line 6 switcher pedal

[kissack101]

Hey,

I have three Line 6 pedals on my pedal board (DL4, MM4, DS4) and i was thinking of making a 'switcher pedal' to that switches a 10K resister in and out of the expression pedal loop to give me twice the options when I use them. Has anyone else built something like this? I can't imagine it will be very difficult to do, but were there any nasty suprises? If anyone has a rough schematic that would be great.

Cheers

Adam.

[ryanscissorhands]

I think we need a little more info to fully answer this. Let me see if this is correct:

You have three line6 pedals that all use the same expression pedal. It has a 0-10k range in resistance, and you want to broaden its range by having a switch that will add 10k to the resistance set by the pedal. I'm going to make an ass of us and assume that it uses a regular patch cord between expression pedal and whichever pedal it is controlling. Is this correct?

If I've gotten in right, it's incredibly easy to do. IF you want an LED, it's a bit more work, but it could be done with a SPDT stompswitch (fo they exist?). You have two options: add a resistor to the expression pedal's path that is 10k, and have a switch that turns bypasses/activates a resistance-free section in parallel with the resistor. (When switch is 'off', it goes through the 10K resistor; when it's on, the path of least resistance is the one through the switch with zer0 resistance, therefore having a total resistance of whatever the expression pedal is at.). The other option is to have  the switch change between a bypass mode and a 10k resistor. Same thing, pretty much, only with the first scenario, you shouldn't have as many problems when it switchesm since there is always a constant connection

Does that make sense? I'm tired, so if I doesn't, or if some of my assumptions are wrong, then let me know, I'll try again when I'm more rested.

[kissack101]

Hey,

Ok, apologies, it seems like I didn't really explain myself very clearly. Basically, I want to do this for each pedal:

The expression pedal saves two settings on the Line 6 pedal, one for heel down, one for toe down and then allows you to 'blend' between them. In my experience the blend never really works that well so I never use it. The pot in the expression pedal is a 10k pot (or so i've been told, if it's not then if someone could give me a heads-up that would be great) i.e. it goes from zero resitance to 10k.

All I want to do is replace the expression pedal with a footswitch that switches between zero resistance (i.e. bypass mode) and 10k resistance, thus 'fooling' the Line 6 pedal into thinking that the 'expression pedal' has gone instantly from toe down to heel down, in effect giving me twice the options on each channel.

As for the LED, I didn't think that would be too much of a problem, i was just going to use a DPDT switch from Small Bear and have the LED on one set of poles and all the above on the other. I just wanted to make sure that the above is do-able (i.e. the Line 6 pedals don't act unpredicatably or anything similar when you start 'fooling' them in this manner) and hopefully get some info on how you wire up the stereo pots?

The patch cord connecting the line 6 pedal to the expression pedal is a stereo one I think that I believe reverses the polarity (I used to use a Bespecko expression pedal and had to unsolder and swap the wires at one end of the patch cord to get it to work with the Line 6 pedal.)

Hope that clears things up, thanks for taking the time to answer though, I appreciate it.

Cheers

Adam

[Gladmarr]

I have done this for my DL4, and it works, but...

1) if you use the tap-tempo during a song and then kick the switch, you will bounce back to the original tempo setting you saved in your presets.  That means you get a warble and the delay seems to go nuts for a second.
2) mine doesn't always pick up the switch actuation.  I didn't know what the actual value of the pot was supposed to be, so I put in a 100k resistor.  I'm sure that has something to do with it, but when I click the pedal really fast, the delay ignores it and goes right on doing what it was doing.

...that said, all you have to do is hook a resistor's legs to the two outer posts of an Spdt switch - this is most basic and assuming you do not want an LED.  The middle post will be like the wiper of your expression pot.  One click and you're at wiper full CW, another click and you're at wiper full CCW.  Now, I can't remember what goes to tip, ring, and sleeve, so I'll have to check mine at home and check back with you tonite.  That's the fist 1/2 of the battle though.

[Processaurus]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=33554.msg233549#msg233549/

I did this, you can do it with a spdt, and it has an LED too

[kissack101]

Hi, I did this for my DL-4 when I had one, its works really well, because you can store 3 extra patches.  The Line 6 EP1 expression pedal uses a mono cord, rather than trs, because the expression pedal is set up as a 10k to 0 variable resistor between the tip and ground.  The switch unit I had that worked pefectly was really simple, it used a spdt switch.  It had an LED too.  The tip had a 10k resistor to ground that was always connected.  The common lug on the switch was connected to ground, and would go between shorting out the 10k to the tip, and connecting an LED to ground.  There was no interaction between the battery LED circuit and the DL-4, because the only connection they ever shared is a ground.  I don't think you could do a bicolor LED with this simple circuit though.  You could with a DPDT switch, however.

So, let me see if i've got this right:

1) The tip of the jack goes to a 10k resister then is hardwired straight to ground.
2) Does the sleeve of the jack go to the top lug on a SPST? Then the middle lug goes to ground, and the bottom lug is the ground wire from the LED?
3) With the battery, do I connect the + side to the LED and just send the - side to ground?
4) Will the LED be on when the "expression pedal" is in the heel-down or toe-down position? I'd prefer it to be toe-down although when I think about it that shouldn't really matter.

The help is much appreciated.

Adam.

[Gladmarr]

First off, sorry for not replying last night.  I went and bought a drumset and all sense of responsibility melted away.

I was not aware of this 0-10k thing in the Line6 expression pedal.  I could swear I searched this topic when I was going to do mine, oh well. 

Has anyone who has done this switch deal have the problems I was having with the pedal ignoring some switches?

I'm going to try changing mine out for a 10k resistor instead of the 100k I'm using now to see if that will stop the pedal from ignoring my pleas for continuous control!   

[kissack101]

No worries, drum kits will do that to you sometimes...

If someone could help me out with the above though, that would be great. I'm itching to put an order in at Small Bear but I don't want to get it wrong...

Adam.

[stumper1]

Gladmarr, 

Just a guess but did you re-save your pre-sets after using the switch.  I believe the Line 6 pedals self-calibrate to whatever value is plugged in.  If you saved your pre-sets with a volume pedal and then changed to the switch that could be the problem if they are different values.

Good luck,
Deric

[Processaurus]

Check it out:

[Processaurus]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=33554.0

Nevermind, use Mr Huge's drawing in this thread, it eliminates the need for a battery for the LED. 

[Gladmarr]

Gladmarr, 

Just a guess but did you re-save your pre-sets after using the switch.  I believe the Line 6 pedals self-calibrate to whatever value is plugged in.  If you saved your pre-sets with a volume pedal and then changed to the switch that could be the problem if they are different values.

Good luck,
Deric

Indeed, that is true.  I didn't even think of that.  However, after seeing Mr. Huge's drawing, I think I'm going to redo my switch.  That is totally sweet.  This forum gets better all the time.  Now, my musician friends will think I'm even smarter.  Oh, wait, I bought a drumset, so my musician friends will think I'm dummer, so now I guess I'll just break even.   

[Gladmarr]

p.s. Processaurus, why is Lincoln in the background of your drawing?  ...or am I hallucinating again?