Feeding house power to a Boss FS-6 foot pedal.

[bowesj]

Hi, I have a " Boss FS-6 foot pedal" which does not have an AC adapter. I hate buying batteries and want to feed power from house power. I have been told I need to get a " regulated 9VDC wall wart" (AC/DC power supply adapter) which is filtered to keep the noise down. I gather most of these range from 300mA to 500mA. I just noticed that the FS-6 manual says the "Current Draw is 8mA (Max.)". So does that mean that a 300mA power supply will fry my foot pedal?

Thanks,
John

[The Dude]

The pedal will only draw the current it needs. A higher current supply will work fine. A lower current supply may burn up because of the excessive current demands on the supply. Note this, however. In my experience, Boss pedals need a very well filtered clean supply or they will hum. If you run into hum issues, the supply is probably not well enough filtered. Note also that Boss pedals use a negative tip supply.

[Justin Thomas]

No, it means as long as your wall wart puts out >8mA, you will be fine. I don't know the math or physics, but current is "drawn" or pulled, not pushed or forced. The wall wart can have up to 300mA total drawn from it, but it won't push all 300mA through a device that wants to draw, say, 100mA or so.

HTH,

Justin Thomas

D'oh! Simul-Post...

[bowesj]

Thanks guys. You have been very helpful. I do not know what a negative tip supply is so I did a google search and found this wiki page.
Polarity symbols - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I will read it over in the morning when I am more alert after some sleep and if I have any questions I will post back.
Thanks again,
John

[cbarrow7625]

Just beware that getting a "regulated" power supply may be essential, especially if it is rated for far more current than the pedal draws. An unregulated 9VDC supply will put out more than 9VDC if used with a device drawing less than the rated current. It may or may not be a problem for your pedal (you would have to know more about its guts to know for sure). If your "9VDC" supply is putting out 12VDC, it is an unregulated supply and is not being used at its rated current draw.

I think a regulated supply may be harder to find but it will help you avoid any potential issues.

[bowesj]

Thanks cbarrow7625,

Yes I think I understand. Just this morning I found this great article and it explains it with a few examples.
“The dummies guide to working with Wall Warts:”
A Dummies’ Guide to Working with Wall Warts :: DXing.info

It sais this in the book too.

The only way to be sure is to measure the voltage output under the load you expect to use.

However, I do have a multi-meter but I am not sure about how to do this part without putting the foot peddle in danger since it would have to be in the path to create the load would it not?

Also in this article he describes (in much shorter words than I had planed) how I was thinking I should use the multi-meter to ensure I get the polarity correct. I figure the red wire coming out of the Wall wart will have to be attached to the foot switch battery connector exactly where the positive small plug of the battery itself would go and I can use the multi-meter to test it by watching the direction of the needle when I insert the multi-meter in where the foot switch would be before I take the plunge and risk the foot switch (a risk because I have never done this before).

I watched this video which shows how to build a regulator and a filter including making sure I get about 12 volts feeding into the regulator which brings it down to 9 volts.
How to make a DC 12 Volt to 5, 6, or 9 Volt Converter Using a LM7805 Voltage Regulator - YouTube

However I would like to avoid that work. Amazon has what looks like it could be of a lot of interest to guitarists.
http://www.amazon.ca/adapter-BVY09WY...ower+supply+9v
it says

Low noise voltage regulator circuit design.

Maybe this is the one I should get just to be sure. It will be 17.89 + maybe $12 for shipping. Not too cheap but at $10 in a new battery every 4 months it will pay back in less than 6 months.

[52 Bill]

However, I do have a multi-meter but I am not sure about how to do this part without putting the foot peddle in danger since it would have to be in the path to create the load would it not?

If you are careful, there is really no risk to your pedal. If you have a digital meter, polarity will be handled by the meter. With an analog meter you could possibly damage the meter movement by hooking it up backwards, but modern digital will read both pos and neg currents.

Do you use any other FX pedals in your setup? Do any of them use 9 volt dc adapters? If you do, then there are wiring adapters that will allow you to run more than one pedal from one power supply. You can also buy an adapter cable that will change the normal 5mm power plug into a 9 volt battery clip that will connect directly to your pedal.

To test the dc current draw of your pedal, open up the battery compartment and pull out the battery and connector. Lift one end of the battery clip and rotate the battery 180 degrees so that one connection is still being made and the other two terminals are separated. Your meter needs to be connected between the two open terminals. Set you meter to read dc current. You are expecting to find less than 10mA, so use a range that is suitable to read low currents.

If you have test clip wires you can use them to connect the meter leads to the open terminals, but you can also just hold them there. You will need to turn on the pedal with whatever cord needs to be plugged in to activate the battery. Turn the pedal on and see what the meter reads. Try pushing one or both of the ft pedals and see if there is a higher reading than when nothing else is pushed.

Whatever the highest reading on the meter is, is the current draw of the pedal.

[cbarrow7625]

Here is a relatively inexpensive regulated 9VDC supply on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.ca/Planet-Waves-9V...ower+supply+9v

Only $13.25 Canadian ($12.35 USD).

[bowesj]

Here is a relatively inexpensive regulated 9VDC supply on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.ca/Planet-Waves-9V...ower+supply+9v

Only $13.25 Canadian ($12.35 USD).

Thanks cbarrow. It does not mention filtering which I gather is important but if it is made by D'Addario which makes the guitar strings I guess they would know enough to put the filters in.
I also checked the reviews below and it looks good. One person even mentions a Boss foot pedal.
http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Waves-9...ews/B00191WVF6

Updated================================================= =

Actually, I was distracted. I just realized something. With the above power supply I would need one of these and attach the battery connector.
http://www.amazon.com/Female-Pigtail...female+dc+plug
I would need to check the polarity with a multi-meter.

Here is a link to the battery clip with red and black leads already on.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/prod...501791098.html
or you could do what I mentioned above that this guy does to get the connector from the battery itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zObxI_t2wkk

[bowesj]

If you are careful, there is really no risk to your pedal. If you have a digital meter, polarity will be handled by the meter. With an analog meter you could possibly damage the meter movement by hooking it up backwards, but modern digital will read both pos and neg currents.

Do you use any other FX pedals in your setup? Do any of them use 9 volt dc adapters? If you do, then there are wiring adapters that will allow you to run more than one pedal from one power supply. You can also buy an adapter cable that will change the normal 5mm power plug into a 9 volt battery clip that will connect directly to your pedal.

To test the dc current draw of your pedal, open up the battery compartment and pull out the battery and connector. Lift one end of the battery clip and rotate the battery 180 degrees so that one connection is still being made and the other two terminals are separated. Your meter needs to be connected between the two open terminals. Set you meter to read dc current. You are expecting to find less than 10mA, so use a range that is suitable to read low currents.

If you have test clip wires you can use them to connect the meter leads to the open terminals, but you can also just hold them there. You will need to turn on the pedal with whatever cord needs to be plugged in to activate the battery. Turn the pedal on and see what the meter reads. Try pushing one or both of the ft pedals and see if there is a higher reading than when nothing else is pushed.

Whatever the highest reading on the meter is, is the current draw of the pedal.

Thanks Bill, My meter is analog actually. I have only the one pedal I am using at the moment. Thanks for the adapter idea too. I used your exact wording in Google and found it immediately on amazon.
Amazon.com: Gino 2 Pcs 2.1 X 5.5mm Male Dc Plug to 9v Battery Clip: Home Improvement

The current draw is actually shown in the Boss FS-6 manual found with Google search "Boss FS-6 User Manual". I don't know enough about this to know if that would be accurate or not. Either way, I will keep your info.

John

[Justin Thomas]

Just a general question to anyone who may know...

I get the "filtering to keep down noise" part. So let&s for example say it's a 300mA 9V supply. As cbarrow mentioned in post #5, the pedal may get overvoltaged and damaged if the supply is capable of delivrring way more than the demand AND unregulated. So if the FS-6 draws 8mA @ 9V, if it's getting it from an UNregulated supply, it's not loading e ough, and will get maybe 11V or more? Kind of like tube heaters - if your PT does 6.3V @ 5A and you only load it with 2x12AX7, your heaters are likely to run @ 8 or 9 volts?

Am I correct in saying a REGULATED supply will put out 9V whether 298 or 8mA are drawn?

Sorry to hijack, just thinking that understanding the principle can be applied to ANY pedal...

Justin

[g1]

Correct Justin. Regulated will maintain the voltage. Non-regulated will only put out the correct voltage at the specified current.

[Jazz P Bass]

Just to keep things in perspective, most pedals are not that picky about the voltage going a tad over the specified voltage.
There are usually high value resistors to ground that will shunt some of it & they are usually regulated internally.

[52 Bill]

Does this thing actually pass any signal? I thought that it was a 2 section footswitch, more like a sustain pedal for a keyboard.

[bowesj]

Does this thing actually pass any signal? I thought that it was a 2 section footswitch, more like a sustain pedal for a keyboard.

It is a two peddle foot switch. I am feeding a Roland cube and adjusting the volume for rhythm playing. You can use the 2nd switch for changing effects on the Roland cube.
Here is a video on the FS-6
BOSS FS-6 Dual Footswitch - YouTube
If anyone is interested, he forgot to mention the lights directly on the pedals which is why I like it (I can look down to see its setting).

The manual can be found with google string string "Boss FS-6 user manual"