LIne 6 adapters

[Ripper]

Im a huge Line 6 fan now. My Verbzilla has been the talk of my buddies. Life is good!

Well, kind of...

This thing eats batteries like theres no tomorrow!
A new energizer lasts a tad more then an hour...WOW!

I know a wall wart is the way to go, but my music store is all out of Line 6 DC-1 adapters. A few weeks I was told.

Is this not as simple as going to Radio Shack and finding one with the same specs? This is what it says in the manual.
Its like Chinese to me!

Power Requirements
Supply Voltage Min Normal Max
6VDC 9.6VDC 16VDC

Supply Current 40mADC 60mADC 100mADC

Power 0.4 watt 0.6 watt 1 watt

Here in Canada, the adapters are over $30...

[sumgai]

CaptainCanuck,

Those are standard specs, except in one place. What it all boils down to is that you can use anything that puts out between 6 and 16 volts DC, and that it has a minimum of 100 milliamps (mA) of current. The exception is that as the voltage goes up, the amperage requirement goes down, but what you re-printed from the manual has that reversed.

If a wall-wart supplies 16 vDC at 100 mA, then it will be more than sufficient, as the requirement is only for 40 mA. Now, I know you're thinking (as are others here), "hey, that's more amperage than what it's supposed to have, won't that damage my gear?". Nope. Recall the old analogy of "volts = pressure, amps = amount of water through the hose". If you have more pressure, you may well damage somethng, but if you provide more water than needed, but only at the correct pressure, then the device will only take what it needs, amperage-wise.

Continuing with the analogy - Let's say that your city water supply system provides 20 gallons per minute of water flow at 70 psi. If you turn on the dishwasher and the outside lawn sprinkler, and flush a toilet all at once, there's enough water flow, and enough pressure to do the job, right? But what about just one device at a time, won't all the pressure and flow damage something? Obviously not, your house has been doing just fine all these years, hasn't it. (Rhetorical question. If your home is somehow hosed, this is not the correct forum to bring that up! ) Now go back and do all the above, but also turn on the clothes washer, and take a shower, all at the same time. Now you'll see that none of the devices have full pressure nor full water flow. You've just seen a demonstration that no one device will take more water flow than it needs to get the job done. And, if you paid attention, you also saw that too many demands on the flow will reduce the amount of water at each and every device.

So what if we increase the pressure? No good. First, there's simply not enough water available - pressure doesn't make more water flow, it only makes what water we do have flow a bit faster. And now we see The Dark Side - if a device expects water to come to it from the pipe at a certain speed (pressure), then increasing that pressure will increase the speed, and that may well cause damage to the device (or more often, the joint where the device connects to the pipe).

Enough, back to electronics. Voltage is pressure, and too much of it will definitely harm devices (and not at the connection, either!). Amperage is water flow, and if your device doesn't use all of what's available, then no problem - the rest of the amperage is available for some other device, or it just sits idle, in reserve. Thus........

100 mA is a good minimum number, in this case. Not to mention, finding a wall-wart that puts out less than 100 mA is not easy. A tenth of an amp is small, and many devices require more than that. Your best bet will be a supply that actually puts out more amperage (within reason and your budget). Why? Because your 100 mA won't make it work as hard, and it'll remain cooler. That's a safety factor to consider, beside cost and ease of storage/transport/etc. Chris would advocate for a minimum multiplier of 4 times the expected current draw, and I concur. 400 mA supplies may be found, but fortunately for us, 500 mA supplies are common.

Now you're down to finding a wall-wart with the right polarity and output connector. Again, Radio Shack can do this with their universal plug adapter, if needed. Some of their more expensive wall-warts come with switchable output voltages, and plug adapters already in the box. They may seem a dollar or two more expensive, but you're paying for "no waiting", and that can't be all bad, right?


And to cap it off, if this is your only stompbox, fine, all the above applies. But if you have other foot-goodies, then you might consider an all-in-one supply to replace the several individual wall-warts. They're more expensive in the short run, but they do a great job of supplying clean power, at the correct polarity, and with less cord-clutter. But best of all, they demonstrate exactly what I said above about available amperage and how a device uses only what it needs. (I shoulda thought of them first! ;D)


HTH



sumgai

[Ripper]

Thanks again Sumgai...

Im going to Radio Shack ( The Source ) here in Canada. Ill check out what they have, and decide if im purchasing or waiting for a Line 6 to come into my music shop.

Just curious?...For me to type as much as you do, and be as thorough in my responses, id be here a loooong time! I do not type well at all.

How many wpm do you type?....again, im impressed!

I do, as we all do here appreciate the time you take and the patience you show.

[sumgai]

deep,

Thanks again for the vote of confidence.

I took typing while in the 8th grade - my parents thought it'd be good for me to be able to type up my own papers in college, instead of having to pay someone else to do it. Good call on their part. (Too bad they didn't force piano lessons on me back then. )

While in the Army, I did a stint as a clerk when the roster fell short. Another clerk timed me at 125 wpm whilst putting out two full pages, but you gotta understand, nearly everything was boiler-plate. That means, I had done it so often that I no longer had to think about it, I just aligned the paper on the roller, and started punishing the keys. Mighty few changes from one document to the next, so high word-counts like that were not too hard. Many of us could easily do over a hundred wpm, that's a fact.

Nowadays, it's a different story. I did one of those on-line test thingies about 5 or 6 years ago, and it reported me at 64 wpm. I believe it, but you know what? My backspace key legend is totally gone, warn off, invisible, fini....... I hit that thing so much that it's a wonder I haven't smoked the circuitry underneath it. ;D I still type fast, and often it's too fast, my fingers are getting more and more lysdexic, and running way behind my mind. Which is constantly changing what to say next, almost as often as I take a breath, it seems. So I end up editing myself a lot..... a helluva lot!

But in the end, I'd rather say a lot and let people take away from it what they can handle, instead of not saying very much at all, and risk having people go away with their questions still unanswered.

Unfortunately, I still haven't signed up for the ChrisK method of posting. He'd just say:

Brevity is.


sumgai

[vonFrenchie]

I'm the same way with typing, Sumgai. The unfortunate thing about my typing skills is that it hasn't quite translated into guitar skills yet. I'm getting up to Chuck Schuldiner's speed, not the really fast parts though. I took typing lessons all through Elementary and Middle School. I used to get up to 160 wpm.

But to stay on topic. I was doing some research on the Line 6/DC Brick compatibility (or lack there of). It sounds like if you would want to use the DC Brick your out of luck. The DC Brick could probably power 3 or 4 line 6 pedals but there are no adapters. You should by a Visual Sound 1 Spot. Its one wall wart that can power a bunch of pedals kind of like a dc brick. It only costs 30 bucks so you technically get 4 or 5 Line 6 wall warts for the price of one. Just a suggestion. www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Visual-Sound-1-SPOT-Combo-Pack?sku=151694

[sumgai]

vF,

The main trouble in the stomp-box world is that there's no standard for what voltage should be used (as an external source). That means that your Sound 1 Spot is a good thing if you have pedals that take 9 volts for external power. (Upside: at least they provide a couple of reverse-polarity devices. Another non-standard is whether to put the positive on the center pin or the outer shell.)

But for most folks, this will do nicely, so that's a good find on your part. Afraid I'm gonna have to ding you in the Exalt column for that one.


sumgai