can an effect empty a battery within a week?

[tambek]

I think no... but I can't find any other explanation. I have had my Shaka Braddah V for a week or so, and it has been working perfectly, until today. When I switched it on, - nothing. That reminded me of yesterday, when i noticed that the max volume coming out of the box was lower than before. That lead me to the idea that the battery mightbe empty. But i tested with another one (which i had used before in my MXR Dist+, but wasn't empty), and still it didn't work. I checked if the parts that need power, are getting the power they need. Well, it seems that they are getting some power, but it looks like they're not getting enough power. each part is getting like 0,35V. I might be stupid, but I recall that when i built the box, the parts were gettin' at least 4,5V....

Another thing i noticed, that the signal is lost when it enters the op-amp. I did switch the op-amp, but that didn't make it any better. There is absolutely NO signal after the op-amp part... So i guess the problem is somehow connected to the op-amp. Maybe it's not getting enought power?

all the connections seem to be OK, though

[smoguzbenjamin]

Take a DMM, and measure the battery voltage. A fresh battery should be around 9 - 9.5 V. A dead one is usually <7.5 V

Consider a wallwart if your FX suck power like this! I have a 250mA 9V wallwart that powers 4 boss pedals and a bespeco wah and it's still got plenty of power left for a whole lot more :twisted:
And the best thing is: it's totally regulated. No hiss at all.

[tambek]

ok.. nmeasuring a battery's voltage... how... black wire to FX ground and red one on the + (red) of battery?

sorry again for my stupidity

[tambek]

ok, i guess that was wrong... because that didn't work ... so i connect the red of DMM to the + of battery and the black of DMM to the - of battery. That gave me:

2.52 for the old battery (the one tht was inside the MXR)
1.67 for the new (that has been a week inside the shaka braddah 5)

guess it's the battery then, IF i measured it right...

In this case, yeah, I think i should use a wallwart. My question is, how do you use one wallwart for multiple FX pedals?

[smoguzbenjamin]

I use a daisy-chain.

It's a filtered PS, right, with positive ring. I have a mixer box with 2 dc jacks, in and out. In is connected in parralel to the out jack, and also to the mixer power. So actually it's like a cable with two female DC jacks.

But I guess that's confusing. I'll draw up a picture and post it after lunch. Gonna go eat first

It'll be up here in 30 minutes or so.

Edit: you did measure the battery correctly

[sfr]

I wired up my Marshall MS-2 (the cute little tiny practice amps that look like a stack only about 4 or 5 inches tall) to run an external cabinet instead of the little 3-inch speaker.  Well, running a 2x12 cab, I drained a new-ish battery inside of an hour.  

And yeah, I've built some effects that eat batteries like nobody's business, too.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Here's my PS solution. Of course you could leave the whole mixer thing out, in that case just remove the mixer board and you've basically got a DC female to female converter.

Just connect the two outside lugs of the jacks together, and also the inside ones. Then you're in business

http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~ubermaus/guitar/PSmixer.html

Good luck!

[tambek]

not that the picture is THAT more revealing, but if i got this right, then basically, i could imagine another female jack instead of the mixer board, right? si? no? :lol:

but i guess i'm gonna have to use a wallwart anyway

[smoguzbenjamin]

nah just disconnect the wires...... hang on a sec I'll draw the ultimate revealing picture :lol:

Sorry 'bout my inept artist skills

edit: here you go:

http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~ubermaus/guitar/PSmixer.html

[tambek]

ok, i get it, but that just gives me a wire with a female connectro on both ends. How does this help me on using only one wallwart for multiple effetcs?

When I first read you use on for multiple ones, i thought you have somekind of a splitter or thing going on somewhere?

BTW: I'm using a wallwart that has like 6 different plugs at the end... it's 500mA, 3-12V range switch...

Edit: btw, i tried a wallwart instead of the battery - works great, plus, as you said, low noise it has a polarity switch, wich i had in the wrong position at first (luckily i touched the op-amp before it fried...)

[smoguzbenjamin]

Did I forget to mention? I have a daisy-chain cable, which is electronically the same as my second drawing but then with male plugs instead of female. You can get them for $18 or so at your roland dealer. My daisy-chain is really meant for the Boss LS-2 or NS-2's which are basically the same, save for some filtering circuitry. But this does the trick fine

So I take the output jack from the PSU, plug it into one end of my F-F plug, and the other female plug goes onto 1 of the daisy chain plugs. That puts +9V on all the DC rings, and 0V on all the DC tips. Make sure your wallwart can deliver enough current to power all your pedals

One problem is that you've got a ground loop, but unless you've got a high-gain circuit on (like a fuzz face) it shouldn't be a problem. If you don't know what a ground loop is, don't worry about it

Once I manage to lay hands on a digital camera I'll have pics on my website

[tambek]

ok, now i kinda get it. gotta check if ther are any of those flowery cables in my local store

[smoguzbenjamin]

Good luck, tambek! I'm getting to the stage where I have to get another daisy-chain, because I've got a couple of unboxed things lying around that need to go on the pedalboard and they also need power

You're gonna love the easy-going world of wallwarts

[Ansil]

I wired up my Marshall MS-2 (the cute little tiny practice amps that look like a stack only about 4 or 5 inches tall) to run an external cabinet instead of the little 3-inch speaker.  Well, running a 2x12 cab, I drained a new-ish battery inside of an hour.  

And yeah, I've built some effects that eat batteries like nobody's business, too.

how did that work out.  i never tried running the ms2 as a little amp pushing a big cabinet.  was it sweet sounding.??  i was thinkin of replacing the  ic in that one and puting in a lm380

[tambek]

When i made the PCB, i accidentally had it reversed. So it was basically a mirror of the board. I could overcome everything except the op-amp part because of the 8-pin layout.

But then i got this idea: I just bent the leads the other way and bingo!

[smoguzbenjamin]

You could've put the op-amp socket on the other side of the board, that would have worked too