Mission Engineering 529i Review
Our Verdict and Review Summary
The 529i offers a unique perk that I haven't seen in power supplies before: The ability to charge and disconnect the power brick, allowing you to power pedals without plugging in the power supply. It has plenty of charge and can keep your pedals going for hours before needing to refill. Great idea and final product.
The Mission Engineering 529i power supply takes a unique approach to powering your pedals by using a lithium ion rechargeable battery to provide power for eight isolated outputs. This means you can charge it and just take it with you without the need to plug it in. We got our hands on it to review and did a little bit of testing, so we'll walk you through all the details below, in the full Mission Engineering 529i review.
The 529i uses a lithium ion rechargeable battery to power your pedals with isolated power sources, without having to plug it in.
Comparison Section
You can browse a few comparable power supplies here, covering basic features and live pricing.
Bricks | Name | Rate | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Engineering 529i | n/a | |
 | T-Rex Fuel Tank | n/a | |
 | MXR M-238 ISO Brick | n/a | |
 | Voodoo Lab 4x4 | n/a |
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For most of our product reviews we take our own photos, in-house. Thank goodness for portrait mode. For those interested in using these photos, that is completely fine with us as long as you give us credit and don't claim the work as your own. Simply linking to guitarchalk.com near the photo is totally fine.
The Mission Engineering 529i, unboxed and hanging out on the office coffee table.
Price Chart
This section has a live pricing table for the 529i that follows the retail number from Sweetwater. You can also set price alerts and check history if you want to try and grab a deal. Make sure you check the price and value paragraph later in our review.
Prices updated Wed, June 07th, 2023.
Sweetwater Pricing
Alert
History
Price History for Mission Engineering 529i USB Pedalboard Power Supply With Integrated Battery
Statistics
| Current Price | $175.00 | June 1, 2023 |
| Highest Price | $175.00 | May 18, 2023 |
| Lowest Price | $175.00 | May 18, 2023 |
Last price changes
| $175.00 | May 18, 2023 |
Features Overview
I love the battery indicator on top of the brick. It ticks down and gives you a clear look at how much time you have left. There's also an on/off button that I always like having in a power supply. Some of the older power supplies I've had are just on whenever they're plugged in, and while a lot of newer ones now have an on/off switch, I still appreciate it whenever I see it.
There are eight power outputs, all isolated, including one that can power an 18V pedal, if needed.
Then of course there's the USB and micro-USB ports you can use for charging.
Either one works, and doesn't take terribly long to charge.
To test I left it on for several hours and the green LED battery indicator only went down a couple clicks.
Everything was also dead quit, though I didn't try any high voltage pedals or anything particularly fancy. I would imagine that wouldn't impact noise levels either way.
Charging ports for the lithium ion battery.
Best Use Cases
Portability is clearly the highlight feature with the 529i. There are a lot of situations where I would love to avoid having to scrounge around for a way to plug in my power supply.
And I'm not sure if I can put anything concrete on this, but it was liberating when paired with my wireless guitar connection. Everything was just, out there. I was dealing with almost zero wires, aside from the pedals connected to the 529i, but there were all on the pedalboard, which was also very mobile.
In my case that's church, and small venue gigs. But this can benefit you in just about any situation, especially with smaller pedalboards.
Obviously, the less pedals connected, the longer you'll get out of the battery.
Though even with eight pedals connected, I got hours of use without getting even close to the bottom of the LED battery indicators.
Portability is the main selling point.
Price and Value
The 529i is actually cheaper than a lot of power supplies that give you eight isolated ports to work with, at least that was the case when we reviewed it, so check the price table above for an updated number, and make sure you compare with other power supplies, like the ones in our comparison table. Those all have live pricing on their product pages.
But odds are the market will move as a whole, meaning the margins between the 529i and comparable bricks will stay the same.
As it stands, this is one of the highest value power supplies we've tested.
No complains about the price point.
We like the battery life indicator, the on button, and (of course) having everything isolated.
Final Thoughts and Questions
With the 529i the main attraction is the portability and the opportunity to eliminate one more cable from your rig. And even without that, the price for eight isolated power ports is very reasonable.
I recommend it for medium-sized boards and those who are moving around to different locations a lot.
If you have questions about our Mission Engineering 529i review, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.
As always, thanks for trusting our content.
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