Powering Nova delay

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godinman

Member
Messages
51
Hi folks this is just a heads up about the power unit supplied with the nova. It is not great and resulted in lots of noise with my rig. I now power the nova with a diago power station which is 9V DC but can give the required 300mA no noise at all studio quiet. I started a post about my problems last night because my nova was causing noise even in a bypass strip. Anyway follow the link for the thread which will explain all. By the way I am now fully in love with the NOVA what a sound.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/314018


Ross
 
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saucyjack

Member
Messages
715
I tried the power pump adapter for my One spot thinking it would let me get rid of the Nova adapter.
I used it for a week or so...noticed a bit more noise and some low level cycling/humming type noises but it was bearable.
Then last night at practice my sound kept coming and going.Thought it was bad tube,replaced tube but no help.
Thought it might be the newly added power pump so fired up the Nova adapter and all was good.I'll test it out further later this week but in my rig it seems the Nova was liking the power pump.
To be fair I was running a TonePress,Strobostomp,Hotcake,OCD,Screwdriver,Red Moon,Empress Trem and then the Nova all from a single One Spot, so I suspect I was pusing it.
 
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Andre357

Member
Messages
3,211
powering pedals with the wrong voltage can sometimes cause eventual problems ( I've had this happen to me ).

Also - using an adapter thats putting out 1700 vma's ( when your pedal only needs a hundred or something )....can sometimes cause long term damage as well.

Just a warning...........it may be fine but i would be cautious.
 
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jamison162

Member
Messages
7,757
Andre357 said:
Also - using an adapter thats putting out 1700 vma's ( when your pedal only needs a hundred or something )....can sometimes cause long term damage as well.
Click to expand...
The power supply doesn't put out amps, it supplies a voltage for which current can be drawn. The One Spot can supply up to 1700mA.
A pedal determines the amount of current draw and only draws the amount of current it is designed to, unless something goes bad.
 
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Andre357

Member
Messages
3,211
jamison162 said:
The power supply doesn't put out amps, it supplies a voltage for which current can be drawn. The One Spot can supply up to 1700mA.
A pedal determines the amount of current draw and only draws the amount of current it is designed to, unless something goes bad.
Click to expand...
mmm, makes sense. I was given the info I originally posted by a manufacturer.

Perhaps they just wanted me to buy their proprietary adapter...
 
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jamison162

Member
Messages
7,757
Just got my Nova today, gonna go play some now and compare to the DD-20. I would suggest using the provided adapter and if you can conclude it is causing excessive noise, get a replacememnt. Or just exchange the whole package.
 
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godinman

Member
Messages
51
Thanks for the input guys. I am going to stick with using my diago power station. For a few reasons. One I am back to one power plug for my pedal board. 2. Everything is dead quiet again. 3. I spoke to my cousin who is an electronics guy who says that giving the pedal 9V as long as its getting enough amps will be fine. 4. The supplied wall wart with the nova looks really flimsy and I think they may have taken the easy option by providing a power supply that they were already using mine says tc helicon on it. It may be an issue with the British adapter and you guys over the water are not having any trouble. But last night I was in delay heaven having been in delay hell thinking that I had bought this wonderful delay which had great features but caused some terrible noise.

Cheers.
 
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Axe_78th

Gold Supporting Member
Messages
397
If the Nova works fine on 9 VDC , with current draw, why would t.c go the 12 volt route? That would have been and was a negative from the start to those looking to purchase a new delay pedal. It was a plus for the Timefactor that it could be powered by a 9 volt supply when the two were first introduced. Seems like there must be a reason for t.c. to go that route Anybody else running their Nova on 9 VDC?
 
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godinman

Member
Messages
51
I wonder if it is because of the large current draw. The nova states that it needs 12Vdc with 300ma. A lot of 9vDC power supplies don't pass that amount of amps. For example the Burkey Flat liner 9V outputs give 200ma.
PP2 again 200ma Boss PSA 200ma. I don't know I am not an electronics head but that may be the problem. As far as I can make out the diago power station, one spot and power all are the only power units that will give this amount of amps. Of course the trade off is that all my pedals are daisy chained. however powering 12 pedals I have not experienced any problems so far. Heres an answer from the diago site regarding using the power station to power old boss 12V DC pedals. Perhaps its something similar with the Nova.

Q) I have an old Boss ACA style pedal that requires 12V DC, yet you say that your Powerstation (which is 9V DC) can power it?
A) Yep - just so long as you're powering at least one other normal 9V pedal in the chain, then it'll work just fine.
The old Boss ACA pedals use 9V batteries don't they? The DC input jacks on the back are hooked up to a current limiting resistor to drop the internal voltage from 12V to 9V. Hooking up a 12V ACA pedal with one or more other 9V pedals bypasses this resistor so that it will work just fine with a highly regulated 9V supply like the Diago Powerstation.
So why design pedals to run from 9V batteries or a 12V power supply? For those who are interested..........
At the time when Boss first started making pedals, unregulated power supplies were the norm. With an unregulated power supply; as the current load is increased (in this case as you try to power more and more pedals) the voltage drops. If the voltage drops your pedals can either sound crap or there may not even be enough voltage for it to work at all. So Boss designed their unregulated pedal power supply to be 12V DC, and put a current limiting resistor in the DC input of every pedal, so that different loading wouldn't have so much of an effect on the 9V needed to power the pedal. Now that we have access to well regulated supplies, it's not an issue any more.
 
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BillyK

Member
Messages
2,582
jamison162 said:
Just got my Nova today, gonna go play some now and compare to the DD-20. I would suggest using the provided adapter and if you can conclude it is causing excessive noise, get a replacememnt. Or just exchange the whole package.
Click to expand...
Sage advice!

BTW: how do you like the Nova compared to the dd-20?
 
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WailinGuy

Member
Messages
1,278
The DC input jacks on the back are hooked up to a current limiting resistor to drop the internal voltage from 12V to 9V. Hooking up a 12V ACA pedal with one or more other 9V pedals bypasses this resistor so that it will work just fine with a highly regulated 9V supply like the Diago Powerstation.
Click to expand...
How does hooking up other pedals cause this resistor to get bypassed? Isn't that resistor in series with the pedal's internal +9VDC power input? I don't understand how this could work.
 
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godinman

Member
Messages
51
Jim Salman said:
How does hooking up other pedals cause this resistor to get bypassed? Isn't that resistor in series with the pedal's internal +9VDC power input? I don't understand how this could work.
Click to expand...
I don't know either I was only putting that question and answer in to explain why maybe the Nova works with my powerstation which is 9V suppling up to 3000mA. Like I said not an electronics head. I don't think the nova power supply was faulty I think it just generates noise and for whatever reason my rig was picking that up perhaps there is an issue with my rig and noise but I have never had any problems before. All I know is that is working really well now.
 
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