Rookie question for 2 LED/2 Footswitch pedal

[andrewnelles]

Wrapping up a simple project tonight, building a footswitch with LEDs to control the Reverb and Vibrato on a '65 Twin Reverb reissue.

Simple pedal, 2 footswitches to control the effects, 2 LEDs to indicate which are on, 9V jack to feed the LEDs, 1/4" TRS out to the amp.

After getting it all together, the switches control the effects just fine, but the LEDs are not quite working properly.

If either effect is engaged on it's own, they light just fine, with equal brightness. If both effects are engaged, the right LED is at normal brightness, but the left LED drops to being almost barely visible. I've built dual footswitch pedals with double LEDs before and never encountered this. Not sure what I'm doing differently.

The LEDs are fed from a 1K resistor tied to the 9+ on the jack. That Ys off to the + side of each LED. The - lead from each LED runs to the appropriate footswitch. From the switches it leads to the neg side of the 9V jack.

What am I doing incorrectly?

Thanks in advance.

[GibsonGM]

Can you draw it up and post it? Much easier to 'get it' if you can see it - at least for me!

Are both LEDs exactly the same type, with the same Vf?  If not, one can be brighter than the other....what I'm getting at (without seeing it) is that you might do better with a separate dropping resistor for each LED.

[duck_arse]

+1 ^. the led with the lower fV will steal nearly all the current when the leds are in parallel on a single current limit resistor. a second resistor will solve your problem.

[PRR]

+2^. Use two resistors. LEDs do not share well.

[andrewnelles]

A second resistor took care of it. Many thanks!