Normal when controlling a Roadster with a Boss ES-8?

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DarthSnah

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Hello.

Apologies if this has already been handled in a different thread.

I have a Roadster head and recently purchased a Boss ES-8. I have connected two Y cables with TRS in one end and two mono plugs in the other from the Ctrl outputs of the Boss into the channel 1-4 control inputs in the back of the Roadster.

When I read the Roadsters manual i understand that
- the signal must be latching
- only one channel can receive the "on" signal at the time meaning the other three channels must be "off".

The BOSS setup gives plenty of options wrt what is transmitted: latch, pulse, inverted pulse etc. default being latching - which is what mine is set to.

I am a bit baffled that in order to e.g. select channel 3, the control signals must be set to:
CH1: on
CH2: on
CH3: off
CH4: on
Which is exactly the opposite of what I would expect. Any similar experiences?
 
Howdy

I have a Roadster and it’s controlled with voodoo lab control switcher.

Your multiple on:s seems a bit confusing :shock: when the amp is set to Footswitch from the back panel knob, only one relay control at a time should be needed to actually control the wanted channel.

For example when I want to use channel 3 only the relay that controls ch3 should be active (eg. the circuitry is closed)

The amp will change channels with multiple relays active at a time but I’m not sure if it hurts the amp or if it works correctly :|
 
Hola!

Just measured the output from the ES-8 and resistance between tip and sleeve is infinite when the signal is set to "on" and 0 when set to off.
It works but it's a bit more parameters to set. Luckily this may be done from a PC.

Kippis!
 
It depends on the switching matrix of the amp. I control a Royal Atlantic with a Boss MS-3, which has three channels. With the regular foot switch, the wiring scheme is such that switch one controls changing from clean to either of the gain channels, and switch two controls which gain channel. so what you wind up with is:

Off/Off = Clean
Off/On = Clean
On/Off = Low Gain
On/On = Hi Gain

I imagine the Road King with 4 channels gets even more complicated but what you're describing makes sense. Inside the Road King foot switch they have a circuit that handles the logic, but when you're using the switching jacks on the back of the amp, all of that logic needs to be broken down to Binary On/Off to achieve all of the options.
 
the recluse said:
Inside the Road King foot switch they have a circuit that handles the logic, but when you're using the switching jacks on the back of the amp, all of that logic needs to be broken down to Binary On/Off to achieve all of the options.

I agree with you there

I guessed what surprised me is that the boss es8 closes the circuit when set to off rather than when it's on. But that might be normal, I don't know.
It works I just have to reverse the logic. Aaaaaand this is a mesa board not boss :D

Thanks for your thoughts
 
DarthSnah said:
Hola!

Just measured the output from the ES-8 and resistance between tip and sleeve is infinite when the signal is set to "on" and 0 when set to off.
It works but it's a bit more parameters to set. Luckily this may be done from a PC.

Kippis!

Yep.. that logic sounds a bit counterintuitive :|

The amp defaults to channel 1 when there are no ext switches shorted so with four relays one could have any of the four channels selected plus one extra feature controlled (solo/reverb/fxloop..) 8)

Vær så god..
 
So, in the end, how are you controlling the Roadster? I ask you because I just got a Roadster, without footswitch and I'm looking for the cheapest solution to control it remotely (ES5, ES8, Voodoo Lab?).
 
Well… cheapest I’ve seen would be emcustom’s interface

At least in EU
That’s what I use on both my Roadsters, they work flawlessly with my MIDI setup, they are self-powered from the switching circuit, Bluetooth capable making it super easy to configure right from your phone, and much smaller than the Voodoo Labs Control Function Switcher.

I velcro’ed and zip tied it to the inside of the tube protector bar, made a custom right angled cable so it can stay plugged in at all times, and added a midi feedthrough to make hookup a breeze at gigs. I did the same for the IEC power cable, using a Neutrik Powercon T1 connector. I got tired of wiggling my hand inside that head shell real quick.

Dom

IMG_3543.jpeg
 
That’s odd, both my Roadster heads default to no channel selected at power up.

Dom

Yep.. the circuit is channel 1 but the light is not lit 🤣

Edit: at least it works 100% same as switched to ch 1
 
That’s what I use on both my Roadsters, they work flawlessly with my MIDI setup, they are self-powered from the switching circuit, Bluetooth capable making it super easy to configure right from your phone, and much smaller than the Voodoo Labs Control Function Switcher.

I velcro’ed and zip tied it to the inside of the tube protector bar, made a custom right angled cable so it can stay plugged in at all times, and added a midi feedthrough to make hookup a breeze at gigs. I did the same for the IEC power cable, using a Neutrik Powercon T1 connector. I got tired of wiggling my hand inside that head shell real quick.

Dom

View attachment 2058

That looks really neat and road-ready 👍

Great idea 💡
 
Slic
That’s what I use on both my Roadsters, they work flawlessly with my MIDI setup, they are self-powered from the switching circuit, Bluetooth capable making it super easy to configure right from your phone, and much smaller than the Voodoo Labs Control Function Switcher.

I velcro’ed and zip tied it to the inside of the tube protector bar, made a custom right angled cable so it can stay plugged in at all times, and added a midi feedthrough to make hookup a breeze at gigs. I did the same for the IEC power cable, using a Neutrik Powercon T1 connector. I got tired of wiggling my hand inside that head shell real quick.

Dom

View attachment 2058
Very slick setup... I have to seriously look at the EM for my V:90
 
I use one of these to control everything my foot switch control did on my road king ii, via midi, and just got one for my Mark V as well. They are awesome and should work really well with an ES-8 as well (I owned one a few years ago and it's a great unit).

https://emcustom.eu/amp-midi-switcher-interface.html
It cost about about $140US but it totally worth it. They're not in the states, so shipping takes awhile, but it is a total fire-and-forget solution. I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board to look up how to setup the Mark V unit (it's literally sitting in its unopened box next to my keyboard right now, it showed up yesterday).
 
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