Shortboard mk ii volume doesnt work right when playing outside

[Sharding757]

I have an FBV shortboard Mark II and for years I've had problems with it when playing gigs outside. The volume pedal gets maxed out and I cant control it! At first I thought it was the cable but when I switched it out with the fbv express, it worked just fine. Today I had to get my levels straight with the band outside and wasted a whole day. I tried to calibrate the unit and found at times it would only start to move from 0 on up only when the pedal reached about 3/4 of the way down. I did calibrate it properly. After much research and pulling the thing apart, I found out that the sunlight is causing the optical sensors to go crazy. If I moved my hand around the pedal (all covers still on) causing shade, the "check value" would go nuts! This is without even touching the board. This why it would work okay at times and other times it wouldn't. It depended on the sun and the refraction of light on the surrounding surfaces. We practice at night normally and NEVER had an issue. It was always been problematic when playing during the day. I didnt put two and two together until now. Apparently I cant send a video so its posted public on my fb page at. sam.harding.777. Please help with resolving this issue. I spend alot of money on gear and issues like this tske away from my playing when having to monitor constant volume control. Thanks.

[BillBee]

Hey there, yep this issue has popped up before. Full sunlight at the right angle triggers the optical sensor. From what I've seen there are two ways to get around this.

 

1) External exp pedal - they run off of a pot so no light issues there or as Nick wrote:

 

Re: FBV ShortBoard Pedal Not controlling Volume in full Sun
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-07-06 05:23:07.4490

 

Hi

 

OK - maybe a bit of detective work on your part would help you in the short term.   You know what the problem is exactly - bright sunlight.   What you need to determine is exactly where the light is getting in, and although the answer to that might initially appear obvious, it may not be as obvious as you think.

 

Number one place to look is the obvious - the hole inder the toe of the pedal where there is a piece of metal attached to the underside of the toe end of the pedal and which protrudes down inside the casing.  You can check whether this is the cause of the problem by jerry-rigging something to block the ingress of light around the hole just to test what happens with the pedal at different heights with the hole covered and uncovered.   I suspect this is most likely where the problem lies.  There is a foam ring inside the holewhich I think is supposed to help with this issue but it moves.  In my opinion, this problem requires a solution where the hole into the guts of the Shortboard is completely shielded.  A short length of thin but light tight compressible (concertina like ribbing) rubber tubing which covers the hole and is affixed to the underside of the toe end of the pedal would work and without impeding the travel of the pedal.  This type of rubber tubing can sometimes be found in the engine bay of modern cars on the ends of throttle or clutch cables or near door hinges in cars where it is used to provide flexible shielding for electric window, door speakers and electric door mirror wiring.  A trip to the local scrap yard might be in order.

 

The second place to look and a less likely cause in my opinion would be the seams around the casing which may be a little more 'gappy' than is ideal.  My Shortboard is well made and doesn't appear to have excessive gaps in the places where the different metal panels are screwed together, so I would think that all Shortboards are built to similar standards.   But - you could use some gaffer tape to ensure that these are light tight if you think there may be a problem.

 

I appreciate that you shouldn't have to resort to any of the above, but in the short term in the light of there not (apparently) being a fix, necessity is the mother of invention so you may have to be a little inventive/creative in finding your own solution until a fix is available

 

Nick

 

Full thread here:

 

http://line6.com/supportarchivenew/thread/38599/

 

In the end the bellows worked:

 

Re: FBV ShortBoard Pedal Not controlling Volume in full Sun
by pletch5034 on 2010-08-02 07:48:07.7100

 

Hello All,

 

The mock up of the bellows worked. We were set-up on a large stage facing the West on a very bright (and sweltering hot) afternoon. I set-up my rig and it worked flawlessly.

 

I watched the video that was linked and see that the pedal can be removed without having to disconnect any linkage. I am going to try placing a material "tube" over the pedal rod where it covers the opening and see if this works.

 

Funny I get responses and emails from Line6 to buy new gear, but have yet to get a response to our problem.

 

 

Pletch

[Sharding757]

Thanks for the quick response. Ive thought of a fix that may take care of it. Paint the back of the circuit board black (with acrylic paint) since light can somewhat pass thru it. Mount a pvc pipe in between the circuitboard and housing only allowing the pedal to go down into it. Hot glue it in place. That will take care of any light from the sides. Ill report back with my findings.

[Sharding757]

Spray paint the underside of the pedal flat black ensuring that you do nit spray the rubber feet or the white disk. Also paint the pot metal hinge/shroud flat black. Problem solved. With a very intense led light, i could only manage about 14 on the prdal check value and that was really really trying and angling the beam upwards into the pedal cavity. Before that, simply letting my shadow hit the pedal resulted in a change of value.