Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Small Stone Alternate Voltage Info
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October 8, 2013 at 10:06 pm #83187toddwpMember
I have a Small Stone V4 (classic chassis with LED/true bypass – no mods). I was experiencing substantial volume loss when the effect was active, but I switched the power (from an isolated pedal power source) from straight 9v to an adjustable 6-10.5v spot. I have the voltage cranked all the way up, so 10.5v. This helps with the volume loss… a lot. I’m wondering if I could safely move it to a higher variable power slot (9-15v) or even an 18v slot. It would help a bit with managing my power options (the 9v slots are in high demand) and I’d like to experiment with the effect it has on the sound. But am I risking damage to the pedal connecting it at higher voltages? I know some pedals can do this safely – like OCD – and others can’t do it safely at all. How about EHX pedals generally… and this Small Stone in particular?
October 9, 2013 at 6:24 am #119387ScruffieMemberI would not suggest it, the pedal uses the CA3094 chip which can die VERY easily from over current (unless EHX have moved on to the 13700 in some of the big box units like the nano which will handle a bit more punishment but still easily killed, thankfully a bit more easy to source now at least though) and additional voltage may take it out of the safe zone.
It can be modded to help with the volume drop with a resistor value change or a post volume boost can be used (stick it in a true bypass loop with an LPB-1 after it? Or find someone to build one internally) and anyway, I wouldn’t have thought you’ll get much more volume benefit from going ever higher in voltage anyway.
Sadly it is part of the design, back in the day it wasn’t so much of an issue without true bypass and probably guitarists having 2-3 pedals max but times change.
Short answer, I wouldn’t do it unless you want a new door stop.
October 9, 2013 at 12:49 pm #119389toddwpMemberThanks Scruffie… but isn’t the CA3094 designed for up to 24v? It’s entirely possible I am missing something in the data sheet, but it looks like the basic version is rated for up to 24v, with some other variants rated even higher? That’s how I’m reading the data sheet:
but again – I’m a liberal arts major and easily out of my depth with tech data.
October 9, 2013 at 10:33 pm #119391ScruffieMemberIt’s not the voltage you have to worry about, it’s the 1mA current limit on the chip inputs and the 2mA current limit on Iabc, if there’s more current with more voltage (ohm’s law) and it exceeds that, any of the chips hit with it’ll die, they aren’t forgiving.
Let’s use pin 3 (v.ref on each phase stage and only a 1mA limit on that pin) as an example… stock 10V goes through a 15k resistor in the voltage divider, that’s 0.67mA of current if we use ohm’s law, we put in 20V for arguments sake across the same resistor and we have 1.3mA and a dead chip.
Not to mention, the closer you get to those current limits, the more likely you are the chip will begin to distort or behave strangely.
You can risk 12V if you want, 15V and the chips are dead.
October 10, 2013 at 2:57 am #119395toddwpMemberwell that makes perfect sense thanks for translating! Think I’ll play it safe and not experiment with voltage deviations on this one.
October 10, 2013 at 6:42 am #119397ScruffieMemberGlad I could help
If you want to solve the volume drop there are mods online to counteract it that are fairly easy to implement,
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