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The Sushi Box FX Secret Society

#23,661
Jhili said:
Has anyone in the EU received a pedal this year?
Click to expand...
My Finally was shipped at the end of January. It's still held in customs here in Red Tape Hell aka Poland. It's been weeks.

They requested a bunch of documents and now they want me to grant the post office power of attorney to clear customs but they won't accept my Italian ID and i don't have a passport. I'm not a citizen of Poland. I already have to deal with one incompetent country.
The post office wouldn't pick up the phone. Awaiting a reply to my email.

I hope to get my pedal without having to travel to another city or some malarkey like that.
I never had to do any of this before when I bought electronics from the US.
Really irritating.
 
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#23,663
Sushi Box FX said:
The circuit powers up as soon as it is plugged in, the footswitch is just to bypass it, it doesn't power it off. This is true of all pedals, not just tube pedals.


If the LED is blinking once a second or so then it means your power supply is having trouble delivering enough current to the pedal and is shutting down and rebooting. If it stabilizes eventually then you may still be fine, but if it does it for more than a few seconds then you may want to look for a new power supply.
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Thanks, it's supposed to be able to output 9v 500mA - should that be sufficient for a Neptunium? I'll double check I have it in the correct port as there are a few on the box at 300mA
 
#23,664
900se said:
Thanks, it's supposed to be able to output 9v 500mA - should that be sufficient for a Neptunium? I'll double check I have it in the correct port as there are a few on the box at 300mA
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@Sushi Box FX well, it looks like the supply. It flashes 5 or 6 times - but is then stable and fine. I tried different 500mA ports on the power supply - and made sure nothing else was plugged into any of the other ports - but it still flashed.

I then tried a 9v 400mA power supply that came with the a Source Audio pedal - and it came straight on, so it looks like the power supply is suspect. A pain as the shop said it was a decent one. I've got a multimeter somewhere - would that be reliable in testing the power output against one of the power leads alone - or would I need to put it in across or in series with it connected to the pedal itself?

Thanks
 
#23,665
900se said:
Thanks, it's supposed to be able to output 9v 500mA - should that be sufficient for a Neptunium? I'll double check I have it in the correct port as there are a few on the box at 300mA
Click to expand...
500mA should be fine, that's the minimum I recommend for it. If it flashes 5-6 times then stabilizes then it shouldn't be a huge deal, I would only started worrying if it's taking more than about 20 seconds to stabilize.

Power supplies are complicated because they're all designed differently. 400mA is closer to what the pedal will pull when it's actually warmed up, but some power supply manufacturers will limit their supply exactly at the rating while others will allow a little "wiggle room" in the output. I know that OneSpot, for example, can exceed its output rating for a brief period of time without damaging the supply. I've pulled about 1900mA out of a 1700mA OneSpot supply for a few seconds while tubes were warming up. If a supply is hard-limited at 500mA then it should still work, it might just take a few seconds to get started, as you observed.

This type of thing is exactly why I started offering power supplies as an optional add-on for my pedals. The supplies I carry are nothing special, you're not required to use them, they don't make the pedals sound better or anything like that. But they're filtered well so the power is quiet, and they're rated for 1000mA, so they're a safe option if you don't already have a supply or if you don't know if your supply will work.

I currently only have US-style plug power supplies, but I am working on getting some international supplies with swappable plugs so I can provide supplies to my friends elsewhere in the world.
 
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#23,668
Sushi Box FX said:
500mA should be fine, that's the minimum I recommend for it. If it flashes 5-6 times then stabilizes then it shouldn't be a huge deal, I would only started worrying if it's taking more than about 20 seconds to stabilize.

Power supplies are complicated because they're all designed differently. 400mA is closer to what the pedal will pull when it's actually warmed up, but some power supply manufacturers will limit their supply exactly at the rating while others will allow a little "wiggle room" in the output. I know that OneSpot, for example, can exceed its output rating for a brief period of time without damaging the supply. I've pulled about 1900mA out of a 1700mA OneSpot supply for a few seconds while tubes were warming up. If a supply is hard-limited at 500mA then it should still work, it might just take a few seconds to get started, as you observed.

This type of thing is exactly why I started offering power supplies as an optional add-on for my pedals. The supplies I carry are nothing special, you're not required to use them, they don't make the pedals sound better or anything like that. But they're filtered well so the power is quiet, and they're rated for 1000mA, so they're a safe option if you don't already have a supply or if you don't know if your supply will work.

I currently only have US-style plug power supplies, but I am working on getting some international supplies with swappable plugs so I can provide supplies to my friends elsewhere in the world.
Click to expand...
Thanks. So, just to clarify what's happening - to get it clear in my head: The pedal demands more current than the power supply can provide. The supply then goes 'f -you' and shuts the supply off for a small period of time. It then repeats this a few times - hence the flashes - over which the tube has warmed up enough to demand less - and so the supply is maintained? Watching the supply - which is under the board - the line's green LED is flashing in line with the pedal. Which you would expect.

Thanks again for your time.
 
#23,669
900se said:
Thanks. So, just to clarify what's happening - to get it clear in my head: The pedal demands more current than the power supply can provide. The supply then goes 'f -you' and shuts the supply off for a small period of time. It then repeats this a few times - hence the flashes - over which the tube has warmed up enough to demand less - and so the supply is maintained? Watching the supply - which is under the board - the line's green LED is flashing in line with the pedal. Which you would expect.

Thanks again for your time.
Click to expand...
Which power supply are you using?
 
#23,671
900se said:
NUX Zeus Jnr - ZEUS Jr. (NIP-Z6) - NUX
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Seems like a decent power supply, it sounded to me like you may have had a Strymon by the way you described the lights underneath. I run this under my board.

IMG_0798.jpeg
 
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#23,672
900se said:
NUX Zeus Jnr - ZEUS Jr. (NIP-Z6) - NUX
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Their description is a little wonky:
"ZEUS Jr. comes with 4 outputs (9V/500mA*3 | 9V/300mA*1) and 2 adjustable high current outputs (9V/300mA | 12v/225mA | 18v/150mA)"
I think they mean high voltage for their adjustable outputs? Otherwise, it might suggest that the 4 main outputs aren't really isolated if they're calling 300/225/150 high current? IDK. When I was using a Walrus Aetos the 300mA output was not enough for my UA. I'm betting the 500mA outputs might not actually be delivering that much current.
 
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#23,673
EastDakota said:
Their description is a little wonky:
"ZEUS Jr. comes with 4 outputs (9V/500mA*3 | 9V/300mA*1) and 2 adjustable high current outputs (9V/300mA | 12v/225mA | 18v/150mA)"
I think they mean high voltage for their adjustable outputs? Otherwise, it might suggest that the 4 main outputs aren't really isolated if they're calling 300/225/150 high current? IDK. When I was using a Walrus Aetos the 300mA output was not enough for my UA. I'm betting the 500mA outputs might not actually be delivering that much current.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

The proper solution is to "Add PS" option to your next Pedal purchase?...
 
#23,675
andare said:
My Finally was shipped at the end of January. It's still held in customs here in Red Tape Hell aka Poland. It's been weeks.

They requested a bunch of documents and now they want me to grant the post office power of attorney to clear customs but they won't accept my Italian ID and i don't have a passport. I'm not a citizen of Poland. I already have to deal with one incompetent country.
The post office wouldn't pick up the phone. Awaiting a reply to my email.

I hope to get my pedal without having to travel to another city or some malarkey like that.
I never had to do any of this before when I bought electronics from the US.
Really irritating.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your answer.
Good luck, that you will get it soon.
 
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#23,677
EastDakota said:
Their description is a little wonky:
"ZEUS Jr. comes with 4 outputs (9V/500mA*3 | 9V/300mA*1) and 2 adjustable high current outputs (9V/300mA | 12v/225mA | 18v/150mA)"
I think they mean high voltage for their adjustable outputs? Otherwise, it might suggest that the 4 main outputs aren't really isolated if they're calling 300/225/150 high current? IDK. When I was using a Walrus Aetos the 300mA output was not enough for my UA. I'm betting the 500mA outputs might not actually be delivering that much current.
Click to expand...
Yes - I think that's what they mean - as they're suppose to be separate supplies. Anyway - I checked it with just one of the 500mA lines connected to the Neptunium pedal and everything else disconnected - and it still happened. I believe Nathan is right and there is a hard fixed limiter in each line that momentarily cuts the feed to the connected device if the power output is exceeded. It's just whether it is 500mA limit and the pedal demands a smidge more when warming up - or if the supply is limiting at less that 500mA. I may take the pedal and supply in to my local tame music shop and compare it to another Zeus Jnr that they have in stock.
 
#23,678
Noob question but it's early, I'm just starting my coffee and I've had a difficult week - I bought a power supply with my Neptunium, but as I strategize how to cut down on power cables I'm wondering if it's okay to use with a OneSpot + daisy chain extender? Also trying to figure out which port would be best off my Cioks Ciokolate.
 
#23,679
aguacateojos said:
Noob question but it's early, I'm just starting my coffee and I've had a difficult week - I bought a power supply with my Neptunium, but as I strategize how to cut down on power cables I'm wondering if it's okay to use with a OneSpot + daisy chain extender? Also trying to figure out which port would be best off my Cioks Ciokolate.
Click to expand...
9/12 volts as many mA as you can provide would probably do it, so in this instance 600 mA I believe. I wouldn't necessarily recommend daisy chaining pedals with these tube preamps; guess it depends on what you're daisy chaining it with and how many pedals. Isolated power would be my recommendation as these require quite a bit of power at startup.
 
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