What's up with BOSS pedals and powersupplies?

[esaias]

I have had bunch of BOSS pedals and quite a few of them have had issues with different power supplies. The most common problem is that the pedal's led doesn't light up at all or glows veeery faintly, sometimes the effect works, sometimes not. The powersupplies i have been using have all had sufficient power rating and work with other BOSS pedals and the wierdest part is that when I connect 2 or more BOSS pedals with this special power distributor cable(you know those with one female connector for PSU and several male connectors for pedals) the pedals which have had issues with PSU's now work just fine and leds light up properly. Any ideas what causes this?

-Tomi

[Wavebourn]

Let me guess... Using cables with TRS jacks instead of TS jacks for inputs?

[esaias]

nope. TS instrument cables in use.

I guess this is some sort of grounding issue since the behaviour sometimes changes depending where the pedal is connected.

I know I'm not the only one with this problems since I've hear from other (mostly guitar players) people about boss pedals which have weird led issues.

-Tomi

[TAVD]

Using that daisy chain power cable, you might be stretching the limits of the current available from the power supply, plus they might not all be center positive. A power supply with isolated outputs should solve all your problems.

[esaias]

Actually daisychain makes them work :D I got to test this thoroughly and check if there is any broken solderjoints in the pedals or something...

-Tomi

[stellar]

I'm guessing that the daisychain is wired correctly for the BOSS pedals while some other supplies might be reversed.

[bobcube]

Perhaps your problem lies in you having a mixture of older, and newer Boss pedals?
You might check this link:
.: the ACA/PSA debate :.

[esaias]

wow! that's it!

Thanks for the link.
This is really something that would need to be in the common knowledge of guitar players.

-Tomi

[ipressrecord]

Originally Posted by bobcube

Perhaps your problem lies in you having a mixture of older, and newer Boss pedals?
You might check this link:
.: the ACA/PSA debate :.

Yup. I have a 1980s Japanese Boss Chorus pedal that will not take the power from my pedal board. I can only use it with batteries. It behaves exactly as the original poster described. All of my other pedals (Ibanez TS9, Boss Line Selector, Fender Tuner, etc) work off of the power supply or my Boss PSA.

Jeff

[Led]

I have an early boss delay pedal that only outputs the delay signal when powered by battery. With a transformer powering it it sound like it's in bypass.

[peeder]

I'm just copying this in from the link above so it's easier to find if the guy stops paying for hosting.

Three basic rules about Boss pedals (and one exception):

If it says "PSA" on the bottom, use a 9 volt regulated supply.

If it says "ACA" on the bottom, check if it's produced before or after 1997. The easiest way is to plug in the PSA adapter - if the LED lights up properly, it's most likely a post-1997 model, and will work with the regulated supply. It may still sound best from an ACA supply (9 volts, then), but the difference will be marginal at best. By the way, the only ACA pedals produced after 1997 are the SD-1, BF-2, GE-7, OC-2, DS-1, PH-2 and CS-3.

If it says "ACA" on the bottom, and the PSA adapter doesn't light up the LED properly (or the pedal isn't one of those listed above), it wants 12 volts unregulated power to work properly.

Unless... you are using a daisy chain or power supply with common ground for all outputs (DC Brick, Cioks, PowerPad etc). In that case, the pedal will work with 9 volts, as long as there's a 'proper' 9 volt pedal in the chain with it. Some 12 volt ACA pedals will therefore actually work fine, as long as they are being fed via a daisy chain...