Problem with Visual Sound 1Spot power supply. R.G.?

[rockgardenlove]

Seems like a good adapter...
When I plug it in to a pedal (with the input the pedal wired up as on/off switch) and unplug the input, I get this crazy gross buzz/hum.  This doesn't seem proper to me.  Did I get a faulty one?
Is there anything I can fix inside?  It's brand new, and if it's an easy fix I'd rather just do it here at home than bother with returning it.

[R.G.]

That's a weird one - never heard of one with just that mix of issues. That adapter runs lots of plug-in-to-turn-on pedals and that's never come up that I know of.

I can think of two possibilities. (1) the adapter may be faulty or (2) the AC power wiring you're plugging it into may have a problem, either with the 1Spot or the amp. We have seen some crazy hum situations that turned out to be bad AC wiring, which is why I bring that up.

I suggest you try it in some other building and with some other amp. If it still happens, I think you got a faulty one.

Unfortunately, the insides are critical. The high voltage AC line is separated from the safe-to-touch 9V output only by highly specialized layout and parts. While it is conceptually possible to repair anything that was ever once manufactured, that's poor economy for a device that has hazardous voltages inside, some parts of which are custom manufactured for the unit and not available from stock (like the transformer), cost under $25 new, and is still under warranty.

Best advice is to take it back and get another one. I can't think of an easy fix for someone who doesn't already design or repair switching power supplies for a living. We want you to live and play guitar for a long time.

[calculating_infinity]

Hey I have a onespot and I have NEVER experienced a buzz/hum from the onespot.  It must be a faulty unit.  I coulda swore I saw RG Keens name in an advertising pamphlet.  I think it was for his amp.  Im sure its good but that hubcap!

[Pushtone]

Is the Goldike (spelling??) one the same as the One Spot? They look the same.

I got one today, the Goldike that is, and it hummed loud. 

Switched out with a B*SS PSA 120 and hum went away. 

I was really looking forward to the compact wart opening up another outlet on the old power bar.

The Goldike is what all the L&M music stores sell here in Western Canada. Is it the One Spot?

If so I'll exchange it and try another before going the mail order route.

[rockgardenlove]

^I got the same pamphlet with mine. 

Thanks RG.  It happens all over the house, and the wiring is good too from what I know. 
I guess I'll return it then.
Thanks.

[rockgardenlove]

By the way, I made a video of the thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlsPJDE-sCw
Odd...you can even hear it when the effect is bypassed.  It's not as loud, but you can.  And the hum is LOUD too when the effect is on.

[calculating_infinity]

Is the Goldike (spelling??) one the same as the One Spot? They look the same.

I got one today, the Goldike that is, and it hummed loud. 

Switched out with a B*SS PSA 120 and hum went away. 

I was really looking forward to the compact wart opening up another outlet on the old power bar.

The Goldike is what all the L&M music stores sell here in Western Canada. Is it the One Spot?

If so I'll exchange it and try another before going the mail order route.

Hey Buddy,
   Godlyke and One Spot are different.  I've read better reviews (godlyke hum issues) so I purchased the One Spot.  You can find them on ebay regularly or musicians friends, zzounds, etc.  I've owned mine for over a year now and Im quite happy with it.  Go get one!  Laters.

[R.G.]

The Godlyke power is not the same unit or manufacturer as the 1Spot.

Oddly enough, the Godlyke unit came out the year after Godlyke and Visual Sound shared nearby booths in the basement floor of the Anaheim NAMM show at the first show the 1Spot was shown. The world is full of coincidences.

You can get a 1A 9Vdc adapter made by Pi-Hong (don't know if that's the right spelling) from some mail order places. I had hum with the unit I tried and a whining noise at low loads, but maybe I just got a bad one. I do not know whether the Godlyke unit is made by Pi-Hong or not.

I do know that every single 1Spot is final-tested by plugging it into a high gain distortion pedal fed by a signal source and listening for hum, buzz and whine in the pedal output. It was once and may still be the only power unit that was originally designed specifically for pedal effects supply work.

The 1Spot predates my time at Visual Sound, so I didn't have a hand in any of the 1Spot design work. But I am a satisfied owner and user... 

[rockgardenlove]

Which pedals did you work on?  Just wondering.  The Route 66 is one, right? 

How long have you been working for Visual Sound?

[Cliff Schecht]

In general, the best, "cleanest" power I've ever used has come from using an unregulated wall-wart (the ones with transformers in them) and regulating the power. With the right voltage regulator, you can get 1.5 amps at exactly 9 volts, which can be further dropped to "sag" if necessary. I have no hum issues, at least from AC, which is great for identifying the source of hum in someones amp or guitar.

[rockgardenlove]

I returned it.  New one does the same thing.  Must be an issue in my house then...weird.

[R.G.]

How long have you been working for Visual Sound?

Two years.

I returned it.  New one does the same thing.  Must be an issue in my house then...weird.

That is weird. We do run into this situation sometimes. Where it's a defect in the 1Spot, changing it out fixes the problem. There are some locations which have this problem and the 1Spot does not cause hum in other locations. It is weird.

In general, the best, "cleanest" power I've ever used has come from using an unregulated wall-wart (the ones with transformers in them) and regulating the power. With the right voltage regulator, you can get 1.5 amps at exactly 9 volts, which can be further dropped to "sag" if necessary.

A lot depends on what happens inside that wall wart. If it leaks a little, or has high capacitance between primary and secondary, you'll still get hum, as the wall wart wiggles both 9V and ground around in common mode. But yes, linear regulated supplies are the quietest source of active power supply.

Using switching power supplies for analog systems used to be a no-no. The advent of very high frequency switching and surface mount parts has helped that a lot.

However, we can now get 9V at 1+ amps in a size that will fit in one spot (!) on a power strip and have acceptable performance in the vast majority of cases.

There are always cases outside that vast majority.

I have no hum issues, at least from AC, which is great for identifying the source of hum in someones amp or guitar.

That's great - but keep in the back of your head that one day you'll run into a situation where this won't help. When that happens, put in the batteries. Batteries are not only incapable of humming, they are incapable of generating common mode signals, as they float.

[Ben N]

House wiring can be very funky.  I have my amps in my basement.  Unfortunately, the basement was wired separately, and some of them get all Rice Krispies on me from time to time.  I though my Vibrochamp needed a cap job, until I took it upstairs--no more noise. Same for the others. Wife nixed moving amps to the living room. Bummer.

One amp I never had a problem with was my '65 Jet.  It is now on extended loan to a friend, who just built a brand new house, with a nearly soundproof studio.  The Jet is all kinds of noisy for him there, where his Komet works fine but is too loud.  But when he has taken the Jet on gigs, he hasn't had a problem.

Ben

[jpm83]

Is there a specific pedals that won't work with 1Spot without hum issues. And if there is can one fix them to work with 1Spot.

Janne

[R.G.]

Here's what we know:
1) The vast majority of 1Spots work hum and whine free with any pedals that get connected to them.
This is based on an installed inventory of thousands of 1 Spots. We sell a lot of those things, and only very, very few ever give any problem at all. I'm accustomed to running numbers on the number of expected warranty failures on electronics from my prior professional life, and I can tell you that the actual failure rate on 1Spots is surprisingly low compared to what the theoretical expectation for failures would be; and that's against a quite low theoretical failure rate.

I almost hate to get into a detailed discussion of this because simply talking about a few failures gets translated into the internet rumor that "hey, I think I remember something about six months ago on a forum where there was hum coming from 1Spots... I bet they're all no good." The statistics say very much the opposite. But satisfied people don't tend to post and say "I have one of these and they are still working great!" - 8bitrockout's manly testamonial being the exception that proves the rule.

2) The few instances of 1Spots themselves causing hum has been traced to a few faulty units. Replacing the units corrected the hum.
Sometimes people using them in studios will get a combination of equipment that gives a hum with a 1Spot but not with batteries. This is rare, but it has happened. Of the people who have called about this, a fair number decide to ignore it. Some go back to batteries. But there are not many.

3) In instances where replacing the 1Spot did not fix the hum, the hum was traced to faulty AC wiring (that is, change to another building and the hum goes away) or to leaking AC from other connected equipment, or to a hum loop set up by a real, no fooling ground loop.

I know it is possible that there is a 1Spot somewhere that can cause hum problems all on its own with some specific pedal, so I won't say never. But they do a remarkably good job, over many, many units being used by both amateurs and professionals in all kinds of settings.

4) There are some pedals that are known to have whine issues with the 1Spot.
These are listed on the Visual Sound web page, and that list gets updated if we find more. All of the ones that we have found have been units withe either internal switching power supplies that take the 9Vdc and then re-switching-convert it to another voltage, or are heavy digital pedals themselves. When this happens, the problem manifests itself as a whine that you can hear at high amp settings. This usually happens when these pedals are the only ones on the 1Spot - that is, under light loading. There are many cases where simply adding another pedal makes even this go away. There are not many of these pedals, they don't include the pedals that DIYers build, and the whine often goes away if you change something.

My best guess is that the whine is a beat frequency between the 1Spot and the switching converter/clock in the pedals, and that the loading damps the whole setup so that there isn't enough high frequency stuff left to whine. It's a theory, and if I had a whole barn full of sophisticated high frequency test equipment I bet I could prove it. 

With all that as background, no, I don't know of a specific pedal that will not work with the 1Spot without hum that is not otherwise traceable to a bug in the pedal, the wiring or the equipment that it's connected to.

If that does come up, please tell me and I'll see if I can reproduce the problem and find a fix.

[jpm83]

Thanks R.G. I think I'm going to buy one spot when I have the cash. I'm currently using Ibanez 200ma power supply witch is getting small for my rig.

Janne

[scaesic]

Is the Goldike (spelling??) one the same as the One Spot? They look the same.

I got one today, the Goldike that is, and it hummed loud. 

Switched out with a B*SS PSA 120 and hum went away. 

I was really looking forward to the compact wart opening up another outlet on the old power bar.

The Goldike is what all the L&M music stores sell here in Western Canada. Is it the One Spot?

If so I'll exchange it and try another before going the mail order route.

hello, i have this power supply and i have never experienced any humming from it. I think it's a similar device to the one-spot, but seperate company.

[rockgardenlove]

This is odd...
I changed the power strip so that the OneSpot actually takes up one spot instead of three, and guess what!?

It now works perfectly!

What could be up with this!?

Bizarre... 

[R.G.]

I changed the power strip so that the OneSpot actually takes up one spot instead of three, and guess what!?

That's one bizarre power strip you have there - but a really interesting bit of information. Is it possible for you to do a couple of photos of how you did that?

It is possible to get really strange results if you connect equipment to the wrong AC lines, strange things happen. If, for instance, the change resulted in you connecting the 1Spot between line and neutral as it's supposed to be away from line and safety ground, that could account for the hum change. This is just a hypothesis, but it might account for a number of things.

We've had 1Spots hum in houses with high impedance neutrals. The neutral line was resistive and all the power in the house was offset by 30-40V because of the random distribution of power across the two power lines in the house. The 1Spot worked fine from the lower voltage, but the result was a hum caused by the offset changing at line frequency. We've had hums when the line and safety neutral was swapped. Needless to say, the hum from the 1Spot was the smallest problem the people in those houses had. The daily danger of electrocution was a much bigger issue, and they didn't know it.

Any info you can give me on the power strip and how the 1Spot was plugged in would be very welcome.

[rockgardenlove]

Nothing too weird on this rig.  One Spot into a Radioshack powerstrip I had laying around.  Plugged into the VS 5 plug daisy chain, going into my EH Small Stone, Pulsar, wah, booster, Bazz Fuzz.  All of them are NPN.

Couldn't find a model number or anything for the power strip, sorry. 



And here's my pedal board numero uno.  Someday I'm gonna make a giant board for all my pedals.  This is the one it was plugged into.


And I don't know if this was clear, but I get no hum at all when I'm playing and it works perfectly.  It's just that on this powerstrip when I unplug the input from a pedal it goes all weird.