from the ARRRRRRGGH dept... boss sd1 issue...

[pinkjimiphoton]

so last weekend, i'm giggin' this outdoor thing at this biker bar, and it starts freaking raining.

i pushed my pedals and stuff back enough where they were in the "dry" zone, but some moisture still got blown onto them.
got home, cleaned everything, dried it off, figured all was well.

well, last nite's gig, i plug in my board, and my super overdrive is stuck on.



i opened it up, could operate the switch by hand, and it would turn off. and on. and off.

as soon as i screwed the battery dept down, same thing. stuck on.

tried a fresh battery. same thing. power adapter. same thing.

open it up, push the switch, it works. close it, SAME DAMN THING!!!!
it's almost like it's only "half way" switching when the battery compartment is closed...

when ya push down on the switch that way, the led goes about half way...let off, and it's big and brite again (audio is "clean" when switch is depressed)...

so... i'se all confused... anybody buy the pink guy a clue??

[Kipper4]

Sounds like voodoo to me.

[rockhorst]

Spring actuator touching a solder lug of the tactile switch?

[Gus]

I would remove the bottom plate and check for moisture inside.

I would place the opened up effect in front of a fan and let it air dry for hours in the breeze

The effect is jfet switched maybe some conducive moisture is causing the effect to switch states when the battery cover moves something a small amount

[pinkjimiphoton]

thanks for the advice guys...
yeah, i think gus may have nailed it...
it's something with the jfet. i can't find anything wrong, cleaned the switch and everything, but it's on acid... will work fine for a minute, box it up, and suddenly it craps out again. wondering if maybe i messed something up when i was swapping out the clipping diodes for some on a switch, but it's GOTTA be from moisture i'm imagining.
after cleaning the switch last nite, it got stuck on again, shorting the back of the switch leads together didn't work, which made me suspect the jfet even more... but then suddenly it was fine.

wtf!!

i will stick it in front of a fan today for a couple hours and see what happens. worst case, i'll just sacrifice the battery compartment and true-bypass it if all else fails. i mean, it IS stuck "on"...

i had really gotten used to using this again to punch up solos live... put a fuzzface toneblaster and a BMP in front of it, and man, it'll kick out the jams!!

[Electron Tornado]

i opened it up, could operate the switch by hand, and it would turn off. and on. and off.

as soon as i screwed the battery dept down, same thing. stuck on.

tried a fresh battery. same thing. power adapter. same thing.

open it up, push the switch, it works. close it, SAME DAMN THING!!!!
it's almost like it's only "half way" switching when the battery compartment is closed...

when ya push down on the switch that way, the led goes about half way...let off, and it's big and brite again (audio is "clean" when switch is depressed)...

If you modded the pedal, are you sure you don't have any extra wires or anything making or causing contact with either the footswitch contacts or anything on the PCB?

[pinkjimiphoton]

yeah, i added a 3p3t toggle for ge/none/si diode clipping, but it's all insulated and worked like that for over a month.

i discovered today that if the plastic insulator under the bottom of the pedal (between the case and the pcb) is upside down, it won't work.

weird! either way, it should still be working, and no idea why the hell now it IS working.

haven't put the bottom lid back on yet... we'll see what happens!!

[Electron Tornado]

It's possible if the pedal got wet enough, that there was moisture inside the footswitch. It doesn't sound like it got wet enough, though.

The toggle switch you added might not have been the problem per se, but any wires can sometimes get in places where they push things into contact.

I know some pedals will engage simply by plugging in external power. Does your SD-1 do that? If so, it's possible that it stays on because somehow the footswitch isn't making contact when it's stepped on.

[pinkjimiphoton]

that's exactly what it was doing.
it got pretty wet the other day, but no way it could have gotten THAT wet inside, i wouldn't think!!

still slogging thru my inbox, will look at the pedal shortly..thanks for the support my friend!