FBV3 expression pedal died.

[Zinc_Kovacs]

Story time...

 

The expression pedal on my FBV3 died. I was performing a firmware update and afterwards it just stopped working. I thought it was too much of a coincidence so I tried reverting back to the previous version and it didn't come back to life.

 

The thing is out of warranty anyway so I took off the bottom panel to have a look. See the attached photo... The expression pedal works by having an LED (D1 in the photo) illuminating a white flag that moves closer and further away as you operate the pedal. A light sensor (Q1 in the photo) then detects the change in light level reflected by the flag. I can tell the sensor is working because shining a torch on it caused a corresponding affect on the POD volume effect level. So I it's the little surface mount LED that has blown. The fact that it didn't visibly light up could have been due to being infra red but, no, it's blown. The whole expression pedal module is on its own small PCB so I contacted UK Yamaha service to see if they could send me a new expression pedal PCB. The only thing they could offer was for me to send the complete unit to them and they would replace the whole PCB set at a cost of £142 ($185). A whole new FBV3 in the UK is £176 ($230) so that wasn't a good option. 

 

So I ordered a pack of 10 surface mount LEDs from an eBay supplier and replaced the blown one. Expression pedal restored! Cost? £1.75 for the pack of 10 so 17.5p ($0.23)  

 

Now, I'm not saying that connecting the FBV3 to my PC to update the firmware was the cause of the LED blowing... but the coincidence does seem pretty suspicious...

 

Michael.

 

[SeaRefractor]

Glad you were able to repair your pedal and for such a significant cost savings. 

[Mitch01ou]

Hi Afterglow,

 

I'm having the same problem - I'm looking at LED's - any specs I should look at? There's a shocking amount of "Surface Mount LED's", haha - what kind did you use? Thanks for the info and post by the way - mine was dead out of the box (used) and I was irritated. Glad there's an easy fix. 

 

Thanks!

[Zinc_Kovacs]

Hi Mitch,

 

Sorry for not seeing your post earlier.

 

This is the eBay listing here in the UK that I got the LED from:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ULTRA-BRIGHT-PLCC-2-3528-1210-SMD-LEDS-SURFACE-MOUNT-SMT-1-100-PCS-PLCC2/310314933505?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=610026721100&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Other than the physical dimensions which matched the broken item, the listing doesn't say anything about the spec for these LEDs. I seem to remember measuring the voltage across the pins on the board at 5V, which is pretty much what you would expect. I figured that if I fitted an LED with a lot lower forward voltage requirement, the worse that could happen is the LED would very quickly fail and I would just have to try another variety. I lucked out and it works fine!

 

If you do replace the LED, use a low Wattage soldering iron i.e. 12W with a very fine tip. The thing is tiny any it would be very easy to overheat. The negative connector side is marked by a triangular notch in one corner.

 

Needless to say, if you do perform surgery, it would almost certainly void any warranty... but then, if it was within warranty, I guess you wouldn't need to perform the surgery! 

 

Cheers,

Michael.

 

 

[Mitch01ou]

Many thanks, Michael!! I really appreciate you taking the time. Helped me out immensely.

[johndoe20162412]

Guys, THANK YOU so much! That saved me 200+ €.

My pedal on the FBV3 was dead for the above reason, too. It was quite fiddly to get this little piece of LED attached with a standard soldering iron and a pair of tweezers. However, it worked on the first try. Now it shines brightly again and I've got back my wah!

 

Although I now have some of the LEDs in stock, hopefully that'll hold the 5 Volts for a while.

 

Thanks again,

Fil

[RoB-D-W]

I had the same issue with my FBV3. First I heated up all the soldered points on mainboard and the EXP-PCB with the solder iron, that brought the sensor Q1 back to life but not the LED D1.

Then I performed the surgery and it was a success! In my case I bought a LED for 40 Euro-cents at a store in my City. I soldered it with  an ordinary 25W solder iron but of course one needs to be carefull. I put two solder blobs on the PCB in the first step and then reheated those to "glue" the SMD to them. The resulting missalignment seems to be negligible. The color of the LED seems to be irrelevant as well. I bought a white PLCC2 with 3.2 V and 20 mA - it shines red anyway. It only turns white when I unplug the network cable and then fades.

As the FBV is auto calibrating (sth I really don't get how it works) all LED parameters seem to be arbitrary, it just seems to be working with any plcc2 LED...

[erchivi]

Hello, my fbv3 also stopped working, sometimes I get functions but at the moment it fails again. could someone tell me how I could open it to see how I repair it?

[rodieror]

I ran into the same thing with my FBV3. I preordered one to use with my Firehawk 1500 and hardly used it and went to pair it up with my Pro Pro X HD and the pedal would switch modes but couldn't get any expression function with either the volume or the Wah. I took the pedal board apart and noticed the D1 had no light on it. I was going to replace the LED on the board but I talked to Line 6 this morning and got a part number for the entire board as it would be much easier to replace the board than to solder a new LED on the board. Waiting for a call back from full compass as to pricing but I will update when I get that info and decide what I am going to do.

[BrentonJKelly]

On 11/10/2018 at 12:41 AM, Afterglow-GTB said:

Story time...

 

The expression pedal on my FBV3 died. I was performing a firmware update and afterwards it just stopped working. I thought it was too much of a coincidence so I tried reverting back to the previous version and it didn't come back to life.

 

The thing is out of warranty anyway so I took off the bottom panel to have a look. See the attached photo... The expression pedal works by having an LED (D1 in the photo) illuminating a white flag that moves closer and further away as you operate the pedal. A light sensor (Q1 in the photo) then detects the change in light level reflected by the flag. I can tell the sensor is working because shining a torch on it caused a corresponding affect on the POD volume effect level. So I it's the little surface mount LED that has blown. The fact that it didn't visibly light up could have been due to being infra red but, no, it's blown. The whole expression pedal module is on its own small PCB so I contacted UK Yamaha service to see if they could send me a new expression pedal PCB. The only thing they could offer was for me to send the complete unit to them and they would replace the whole PCB set at a cost of £142 ($185). A whole new FBV3 in the UK is £176 ($230) so that wasn't a good option. 

 

So I ordered a pack of 10 surface mount LEDs from an eBay supplier and replaced the blown one. Expression pedal restored! Cost? £1.75 for the pack of 10 so 17.5p ($0.23)  

 

Now, I'm not saying that connecting the FBV3 to my PC to update the firmware was the cause of the LED blowing... but the coincidence does seem pretty suspicious...

 

Michael.

 

 

This is a great post and described the issue with my FBV-# (circa 2017) perfectly. As far as a fix is concerned, I am still working it through (trying to find replacement part) but certainly I have verifed the issue is LED 'D1'. Thanks AfterGlow-GTB

[markdalton]

Having same issue. Expression pedal stopped working. I can't figure out how to take apart my line 6 fbv 3? Can anyone help?

[BrentonJKelly]

"Having same issue" says to me your pedal has lights under the buttons, but the volume/wah pedal does not work. If so, remove most of the screws located on the underside of the FBV-3. Not all screws need to be removed, but most do. Trial and error. Once all required screws are removed the top panel will lift off the bottom half. Read the posts above as good information contained within. Arm yourself with a torch to see if you can get the opto receiver to react to changing light levels. If so, D1 SMD LED is likely your issue. All the best

[saracen22]

Hi. I have problem with expression pedal 

not working,  but switch between vol and wah working I replace d1 led but I don't know parameters led q1 someone can help me?

[ven008]

I had the same issue. Volume pedal not working. I took the fbv3 apart and didn't see 'd1' shine. I could change the volume using a torch. I don't know why but then I experimented by hooking up the board to the computer using usb. Then I could see midi values change when I moved the pedal, but still couldn't see any light in d1. Pedal works fine now miraculously. My conclusion: d1 may be fine even if you don't see it shine. Probably infrared? 

[saracen22]

i change d1 but no results still not respond. I need to know what part this is Q1 because I can't find anywhere :(

[BrentonJKelly]

I can now confirm that replacement of the SMD LED labelled 'D1' has resolved my 'no volume control" symptom. The part used was sourced through a local repair agent via Line6/Yamaha Australia. Go well.

[saracen22]

maybe someone knows what is this element? Q1?

[Zinc_Kovacs]

17 hours ago, saracen22 said:

maybe someone knows what is this element? Q1?

 

Hi.

 

The chip labelled Q1 is a photo-receptor. The LED D1 shines light at a constant level which is reflected by the white flag attached to the pedal and the amount of reflected light (as per the inverse square law) is detected by the detector Q1.

 

Have you tried using a torch to shine on the Q1 detector? If you do that and see the Wah/Vol parameter change as you waft the torch over it, you will know if the detector circuitry is working and that it's the LED at fault. If not... then I guess you have bigger problems.

 

If you have replaced the LED D1, does it light up? If not you could have put it in the wrong way round or maybe over heated it with the soldering iron.

 

Michael.

[JishDC800]

Just bought a used FBV3 and no matter what I try, the expression pedal will not work. I can switch from volume to wah, but sweeping the pedal has no effect. I took the bottom off and see no lights being emitted, and there is no response by shining a light. This is a huge bummer.

[JishDC800]

Just a heads up to anyone with this problem. If you carefully read Line 6's "Warranty and Repair" section on the support page it says that most parts can be purchased through Full Compass. Sure enough, the Expression Pedal PCB for FBV3 is available for sale. I have one ordered and it will be delivered in a couple days. 

 

Line 6 50-02-0576 Expression Pedal PCB for FBV3

[saracen22]

unfortunately they do not ship outside the USA :(

[JishDC800]

On 6/9/2020 at 4:32 PM, saracen22 said:

unfortunately they do not ship outside the USA :(

 

Update! So I replaced the PCB that I just had delivered from Full Compass and everything works great now. Easy, proper, $7 fix! The only thing that needs to be done is to solder the 6 wires on. The PCB also comes with the volume/wah switch and is scored to snap off before installing. I didn't install the new switch because the old one worked fine.

saracen22, I will message you to see if I can help you get a new PCB :)

 

[bsem]

I just plugged in my FBV3 after not using it for a long time and noticed the pedal was also not working. I came across this thread.

 

They were out of stock of the PCB so I ended up buying some LEDs and can do myself easily.

 

 

[saracen22]

hello, who is from the usa and is able to send me this pcb to uk?

https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/586161-line-6-50-02-0576-expression-pedal-pcb-for-fbv3

 

[ServerMatrix]

Hola. Me acaba de pasar lo mismo con una FBV 3 que comprende de segunda mano y el pedal de expresión no hace nada. Solo cambia las luces de rojo (volumen) y verde para wah pero no hace nada. Vivo en españa. Alguien sabe donde comprar el PCB.

Gracias

[FatkeDH]

Michael (Afterglow-GTB);

Took your advice - With my FBV 3 pedal neutered and non functional (switched but no vol or wah action) I ordered up a new board from Full Compass using your link.  All said and done under $10.  After un-soldering (and fighting the glue from a nice stress relieved hot glue attachment factory  job) from the old board, I was able to solder up the 6 wires (yes requires a fine tipped low wattage solder iron required as well as a de-solder tool and some flux to keep it all neat and clean),  My FBV 3  Pedal vol/wah is back in business.  Thank you so much for the insight and links to the parts.    This job certainly made me realize that my PCB solder skills are in need of a refresher.  I did not hot glue the connection to the board in case I have any future issues.  

 

Dave   

[reli33]

Hi guys, 

the same problem here. I replaced in my MKII express the LED and the pedal worked properly for half a year. Now the LED works, but Q1 does not respond to a light change. Tried eclipse but no change. Any idea? :-(  

 

 

I have the answer from support and also the part numbers, but I can't get  this Q1 anywhere

Info about parts from support:

 

Q200: PHOTOTRANSISTOR BLUE LENS LEDTECH LT5K95
D200: Led Infra-Red 880mm Clear Lens LT5K83-AA

[saracen22]

Hi you have any information about where we can buy this parts ?

[reli33]

HI, 

I could not find a seller of these products, maybe ebay...china...LEDTECH is factory of China

[reli33]

On 10/25/2020 at 6:17 PM, reli33 said:

Hi guys, 

the same problem here. I replaced in my MKII express the LED and the pedal worked properly for half a year. Now the LED works, but Q1 does not respond to a light change. Tried eclipse but no change. Any idea? :-(  

 

 

I have the answer from support and also the part numbers, but I can't get  this Q1 anywhere

Info about parts from support:

 

Q200: PHOTOTRANSISTOR BLUE LENS LEDTECH LT5K95
D200: Led Infra-Red 880mm Clear Lens LT5K83-AA

 

The update ....finally work perfect :-) 

Q200: phototransistor osram SHA 320-3

D200: classic led warm white plcc2 

The calibration scale also works with this combination.....

[saracen22]

21 minutes ago, reli33 said:

 

The update ....finally work perfect :-) 

Q200: phototransistor osram SHA 320-3

D200: classic led warm white plcc2 

The calibration scale also works with this combination.....

not SFH?

[reli33]

On 5/22/2021 at 6:29 PM, saracen22 said:

not SFH?

Sorry, yes its SFH320-3

[alanme262]

DIGITECH PART NUMBERS:

 

LED: 846-1039-1-ND   LED WHITE DIFFUSED 2PLCC SMD     mfg# SMLZ14WBECW1

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/SMLZ14WBECW1/846-1039-1-ND/2425045

 

PHOTO SENSOR: 475-3567-1-ND  SENSOR PHOTO 980NM TOP VIEW 2LCC    mfg#SFH 320-Z

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/osram-opto-semiconductors-inc/SFH-320-Z/2205907?s=N4IgTCBcDaICwHYCsBaAzEgbAlBGFAcgCIgC6AvkA

 

Used on FBV MKII Express, calibrated first try. 

 

[MetalBrad1979]

My LED just died as well. Thanks for this thread, I’ll be able to repair it for almost nothing compared to what it would cost to send it in. Thanks again for the info. 

[m6255]

Boy I really feel bad if you had to replace the ic board for your expression pedal. All you had to do was look into most of the pod hd xxx advanced pilot books or the downloads. 
 

story time number 2 this last year I purchased what looked like an almost brand new pod hd500x and I got it on reverb. Part of the discription said “ yep it’s all ready for you I reset it back to factory removing all my edits so it’s all set for you”

 

I literally ignored that statement but when I just happened to be reading this post this time your words of ref lashing the firmware hit me between the eyes. When I got my hd500x home and quick set it up, I started messing with editing a patch, at first I had the floor board on my desk and I noticed when I moved the expression pedal there was no midi movement. I tried cranking down on the pretend toe switch, nothing. I got upset and went online, read quickly over a few other peoples complaint about the expression pedal till finally I got to a page right in this line 6 support pages.

 

it says WHENEVER THE FIRMWARE IS FLASHED THE EXPRESSION PEDAL MUST BE CALIBRATED. so wow I did a quick search on calibrating the expression pedal on a line 6 hd500x and found this link . 

 

[m6255]

Even if you found a replacement ic board didn’t you have to calibrate it. I figured by this amount of time you would have found a link like this. I did a Google search and the whole page came up with line 6 support pages on the line 6 expression pedal. I hope if anyone else has that problem they will find this. I’ve been buying line 6 equiptment for almost 2 decades. I’m a luthier as well and built quite a few custom line 6 Variax all from the 300/500/600/700. After a while I was making my own tremolos and all of my guitars had magnetic pickups on them before line 6 had theirs although their engineering was way better than mine. My custom Variax guitars had way too many volume tone etc knobs. I’ve recently taken apart a standard, that’s my favorite Variax if you haven’t tried one you must. It’s incredible I have 2 of them. But the volume control is just a custom stacked twin pot except their not twin. One is 250 ohm for the magnetic sand the other one is 10 ohm for the Variax, just like the old ones. 
  My point on this long note is line 6 stuff is built like a tank in my humble opinion. And for things like making my own tremolos it tolerated me unsoldering the piezo pickups removing the saddles and the 500/700 had a flat tape like cable easily damaged but are repairable the 300/600 were identical except for the tremolo, that had a 7 wire cable if I remember or 8 I think it had a ground on either side plus the 6 strings. My point is I’m more of a wood worker than electronics engineer yet every Variax I put into a custom body ended up working great with my messing around with them. 
I’ve messed with other electronics like these 2 vintage PeaVey vtx and vt 212 classics. I simply teplaced the caps, super easy job they even sell kits for each amp. But I did something wrong, because the 2 6L6GC tubes are red plating. I talked to PeaVey and those couple of year vintage hybrids with a solid state preamp and full tube power amp are tricky to work on. When working I think they are great sounding amps. I must love the classic underdog, I also own a line 6 DT 50 head and a DT 50 212, which in these line 6 support pages says I must SEND MY AMP BACK TO LINE 6 TO CHANGE THE TUBES. what. Jeez the 212 especially weighs about 80 pounds. So I purchased the recommended matched tube set which are electro harmonic matched el34  s and I purchased a quad channel biasing guage for about 50 bucks. Only needed 2 channels. Found only one video how to bias it and that was actually for the dt25. Totally different. There’s just one pot inside so I pulled the tubes plugged in the 2 testers in the el34 jacks is says line 6 is looking for 36mv well no matter what I even rotated the tubes but the v1 slot was always 3 mv below the v2 slot so I plug the difference. Btw if you ever try this ofcoarse be careful of electrocution and 2 there’s a switch for pentatonic (means5) and diatonic you need to test the bias in the lower 25 watt mode. The pentatonic will show double the mv. I didn’t know that at first but switched the switch it calmed down I figured that had to be right. What went wrong was the topo switc on III I could barely hear the amp but when it switched to IV wham it was full volume. I had a feeling it was a tube. Because I bought that amp through guitar center. They did a horrid job boxing up the amp. When I got it, the box was blown to pieces and. The amp was in a pile of bubble wrap and cardboard on my garage floor. When I looked at the case the top left corner was flattened out where clearly it hit the road going about 40 mph. Again a testament to the tank like over build of a very complex amplifier. I took the amp inside and immediately bought a set of 4 heavy duty removable castors. I’m 67 and could hardly lift the damn thing. Anyway got it inside plugged it in. Worked perfectly for about a month. Guitar center gave me 15% off refund for my troubles. I got a really good price, about 300 bucks for the amp original price around 1600 bucks. Anyway, my peaveys are still not working and when I got the tubes and biased them put the amp back together figuring that probably didn’t fix it, well at least I still had the head. Holy cats it sounded better than the head which I thought sounded awesome. For some sad reason my humble opinion is line 6 best effort for any guitar amp failed. It didn’t last very long and now you can get them used fairly cheap. Check out that amp in these here forums, the people that still own them love them. Just the 4 basic sounds that come on the cheat sheet are wonderful. That’s why I ended up buying a used hd500x and recently an hd prox because I don’t gig much but like to record in my. Home studio. Line 6 dubbed it the dream rig and to be honest I totally agree. I’ll never sell mine I’ll will them to my grandsons. I got 2 because that’s the only way to do stereo fx which sound incredible. I also purchased the line 6 super e pensive Xlr digital cables so I could daisy chain my amps from the hd prox. So fir chords I have my Variax VDI cable the 2 XLR cables, a speaker wire from the head to my Marshall green back cabinet.

this was a long winded testimony to my faith in line 6 products lasting. I don’t know how many I have between pods and guitars and basses, but not a one has broken down. The pits on the guitars are lollipop. I’ve got a couple of 10 ohm pots to replace on a couple basses. Oh man that’s another product, the 700 and 705 bass. I’ve got around 5 and are they awesome. I think I like em better than the guitar modelers. Anyway you can get some incredible sounds out of them. Before the hd500x I had the x3 pro. I still think it’s line 6 official Swiss Army knife. I love the vocal pre amps, the lo fi one is cool too. The bass pre amps, the acoustic guitar preamps and the electric guitar patches. I bought that when it first came out. I’m bout to sell it, it’s still perfect and if I didn’t have the helix native which I do have running in logic prox in my brand new incredible apple m1 Mac mini. Unlimited tracks never a hiccup buy the 16 gig of ram and the 512 SSD. I used to love intel. The apple silicone will sink intel and amp. I shouldn’t have run on so. Sorry, I guess line 6 repare can tell you about more line 6 problems, because I’ve lost count of every line 6 I’ve ever had, and except for that dt50 the fell out of a moving ups truck I never had a line 6 piece of kit fail. And after changing the tubes the dt50 212 was as good as new. I just don’t understand why the DT amps failed and the basses oh yeah the acoustic 700 too was great. I’m watching the helix so far it’s hanging on. I think they have a winner there will probably get one of them. The only thing holding me back is someone at line 6 didn’t think of making the helix to work like the pod hd series with the L6Link that’s what made them the dream rig, you could control the amp from the guitar, the guitar from the amp etc. perfectly integrated. I hear the helix does work now with the DT amps but not completely, with the hd series if you turn a knob on the DT amps the knob turns on the pod. But not the helix, I’d say that was done but someone thought oh were through with the bigger tube amp so don’t bother making it work with the dead dog. Dumb. The only other thing the L6Link works with is the ultra expensive 1500 watt stage speaker. If you want stereo that will cost you 3k. Wow. Now I think I’ll just keep the dts. Nice jawing with you what were we talking about. Oh yeah the fox for the expression pedal ! 

[Flocke77]

the following spare parts worked for me:

 

Photo-Transistor (OSRAM OPTO SFH320: Fototransistor, NPN, 450...1150nm, 120°, PLCC-2):
Link to Seller (reichelt.de)

 

LED (SLOAN SMD-SPLCC-02: SLO SMD-SPLCC-0 LED, SMD 3528, PLCC-2, weiß, 2200 mcd, 120°) :
Link to Seller (reichelt.de)

 

because it works with light-sensors, you don't have to calibrate the pedal, just use the right spare parts.

[MrKaffee]

thank you Flocke77 for your post with the links to the spare parts.

these also fixed my FBV3 and i am so happy :-)

[jtashiro]

Having the same issue with FBV3, volume doesn't work, but the wah/vol switch does.  I've ordered replacement board from Full Compass - looks to be back-ordered and am thinking of plan B to replace the LED D1 and receptor Q1 and would appreciate some guidance as well as links to parts that worked, preferably from US parts provider.

 

Opened the case and I don't see any light from D1 led - should I expect to see visible light from D1?  

 

When I wave flashlight over to Q1 I am not hearing volume change from connected Amplifi or Spider amp ... does this mean Q1 or entire board is bad?

 

thanks for help.

 

 

[dormatzliah]

THANK YOU!

 

Found this thread a few months ago when I noticed my old and barely used FBV3's expression pedal stopped working.

 

My unit's warranty is long gone so I opened it and replaced the LED, works like a charm.