gnumarco

Hi, I just thought I would share my experience. It seems that the TRS cable cable method work with a HX Stomp, but it wont work with a Helix (I guess the exp pedal jacks work differently). I have a Helix Rack and a Hotone II Press. No matter what type of cable I use, I have the 100 - 0 - 100 problem. This is due to how the Exp jack of the Helix work, and how the Hotone II Press works. I tested the resistance tip - sleeve and ring - sleeve on the Hotone using a TRS cable. When fully down, tip - sleeve is 0 but ring - sleeve in 10k Ohm, and on the contrary, when fully up, tip - sleeve is 10k Ohm and ring - sleeve is 0. Then I found a post explaining how the Exp jacks in the Helix are wired, and this wiring makes that they "kind of" sum the resistance of tip-sleeve and ring-sleeve (Ohm laws, so not quite a sum when in parallel and blah blah blah). Long story short, the Hotone II Press will never work correctly, not with a TS cable, nor with a (fully wired) TRS cable. The trick is: use TRS jacks, but make a cable that only wires tip to tip and sleeve to sleeve, and leave the rings unwired. This way, the Helix only sees the tip - sleeve resistor that goes from 0 to 10k Ohm. I've done it, and it works flawlessly.

Hi all. Digging out this topic as I found a solution. I have read in other forums that the Ampero Hotone II seems to work with the HX Stomp. I have a Helix Rack, and it did not work. I had the "famous problem" of values going 0% - 100% - 0%, which is not ideal. So, I plugged a TRS cable to my Hotone II and tested the resistance between "tip - sleeve" and "ring - sleeve". "Tip-sleeve" goes from 0 Ohm to 10k Ohm linearly, and "ring-sleeve" goes from 10k Ohm to 0 Ohm linearly as the pedal is pressed. My conclusions: maybe the Helix actually has TRS jacks but tip and sleeve are hardwired together "just in case". This way, when pedal is up or down the whole way, it shows a 0 Ohm resistance (because signal passes either through tip or sleeve), and when the pedal is at the middle position, resistance is at its max, which is approx 2.5k Ohm (if the pedal is really linear, in the middle position we have two resistors of approx. 5k Ohm in parallel, which gives a 2.5k Ohm total resistance). So, this might be, for me, the explanation of why the Helix works like this with the Hotone II. When a TS cable is used, the resistance between T and S goes: 0 Ohm - approx. 3k Ohm - 0 Ohm, not sure why though. SOLUTION: just take TRS jacks and wire Tip to Tip and Sleeve to Sleeve. Let the Rings unwired. It works perfectly with my Helix Rack.

This is very frustrating...no way to find a Variax in Europe...what happened??