Question for the techies on here....

hotpickups

Not a massive problem or a problem at all but I'm just interested why it happens. My board is powered by a Strymon Zuma and have recently added a Cali76. I noticed though that when I turn / connect the board to power, all my pedals automatically come on as I left them when I last turned off the power i.e. on. However, the Cali76's default state is off and I have to physically press it’s button to activate it again. As mentioned, not a problem but why would it do that, is there something in the Cali76 to protect itself from initial power surges etc or something?

tone1

 I think the Cali76 automatically knows that you wouldn’t want a compressor on in the first instance.....some would say ‘or any instance’
  

hotpickups

tone1 said:

 I think the Cali76 automatically knows that you wouldn’t want a compressor on in the first instance.....some would say ‘or any instance’
  

Not a fan of compressors @tone1 ;

thermionic

True bypass pedals will stay in the same state as you left them. Ones with flip-flop type switching will power up in one state or other depending on, I guess, any asymmetry in the flip-flop circuit that favours one state over the other as it’s powered up. I found that my Boss pedals were always off with my old power supply, but with my new power supply, some default to on as I power up. I haven’t observed a definite pattern, but I could record the results of an experiment...

In fact, I’ve often wondered why they don’t deliberately build some asymmetry into the switching circuit (slightly mismatched resistors for instance) so that they always revert to off when powered up. You don’t want 3 overdrive or fuzz pedals on when you power up a board connected to an amp.

hotpickups

thermionic said:

True bypass pedals will stay in the same state as you left them. Ones with flip-flop type switching will power up in one state or other depending on, I guess, any asymmetry in the flip-flop circuit that favours one state over the other as it’s powered up. I found that my Boss pedals were always off with my old power supply, but with my new power supply, some default to on as I power up. I haven’t observed a definite pattern, but I could record the results of an experiment...

In fact, I’ve often wondered why they don’t deliberately build some asymmetry into the switching circuit (slightly mismatched resistors for instance) so that they always revert to off when powered up. You don’t want 3 overdrive or fuzz pedals on when you power up a board connected to an amp.

I use a switcher by the way so having all the pedals coming on wouldn’t be a problem as they’re are all off in the loops etc 

ICBM

thermionic said:

Ones with flip-flop type switching will power up in one state or other depending on, I guess, any asymmetry in the flip-flop circuit that favours one state over the other as it’s powered up. I found that my Boss pedals were always off with my old power supply, but with my new power supply, some default to on as I power up. I haven’t observed a definite pattern, but I could record the results of an experiment...

In fact, I’ve often wondered why they don’t deliberately build some asymmetry into the switching circuit (slightly mismatched resistors for instance) so that they always revert to off when powered up.

I’ve never bothered to find out if it’s deliberate, but most Boss pedals do power up off - although I’ve had a few exceptions, the OC-2 in particular... which is funny if you don’t remember since it can sound like your amp is broken .

Odd that it’s power supply dependent.

thermionic said:

You don’t want 3 overdrive or fuzz pedals on when you power up a board connected to an amp.

I found the Tech 21 Fly Rig very annoying for that - it powers up with everything on. In theory you should always check before you turn the amp fully on, but it’s easy to forget.

Default should always be off if it can’t remember the last set state.

tone1

hotpickups said:

tone1 said:

 I think the Cali76 automatically knows that you wouldn’t want a compressor on in the first instance.....some would say ‘or any instance’
  

Not a fan of compressors @tone1 ;

I have tried to like them....I just couldn’t find a good practical use for them.

hotpickups

tone1 said:

hotpickups said:

tone1 said:

 I think the Cali76 automatically knows that you wouldn’t want a compressor on in the first instance.....some would say ‘or any instance’
  

Not a fan of compressors @tone1 ;

I have tried to like them....I just couldn’t find a good practical use for them.

I felt the same previously too. But that Cali76 really does add something. I like it 

Jonathangus

Analogue vs. digital?  My digital Boss pedals (DD-7 and ST-2) power up in the 'on' state.  My analogue one (early CH-1) powers up in the 'off' state.

normula1

I tweaked the flip-flop on my Boss pedals to default to on as they're mounted on rack pedal drawers and it's a pain in the arris having to pull out the drawers to switch them all on manually

thermionic

I powered up a few times and my CE-2 always defaults to off, the more modern DS-1 and OD-3 both defaulting to on, unless I power off and on again within a few seconds, when the OD-3 is off but the DS-1 is on. If I leave it a few minutes before powering on again, then both turn on. TU-3 flashes on briefly but always defaults to off (i.e. not tuning). This is quite repeatable. I used to have them all on a non-isolated supply (they would always default to off) but now they're on a Cioks with some outputs isolated from others. I guess it depends on stuff like smoothing capacitors on the 9V outputs not discharging completely, and complex networks of parasitic resistances, capacitances and inductances in the wiring between the pedals.

Bottom line is, I have to be careful with the amp volume when powering up, as both the distortion and overdrive will be on. 

hotpickups

Turns out the earlier models didn't turn on as default. It can be modded to do otherwise but it'll void any warranty if I did. Not a big thing tbh so I think I could live with it .

Has anyone here done such a mod should I decide I can't live with it ?

Fenderish

thermionic said:

True bypass pedals will stay in the same state as you left them. Ones with flip-flop type switching will power up in one state or other depending on, I guess, any asymmetry in the flip-flop circuit that favours one state over the other as it’s powered up. I found that my Boss pedals were always off with my old power supply, but with my new power supply, some default to on as I power up. I haven’t observed a definite pattern, but I could record the results of an experiment...

In fact, I’ve often wondered why they don’t deliberately build some asymmetry into the switching circuit (slightly mismatched resistors for instance) so that they always revert to off when powered up. You don’t want 3 overdrive or fuzz pedals on when you power up a board connected to an amp.

This is not related to true bypass or not, it's dependant on the technology used in the switch (relayed or not and if relayed the kind of relay especially). That's a commun misunderstanding due to most of old true bypass being made with a 3PDT switch, but it's not the only way to do true bypass et some buffered pedals using SPDT ou 2PDT can keep the last state.

relays are not that far from a SPDT/2PDT/3PDT except they are operated by electricity and there are some wich revert to a default position when the current's out some stay in position and in some case, the relaying relies on a program so it's up to a software design...

some are even powered on by the presence of an input jack

so don't take any rule from this in the end

mrkb

normula1 said:

I tweaked the flip-flop on my Boss pedals to default to on as they're mounted on rack pedal drawers and it's a pain in the arris having to pull out the drawers to switch them all on manually

How do you tweak the circuit? My oc3 defaults to on which is a pain.

clarkefan

I'm not sure I get the problem if the pedals are on the floor in front of the amp.  Just turn the amp on with the guitar turned down, or am I missing something? 

jellybelly

clarkefan said:

I'm not sure I get the problem if the pedals are on the floor in front of the amp.  Just turn the amp on with the guitar turned down, or am I missing something? 

I don’t think it was described as a problem - unless you’ve got pedals in a rack like @normula1. OP was just curious.

hotpickups

jellybelly said:

clarkefan said:

I'm not sure I get the problem if the pedals are on the floor in front of the amp.  Just turn the amp on with the guitar turned down, or am I missing something? 

I don’t think it was described as a problem - unless you’ve got pedals in a rack like @normula1. OP was just curious.

Yeah just curious. Remind me never to go the rack route ,)