Wud Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) Hi, I've just purchased a made in Taiwan Boss OC-2 from a fellow Basschatter. It's turns out that in powering terms it's not the PSA version, but an ASA version. What is the difference ? Is it Polarity or Voltage ? Is there an adapter cable I can get to use with my Power Supply? I tried the Search function but didn't come up with anything Many thanks Edited March 22, 2011 by Wud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockdeluxe_mikey Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 [quote name='Wud' post='1172420' date='Mar 22 2011, 06:37 PM']Hi, I've just purchased a made in Taiwan Boss OC-2 from a fellow Basschatter. It's turns out that in powering terms it's not the PSA version, but an ASA version. What is the difference ? Is it Polarity or Voltage ? Is there an adapter cable I can get to use with my Power Supply? I tried the Search function but didn't come up with anything Many thanks[/quote] A very good question, this one! The Boss ACA input is basically going to be a pedal that runs on 9V, EXCEPT there is a resister crossed over the power that basically means that it needs 12V to run at 9V - I have absolutely no idea why this! So, the Boss adaptor may say 9V input and the pedal may say it needs 9V, but actually it needs 12V. Therefore, all you need to do is run 12V into the pedal. This can obviously be done by either a separate dedicated (centre negative?) adaptor, or (like I and others do) get a dedicated power brick and use the 12V (centre negative?) tap from that. A Boss ACA pedal will only run at 9V if a) it's running on batteries, or intaking 12V from the outside. If you input 9V, it'll run a few volts below that and the OC-2 actually sounds a bit pants like this. You can also tell this is happening because the 'on' LED is noticeably darker when not running at 9V internally. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wud Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 [quote name='sockdeluxe_mikey' post='1172442' date='Mar 22 2011, 06:57 PM']A very good question, this one! The Boss ACA input is basically going to be a pedal that runs on 9V, EXCEPT there is a resister crossed over the power that basically means that it needs 12V to run at 9V - I have absolutely no idea why this! So, the Boss adaptor may say 9V input and the pedal may say it needs 9V, but actually it needs 12V. Therefore, all you need to do is run 12V into the pedal. This can obviously be done by either a separate dedicated (centre negative?) adaptor, or (like I and others do) get a dedicated power brick and use the 12V (centre negative?) tap from that. A Boss ACA pedal will only run at 9V if a) it's running on batteries, or intaking 12V from the outside. If you input 9V, it'll run a few volts below that and the OC-2 actually sounds a bit pants like this. You can also tell this is happening because the 'on' LED is noticeably darker when not running at 9V internally. Hope this helps![/quote] Interesting! I have a T Rex psu so I'll look into the 12v aspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockdeluxe_mikey Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 [quote name='Wud' post='1172462' date='Mar 22 2011, 07:10 PM']Interesting! I have a T Rex psu so I'll look into the 12v aspect.[/quote] I have a T-Rex Fuel Tank Chameleon, and the OC-2 has a 12V tap for itself I don't have a very big pedal board! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wud Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Ha, Hang round here long enough and that will surely change. Thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 When you daisy chain another pedal from the Boss pedal, it somehow shorts out the resistor and gives the pedal full voltage. You can see this for yourself if you plug just the Boss in, then plug in another pedal and the LED gets brighter. I don't fully understand how this works, but I have read it in numerous forum post and confirmed it myself via experimentation with an old OC-2 I once had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fxpedal.co.uk Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Dannybuoy is correct - if daisy-chained then the ACA pedals will work off a standard PSA-style daisy chain power supply at 9V provided there is at least one other (non-ACA) pedal also connected to the daisy chain. Confused?!! Actually, most ACA pedals will work fine off 9V DC regulated but there is a small handful that won't unless daisy-chained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockdeluxe_mikey Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 [quote name='dannybuoy' post='1172631' date='Mar 22 2011, 09:23 PM']When you daisy chain another pedal from the Boss pedal, it somehow shorts out the resistor and gives the pedal full voltage. You can see this for yourself if you plug just the Boss in, then plug in another pedal and the LED gets brighter. I don't fully understand how this works, but I have read it in numerous forum post and confirmed it myself via experimentation with an old OC-2 I once had.[/quote] [quote name='fxpedal.co.uk' post='1173963' date='Mar 23 2011, 10:05 PM']Dannybuoy is correct - if daisy-chained then the ACA pedals will work off a standard PSA-style daisy chain power supply at 9V provided there is at least one other (non-ACA) pedal also connected to the daisy chain. Confused?!! Actually, most ACA pedals will work fine off 9V DC regulated but there is a small handful that won't unless daisy-chained.[/quote] I can also definitely verify this too, and completely forgot to mention the first time round. Incredibly strange. I also wonder why this arrangement was conceived in the first place...? Maybe there was a surplus of adaptors that were 12V already (or some other reason why the 12V adaptor was used), but for another reason independently had to make the Boss pedal work at 9V internally? It really is confusing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wud Posted March 24, 2011 Author Share Posted March 24, 2011 Many thanks for all the helpful replies. I hadn't planed to daisy chain the OC-2 but it seems like this might be the best method. Cheers Wud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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