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How Can You Tell? 9 volt and battery useage related...


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Potentially dumb question...but...

 

Is there anyway to know beforehand which pedals drain a battery if a cable is plugged in even if the effect is not engaged?

 

I seem to have some pedals that will continue to drain a battery with cables plugged in even if the pedal is off...is there some kind of rule about this?

 

Right now i unplug everything when i get through playing but it's a hassle...my Teese and Keeley comp seem to do this.

 

thanks for any advice...

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Well, you can tell if a pedal is (probably) using the input jack to interrupt DC power by looking down the barrel of the jack. If you see two metal tabs then it's a TRS jack, and is probably being used to interrupt power. If you see only one tab, then it's a TS jack, and it's not being used to interrupt power. The tabs will look different, depending on whether it's a metal barrel panel-mount type of jack, or a plastic PCB mounted jack.

 

If you're not sure what you're looking at, then compare what you see looking down the input and output jacks. If the input jack looks noticeably more complicated inside, then it's probably a TRS jack.

 

This test isn't 100%. You might see junk through the jack that isn't actually part of the jack. A pedal might also have a TRS jack on the output just because the mfr didn't want to stock two different types of jacks, or because the output is stereo. The only way to know for sure, without cracking the pedal open or looking at the schematic (assuming you know what you're looking for) is to measure the current draw with and without an input plug.

 

Anyway, it's pretty common to keep the effect circuit powered up, even when the effect is switched out. If the effect power were switched with the footswitch, then it could take a few hundred milliseconds for the circuit to power up when you switch it on. Nobody wants this sort of lag between effect off and effect on.

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