Sleeve is on outside and pin is on inside. Would be fairly difficult to short those me thinks.
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MXR Iso-Brick
- Thread starter Bassmike62
- Start date
Sleeve is on outside and pin is on inside. Would be fairly difficult to short those me thinks.
If you where taking it out of the cable, yes, but not if you were trying to probe both the inner sleeve and center pin on the power supply itself. gh.
Not saying he did, nor do I know what would actually happen. I do know that if you touch jumper cables + and - together it sparks. Not apples to apples, just thinking out loud (online).
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Bah...anyone can have an occasional product they make fail. Mine's fine.
My gunslinger was working as it should've been after that. Yet it still worried me, that's why I got up last night. When I turned my board on at that point, it was fine. Everything worked. I was worried about that 18v port. So what did I do? I plugged my gunslinger into it. Then something blew in it.
Edit: to clarify the overall issue. The 5/16v top left port was giving me issues. So I unplugged what was in it, the fdeck. The fdeck does not work now. Late last night, maybe because I'm stupid but it was really bothering me, I tried unplugging my gunslinger from the bottom right 18v port (the gunslinger still worked at This point) and tired it in the top left 18v port. At that point, the gunslingers led went out. Tested it on its own, it's super nasty distorted and unusable. No led.
Now, this was after I tried testing those two top left ports with a volt meter. The 5/16v port wasn't reading anything. So I tried the 18v. That's when it arced and I stopped what I was doing. I didn't touch the two top left ports until I tried plugging my gunslinger back into that 18v port later last night. So I guess it's possible that the gunslinger was my fault. I still don't understand why. Yes, there was an arc. But I thought these ports were surge protected, no??
Very stressed right now
I am not saying it's your fault. Just don't mention that to MXR as they might take a different view in their own self interest.
I wish I would've gotten the Truetone now. I obviously didn't know Id be going through all this, and maybe I simply got the 1 out 10,000 that was bad. Bad luck is bad luck. There are thousands of musicians out there that swear by MXR. I wouldn't let my exp sway any of you. But what has happened so far, its pretty much ruined my opinion of the product and depending on how MXR responds, maybe them too. This isn't the first time Ive had bad exp with MXR products. Never to this extent. Or even to the extent I would want to contact tech support. But nonetheless, there was a couple times something happened with their pedals that I had that really made me question ever buying one again.
In short, and again depending on what happens, I don't think Ill have another MXR product as long as I live. That is a powerful statement. But Im still extremely bummed right now. Even if the DOD hadn't fried (which was most likely my bad. If I thought I saw I spark in that port, I shouldn't have plugged anything else into after that. Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to do it. And I paid the price and will most likely have to pay the price to get that one repaired as well so that one is on me at this point I think), and it was just the scenario from before all that happened, I would still be very disappointed in what was going on.
I was going off of a post of someone here that was trying to help as far as that testing went. I misunderstood him and tested directly to the power supply, not to the plug into the PSU. Its obvious that was not the way to do it. So as far as that is concerned, my mistake.
Following both the threads here and on BT, the only issues have been @gregmon79's, @FretNoMore had a bad port and I had 2 failed power cables.
Past that dozens of units have had no issues.
And I couldn't blame them actually. In fact, Im thinking of only bringing up the 6/15v port and Fdeck. I know for an honest fact that I did nothing wrong on that front and that something went faulty there. Fact.
Thanks for the encouragement guys, it's appreciated. I've been seriously bummed out about this all day. I thick the only people that understand that are you guys. It's like, if there's anything ever wrong with my board, I fret/stress until it's rectified. Something like this is really a time thing. And I hate that.
It's only been 24 hours. Nothing yet. I'm not sure I can wait though. I may have to just send my damaged pedals to some guys in the know, pay for my one mistake and be done with it. The idea of waiting on Dunlop is not sitting well with me right now.
So I thought I would take a moment to clarify something. I really am/was not trying to bad mouth MXR. I was really pissed the day that all that went down and the only way I got some type of relief was to tell all you what happened. I don't want to steer anyone away from the Brick. It really is a good and powerful, even versatile, PSU. Im sure I got a faulty unit. I will add this though, be careful on where you guys are setting on your variable ports voltages. It looks to me as if 9v is actually on the fifth line of the dial, don't point it right at 9v! Because that would be a little over 10v. I made sure to set mine on the first one I got below that point and it still made my FDeck inoperable. That is why Im almost positive I got a faulty unit. They really should think about either redesigning those pot and knobs or use different kinds. I always thought people made too big a deal out of those types of knobs and switches on power supplies that have them, but IMO, its one of the worst ideas to have stuff like that on power supplies. Because in reality, in the real world of gigging and moving your board from place to place, stage to stage, those knobs or switches are serious liabilities.
Dunlop did get back to me, at 10pm last night. I decided that the issues needed to be fixed much faster than they could've done for me. Which I understand. They are a big company and cannot be expected to babysit issues like say a boutique builder can at times. I get it. I would also have needed to jump through a lot of hoops to get MXR the info they wanted/needed to fix my problem. This would've taken time. And then in the end, there was no guarantee that they would've taken care of the issue. Again, pretty understandable.
All in all, it was a crappy situation to be in, but it happened. Im lucky enough to have some people on the forums to be generous enough to help me by looking at the pedals that were damaged and possible fix them. I went ahead and exchanged the Brick from where I got it, CME, without a hitch. In fact, they sent a new one out to me before they even had the original one back, so thank you CME for being so helpful and fast. I don't have the money or time it would've taken to wait on Dunlop. Really, no offense to them, I totally get it. It's about me needing my board fully functional for my band and a little part impatience on my part. When there are problems with my board, I do not rest and am stressed about it until its fixed. SO yeah, crappy poopie happened. I have to move on from it. I hope this doesn't make any of you think MXR's stuff is bad. I would however be cautious of those darn variable port knobs though guys.
Dunlop did get back to me, at 10pm last night. I decided that the issues needed to be fixed much faster than they could've done for me. Which I understand. They are a big company and cannot be expected to babysit issues like say a boutique builder can at times. I get it. I would also have needed to jump through a lot of hoops to get MXR the info they wanted/needed to fix my problem. This would've taken time. And then in the end, there was no guarantee that they would've taken care of the issue. Again, pretty understandable.
All in all, it was a crappy situation to be in, but it happened. Im lucky enough to have some people on the forums to be generous enough to help me by looking at the pedals that were damaged and possible fix them. I went ahead and exchanged the Brick from where I got it, CME, without a hitch. In fact, they sent a new one out to me before they even had the original one back, so thank you CME for being so helpful and fast. I don't have the money or time it would've taken to wait on Dunlop. Really, no offense to them, I totally get it. It's about me needing my board fully functional for my band and a little part impatience on my part. When there are problems with my board, I do not rest and am stressed about it until its fixed. SO yeah, crappy poopie happened. I have to move on from it. I hope this doesn't make any of you think MXR's stuff is bad. I would however be cautious of those darn variable port knobs though guys.
Adamixoye
A PT Pro is cool for worship, right?
- Apr 9, 2012
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- Occasional Beta Tester for Confusion Studios, Singular Sound, and Source Audio
Is there any way one could wire up a little tester for a multimeter where one end is the plug that goes into the outlet, and the other end plugs into the multimeter? I would assume it's doable, but might be dangerous... I don't know. Somethijg to consider and something that MXR should address to its customers.
On this page they recommend that you take the reading of of one of the power cables.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
"How can I make sure the variable outputs are set to the right voltage?
The easiest way is to measure at the end of a connector cable with a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. First, make sure the power supply itself is plugged in, and then plug one of the connector cables into one of the variable outputs. Set your multimeter to measure DCV; if yours doesn't automatically detect voltage, select the 20 DCV setting. Set the voltage control about where you want it.
Next, use one of your multimeter's probes to touch the inside center of the plug's barrel, and use the other probe to touch the outside of the barrel. Your multimeter will then display the output's voltage. Use the variable control to adjust as needed. Note: whether the number shown on the multimeter's screen is positive or negative depends on which probe touched which part of the barrel, but that doesn't matter for our purposes. The value will be accurate either way."
I tested it with the MXR plugged in. Then plug one of the power cables into said port. Then, take a multi meter. Put the neg tip in the sleeve, positive tip to the outside of the sleeve. Don't drive the neg tip all the way in, just enough to where you can tilt it and it's touching the inside sleeve. That gets a super accurate read.
I'm still paranoid about the variable ports. I need to keep an eye on them because believe it or not, they can get bumped and move. I'm still thinking of a way to rig it where they will stay right where they need to be. I'm thinking some kind of super glue or epoxy. What's that goop they put on the inside of pedals when they wanna hide what they're doing??
I don't care if the variables won't be able to move again. I can't see myself ever wanting to change the voltage on a pedal. I already will have the option to go 18v x 2 and 12v x 1. That's all I'll need for the foreseeable future.
I'm still paranoid about the variable ports. I need to keep an eye on them because believe it or not, they can get bumped and move. I'm still thinking of a way to rig it where they will stay right where they need to be. I'm thinking some kind of super glue or epoxy. What's that goop they put on the inside of pedals when they wanna hide what they're doing??
I don't care if the variables won't be able to move again. I can't see myself ever wanting to change the voltage on a pedal. I already will have the option to go 18v x 2 and 12v x 1. That's all I'll need for the foreseeable future.
Hot glue or epoxy. Personally, I'd just set it and then put some tape over it. I think the voltage starve thing is meant for those few pedals where a dying battery in them sounds cool. Kind of like the sag control on the Barbershop, lowers the voltage hitting some part of the circuitry.
Yeah I figured that was what its function was for mainly. Ill try the tape in the meantime. Because I really don't want those to go uncovered. Thanks bra
Yeah, I was gonna say hot glue as well.
Puget Systems, a premier custom computer build company in Auburn, Washington (just outside of Seattle) actually uses hot glue on many of the wire connections of the builds that they ship. It's easy enough to get off, doesn't affect the electrical connection and insures that the wires remain seated and connected during transport.
Finally decided to take the plunge on the Iso Brick. Been powering like 13 9v pedals with it for a few hours and it's still working, so that's goodVery happy with it so far. Got it parked under my PT Jr with velcro and it fits fine. You will need right angle plugs for the bottom row of hookups, but it will fit. I like that it's so light and small...most of those things weigh a ton. Uses a wall wart but I've got it velcro'ed under the board too, so I can either run an extension cord for long runs or use the wart for shorter ones. Still way lighter and smaller than most PS's with that much power and that many options. So far the reaction is way positive.
Hey Jimi can I see a picture of how you have the Iso brick attached to the Pt Jr?
