BOSS Pedal Problem - Anyone had this happen?

[Brow]

Hey guys.

I've bought a BOSS CE3 Chorus pedal today to go on either my main or 2nd pedalboard (haven't decided which) and it seems to have a strange problem.

If the pedal is being powered from a power supply (as it was in the shop when I tried it) the status LED doesn't work when the pedal is switched on, but if powered from a battery, it works fine.

Has anyone ever came across this before? If so, how did you (or could I) solve it?

The pedal works great in all other ways, but if I could get the LED working when powered from a PSU, so it can go on my pedalboard, then it'd be alot better :)

Thanks!

[opprobrium_9]

i would send it back and see if you can exchange.

[Brow]

i would send it back and see if you can exchange.

Not really an option as I bought it 2nd hand from a local shop.

I know there's not an issue with the LED as it works when powered from a battery, just not when from a power supply. I have no idea why it would work like this, so was hoping someone had had a similar thing happen and could possibly advise?

[Ratrod]

Chech the connections on the PC board. Stuff like this can usually be fixed with a touch of the soldering iron.

[mikey5]

Dude any boss pedal needs very specific electronic stuff. For example it only works with the boss PSA 9v.

[Will]

Boss' works with any 9v PSU I have found.

BOSS Pedal Problem - Anyone had this happen?

Yes, I did once own some Boss pedals.

More seriously, I do recall having that issue, it would have been on a CH1 or CE5; I wasn't fussed however

[maverickf1jockey]

Dude any boss pedal needs very specific electronic stuff. For example it only works with the boss PSA 9v.

You will find that virtually everything claims that it will only work with a so called 'dedicated' PSU.
This is frankly bollocks as, as far as I can tell, the only thing that is different to other 9V units is that ones made for guitar effects have a ground prong as opposed to a piece of plastic.
Any similar PSU will work fine with no hitches.

[Ratrod]

As long as the PSU is 9V and doesn't exceed the amount of recommended Ma (milliampères), you'll be fine.

[Brow]

Cheers for the replies.

The PSU I'm using is 1 of those 'Diago' style 1s, but I bought 1 cheap from Maplins and reversed the polarity myself. It works for everything that's 9v with a -ve polarity (including this CE3 Chorus), there's only the LED that's causing a problem.

I'll have a poke around inside the pedal to see if I can find anything, or might just stick it on my main board and use it through the switching system. Atleast that way I get a visual confirmation if the pedal is on or not :)

[hunter]

sounds like a polarity issue to me.

Is one of your pedals inverse polarity or the pedal power cable?

[Brow]

sounds like a polarity issue to me.

Is one of your pedals inverse polarity or the pedal power cable?

Not that I know of no.

All the pedals on this small board are -ve (2 ODs, a wah, tuner, the chorus and a ZVex Super Duper) and all the power cables are -ve too, as the LEDs on all the other BOSS pedals on the board light up (I've tried each power cable outlet with a pedal to check that they all work ok).

Someone on another forum I go on has mentioned that because it's an older pedal, BOSS sometimes made them to run on a 12v adapter instead of 9v. I have this LED problem with my OLD SD1 when powered from a stand alone 9v adapter, but when powered from my pedalboard PSU it works fine  :?

[Canadian Steve]

It may just be your power supply.  It should say beside the 9v input either PSA or ACA.  The older Boss pedals need ACA and the newer ones PSA.

[Canadian Steve]

Check out this:
http://bossarea.com/other/aca.asp

[Brow]

Check out this:
http://bossarea.com/other/aca.asp

Thanks for the link.

It says on there that if I daisy chain it with another BOSS pedal, then it should make it work, so I''ll go and try that :)

[the_bleeding]

my visual sound OneSpot powers all of my boss pedals... and my maxon... and my tuner... at the same time.

Fancy that.