Pedal Problems.....

Placidcasual79

Hello people -

 Took my new board to rehearsals tonight. Seems to be a problem. I can't get my BOSS DD7 and my EHX Freeze to cohabit. The DD7 cuts out (the power light starts dims and starts flashing and no signal passes through). If I take either pedal off the board there are no issues - but together, they can't seems to get on.

I have a Dr Tone PSU power supply, then, in this order BOSS TU 3 Tuner, Exotic EP booster, Ibanez mini tube screamer, EHX bad stone, BOSS CE - 5,  then the EHX Freeze and the BOSS DD7. I tried changing the order of the pedals - no help, and the pedals individually work fine......


Any ideas? Help gratefully appreciated....

simonk

Sounds like you're running out of current.

steamabacus

I suspect you don't have enough juice in your power supply. Both the DD-7 and the Freeze draw a fair amount of current.

Johnnyseven

What power supply are you using?

Edit - Just realised this is answered above.

Does the Freeze come with a power supply? If so, just use that.

Placidcasual79

@simonk @steamabacus @johnyseven ;

Thanks lads - hopefully that is the problem. I have a fuel tank junior and a couple of 9v adaptors that I could use to do the Freeze or the DD7. I try it tomorrow. 

Again. Appreciated. 

steamabacus

According to Stinkfoot, the Freeze is the hungrier pedal - 140mA.

MattBanshee

Yeah, as everyone said it's almost certainly a power consumption issue. Surely the Fuel Tank Jr is a better quality power supply though? It's rated at 120ma per output so you should probably *just* manage to power the DD7 and Freeze, and if the reason for not using it is that you need 7 outputs, try running a little daisy-chain from the second power output of the TU2 to the EP Booster and TS Mini - these should be less affected by the lack of isolation, and have a much lower current draw, and so be fine chained from the TU2 whereas the digital pedals will be much happier with isolated power.

EricTheWeary

If I've understood something Andertons have written on Amazon correctly you can only get 60ma out of the 9v sockets but 250ma out of the adjustable sockets ( there are two on the Dr Tone). The Freeze needs 140ma so if you are using one of the standard 9v sockets I'm surprised it works at all and the DD7 takes 55ma so it might be struggling. So, I think you might be okay if you use the adjustable sockets ( set to 9v) on the Freeze and DD7 and standard on everything else.
If there's a manual in with the Dr Tone it should have the figures on it.
I couldn't find a total output figure for the Dr Tone but your pedals would total around 300ma so you'd want a total supply of 450ma or more to be sure I think. 

Placidcasual79

@mattbanshee the fuel tank junior is the better power supply but doesn't have enough outputs. to cover all my pedals. The Freeze came with its on power supply so I can try that (and the EHX Holy Grail on my board also came with a power supply so that should relive some more pressure)

@EricTheWeary yes - the Dr Tone has several different power outputs so I could try one of those - I've only used the 9v outputs. 

My mistake - I thought the Dr Tone was a cheap solution but I don't think its up to the job. No such thing as a free lunch and all that. I don't know how you people worked out that it was a power issue....

Placidcasual79

There is a lot of 'buzz' from the amp since I started using this board..... any ideas about that?

MattBanshee

Placidcasual79 said:

There is a lot of 'buzz' from the amp since I started using this board..... any ideas about that?

Possibly the non-isolated outputs of the Dr Tone supply being used with the digital pedals. Again, another reason to use the Fuel Tank Jr and daisy-chain the EP Booster and TS Mini from the TU2.

EricTheWeary

Apologies, Dawson's not Andertons. They say it has isolated outputs, although as buzz is usually associated with mixing analogue and digital on the same non isolated supply and it costs more to manufacture isolated outputs  I'm pretty doubtful.
You can buy isolator adaptors (at £19 per pedal/adaptor for the one pictured)designed to stop that hum but that's getting pricier and taking up more pedalboard space. 

https://bobblepic.com/images/2017/01/18/IMG_1013.jpg

Using separate outputs from the Fuel Tank Jr, which has isolated outputs, for the digital fx and a daisy chain from one output for the analogue ones should work. Things like overdrives typical use less than 20ma and the Jr has 120ma per output so that should be fine. 

EHX will probably have quoted a high figure for the power consumption of the Freeze because manufacturers tend to err on the side of caution. So it should be okay with the Jr, in theory it shouldn't work at all with the Dr Tone on it's standard 9v outputs. 

crunchman

Or bite the bullet and get a good power supply with isolated outputs and high current capacity.

It's worth it future proof yourself.  Even if you get solve your issues now, you might want to buy something else digital in the future.