PBC Power Cycling - HELP!

**FIXED**

Sent my PBC in and Ron tightened everything internally and tested it himself. No static issues. Had it back to me within a few days. Happy to report that as of now I CANNOT get it to power cycle due to static - no matter what I try. Pretty stoked! Thank you so much @rjmmusic for having the best customer service around and giving every issue your attention! Grateful customer for life. :)
 
paulthebrown said:
**FIXED**

Sent my PBC in and Ron tightened everything internally and tested it himself. No static issues. Had it back to me within a few days. Happy to report that as of now I CANNOT get it to power cycle due to static - no matter what I try. Pretty stoked! Thank you so much @rjmmusic for having the best customer service around and giving every issue your attention! Grateful customer for life. :)
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Glad to hear it's working!!!

So here's a note for anyone else experiencing this - I opened up the PBC, and tightened everything - the standoffs that connect the top board to the case, and the screws that connect the bottom board to the standoffs. Then put it back together and tightened the case screws as well. That seems to be all that's required.
 
rjmmusic said:
Glad to hear it's working!!!

So here's a note for anyone else experiencing this - I opened up the PBC, and tightened everything - the standoffs that connect the top board to the case, and the screws that connect the bottom board to the standoffs. Then put it back together and tightened the case screws as well. That seems to be all that's required.
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Good to hear. Ron, have you considered using non conducive nylon standoffs which may resolve future static discharge concerns?
 
Diezel said:
Good to hear. Ron, have you considered using non conducive nylon standoffs which may resolve future static discharge concerns?
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Actually, it's kind of the opposite... When things are loose, there isn't a strong enough ground connection to disperse static discharges safely. Adding insulators would likely make it worse.
 
rjmmusic said:
Actually, it's kind of the opposite... When things are loose, there isn't a strong enough ground connection to disperse static discharges safely. Adding insulators would likely make it worse.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t referring to lifting ground completely I implied one ground point strap instead of the possibility of creating a mulitipoint ground. Multiple ground points on a board could create a scenario where the shortest ground path may be taken and shut through specific components or area that is sensitive to static. It was just food for thought. Our backgrounds are the same so you may have already mapped out your strategy.
 
My PBC/10 just started randomly power cycling this weekend. Inoticed it happened when I used the volume pedal (which made me think I was bumping a connection loose), so I changed it from being powered by a Strymon Zuma, and tried plugging it in directly using a 9v 500ma wall wart. It still happened.

Perhaps this could be a static issue as well? If so, is “tightening everything” something I could try myself so I wouldn’t be without the unit next weekend?

Thanks!
 
I recommend trying with something that has more than 500mA capacity, just to see if it helps. The PBC draws just about 500mA when powered by 9 volts. The supplies we've tested work, but if yours draws just a little more and the supply can't handle it, it could be a problem.

We don't see a lot of static related problems, but they have happened. It it was static, I would expect it to happen when you touched the PBC itself, not a volume pedal near the PBC. Does it only happen when you use the volume pedal, and how is the volume pedal connected?
 
Sure thing. I’ll find a power supply with more than 500mA and try it. I think the Zuma is rated for 500mA, so if the PBC is wanting more, changing to the different power supply wouldn’t have helped. I think it only happened when I stepped on the volume pedal, but I‘m not 100% on that.

The volume pedal is being fed from the out PBC 1-4—>RJM MEG (with drive pedals)—>PBC In 5-6

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Update: I plugged the PBC into a 1000mA adaptor last weekend and everything worked great. Thanks for the help.
 
Glad to hear it. I'm not sure why the PBC is drawing more current than it should, but if 1000mA is enough, the problem can't be that bad.
 
It’s back at it again :(

while it seemed better, it happened once last weekend, and a bunch this weekend.

As an experiment, I tried to accumulate a lot of static electricity by shuffling my feet on the floor, then touching the volume pedal, and the it did knock out the power of the PBC for a moment.

Would it be recommended to open the unit and tighten everything (or something else user doable), or is it better to send it in? It’s tough being without it for a weekend as it’s running everything, but I've got to do something to prevent the dropouts!
 
If touching the volume pedal is doing it, then there isn't much we can do on the PBC itself. I recommend grounding the volume pedal as well as you can. I would check to make sure the audio ground has a very low resistance connection to the volume pedal chassis, that will help keep the static electricity from traveling from the volume pedal to the PBC.
 
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