Quick bettery drain question?

[scottosan]

I have been using this type of battery/jack/bypass system.  Does the battery drain if the effect is off and 1/4 inch jack is plugged in?  I left the jack plugged in and came back to a dead battery?


http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/ts_lo_808.gif

[dosmun]

Yes.  The power to the effect is turned on when a jack is plugged into the stereo Input jack. The DC or battery negative is connected to the circuit between the ring and sleeve of the 1/4 " jack.  The stompswitch only diverts the guitar input directly to the output jack but power is still going to the circuit.

[scottosan]

Yes.  The power to the effect is turned on when a jack is plugged into the stereo Input jack. The DC or battery negative is connected to the circuit between the ring and sleeve of the 1/4 " jack.  The stompswitch only diverts the guitar input directly to the output jack but power is still going to the circuit.

thanks, I was under the impression that only the DOD/Boss type effects nneded to have the battery unplugged. :oops:

[onboard]

This has always bugged me. I know the power consumption varies greatly depending on the circuit, but why draw current if the effect is not in use? There should be a way to switch your power supply *and* your signal at the same time without noise.

Here's a chart I wrote down from somewhere with regard to battery life per current drain:

1mA - 500+ hours
2mA - 200+ hours
4mA - 100+ hours

Anyone know if this is anywhere near reality?

I measured some pedals and got readings from one extreme to the other.

Wah - 1mA
Overdrive - 7mA
Delay - 42mA   :shock:

With some pedals there's no issue I suppose, but when you start talking about power hungry pedals (the delay pedal I measured eats a 9v battery in no time flat) power switching just makes sense. Unless you want to replace batteries more often, remember to unplug patch chords, or use AC adaptors.  I know, 9v's are cheap. The cheap ones are anyway. And they don't last.

Reminds me of an old Electro-Harmonix ad line "Free yourself from the bureaucratically dominated sources of electricity"...or something like that.

[puretube]

there was a thread these days, that hasn`t got the number of hits it deserves, yet   :
http://diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=30317

[zachary vex]

Yes.  The power to the effect is turned on when a jack is plugged into the stereo Input jack. The DC or battery negative is connected to the circuit between the ring and sleeve of the 1/4 " jack.  The stompswitch only diverts the guitar input directly to the output jack but power is still going to the circuit.

thanks, I was under the impression that only the DOD/Boss type effects nneded to have the battery unplugged. :oops:

nearly all pedals need to have the input jack unplugged to preserve battery life.  out of all of mine, only one will consistently draw less power when the bypass switch is in the off position... the lo-fi loop junky, whose main chip goes to sleep during bypass, saving about 8 mA.

[JimRayden]

If you have the 3-pole switch to switch the LED on/off, just connect the battery to it, so it'd turn the supply on/off with the led...

Duh.

----------
Jimbo

[puretube]

That has been discussed a lot here,
and over the past 35 years...  :shock:

[onboard]

If you have the 3-pole switch to switch the LED on/off, just connect the battery to it, so it'd turn the supply on/off with the led...

Duh.

----------
Jimbo

Seems the obvious answer, right? I wish it were that easy. Well, since how much sucks that box from the batt`ry? came up (cool power consumption chart!), I'll quote puretube from yet *another* thread that was a search result.

you would get at least a loud pop and or other unwanted audible (un-)-sounds when switching on, and at least a couple
of milliseconds to seconds until the effect would start working, due to the time it takes to establish the correct DC-voltages throughout the circuit and the charging of the (bigger) capacitors.

Pulled from 4PDT?

So I'm not the only one. With the amount of current somve pedals pull, seperate DC switching is a good idea. I feel the less you have to rely on "plugging" in, the better.


Although, I am in this for the gizmos, and half the fun of gizmology is having to plug stuff in :wink: I think it's what R.G. has refered to as paying the "power penalty"...

[Paul Marossy]

That's one reason I don't use batteries (other than cost and constant replacement) is that I hate having to unplug the cords all the time. I have a few things that I have built where I have made an exception, though.  

[timwalsh]

I have yet to try this, but seems like a promising way to save on battery costs

http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap/batteries/batts.htm

(this man is a genius)

[Paul Marossy]

That's an interesting page about recharging alkaline batteries.