18volts on a 9 volter..possible??

[avenged4u]

hi all..im wondering whether or not it's possible to put 18v on a 9v pedal..is it possible at all??do u need to change the power jack??

 

[seekz]

Nope, it will not work unless its specified to work under 18Vs

and its not so simple as just changing a jack...
it doesnt even have anything to do with the jack...

most of the time is the chips and the caps.

 

[edder]

you'll need someone with experience to check if the components inside are rated to 18VDC or above.

some pedals do benefit from higher voltages and some just requires the right voltage for the right application.

 

[avenged4u]

thanks for the replies guys..so the components do play a big part..now im beginning to understand why caps with same values have diff voltage..so if i were to plug in 18v to a 9v pedal will it explode in my face?or will i get electrocuted?

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

you will burn the components in it most likely, if the pedal aint design to receive 18v. Its like asking a person wearing XXL size tees to fit into size xxs... heh, can do the hulk hogan tee tearing stunt!

electrocuted, no, unless you wanna touch around the inside when power is still on or the enclosure grounding is faulty and become live(when power is still on and touching it). If wanna be kiasu, go get a tick tracer. Its a device to check whether theres any voltage presence without actual touching live parts. This thing mainly used by people dealing with enginnering work. For pedal work, its almost unnecessary thou.

anyway, before trying 18v with pedals, check with maker/manufacturer first or as edder mentioned, get someone to check first. Last thing wanna, is to fry the parts and left with expensive paperweight

chhhhhiiiiiiiibaaaaaaaabooooooooom!

 

[Marksman]

Adding to what the others said, yes, there are components inside (which from my observation, usually the capacitors and the IC chip) that can't take 18V. Try googling to read more about it.

 

[edder]

from what i've seen most pedals have electrolytic capacitors rated to around 25V BUT I MAY BE WRONG.

a lot of regular opamp IC chips/transistors used for pedals can easily run at 18VDC. again, must identify the chip/transistor.

its getting more and more difficult to do such things these days as many pedals now are using those TINY little surface mount parts with impossible little markings but then i only know what i need to know, and i don't know too much about these SMD thingies.

in general, analogue type distortion, overdrive, fuzz, booster, eq can use a bit higher juice.

digital pedals don't bother. some won't even run if it goes a tad higher.

 

[ymmak]

can i hijack this thread and ask a question.

i understand some old boss pedals use the 12v unregulated power supplies, but they can also be powered by 9v batteries. can someone explain to me how is it possible? wun the components burn or something?

 

[Marksman]

ymmak: It just means that the components inside is able to work at 12V, nothing wrong with that.

 

[edder]

its just the LED circuit if i can remember correctly. the pedal would still work but not the LED... or maybe the switching or something like that.

I think its the LED.

 

[avenged4u]

thanks for the input guys..i've got one question but it might sound silly..k lets say you have 4 pedals in series..you link them with all the necessary cables(patch cables etc)..then you power just the first pedal with an adaptor say 1 spot(has enough juice to power lots of pedal)..since all the pedals are connected together by the cables how come the rest of the pedals dont power up..doesn't electricity travel??might sound stupid i know but im just curious..

 

[seekz]

The patch cables only carry the signal and the ground reference.
they don't carry power.


Anyway, to answer the Boss pedal question.
The older boss pedals you've mentioned are those
specified to run on the ACA adaptor, the newer ones
run on the PSA adaptor.

Those take in 12Vs and drops it 9V.
So the common problem ppl face is that they are unable
to power up a single (old) boss pedal with the regular
1spot, but once you daisy chain other pedals in you bypass
the diode with the "common" ground and
its works like a normal boss pedal that uses PSA adapotors

So it'll definitely work with 9v batteries, because its designed
to work with 9V. What I can't explain is why BOSS came out
with the 12V thing...

 

[edder]

i don't recall the ACA wall wart is VAC and any ACA powered pedal came with a rectifier. At most it was an extra resistor and a diode. The ACA wall wart is 12+ VDC.

 

[gsonique]

ACA's had no voltage regulator...
so ol'Boss pedals had 9.1v Zener ...

So you can use 12v regulated to power ACA type pedals and no mod required.