VS 1Spot is unregulated or am I mistaken?

[ShredCow]

My 2 1Spot adaptors were purchased about a year back and I was under the impression the 1Spot was an unregulated power supply.

So far... what I have been experience ever since I've been using the blackstone and skreddy screwdriver, is that, after playing for a while, I find my tone changes.

Now, this is playing in a sheltered environment, tempurature is constant... like.. in some... air conditioned room, so the germanium in the skreddy doesn't get affect too much.

About the tone change, its very obvious on the Blackstone, I would have... less gain, and louder volume, sort of higher headroom, as per if you raised the voltage on the power supply. With the skreddy, not so, but when stacked, bstone into skreddy, its noticable, palm mute chugging gets looser and there's less gain on tap.

Note I never touched the controls.

Just today, I had enough, I went down and purchased 2 regulated power adaptors, hooked them up, played and played. I hear consistant tone.
Took the 1Spot out again to "test" and after a while, my bstone's tone changed again... higher headroom. But so far... its an hour on the regulated power supplies, and its all cool.

Pretty interesting huh.

 

[mikemann]

I think (imo) that the 1spot is still in the regulated type of power supply, although the regulation is at the primary side instead of the traditional secondary side of traditional transformer power supply.

Regulated means active components are keeping the output at a prescribed level.

Although as in any electronics, there are tolerances and affecting factors. Attributing to operating drift. (could be internal temperature causing drift)

Traditional transformer design IMO are more robust, simpler to maintain, simpler circuit, higher tolerance to failure.

1Spot (PWM or switching power supply) design are light weight, higher efficency

Since both are still coupled to an AC soruce supply, there are no such thing as total isolation to line hum. Both types should actually have different kind of line noise as they operate on different freq spectrum. (good design is essential to minimum noise). Battery only operation is the only solution to line hum isolation.

But I choose traditional transformer over switching anytime weight is not an issue to me.

 

[thor666]

I think you can try running with good batteries - not those that are dying types - A/B and you should be able to see if the power is affecting the pedals.

 

[embryo]

Mike is pretty spot on in his reply regarding regulated and unregulated supplies. The 1 Spot is based on a switch mode power supply design which is basically the kind of power supply used in computers. They are more efficient and lighter in weight in general.

I think Moo's problem is slightly different in that the varying current supply you get from a non regulated supply will affect your germanium parts in more than a few unpredictable ways. Germanium trannies and diodes are very current and heat sensitive and will perform differently accordingly. This is also the reason why tone purists usually insists on using dry cells instead of dc power supplies. Some like SRV himself prefer the use of fresh 9v batts that have been jacked in overnight. This actually is to get the batts running slightly lower than the batt's specified 9 volts. Strange but true.

 

[jeremyrozario]

Some like SRV himself prefer the use of fresh 9v batts that have been jacked in overnight. This actually is to get the batts running slightly lower than the batt's specified 9 volts. Strange but true.

wow, only thought abot that once or twice, never realy thought that somebody actually did it

 

[dwarfstars]

Hmm.. what about the pedals powering up momentarily and dying out? In other words, the power is intermittent.. just discovered it recently but it occurred only twice and now it's so far so good.. is this a case of unregulated power?

 

[ShredCow]

Shucks. I can't believe I'm getting THIS anal.

So the 1Spot is not regulated eh?

Thor, using the regulated power supplies I purchased, the tone is consistant.

Basically, I just want the tone to stick, stay where it is... otherwise, the whole feel of my rig changes, and yeah, I can still wannabe-shred all over but its different, just different. I don't fee like playing so much, don't play so well too IMO.

 

[johnny_be_goode]

http://www.visualsound.net/faq.htm

under advantages - says regulated

 

[ShredCow]

Yeap, i know, thats why I stated my 1Spot is an older model, a year old.

Or is it just another marketing ploy thing.

 

[theblueark]

Hmm so you're using one power supply for each, not daisy chaining? For both the new regulated supply and the one spot?

Like mike said, it doesn't mean it's not regulated, it could be some drifting occuring as the adapter changes temperature (maybe it heats up).

 

[ShredCow]

Its daisy chained... both 1Spot and the regulated power. I use 2 1Spots, 1 for the modulation efx and 1 for the dirt pedals / wah. So same case with the regulated power supplies.

Drifting is bad.

But how much drift occurs when playign in an Air Conidtioned room? Not like the 1Spot gets much hotter...

 

[theblueark]

I don't think air conditioned or not matters, chips heat up when in use. I haven't opened up a 1Spot to see what's inside, and if it heats up or not though. Haha

 

[ShredCow]

I see I see.... I figured it doesn;t heat up as much as traditional tranny designs... can't feel feel any heat from it too but well...

Anyway.. the 1Spot is quieter.. either that, or the 2 regulated adaptors (which have transformers in them right? Got whirrling sounds) are just... making noise to each other since their side by side. Its like just a touch more noise only though.

 

[gsonique]

We need PUB to give us some insight on these power supply issues !!

 

[thor666]

Soon we'll see ShredCow putting his Screwdriver on top of a brick, a la Eric Johnson. :lol:

 

[ShredCow]

I hope I never get there. 8O

 

[gsonique]

u can get a clean power suply from this thingy

 

[gsonique]

i am not kidding.....

it does get bigger........

 

[jony]

Soon we'll see ShredCow putting his Screwdriver on top of a brick, a la Eric Johnson. :lol:

Maybe plugging in his cable, play abit, reverse the cable.

 

[ShredCow]

Haha... goose... basket lah... Then when play guitar, I can cycle a bike at the same time, lose weight!

hehe... doods! Its just power lah... you take 9v power, up it to a higher voltage, the dirt pedals will have different tone and feel already mah... But those danelectro "vintage" batteries sure look tasty now..