.com)


Inside a spring reverb (Gaussmarkov)







//Solderman

[Renegadrian]

Do you all build your boxes to work with internal batteries??
Is it important to stay true to the original box design when cloning???

Not everyone...Valvecasters aren't made to work on batteries,  they'd be gone in less than an hour...so no battery, only DC jack.
Boosters...Almost all of them use very low power from the battery, so it can last a very long time, and you avoid the potential need of filtering or whatsoever...Built a SHO and it has got battery only, no DC jack...
Other pedals I built have both...So it's just a thing to consider on every build, but I think it's not a rule of thumb...

Also, I don't think it's  important to stay true to the original box design when cloning. The best part of this hobby is that our fantasy is the limit...Be original, be crazy, but as long as it works, it's ok!!! 

my

[hday]

I don't even put batteries in the pedals I've bought from major manufacturers. The only exception is my Boss TU2.

But as a pedal builder, your friends always want to play with your projects and some of those friends only use batteries. But if you don't share, then don't bother. 

[AzzR]

I usually dont use batteries and they aren't a neccesity for me. If I have the space I will put in a battery clip but otherwise I will put that space to better use.

-Azza

[frank_p]

I like to use an extern rechargeable  battery for all of the effects.  Of course you have to shield and ground as to have less noise in the loops.

[sean k]

The only thing I use a 9volt battery for is my multimeter and that hasn't been changed for about 4 years

[petemoore]

  Build a Spyder with 8 floating DC outputs and dont' look back.
    I have a Fuzzbox with an internal battery and all that input jack switch...for occasions where a pedalboard isn't used.
  All the others have been running on floating DC outputs, hum went away, and the only problems are the DC plug/jack arrangements, not bad but the get loose, and I pulle the wire 'round this way' to make the contacts...battery clips seem to stay tight better. 1/4'' phone plugs/jacks are a great place to look for eliminating problems, I eliminated all but 2 of 20, with this new pedalpanel thing I'm building, having tired of telephone operator duty finding the 'correct' order and choice of effects, I'm hardwiring...basically a copy of what's on my main pedalboard.
  2 x 8 [a PS for each of two PB's] floating outputs is nice way to have it, I can keep the "patchy-over-jacked" pedalboard in service while I construct it's pedalpanel clone, 90% hardwired.
  You cannot trust connectors.
  I don't mind a battery clip hanging out the side, it's convenient, ugly, and allows battery or power supply to be used, doesn't tend to get intermittent, can generally provide good service [if you 'stay' the wires to the side], but I have replaced most of those with the DC connectors.
  Before that I used all sorts of batteries, alarm 'bricks' [at 11v - 14v] and 9v's recharged, rechargables etc.
 

[frequencycentral]

Lots of opinions here:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=68740.0

"Why do we bother making our pedals battery powered?"