FBV3 expression pedal died.

[Afterglow-GTB 0]

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 10]

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

[Mitch01ou 0]

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!

[Afterglow-GTB 0]

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 0]

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

[johndoe20162412 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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 0]

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.