Use a 12 volt battery to power FX pedals?

Rocker

If you have read my recent posts on golf, you will know about my electric golf trolley battery woes. To cut a long story short, before I send the old 12 volt battery to the recycling depot, I wonder if there is a way of using it to power my FX pedals on the pedalboard. I measured the open circuit voltage and it is 13.15 volts. Is there a box to drop the voltage to 9 volts? The new golf trolley battery purchase has delayed the purchase of a Voodoo Lab Pedal-power 2, this might be a way of killing two birds with the one stone! Thanks.

ICBM

Most 9V pedals will work fine at 13V, although it's worth checking about each individual one just to be sure. Most electrolytic caps in pedals are 16V, because it's the next standard rating above 10V, and 10V is not enough for safety. ICs are usually rated at +/-18V.

If you want to be on the safe side you could get a voltage regulator though.

DanielT

Getting the voltage down to 9v is pretty easy (just search for something like "DC step down 12v to 9v").

I use a board like this (not this exact one but one since mine came from China but this one looks pretty much the same) when playing with "sag" voltages on my breadboard:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LM2596-DC-DC-Step-Down-Adjustable-Power-Supply-Module-Buck-/131023752686?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item1e819fcdee

I confess I didn't pick this design very scientifically, I just picked one with big caps on it (reasoning that the resulting supply would be less noisy).

If you want everything properly isolated you'll need one of these per-pedal but I'd buy just one to start off with an see if it sounds OK first!