Quad Cortex PSU Amp requirements

So far I can only find that the PSU is 12v - how many amps?
Will it work with a Voodoo Labs ISO 5?
Or will I need a separate power feed to the PSU?

3000mA. Main thing I know of that can supply that is the Mission Engineering 529M.

ya that’s a bit more than the typical pedal supply can handle :rofl: I kinda figured that was the case - basically its a small laptop.

thanks for quick reply.

looks like this will have to do the job:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/1SpotACYUS--truetone-acy-us-courtesy-plug-iec-cable

I decided to power it with a cioks brick and some parrallel adapters. Shoud work and i can use the neutrik powercon adapter for the AC inlet.

How many parallel adapters were you planning to use?

5 of them…actually, just use it for the qc and the usb power to light up the sennheiser wireless

I’m definitely interested in this type of idea, but i have a question. If the cortex requires 12v 3000mA, how do you set up the switches on the DC7 so that the overall voltage is 12v when you’re using that many outputs?

thanks in advance!

Hey keegan

If you zoom into the picture you can see that DipSwitch1 needs to go up and the second down. Each output does deliver 500mA in this configuration. 6 times 500mA does, as far as i can calculate, 3000mA :wink: since i use parrallel adapters, the voltage stays to 12V, only the mA’s are doubled

Normaly there is some headroom when 3000mA is mentioned by the company. I will measure the real needed mA sucked by the QC.

Regards, Damian

Simple enough, thanks!

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Hi Damian,

This pedalboard seems like it’s fully ready for the Quad Cortex. Out of your post, I can’t see if your a beta tester or not. If you’re a beta tester, can you confirm this setup will work with the QC? I also want to power mine through my Cioks DC7, so I hope this will work! :smiley:

Thanks!
Joren

Dear Joren

I am not a betatester, (Working Musician but not activ enough on Youtube i guess :wink: ). But since i do have a degree in electronics and been in the music industry for a long time, i am sure that the DC7 will have enough power to feed the unit. I guess the normal power comsumption will be arround 2A.

I hope that my answer will help you

Hi Damian,

Thanks for your quick reply. No doubt that the DC7 will have enough power to feed the QC. I already contacted Cioks because I was thinking doing it the same way, but at this point, Cioks advised not to do it this way, by daisychaining more than 2 ports, because they haven’t had the chance to test it properly!

@Doug, is Neural already talking to companies such as Cioks?

Thanks!

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Peak power consumption 30-35W then…

as mentioned here you will need 4 outputs…

I also use this board from TEmple Audio Design and also prepared to receive the QC. I have also the DC-7 and it should work fine. Can yo ushow your board once it is finished?

Just to add some info… someone posted the QC hooked up to a multimeter on YouTube and it never seemed to draw more than 1.24 amps. Indeed, when I hooked up the QC to four ports in parallel to a Cioks DC7 only 3 ports remain illuminated which is consistent with that as the DC7 puts out 500mA per port in 12V mode. It didn’t need more than 1,500 mA

@dca Hi Damian! Thank you for posting the wiring - looks neat! I hope I will not bother you with a slightly longer question. I am thinking about buying the DC7 for my QC because of the IEC plug and mainly because of some ground issues I am having. There is always some noise but while playing guitar it is okay and I am fine with gating the input. But while playing bass it’s unbearable. In both cases the noise disappears when I touch any metal surface on the instrument.

I am also an electronics engineer (maybe not a very good one :slight_smile: ) and I am sure there is nothing wrong with my instruments. I am suspecting I have a “dirty current” in my house because the power grid is ancient and I have a lot of demanding appliances. Would you say that the DC7 would solve my issues or I need something else entirely?

Did you compare the noise between the stock power supply and DC7?

Dear Harrik

I am quite picky when it’s about “humm” and Voodoo-noises. :wink:
All my equipent at home (and also on tour) is powered thru a furmann at first. You can get one of them for arround 100.- bucks, it’s investment that will give a good payback. To be honest i never used the stock powersupply exept for controlling the functionality when the unit arrived. The ciocks powersupplies never let me down the past 8 years, never ever had a humm or something during recording, touring or anykind of music making.

About the humm on your bass, are you shure that the bridge is grounded? That humm, as far as i had such problems, comes often from a non proper shielded electronic department or a non grounded bridge. There are supplies on online stores like stewmac to shield the electronics, it’s easy task to do.

Other issue reseach would be to change objects in the signalpath like bass, cables, amplifier (if needed). Humm and noises are sometimes difficult to find. In emergency situations call your local witch to perform some magic. :wink:

over the time i learned to invest in good cables, good power supplies, good basses. It’s the wrong end to keep the money. Buy a good cable and have it for years, buy a cheap one and in the middle of the show your amp will burn because you buyed a cheap speaker cable (that wasn’t my brightest moment)

Kind regards, Damian

Dear Damian,

Thank you so much for your reply. I really do appreciate it!

I am a bit hesitant to buy a power conditioner because I will barely fit the DC7 in my flight case. But maybe it is worth it to buy a bigger one to accommodate both the conditioner and DC7. So you don’t have to worry when you have a gig in some dirty club with questionable equipment. Better safe then sorry I guess.

My bass is Lakland Skyline. I think it is a very decent instrument and I never had a problem with it, everything is stock and nobody tampered with the electronics. I check the bridge grounding wire and it is okay. I also checked for continuity and every metal part is connected correctly. In the past I tried to shield the cavities completely with metal duct tape (on different instruments) and so on but imho it doesn’t make a huge difference. Proper wiring is always the most important thing.

I totally agree with the cables! I make my own and I use only the highest grade of cables and connectors. But of course I tried some even some Planet Waves cable that I have and the noise is still there. There is nothing else in my signal path and I also tested another QC before and the noise was the same - so I rule out a faulty unit. I guess it is just some interference that the stock power supply doesn’t filter out. Or the fact that the supply is not using the earth pin of the socket - but I don’t know I am not a good engineer as I said. I am a bit surprised - I thought I won’t have to solve this kind of problems on digital equipment. If this is not the case I guess I will have to find some local witch as you said :-(.