V-Twin pedal power supply

[es336td]

What are the specs on this thing? I know 12 VAC/1A... is the center post negative? what is the size of the connector?

 

[es336td]

Ok... since it's AC the polarity doesn't matter.

Is it a 2.1 mm or 2.5 mm? Anyone know?

Thanx.

L

 

[Tfunk Ian]

I'd just call Mesa and get one from them. I think they are around $30 or so. That way, you know you have the correct part.

 

[es336td]

I'd just call Mesa and get one from them. I think they are around $30 or so. That way, you know you have the correct part.

I didn't make myself clear. I already have one that works well... I am trying to add a PedalSnake to my rig and need to know the dimensions so I can get the proper connectors. BTW... I tried to put a 2.1 mm on there and it was severely snug... therefore, I assume it is a 2.5 mm

 

[es336td]

Well, I bought the PedalSnake system and love it! If you have a complicated pedal board and a rack... you need this.

One problem though. My V-Twin has worked squirrelly ever since I got the PedalSnake. It wouldn't stay on when I plugged it into the adapter to the pedal snake. Jody @ PedalSnake told me to put it on the high voltage line and that would stop. Well, it didn't. After a nasty rack to pedal board accident, my V-Twin went to the shop. I borrowed a friend's. Still the same problems. I was able to hold the power supply connector and PedalSnake connector in my hands and push gently on the middle of the connection to get the power to come on and stay on. The power supply works fine plugged directly into the V-Twin, but not into the PedalSnake. I was thinking it could be a length thing. The PedalSnake length plus the power supply cable length could mean not enough voltage is getting to the unit to power up and stay up. Anyone know the minimum voltage tolerance for the V-Twin? If you double the length of the power supply cable does that effect it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[94Tremoverb]

The voltage drop even over double the length of cable is insignificant. It will be a connector issue, if pushing it in by hand makes it work.

 

[es336td]

The voltage drop even over double the length of cable is insignificant. It will be a connector issue, if pushing it in by hand makes it work.

But the connector works fine plugged directly into the V-Twin. The MIDI adapters with the PedalSnake work fine with other pedals. Anyone know what the minimum voltage for this pedal is? I have a bunch of digital stuff in my rack and on occasion low voltage has been a problem in some places. A friend got one of those Furman AR whatevers that keeps it a steady voltage from about 90 up.

 

[Tfunk Ian]

The voltage drop even over double the length of cable is insignificant. It will be a connector issue, if pushing it in by hand makes it work.

But the connector works fine plugged directly into the V-Twin. The MIDI adapters with the PedalSnake work fine with other pedals. Anyone know what the minimum voltage for this pedal is? I have a bunch of digital stuff in my rack and on occasion low voltage has been a problem in some places. A friend got one of those Furman AR whatevers that keeps it a steady voltage from about 90 up.

It may not be a voltage problem, you may not have enough current. That pedal needs to see 12 volts with 1-amp to function properly. Because it's a higher current pedal, your PedalSnake is probably under powered, which means your pedal is underpowered, which explains why it works fine on its own supply, but not on the PedalSnake. That would be my guess.

Are you plugging the actual supply for the V-Twin into the PedalSnake, and then into the V-Twin itself? If not, that's most likely your issue.

 

[es336td]

Are you plugging the actual supply for the V-Twin into the PedalSnake, and then into the V-Twin itself? If not, that's most likely your issue.

Yep. Same power supply into the PedalSnake adapter, through the MIDI connector, through the pedal board adapter, to the V-Twin. It used to work, but was always persnickety. One day I'll get time to actually work on it and see what else is happening. Just thought I'd ping the great minds on this forum to see if they'd had similar problems or knew of an easy fix.

 

[Tfunk Ian]

Hmm... Odd...

 

[es336td]

Hmm... Odd...

Exactly. The same with two different V-Twins and two different power supplies. At first I thought it was due to the length of the cable and was going to buy another one on eBay or something and cut out all but about 6 inches or so... but that theory was quashed here. Quite frustrating.

 

[Blaklynx]

I was able to hold the power supply connector and PedalSnake connector in my hands and push gently on the middle of the connection to get the power to come on and stay on. quote]

This is your problem by the sound of it. The connection is unstable. There's a few possibilities:
1. The pins going into the mating connector don't make contact with each other or don't make proper contact with each other.
2. The wire inside the cable/adapter is broken and makes contact when pressure is applied.
3. The wire inside the cable/adapter isn't properly soldered to the terminals.
4. A terminal may be broken.

Check the cable and adapters with a multi-meter (google how to check cables)

It's not a voltage issue. The cable length you talk of will not affect the voltage (virtually nil). It may be an Amps issue. I assume that the power supply (12VAC 1A) only supplies the V-Twin? If so, then it's not an Amps issue. If, however, it supplies other pedals or rack units, you are not providing enough current to the V-Twin. To make sure your power supplies have enough current, you need to add up the total amps of all units that the one power supply will be used on (assuming all units are the same voltage), ie. unit one draws 0.5Amps, unit two 1.2Amps, unit three 1amps = 2.7Amps. Therefore the minimum power supply required will need to be at least 3Amps.

Always use a power supply that provides more Amps than what the total current (Amps) draw is. It doesn't matter if the power supply is 5amps and a pedal only draws 0.2Amps.

Hope this helps.

 

[es336td]

I was able to hold the power supply connector and PedalSnake connector in my hands and push gently on the middle of the connection to get the power to come on and stay on. quote]

This is your problem by the sound of it. The connection is unstable. There's a few possibilities:
1. The pins going into the mating connector don't make contact with each other or don't make proper contact with each other.
2. The wire inside the cable/adapter is broken and makes contact when pressure is applied.
3. The wire inside the cable/adapter isn't properly soldered to the terminals.
4. A terminal may be broken.

Check the cable and adapters with a multi-meter (google how to check cables)

It's not a voltage issue. The cable length you talk of will not affect the voltage (virtually nil). It may be an Amps issue. I assume that the power supply (12VAC 1A) only supplies the V-Twin? If so, then it's not an Amps issue. If, however, it supplies other pedals or rack units, you are not providing enough current to the V-Twin. To make sure your power supplies have enough current, you need to add up the total amps of all units that the one power supply will be used on (assuming all units are the same voltage), ie. unit one draws 0.5Amps, unit two 1.2Amps, unit three 1amps = 2.7Amps. Therefore the minimum power supply required will need to be at least 3Amps.

Always use a power supply that provides more Amps than what the total current (Amps) draw is. It doesn't matter if the power supply is 5amps and a pedal only draws 0.2Amps.

Hope this helps.

Well, I measured it last night with my DVOM. The connector of the PS connected to the AC is a little over 13 V. I plug it into the PedalSnake and measure at the end that connects to the pedal; 8 something volts. The channel of the snake works with any and all other pedals. I've swapped to make sure. The problem just goes with the V-Twin. The V-Twin power supply only powers the V-Twin. If I take the power supply cable and bypass the PedalSnake, it works fine. Not sure what it is, and I've stumped Jody @ PedalSnake. I know a lot of the issue is communication. I may be explaining it wrong, and he (or you for that matter) can't see what's happening. Maybe I can make a video.... ;-)

 

[Blaklynx]

That's a huge drop in voltage. It's 30% down. If that's the case, I'd suspect the PedalSnake cable. Quality of cable perhaps? Or too thin? Or the cable has too much resistance.

I find it hard to believe that the V-Twin PS will drop in voltage to such a degree because of an extra cable connection. It's just a PS like any other. Surely the PS is 'not that sensitive'???

With the other pedals being OK, maybe they have a wider tolerance of being able to operate on lower volatges than they need as an average, ie. 9V. I assume battery based pedals? (battery loses power over time but pedals still work). With the V-Twin, it seems it must see a full voltage or at least only a small variation in voltage (maybe mimimum10~11V??). I can't answer that question.

Have you measured other PS's and then plug them into the PedalSnake and measure again? This can give you more information to state your case to Jody.

Have you tried a multi-pin extension cable, similar to this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/visual-sound-multi-plug-8-cable-for-1-spot that you can use on the V-Twin as test purposes to see what happens? If the pedal powers up OK with this length cable (maybe connect 2 lengths if you have them), then I'd suspect the PedalSnake cable.

It's all trial and error at this stage.

 

[es336td]

That's a huge drop in voltage. It's 30% down. If that's the case, I'd suspect the PedalSnake cable. Quality of cable perhaps? Or too thin? Or the cable has too much resistance.

I find it hard to believe that the V-Twin PS will drop in voltage to such a degree because of an extra cable connection. It's just a PS like any other. Surely the PS is 'not that sensitive'???

With the other pedals being OK, maybe they have a wider tolerance of being able to operate on lower volatges than they need as an average, ie. 9V. I assume battery based pedals? (battery loses power over time but pedals still work). With the V-Twin, it seems it must see a full voltage or at least only a small variation in voltage (maybe mimimum10~11V??). I can't answer that question.

Have you measured other PS's and then plug them into the PedalSnake and measure again? This can give you more information to state your case to Jody.

Have you tried a multi-pin extension cable, similar to this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/visual-sound-multi-plug-8-cable-for-1-spot that you can use on the V-Twin as test purposes to see what happens? If the pedal powers up OK with this length cable (maybe connect 2 lengths if you have them), then I'd suspect the PedalSnake cable.

It's all trial and error at this stage.

I have a Line 6 M9, which is a AC pedal... I also have a Godlyke Power-All that does the Roland GR-30 and Xotic BB Preamp. That's it. I have one heavier cable in the snake for high voltage pedals; the M9 is on it now. The V-Twin and Power-All have standard cable channels. If you haven't checked it out, PedalSnake uses MIDI cables for the base snake and you have adapters for each end. The standard doesn't have all the pins wired; 3 I guess. The heavier cable has all 5 pins wired. Mesa says to use the V-Twin only with their adapter, besides I don't have a 12 VAC PS other than the M9 (not sure of the voltage. Everything else is DC. I will play with moving the V-Twin to the heavier channel and see if it makes a diff. So twice the length of the original power supply should cause no or minimal voltage loss?

 

[Blaklynx]

I have a Line 6 M9, which is a AC pedal... I also have a Godlyke Power-All that does the Roland GR-30 and Xotic BB Preamp. That's it. I have one heavier cable in the snake for high voltage pedals; the M9 is on it now. The V-Twin and Power-All have standard cable channels. If you haven't checked it out, PedalSnake uses MIDI cables for the base snake and you have adapters for each end. The standard doesn't have all the pins wired; 3 I guess. The heavier cable has all 5 pins wired. Mesa says to use the V-Twin only with their adapter, besides I don't have a 12 VAC PS other than the M9 (not sure of the voltage. Everything else is DC. I will play with moving the V-Twin to the heavier channel and see if it makes a diff. So twice the length of the original power supply should cause no or minimal voltage loss?

If you only have the M9 PS that means you are trying to power the M9 and the V-Twin at the same time? It would seem that this PS is not enough to power two units. What is the current draw of the M9 unit (Amps). Or is the M9 PS not used on the M9 and only used on the V-Twin? If yes, check the PS voltage and Amps to see if it's enough to power the V-Twin on it's own.

Sorry to ask so many questions but you need to be a lot clearer what is doing what and what exactly is being connected to each other.

 

[es336td]

I have a Line 6 M9, which is a AC pedal... I also have a Godlyke Power-All that does the Roland GR-30 and Xotic BB Preamp. That's it. I have one heavier cable in the snake for high voltage pedals; the M9 is on it now. The V-Twin and Power-All have standard cable channels. If you haven't checked it out, PedalSnake uses MIDI cables for the base snake and you have adapters for each end. The standard doesn't have all the pins wired; 3 I guess. The heavier cable has all 5 pins wired. Mesa says to use the V-Twin only with their adapter, besides I don't have a 12 VAC PS other than the M9 (not sure of the voltage. Everything else is DC. I will play with moving the V-Twin to the heavier channel and see if it makes a diff. So twice the length of the original power supply should cause no or minimal voltage loss?

If you only have the M9 PS that means you are trying to power the M9 and the V-Twin at the same time? It would seem that this PS is not enough to power two units. What is the current draw of the M9 unit (Amps). Or is the M9 PS not used on the M9 and only used on the V-Twin? If yes, check the PS voltage and Amps to see if it's enough to power the V-Twin on it's own.

Sorry to ask so many questions but you need to be a lot clearer what is doing what and what exactly is being connected to each other.

No... each pedal has its own power supply. The only multi is the Godlyke PowerAll for the Roland GR-30 and Xotic BB Preamp.

BTW... my V-Twin is in the shop to have an LED replaced. I have borrowed one until that is finished. When mine is done, I'm sending it to Jody to do some trouble shooting. Will post results as I get them.