Electro Harmonix 9.6V from Mondo? Finnicky "Good Vibes"

[SixIsNine]

New to Voodoo labs and the forums and wanted to preface by saying I'm really enjoying the forum and VL gear I recently purchased = Ground Control Pro, Hex and Mondo. I'm learning a lot from the forum on setup and implementation so thanks to everyone on here.

I'm in the process of building a new pedal board using the Mondo. Everything works great except my Electro Harmonix "Good Vibes" univibe. I've been all over the net and have come to the conclusion that the issue lies in the "Good Vibes" actually needing 9.6V 200mA as it says on the power supply and not the 9V it says on the pedal. I've seen some mention of this on this forum, but nothing specific to remedying it with the Mondo. Sorry if I missed it.

I was hoping someone might know of a way to get 9.6V out of the Mondo? I understand that I can get all the mA I need, it's just that this pedal seems to require the current be supplied at 9.6V. Maybe the "Sag" outlets can to do this? Is there a trim pot internally to over volt? Or possibly a way for one of the 12V outlets to be configured? It seems the stock dip switches don't provide this.

The whole point of the Mondo was to get rid of wallwarts and their associated noise. I'm hoping I don't have to mount the EHX wall wart under my board using the courtesy outlet, but I like the pedal so much that I will do that if I have to (thanks VL for the courtesy outlet!). Any help would be much appreciated.

[JohnClark]

The Good Vibes should be perfectly fine from any 9VDC output on any model of Pedal Power. What is the problem you seem to be having with this pedal?

[SixIsNine]

The Good Vibes should be perfectly fine from any 9VDC output on any model of Pedal Power. What is the problem you seem to be having with this pedal?

The problem is that the "Good Vibes" powers up and switches functions but the modulation and speed (actual swishy effect sound) is not there, or very very faint. As soon as I use the EHX supplied power supply marked as 9.6V 200 mA the pedal works fine. I dug around on the net and found the most info on the EHX site. They indicate that some of their pedals will only work with 9.6V. I think with the "Good Vibes" the photo resistors have some specific needs.

I tried every outlet on the Mondo with the DIP switches set to deliver 9.0V but got the same results. On one of the forums I was on someone mentioned that they could get theirs to work (with another companies supply) if they first powered up the 3rd party DC supply with the pedal attached and then disconnected and reconnected the dc in on the pedal. Something to do with the power supply voltage ramp up rate. I tried this with the Mondo but with no luck.

I have another EXH pedal that uses the EHX 9.6V wallwart = Stereo Talking Machine. That pedal works fine with the Mondo. Both of these pedals are brand new from EHX purchased last week. The Mondo was purchased a couple of weeks ago and says February 2017. Hope this helps.

[JohnClark]

Our outputs aren't cut off right at 9.0V, they are all set at about 9.3V. I have yet to see an EHX "9.6V" pedal that actually required exactly 9.6V or it didn't work... but I admit to never having a Good Vibes pedal here on my bench.

I suppose you could use a Voltage Doubler Adapter on the SAG Outputs with them each dialed to yield a total of 9.6V if if this pedal actually poops out with anything less. It would be a first!

[SixIsNine]

I tried every output with the DIP switches set for 9V with the same result = lights up but no swooorssscchhhh effect. Yep it's odd. Of course, optical univibes have a heritage of being odd from what I gather. The fact that there is not a hard 9.0V cuttoff on the Mondo is probably why my other EHX Talking Machine has no issues.

Thanks for the recommendation of the voltage doubler cable with SAG controls. I'll try that.

Regarding other EHX 9.6V pedals.... I think there is a great opportunity for VL to make a lot of people happy (and sell a lot of Mondos!) by spreading the word that your gear can power these odd EHX pedals. From my travels on the net researching this issue I came across a number of people talking about the EHX "Good Vibes", B9, C9 and Mel9 (maybe others) not working with anything other than the EHX supplied wall wart and being frustrated by having to put wall warts on their pedal board.

EHX's response on their forum is that the customer should understand that the product is designed around the EHX power supply and so using aftermarket is not advisable. Not an unreasonable response, but in this modern "Golden Era" of pedals it seems there might be a better way maybe?

Thanks again for making an awesome product and the quick responses!

[SixIsNine]

A little more info on this issue direct from Electro Harmonix. I was advised on their forum to contact the EHX technical staff, so I did. Here is the response that I got back..

Hello. Currently there is no work around that we have found.
We are aware that the unit does not work with the Voodoo labs unit. That particular unit needs to be used with its own power supply.
Maybe Voodoo Labs can find why it won't work but we designed the unit to work with its power supply and not a 3rd party supply.
Regards,

[Jellycream68]

EHX octavix fuzz and octace pedal comes with a 9.6v adapter as well but also runs off of a 9v battery. If it runs off a 9v battery even if it comes with a 9.6v it will work with a 9v isolated output from pedal power. I've had this problem before and it's frustrating especially when you have something as great as the mondo and wanta clean pedal board. You gotta check out what your getting how many volts milliamps (mA) an effect requires and whether it is center positive or negative and go from there. Because of my past mishaps in looking for the best deal I know own 2 pedal power plus', 1 mondo, a pedal power 4x4, digital pedal power and an iso 5 as well. The good vibes pedal is a descent vibe pedal I recommend buying a nice furman power conditioner and surge protector. I run my effects and amps through them for the best possible sound, no hum hiss or problems. M
You can also buy a short extension chord (or make w
One very easy) and plug it into the output from the pedal power plus and plug the good vibes into there. Learn from your mistakes we a make them, Strymon recommends only using their power supply which led me to buy the digital pedal power for my timeline lex and flint. Now my mondo takes care of it all with 400ma at 9v. But its better to have the right power and more mA than the required amount. I have 1 custom flat board with my mondo power that powers a strymon timeline lex (or sometime Hammond leslie G who recommends to only use there power supply which doesn't matchto isolated power with plenty of mA) and my flint. I use the power out on the mondo and a 1' extension chord to power my Shin'Ei Vibe-Bro (best vibe out there but big!) Do the research and find what fits best for your needs.

[SixIsNine]

The Good Vibes does not have a battery option, so it's in a different category.

Thanks for these recommendations. I contacted EHX tech support directly and they confirmed that the "Good Vibes" will not work using the Mondo's 9.0V taps. It's not an issue of amperage as the pedal only draws 45mA. Below is the response they sent me....

"Hello. Currently there is no work around that we have found.
We are aware that the unit does not work with the Voodoo labs unit. That particular unit needs to be used with its own power supply.
Maybe Voodoo Labs can find why it won't work but we designed the unit to work with its power supply and not a 3rd party supply.
Regards,"

So, to be clear, the issue is not an isolation or mA overdraw condition, it's a voltage condition.

I measured the outputs of the Mondo 9.0V taps with a Fluke and they read ~ 9.3 (+/- 0.05). The EHX wallwart read ~ 9.8. That 1/2 volt difference is the reason why the Good Vibes will power up, run all the LEDs and pass dry signal, but will not generate the effect

I had suspected this was the case because I also bought at the same time an EHX Stereo Talking Machine that uses the same power supply as the Good Vibes and the the Stereo Talking Machine has no problem running off the Mondo 9.0V tap. Different circuit with different requirements. Just like my Dunlop 535Q wah. That pedal says it needs 18.0V but it works just fine with the Mondo's 9.0V tap. (less headroom at 9.0V than 18V but works fine for my application).

Currently I am using the extension cord from the Mondo 120V extension outlet method until I get around to ordering the voltage doubling cable to use off the "SAG" outlet.

The Mondo manual has a pretty extensive list of companies / pedals that have special requirements. The Good Vibes is fairly new and so is not in the manual. I hope this thread will serve to help anyone that has the Good Vibes or any other pedal with oddball voltage requirements. I posted a thread in the EHX forums to let people know the specifics of my situation and that the Mondo "SAG" tap is the potential answer but even if it isn't, the courtesy outlet will also solve the issue.

[SixIsNine]

Voltage doubling cable used with Mondo "Sag" taps confirmed good.

I purchased the Voodoo Lab voltage doubling cable and used the two voltage "Sag" taps which are adjustable from ~ 4.0 - 9.3 V and got the Good Vibes to work.... but it was interesting.

I did not get any wet effect until I had adjusted the voltage to ~9.8 V (matching the 9.83 V of the wall wart). So, this absolutely confirms that the Good Vibes needs 9.8 V to work properly. Not a big deal, but kind of an annoyance.

For now, I am still running the GV with the wall wart. I have set and taped over the trim knobs on the MONDO and will take measurements over the next few months as I gig the board to make sure that the adjustment holds. Once confirmed solid I'll power the GV from this tap.

I bought the GV specifically because of the expression pedal capability. I am still building this rig and so have slots to fill. One of the companies I've been very impressed with is Source Audio. I will be buying their One Series Lunar phaser unit and HUB system which gives expression pedal control over all of their pedals. The entire One Series and HUB are 9.0 V supply. The LUNAR phaser has a Uni-Vibe setting and I will be having a shootout between the LUNAR and GV. If the LUNAR is anywhere near similar to the GV then I will sell the GV.

[cowboytwang]

So glad to find this thread. Last week I put a new Good Vibes on my pedal board, with the Mondo Power Supply, and thought I must have got a bad pedal from Electro Harmonics. I was ready to send it back, but decided to try it with the wall wart they sent with the pedal, and surprise it works.
After measuring everything, the Mondo is putting out 0.5 less voltage than the Electro Harmonics power supply, and that little 1/2 volt makes a difference.