Rockman MidiPedal Issue - Please help

[carl170]

Hi. After months of waiting, I finally found a Rockman midi pedal that looked in nice condition. I bought it and had it shipped from the USA to the UK.

I plugged it into my UK-USA converter that I use with my Rocktron Voodu Valve. The display shows a flashing 0 and a bar next to it along with 5 LEDS. However that is all it seems to do. Occasionally the number 5 pushbutton works.

Does anyone have any idea where I can start? The Unit looks very clean inside and out and the seller had pictures of it powered up and running just fine.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the midi pedal is 120 Volts (3w) and the conversion transformer I have is rated 110V (300w). Could the 10 Volts difference stop this from working properly? Alternatively, I noticed there is a big capacitor inside - would this normally charge up each time and be used for the triggering voltage?

The seller seems like a very genuine guy, who had accidentally listed this as international shipping!

Thanks for any help anyone can offer. The unit is from 1991.

Regards

Carl

[GuitarBuilder]

It is indeed quite possible that you are not supplying enough voltage to the pedal. Can you confirm what the actual voltage is with a multimeter?

Rockman gear sold in Europe typically came without a power cord; instead an external 12VAC Adapter was used.

[carl170]

GuitarBuilder, Thanks for your input.

However, I have found the issue, but now caused even more problems for myself.

I stripped the pedal down and discovered that 2 of the 7 footswitches are not in perfect working order. The number 5/10 footswitch doesn't always return back to its original position, which in effect means you can press any other footswitch and nothing appears to happen (because the 5 switch is still latched on). The down switch has one of the 2 plastic tabs broken, so is a bit hit and miss when pressing it.

Sadly when testing the board, one corner of the circuit boards slipped and earthed against the metal casing. This has blown the fuse in the unit (which is hard soldered in!), so I will now have to desolder this and source a new one. I may solder in a fuse holder if I can. Even worse was it tripped a fuse in the house, so both Sky TV boxes went off along with the TV sets which were being watched upstairs and downstairs. These took about 20 minutes to re-initialise, so I am not very popular in my household tonight!

However, the biggest problem is what to do about the broken plastic footswitches? Having never seen a Rockman midipedal close up, I had assumed these would be bombproof and made of metal.

Does anyone know if it is even possible to get spares or similar replacements?

Thanks again for any help anyone can offer. I also appreciate you taking the time to read my rambling posts!

Regards

Carl

[iZheil9152]

So to clarify, the plastic tabs on the underside of the pedal have broken off? If so you might be able to fix it by putting something in place of the tabs that hit the switch. And my advice for button #5 would be to lubricate it and see if it will return to off position, else you replace the switch.

[carl170]

Sorry, I may not have made this very clear.

The round switches mounted on the PCB all work fine.

It is the square plastic sections that you press with your foot that have the issues. One of them doesn't pop back out properly when pressed, which means none of the other buttons work as it is still pressed in. One of the others only has one of the plastic tabs on the underside , so it can be a bit hit and miss when it is pressed.

Regards

Carl

[Dale]

I ran into the same problem with one of my 2 pedals.
I was playing one day and pressed the 5 chanel and when I went to switch back to chanel 2 it stayed stuck on 5 and wouldn't change, I kept hitting it (5) and then other channels and eventually it changed off of 5. It happened more and more so I put that midi pedal on the top ( use a midi merge to connect both pedals) and just don't use that button.
Well now the one next to it the 4/9 is starting to do the same thing I haven't taken it apart yet I was thinking maybe a spring was sticking and didn't need the one channel, but with another doing the same thing I guess I'll have to open her up and have a look.
I was looking to pick up another one but they're getting pricey nowadays.

[carl170]

Dale,

I just noticed that your Up and Down Buttons are Blue! Mine are all grey



I wonder if mine has been cobbled from bits or something?!

The footswitch doesn't have any springs in the assembly, It simply relies on 2 plastic tabs flexing the button back up.

Regards

Carl

PS I have emaild Dunlop about spares and keeping my fingers crossed.

[carl170]

Duplicate post - Nothing to see here!

[carl170]

Well, I have stripped the unit down and had a look at the plastic footswitch part of the controller. There is a plastic segment under the gray or blue button which has two angled plastic prongs which press the button on the PCB and return the button to zero. Both footswitches on mine which are not working correctly have a broken prong, so the button only returns to zero on one side. As I can only see one broken segment, the other must have been removed by a previous owner. There is no way it could escape by itself as the pedal is fully enclosed. So maybe the eBay seller wasn't quite on the level.

Here is the plastic piece. As You can see, the piece on the right hand side has broken along the top edge. Note the two prongs which depress a small round switch.



And here is what I have on two foot switches:



Firstly I need to get a replacement fuse, which was soldered in on mine. I have remove this tonight and it appears to be a 1/4 Amp 250V. I THINK it was a slow blow. Not sure though - if anyone can confirm I would be grateful!. Once I have replaced this and tested the electrics, I will look at fixing the unit footswitches. I am wondering if I can fabricate something myself or try a repair with epoxy.

Maybe i should have just bought the Rocktron Midi mate as I originally intended!

Incidentally, if anyone has a junked midipedal and would be interested in selling any parts, let me know!

Regards

Carl

[Guitarvamp]

Ah yes, plastic failure. Cheap to make, as it does the job of several parts, but you're screwed when that plastic piece breaks.

I had a pedal piece break just like that. I carefully super glued it back together. Seems to have fixed it, but for how long (since it no longer has the elasticity in that area now)?

Does anyone still sell the buttons, or was that a custom SR&D part?