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DIY Foot switch for Roland Micro Cube Bass RX Help

S

SRGilbert

Sep 11, 2008
29
27
#1
Hi group, just looking for a little help. I have a Roland Micro Cube Bass RX amp and I want to use the foot switchable drum machine features, but I don't want to pay the $70 for the Boss FS-6.

I have an old Peavey 2-button foot switch that I swapped out the latching SPST buttons for momentary ones and wired it up but it's doing something weird so I must be missing something.

The Peavey just has a standard "stereo" plug on it, three wire cable, red/black/ground. I duplicated the wire from the original, black to one, red to the other, ground tied together.

What it's SUPPOSED to do is one button controls start/stop on the drum machine and the other is a tap tempo.

What it's doing is the individual switches don't do anything. However, when you hold one switch down and hit the other, it does. So, holding switch one down and hit switch two will start the drum machine. Holding switch two down and tapping switch one will set the tempo. I've confirmed that it does the same with bare wires.

I can't seem to wrap my mind around this logic problem and would appreciate any suggestions! I know that the FS-6 is much more complex than a simple footswitch, so maybe it just can't be done?

Thanks

Thanks
 
#3
I know this is a year late reply..... I just bought a used Roland Micro Bass amp and want a foot switch for it. From what you described above, I will try foot switches that are momentary off. That is backwards from a lot of switches that are momentary on. I hope I can report back after I try it out. I kinda makes since when I look at the buttons on the amp. They do not click on and off, you just press them and they come back. I am guessing those buttons are "momentary off" switches.
 
#4
It's 4 months later and I finally got around to working on the foot switch. I finally got a stereo to 2 mono Y splitter. I attached 2 foot switches. I was getting puzzling results until I tried the foot switches, both in the normally closed position and the foot switch opens the circuit when tapped. Now it works. I hope this helps.
 
#5
The FS-6 has to be configured to match what the amp expects. Each switch can be configured as latching or non-latching. Also the polarity can be set for each switch.

The Cube RX manual is not very specific but it does say that an FS-6 or FS-5U works. FYI the "U" in FS-5U stands for unlatching. So you need to set the FS-6 to Non-Latching and then fiddle with the polarity to see what works.

If you search for the word polarity, the Cube RX manual shows the proper orientation for the polarity switch, which I believe is to the left. If I am reading the manual correctly, polarity is actually setting the switch to normally open or normally close. Per the FS-6 manual, setting the switch to the left results in, "switches to OPEN when the switch is on and CLOSE when the switch is off." So the switches should be configured to normally closed.

However, I own an FS-5U that I use with a Boss DD7 for tap tempo settings and to stop loops. The DD7 manual says the polarity switch should be to the left just like with the Cube RX, but I find the loop function is glitchy and randomly shuts off when the switch is set to the left. I run it with the switch to the right and it seems to work fine. If I remember correctly, it used to work properly with the polarity set to the left, so maybe the switch is dirty or damaged.

My point is experiment if the foot pedal is not working the way you expect.
 

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