RoHS compliancy and germanium substitutes for Tone Bender clones.

BMF Effects · June 25, 2007, 11:11:51 AM

With RoHS is effect for our European friends and California getting a little close everyday, I was curious if anyone has done any experimenting with RoHS compliant trannies for Tone Bender clones or other germanium based fuzz pedals.

I posted another thread on a different forum wondering why some pedal manufacturers appear to still be shipping germanium-based fuzz pedals overseas. I would imagine that they would be putting themselves at risk for heavy fines should a Customs office decide to inspect the pedals. I guess it could be possible that the average Customs offical might not be able to tell the difference between a RoHS compliant part and a non-RoHS compliant part, but that would seem to be a pretty big gamble to take with fines running into the thousands of dollars.

Gus · June 25, 2007, 12:18:06 PM

The pcbs need to be rohs as well. There is a fire retardent used in some pcbs that is not rohs IIRC. Even some knobs are not rohs.
google metal wiskers.

tombstone problems
http://www.circuitnet.com/experts/EQ10160.shtml

The Tone God · June 25, 2007, 12:41:14 PM

Quote from: BMF Effects on June 25, 2007, 11:11:51 AM
I would imagine that they would be putting themselves at risk for heavy fines should a Customs office decide to inspect the pedals. I guess it could be possible that the average Customs offical might not be able to tell the difference between a RoHS compliant part and a non-RoHS compliant part, but that would seem to be a pretty big gamble to take with fines running into the thousands of dollars.

Customs has nothing to do with and are not capable of enforcing RoHS. RoHS is not like for example a safety standard that one must get testing for, approved, then get a label which you have attach to the product so someone can see you passed. RoHS is something you are expected to comply with and if you are caught not in compliance then you get nailed to the wall.

Andrew

BMF Effects · June 25, 2007, 01:08:28 PM

Quote from: The Tone God on June 25, 2007, 12:41:14 PM
Quote from: BMF Effects on June 25, 2007, 11:11:51 AM
I would imagine that they would be putting themselves at risk for heavy fines should a Customs office decide to inspect the pedals. I guess it could be possible that the average Customs offical might not be able to tell the difference between a RoHS compliant part and a non-RoHS compliant part, but that would seem to be a pretty big gamble to take with fines running into the thousands of dollars.

Customs has nothing to do with and are not capable of enforcing RoHS. RoHS is not like for example a safety standard that one must get testing for, approved, then get a label which you have attach to the product so someone can see you passed. RoHS is something you are expected to comply with and if you are caught not in compliance then you get nailed to the wall.

Andrew

I was using Customs as an example. I imagine there's a RoHS Compliancy Squad somewhere, so I guess one of my questions would be how and where do pedals get checked? I have read that other builder's overseas dealers and heard from my own as well that little or no RoHS scrutiny is being applied to pedals and amps. I do know a few manufacturers have claimed to have stopped shipping outside the US due to RoHS.

My mental image of the RoHS Compliancy Squad -

AL · June 25, 2007, 02:13:18 PM

NO ONE EXPECTS THE RoHS Compliancy Squad !!!

AL

The Tone God · June 25, 2007, 02:42:51 PM

I do know of atleast one builder that had their products temporarily pulled because of RoHS compliance issues. You can play the "see if anyone notice" game but if you get caught life will really suck.

For Ges I believe there are provisions in RoHS for parts that are no longer produced or there are no RoHS complient replacements availible. I don't know if current production Ge trannies are RoHS compliant. If they are you can use those. For older stock I don't know how would one get exceptions for that. I would guess you have to submit paper work. If you are constantly changing stock I would suspect you have to reapply for each stock change. I don't use Ges often so I don't know the situation for that.

Now fetch the comfortable chair!

Andrew

BMF Effects · June 25, 2007, 03:18:57 PM

Mouser lists one germanium tranny as RoHS compliant.

soulsonic · June 25, 2007, 05:28:02 PM

I believe you may be able to get around RoHS compliancy by having warnings clearly saying that the device contains potentially hazardous materials and should not be disposed of in a landfill. My Velleman handheld oscilloscope has these labels on it and I believe that's because it has non-RoHS compliant parts in it (and it's manufactured in Europe). They have this symbol that has a picture of a trash can with a "NO" symbol across it, I think that may be the universal symbol that says, "We're freely admitting this isn't compliant. If it's disposed of properly, it shouldn't be an environmental hazard. Please don't fine us."

The RoHS thing seems to have more to do with environmental protection than personal protection.

A.S.P. · June 25, 2007, 05:34:20 PM

the trashsymbol concerns: WEEE

soulsonic · June 25, 2007, 05:50:27 PM

Please excuse my ignorance, what is WEEE?

The Tone God · June 25, 2007, 06:09:56 PM

Quote from: soulsonic on June 25, 2007, 05:50:27 PM
Please excuse my ignorance, what is WEEE?

Sigh. Wiki is your friend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEEE

Andrew

Ge_Whiz · June 25, 2007, 06:15:33 PM

"Our weapons are surprise, fear, and an almost fanatical concern about the deadliness of lead, cadmium, PCPs and hexavalent chromium. Polysaturated fat, sodium chloride, anything containing chlorine at all, red meat, atlantic bluefin tuna, global warming, near-earth asteroids, dairy produce, nuts..."

soulsonic · June 25, 2007, 06:29:52 PM

FWIW, absolutely none of Weber's products are RoHS compliant, and they sell to Europe all the time. They haven't gotten caught or even hassled...... yet.

The Tone God · June 25, 2007, 07:09:20 PM

Quote from: soulsonic on June 25, 2007, 06:29:52 PM
FWIW, absolutely none of Weber's products are RoHS compliant, and they sell to Europe all the time. They haven't gotten caught or even hassled...... yet.

Shipping to EU and having dealers in EU are two different things. Anyone can ship non-RoHS compliant gear to EU but the importer takes on the responsibility of conforming to local regulations. So anyone can ship anything to EU, and if for personal use there is no real problem, but if you are importing to sell or as a dealer then you take on the responsibility of any infringements of regulations including RoHS.

Or atleast that is my understanding.

Andrew

soulsonic · June 25, 2007, 10:51:37 PM

As far as I know they don't really deal with any importing companies. 90% of their sales are direct to customers, so I'm not sure where that stands. They have a couple dealers in the EU as well, I guess they would count as "importers" and therefore be responsible. I know there's at least one dealer in Germany who sells their attenuators - those things aren't even close to being compliant.

The Tone God · June 25, 2007, 11:31:46 PM

We don't know the status of everyone's gear. They could have gotten exceptions.

Andrew

ulysses · June 26, 2007, 12:01:13 AM

now might be a good time to dismount from that dead horse

and switch to silicon.

take a note from roger mayer to see what he's doing.

cheers
ulysses

soulsonic · June 26, 2007, 01:20:44 AM

I used to work for Weber, they don't have any exceptions, they just ship the junk out anyway. They simply don't care. Ted would talk about eventually making everything compliant, but as far as I know he still hasn't bothered to get around to it. I guess they'll make the switch when they get busted.

News:

RoHS compliancy and germanium substitutes for Tone Bender clones.