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Post by mr_sooty on Oct 8, 2009 17:32:07 GMT -5
I have a tremolo pedal (Cusack Tap a Whirl) that has a tempo indicator LED - as well as the normal bypass LED. The tap te,po on ehas started to develop a wierd issue. It's usuall fine when I first plug in my pedal board, but over a period of half an hour or so it gets dimmer and dimmer until it's gone completely. If I unplug and plug in again straight away, it's still gone. But then the next day I'll plug in and it's all good again, but the pattern continues, with it gradually fading away over half and hour or so.
The pedal continues to operate as normal apart from the LED issue.
Is this an LED problem, a solder joint problem, or a resistor problem? Or something else I haven't thought of?
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Post by sumgai on Oct 8, 2009 23:23:39 GMT -5
sooty, I'll take what's behind Option D, Monte!! When something goes bad in a consistent way like this, it's almost always a heat-related problem. Battery powered units don't ordinarily suffer heat issues, but small capacitors can and do go bad, even under these low-voltage conditions. It can be tough, and very time consuming, to figure it out, but there is a way for the average Joe Blow to do the job. Run down to your local friendly neighborhood Dick Smith Eelectronics store (choose one or more of 'em from here), and fetch a can of this stuff. That's commonly known as Component Cooler, a spray that almost freezes hot components, right in their tracks. If something is getting hot (or just too warm), hit it with this puppy, and check to see if the problem has been solved. The effect lasts awhile, so it might be as long as the same half-hour for the problem to crop up again, that's always hard to tell. Hit various capacitors to see what happens. If you want, feel free to hit other components too, particularly if they feel hot (or worse, if they smell funny (as in funny-weird, not funny-haha)). BTW, I don't know the current rate of currency exchange between your dollar and the USA dollar, but if it's near par, then that can of cold air is one expensive puppy!! Might look into getting it from the Northern Hemisphere, even with shipping.... HTH sumgai
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Post by JohnH on Oct 9, 2009 7:56:51 GMT -5
Alternatively, could it be that the power jack is not switching over to the external supply properly, and in fact the pedal is still running on an old battery inside, which dies after a while, but recovers a bit by the next morning?
John
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Post by mr_sooty on Oct 9, 2009 17:36:11 GMT -5
Alternatively, could it be that the power jack is not switching over to the external supply properly, and in fact the pedal is still running on an old battery inside, which dies after a while, but recovers a bit by the next morning? John Nice theory, but there's no battery inside. Yeah, everything is expensive in New Zealand, our dollars currently worth 0.72 cents US, and that's considered very high, the exporters are moaning, and I'm importing again. Most things are about double here what they are in the US, so if that can of spray is $12 -$15 or so in America, that's about right. Anyway, Cusack is sending a new board for it, so I won't bother with the spray. I just thought if it was a simple LED replacement I'd do it without waiting for the board, but the LED seems fine when it's working well, so I guess there's nothing wrong with it. Cheers!
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