Orange Footswitch owners!

[Jondog]

Hello! Again, I know this is an old thread, but I don't know where else to turn. I tried to make a footswitch for my new Dual Terror, and it changes channels just fine, but the LED won't light up. I tested the LED with a 9v connected to some alligator clips through the resistor and it was nice and bright. I also tried a Boss FS-5L that also changed channels but it's LED did not light up either. I'm just wondering what I'm doing wrong here. Do I need to use a TRS cable, or should a standard instrument cable work? Or is it possible that there's something wrong with the amp? There was a noticeable clicking coming from the amp chassis when the channel is changed, though I don't hear any popping though the speaker or anything like that. I followed blackcloud45's pictures with one exception... I may be wrong, but his pedal looks like it has the positive side of the switch going to the resistor and then to the sleeve of the jack. The diagrams I see elsewhere show that going to the tip of the jack, which is what I did. When i test it with the 9v, i put the positive on the tip of the jack, and the negative on the sleeve, and the LED lights up nice. SO I assume that the resistor being on the hot side is correct. I put a meter on a standard 1/4" cable connected to the channel jack on the amp and it showed -7.3v. I used the 9v setting thinking that would be the right way to test it, but feel free to correct me.

It won't let me upload a jpeg as an attachment no matter how small I make the pic (it's 27KB)? I don't know how to get a picture up here for all to see. Any ideas?

You need to upload your photo to an internet webpage (Facebook, photobucket, Flikr etc...) and in your post click the Img button and insert the web link address of the image between the bracketed "img" you'll see after pressing the Img button.

Maybe try lowering the value of your resistor. I'm not sure how the Dual Terror's switching is wired, but I think it's a bit different than other Oranges because it has to be in Tiny Terror mode on the amp in order for the footswitch to work. What's the voltage on the sleeve and tip of the footswitch cable?

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I don't remember what mode I had it in, but it wasn't the switching that was the problem. That worked exactly as it should. The LED just wasn't getting power to light regardless of whether the circuit was open or closed. I though when the switch worked by opening and closing a circuit. When the circuit was open, it was one channel, and when the switch closed the circuit, it switched to the other channel, and I thought when the circuit was closed, the LED was supposed to light. I thought I mentioned the voltage being -7.3 at the cable. I used the 9v setting my mulitmeter figuring that would be about the voltage, but I don't understand why it was negative. I measured a 9v battery in case I'm a moron and its supposed to be negative, but the battery didn't show a - in front of the voltage.
I'm using a 2.2k resistor, I can't imagine it would need to go any lower, especially with a white LED. I had planned on using a higher resistor because man that thing is bright I wanted to use an orange LED, but I overloaded it the day I got it by accidentally putting my 9v battery clips on after the resistor and overloaded it. I won't make that mistake again.

Again, the switch functions perfectly, as did the Boss FS-5L. It's just that neither of their LED's would light up no matter which channel it was on. I could try making sure it is on the Tiny Terror channel when checking, but if the switch works, shouldn't the LED?
Let's see if my pic on Google Drive works.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Z1Tz ... sp=sharing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There's the link. I set it so its viewable to anybody on the internet since the image thing on this forum doesn't seem to want to work for me.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Z1Tz ... sp=sharing

[OrangePaul]

I would try reversing the LED and see if that works with the DT.

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I'll give that a shot. Not to be difficult, but while using my battery and alligator clips, going positive to tip and negative to sleeve lit the LED. When I reversed it and tried negative (battery) to tip and positive to sleeve, I got nothing. I'm certain I have the hot side of the LED wired to the tip and the ground to the sleeve. But I will go out in a little bit and try rewiring the LED backwards.

If the amp is on and set to the Tiny Terror channel with a cable connected to the footswitch jack, what should my meter read? I feel like the -7.3v is wrong, but I don't know if I'm using the wrong setting on my meter or maybe something is going on in the switching circuit of the amp.

Not to complicate matters, but though this is a brand new amp, it's a B-stock. I've already had to send it back to Orange twice with broken switches due to poor packing resulting in damage during shipping. So far, they've been really awesome in getting me taken care of, and I have not a bad word to say about the folks I've been dealing with or the company, but I am still having some issues. I'm not trying to change the subject and I have emailed them again regarding this, but I'm wondering if the issue I'm having is part of a larger issue at work here. For example, when I first turned on the amp after getting it back this last time, before I even plugged my guitar into the amp, I heard some sizzling and crackling. I'll grant that it was subtle, and I haven't bought a brand new amp in over 10 years, so this could be a normal part of the tube burn-in process that I just never noticed before. It was just something that caught my attention. And each time I turn it on, I hear that. Also, when the amp is on and connected to my pedal board, even if my pedal board AC is unplugged (I use a Voodoo Lab PP2+, so unplugged is really off), there is a ton of noise coming through the amp. When I pull the plug out of the input jack, it's practically silent (except for that subtle sizzling and crackling). I've had a few amps over the years, and none of them have made noise like that with the pedalboard off. With the pedalboard up and running I still get all that noise even with the volume pedal (which is last in line) completely muting the signal. Every other amp I've owned has had little to no noise in that instance. I've never had to switch an amp to standby to get it quiet before. Could this all be some kind of faulty grounding inside the amp making noise the noise and causing not enough voltage to go out to the channel switch?

[Jondog]

I wouldn't question the polarity. Something is definitely wrong somewhere. Typically, the LED is powered off the same signal that controls the switching for the relays, so if the switch is changing the channel, that tells me that the channel switching in the amp and footswitch is turning the voltage on and off to the relays. I just wonder if the resistor you have connected to the LED is to much reistance to allow the voltage to go through the LED.

[Hitlength]

Looks like OrangePaul is the winner! I switched the LED leads and it works perfectly. I didn't think that would work either, Jondog. It seems strange that the hot side of the LED goes to ground. Maybe I'm wrong about which side is the hot... when you buy LED's, the longer lead is the hot, correct?

Jondog, OrangePaul, thank you guys so much for your help. The pedal is all cleaned up, got some velcro slapped on it and it's in my board! Now I'm thinking of making another one for fun... I've got a fun idea, and I have all the parts... If it works out, I'll post a pic

Thanks fellas!

[Jondog]

:

Looks like OrangePaul is the winner! I switched the LED leads and it works perfectly. I didn't think that would work either, Jondog. It seems strange that the hot side of the LED goes to ground. Maybe I'm wrong about which side is the hot... when you buy LED's, the longer lead is the hot, correct?

Jondog, OrangePaul, thank you guys so much for your help. The pedal is all cleaned up, got some velcro slapped on it and it's in my board! Now I'm thinking of making another one for fun... I've got a fun idea, and I have all the parts... If it works out, I'll post a pic

Thanks fellas!

I should of said "I would question the polarity IF YOU WIRED IT CORRECTLY"

[OrangePaul]

Looks like OrangePaul is the winner! I switched the LED leads and it works perfectly. I didn't think that would work either, Jondog. It seems strange that the hot side of the LED goes to ground. Maybe I'm wrong about which side is the hot... when you buy LED's, the longer lead is the hot, correct?

Jondog, OrangePaul, thank you guys so much for your help. The pedal is all cleaned up, got some velcro slapped on it and it's in my board! Now I'm thinking of making another one for fun... I've got a fun idea, and I have all the parts... If it works out, I'll post a pic

Thanks fellas!

Excellent

My guess was actually that Orange amps were wired the opposite way but you got it working that's the main thing.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... n_(en).svg
The link shows the best way I know to determine led polarity with the cathode having the largest section inside the led if it's visible. Sometimes have a flat spot too on the cathode side.