OK to use low mA adapter ?

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 22 May 2009 3:33 am

I have a delay which wants 9V 1200 mA, and an old Jim Dunlop adapter which is 9V but only 200 mA.

Can it fry the delay to use an adapter with mA too low ?

Or, can it affect the sound quality or functionality ?

Thanks,
John

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 22 May 2009 3:44 am

What delay? HIGHLY unlikely that it draws anywhere near 1.2 amps. In the case of an underspec'd power supply, I believe it is the PS that is more in jeopardy of being fried than the FX unit. Sound quality & functionality definitely can be affected, though.
Again, what delay unit? 200mA should be enough for most things if it is dedicated (not shared).

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 22 May 2009 4:51 am

Here's the deal. I recently bought a Line6 DL4 delay which was slightly cheaper because it was "factory re-sealed box".

It sounded great for the first few hours but now the "reverse" and "loop" funtions are not quite right.

I'm not sure if the "Green Tech" batteries are giving out or if the pedal is a lemon. I wanted to try it with the Jim Dunlop adapter but didn't want to fry it and, thought if the power was too low it might not be a fair test.

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 22 May 2009 5:09 am

Whoa----FREEZE!

I'm looking at a picture of it and it calls for 9VAC.

But it can take batteries? I'm confused.

But no doubt about it, digital devices kill batteries in fractions of hours. It is not worth even trying. And dying batteries will certainly degrade a unit's operation---not just tone loss but also screwing up certain functions.

But you don't want to plug in an AC/DC adapter. Nope.

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--LINPX2

Joel DeGarmo · Post by **Joel DeGarmo** » 22 May 2009 5:24 am

Just so you know, the voodoo labs pedal power which is the "go to" power supply for many touring guitar players provides 250ma on two of it's outputs for players that have the line 6 pedals, so 250ma should be a safe enough mark. Hope that is helpful enough. The big problem most people have is that the connector is 2.5mm on the Line 6 instead of 2.1mm like the rest of the world.

Joel

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 22 May 2009 5:42 am

The manual does say "AC Power Operation", I thought this meant it could use an AC/DC power adapter. (AC in and DC out)

It will run using 4 "C" size batteries. The manual also says you should be able to get 20 to 30 hours out of a good set of batteries, which I found hard to believe.

The Jim Dunlop adapter I have says "Input: 120V AC 60Hz 6W, Output: 9V DC 200mA".

If I had some new batteries this would be a good test, I didn't want to sink $10 in batteries when the adapter is $20. I suppose waiting 2 or 3 days for the Line6 power adapter might be the best thing.

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 22 May 2009 5:57 am

Joel, you are right. Without plugging it in I confirmed the JD adapter won't even fit in the hole.

Waiting 2 days is not going to work out. I'll pick-up some more "C" batteries this afternoon...

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 22 May 2009 5:58 am

I'm really confused. I'm looking at the manual for the VooDooLab Pedal Power (I've got one) and it says that it can power a DL4. But the PP is a DC power supply.
I'm lost. I regret saying anything. I know for a fact that there are devices that will be destroyed by mixing up AC and DC wall wart power supplies.
I hope someone can clear this up. I hate giving bad info.

John Gould · Post by **John Gould** » 22 May 2009 6:45 am

Line 6 like most companies want you to use their power supply. It will take a DC out supply in fact the people who make the ONE SPOT sell a adapter for conversion of the size of the plug. I have the DL-4 and the MM-4 on my pedal board and the are both powered from a DC supply. Of course under powering any digital device can cause adverse effects.
In another life I was a professional guitar and steel player so I had a pro pedal board built.

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 22 May 2009 7:06 am

But WTF?

Clearly I am not understanding something here.

Scott Swartz · Post by **Scott Swartz** » 22 May 2009 7:45 am

The pedal power 2 does work for Line6 DL4, see manual

http://www.voodoolab.com/manuals/pp2plus_manual.pdf

Why?

It has to do with the power supply configuration (specifically the rectification) in the DL4.

On the most basic level, if you use the AC adapter, it rectifies that into DC and properly supplies the rest of the power supply components and the pedal. For the PARTICULAR power supply design in the DL4 (---CAUTION---will not necessarily work for other pedals that require AC adapters!!!!!!!!), the DC from the pedal power 2 will pass through the rectifiers and properly supply the rest of the power supply components and the pedal also.

keep in mind a rectifier is sort of a "switch" that allows current of a particular polarity to flow, and stops current of the reverse polarity.

With the AC adapter, current is flowing into the DL4 each half cycle of the AC wave, with DC from the pedal power 2 the rectifier "never turns off" in the DL4.

ONCE AGAIN CAUTION---will not necessarily work for other pedals that require AC adapters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

see also

http://www.analogman.com/voodoo.htm

When the PP2 is set to line6 mode it will do 250ma at 11 VDC unregulated, so the 9v 200 ma adapters will likely not work, I do not know the exact current draw of the line6, but the line6 mode is switching the regulator out of the circuit inside the PP2. The regulator chip is always the limiting factor for max current (due to heat), so switching it out allow more current delivery.

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 22 May 2009 8:46 am

MANY thanks, Scott, for reassuring me that I'm not totally crazy and, more importantly, for educating me. No, everything I thought I knew is not totally wrong but yes, there's some other stuff going on here with the Line6.
Glad to learn.

Sorry for muddying up this thread, John. Hope I didn't mess you up.

John Gould · Post by **John Gould** » 22 May 2009 9:22 am

One thing I forgot on my previous post, Both my line 6 pedals have been to Robert Keeley for his mod. I've never had any trouble or failure out of either pedal. I heard other folks say the DL-4 is problematic,I've had nothing but perfect performance from both pedals.
I think you can see in the picture I used George L cable for all the connections on the board And a custom built power supply hidden under the pedals. Actually the Tone Bone was the odd man out as far as the power requirements. It needs 15v to power it and at least 400ma so there was a little challenge to design a supply for both voltage needs. But I found a dual tap transformer and built 2 seperate regulator circuits.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 22 May 2009 10:41 am

Like Jon, I'm at the whiskey-tango-foxtrot point reading all this.

If the device you're trying to power calls for 1200 ma, the power supply you're using must supply at least 1200 ma to the device!!!

I'm amazed it worked at all with only 200 ma going in. And yes, you take a good chance of screwing it up by using the wrong power supply, or possibly burning up the teeny 200 ma power supply and starting a fire.

End of story.

Scott Swartz · Post by **Scott Swartz** » 22 May 2009 11:25 am

Clearly the label stating 1200 ma is not accurate, since voodoo labs has sold thousands of pedal power units that are powering lots of line6 pedals, if there was an issue it would be all over the internet.

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 22 May 2009 12:35 pm

Thanks for the information, guys. With new batteries the "loop" function is working again. For some reason the "reverse" mode only works if the "C" preset switch is engaged, which, from the instructions, doesn't seem right. With "C" off the reverse mode sounds like another regular delay.

These functions that record and play-back might require more power than the delay functions. I'll order the Line6 power supply to see if that helps.

Joel DeGarmo · Post by **Joel DeGarmo** » 22 May 2009 6:52 pm

For Line 6 it wouldn't be profitable to make it easy to power their pedals with just any power supply, but we had to know it would run on dc power because you can use batteries to run it. They learned from Roland who never puts specs on their Power supplies, just a model number so you have to run out to a roland dealer and buy one. Have fun with the DL4. I've had one for about 6 years and it is my favorite live delay by far.

Joel

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 23 May 2009 5:55 am

I would plug it in and see what happens, but I'm a retard. If the pedal works and the power supply doesn't get too hot, it works, otherwise, it doesn't. I use a lot of the 1 Spot stuff, they make adapters for everything (Elderly Music....) and nothing bad has ever happened to me. Or, at least to my pedals.... If this is a new Dunlop, it's a switchmode like the 1 Spots. If it's an old one, it's just gonna burn up anyway sooner or later.

John Lockney · Post by **John Lockney** » 26 May 2009 5:26 pm

I was really tempted to plug-in a regular 9v adapter to see if it would work but, the hole is actually a different size. It wouldn't fit into the pedal.

The Line6 adapter arrived today and says: "Class 2 Power Supply, Input: 120V AC 60Hz, Output: 9V AC 2000mA".

With the Line6 power supply the reverse and loop functions are fully operational. It even sounds better than brand new batteries.

I'm still amazed the manual said you could get 20 to 30 hours of life from a set of good batteries. Maybe that's true for the regular delay modes. The loop is so much fun to play with its easy to lose track of time.

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OK to use low mA adapter ?

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