Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Hot Tubes arrived with low voltage and it’s awesome

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  • September 2, 2016 at 11:58 pm #84571
    harshaw61
    Member

    I have two identical EHX Hot Tubes nano pedals.

    The first one (about a year old) has always had a dim status LED, which I thought was just characteristic of the model.

    I recently bought the second, which has a bright LED, and sounds markedly clearer (and more modern). I guess the first one has always been experiencing some voltage draw. Both are running off a pedal board power supply.

    My question is, has anyone encountered this before, and if so, what can I do internally to make the new one (bright LED) have the same power draw problem as the old one? I love the way the old one sounds!

    Thanks,

    Patrick

    September 3, 2016 at 1:11 pm #121962
    Scruffie
    Member

    A dimmer LED doesn’t necessarily mean the circuit is getting less power, it may just be that there is some variation (due to unavoidable component tolerances or perhaps there was a minor circuit revision) that are giving the circuits a different sound.

    The only way to be certain one is getting lower voltage for whatever reason is to purchase a cheap multimeter and measure the voltage, if that does turn out to be the case, you can either purchase or make a voltage starve circuit.

    But, I would guess it’s just the tolerances making the two sound a bit different, that’s not to say starving the voltage wont get it closer in sound regardless, but it might not.

    September 3, 2016 at 4:51 pm #121968
    harshaw61
    Member

    That’s a good point. My thinking was that it’s so dim — sometimes imperceptible — that it’s likely something unintentional is going on with it. I don’t think it would’ve passed inspection. At which point in the circuit would you measure the voltage? I wonder if there are any other internal measurements I could try.

    September 3, 2016 at 6:51 pm #121966
    Scruffie
    Member

    You can measure pin 8 of the dual opamp in each one, that will tell you what voltage the circuit is seeing.

    220px-Pin_numbering_01_Pengo.svg.png

    September 3, 2016 at 7:50 pm #121916
    harshaw61
    Member

    Perfect, thank you

    September 3, 2016 at 9:17 pm #121914
    EHX STAFF
    Keymaster

    If you have a bum LED please return it or write service.
    Why it sounds so much better is a mystery…

    Please write service. 9-5 NYC time Monday through Friday:
    info@ehx.com

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