FCB1010 Expression pedal doesn't start at the heel...

ralphonz

ralphonz

Inspired
Hi all,

I've noticed that the expression pedals on my FCB1010 UNO don't send any data for the first 1-2cm that they are moved. Each pedal sends the full range 0-127 but 0 starts at just under half way rather than when the heel is right down. I've calibrated the pedals over and over again but it's not making any difference.

Has anyone else had this problem with an FCB1010? If so how do you fix it, it's infuriating when trying to do gradual changes, it takes the expression out of "expression pedal"!
 
Same issue here. Not sure it can be corrected.
The pedals use a small piece of clear acetate that has a graduated light to dark (like a piece of film)
This acetate moves through an photo-optical semiconductor.
The problem is the small amount of travel through the photocells.
I think a person with the right skill set could redesign the pedals.
I ended up using another ext. pedal for volume, and use the FCB pedals for wah and effects.
I can't use the wah in "auto engage" mode because of this same issue, so an IA is assigned.
 
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I use the fcb pedals for auto engage wah all the time have no problem, I would (even though stated) recalibrate pedals standing up like you are going to use them. If no luck there check out the modifier page(if the problem is with axe fx) and try to adjust there some, like the start, stop, damping, slop etc.
 
As I understand it, it's a design "feature" of the firmware. It needs to travel a certain amount (like 8 or 10 I seem to recall) before it starts to send any data. There was talk of a version of UnO with that restriction removed but didn't follow the thread to know if it actually came about or not. You might want to check over on the UnO forum in Yahoo groups.


I've worked around it in the past by doing a quick press down & up (while not playing anything) prior to the swell. But that depends on having time to prime the movement.
 
Thanks people,

The pedals use a small piece of clear acetate that has a graduated light to dark (like a piece of film)
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I've taken it apart and seen the acetate but couldn't think of any way to change it and not sure if thats the problem if, as DTownSMR stated it is indeed a firmware feature.

I ended up using another ext. pedal for volume, and use the FCB pedals for wah and effects.
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I can't use another ext pedal because with the FCB set up I need to use the two pedal jacks on the axe for preset up/down

I use the fcb pedals for auto engage wah all the time have no problem
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I have no problem with auto-engage, the axe works as it should and even using it to control something else i get the same problem. The Uno chip makes the display show data values as they are sent when you move a exp pedal. The LCD on the FCB shows it sending 0-127 fine, the problem is 0 is not all the way at the bottom so only the top half the distance of the pedal is useful.

If this is a design feature it's a terrible terrible idea, I can't do any subtle movements and slow swells (like a filter sweep that might last 8 bars) because for the first 1-2cm of movement no data is being sent.

I've worked around it in the past by doing a quick press down & up (while not playing anything) prior to the swell. But that depends on having time to prime the movement.
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Can you explain how this work around works? I mean, even if i do a quick swell the data is not being sent for the first bit of movement - so I'm moving the pedal forward slowly but because no data is being sent until your heel is about 2cm off the ground the sound is not changing until I get a bit further up thus spoiling the effect.

I'm not even trying to use auto engage i just want precise control.
 
ralphonz said:
Can you explain how this work around works? I mean, even if i do a quick swell the data is not being sent for the first bit of movement - so I'm moving the pedal forward slowly but because no data is being sent until your heel is about 2cm off the ground the sound is not changing until I get a bit further up thus spoiling the effect.
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It's very dependent on the effect you're trying to create but if you have the time before your desired swell to do a quick pedal press long enough to hit your 2cm point, quickly rock it back (or start with it rocked forward and only rock it back just before), play what you're going to swell and start swelling right away you can achieve the precise control you want. It takes some practice to get the timing down and the pedal has to be "almost" in continuous motion but it works.
 
Hmm, I'm still not sure what you mean! Even if I do a quick pedal press and then bring my heel back down I've got the 2cm or so of nothing to move my foot through (up and down), its very unnatural. I really don't think this is gonna work for what I want want to do (some really really slow swells), I need the full range of the pedal to be active - and it surely should be?? I need it so that if I even rock forward from the heel just a few mm I start to hear the filter open - then I can be more expressive with it.

Maybe I should just ditch the FCB1010, what a POS it seems to be anyway...? Is there anything else that won't cost me an arm and a leg and that'll do a similar job?
 
Mine has a small dead zone at the heel down position, but not really that noticeable. They are really cheap, so it wouldn't surprise me that they would vary from unit to unit. I saw some various FBC1010 mods online a while back that dealt with the pedals. Have to see if I can dig those up.
 
Mine has a small dead zone at the heel down position, but not really that noticeable. They are really cheap, so it wouldn't surprise me that they would vary from unit to unit. I saw some various FBC1010 mods online a while back that dealt with the pedals. Have to see if I can dig those up.
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Yeah sounds like the same issue. Except on mine it's really quite a large dead zone... I thought it might be a manufacturing defect but it's exactly the same on both of the pedals on my unit. If you can dig up any info I'd really appreciate it :) I wasn't able to find much myself.

Thanks
 
ralphonz said:
Awesome, thanks mr_fender I'll give that a look :)
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I hope that helps you out I know the fcb is inexspensive but mine has worked well with or with out auto engage( no chips just straight out of the box). I thought in my first reply to op that maybe that was on (it does give you a dead spot when on). good luck,
 
Thanks everyone for the replies, I'll let you know if re-aligning the sensor helps reduce the dead spot once i've had a chance to open it up and have a look :)
 
I managed to get rid of the dead spot on both pedals by bending the LED's opposite the sensor away from the acetate and towards the PCB board as in my pictures below (sorry about the bad quality but i think you can see what needs to be done). It seems as though the acetate lets too much light through when the heel is down on the pedal. As I couldn't change the acetate I decided to move the LED's :)

IMG_1663.jpg

IMG_1665.jpg

I think the reason for this may have been that the PCB boards that hold the LED and sensor were attached to the unit body in slightly the wrong place (a manufacturing defect). The line between the LED and sensor was crossing the edge of the acetate rather than the middle, and as a result letting too much light past. If they were a few mm further up then the line-of-sight between LED and sensor would have been going right through the middle of the acetate. I didn't really want to move the binding posts for the PCB boards as I don't have any suitable glue to move them so just bending the LED around a bit seemed like the best option.

It's now working much, much better and I'm over the moon!! Thanks for all the help :)
 
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good pics thanks for reply in case others have similar problem. I knew it had to be something silly because a lot of people use the pedal for a lot of midi things and usally the programing is the only big problem.
 
I followed this guy's procedure of wrapping the light sensor with a semi-transparent piece of plastic. I ended up using a piece of a bread bag that had some white ink on it and put some regular scotch tape around the bag and the sensor. It did a good job of obstructing the light without completely blacking it out. Really all you want to do is not have the LED saturate the light sensor so much. I noticed before applying the fix that MIDI wasn't being sent until the expression pedals 50% through it's travel, which is a ridiculous. My FCB's pedals were pretty useless before the mod. Now they work well enough to be useful.

Here's the video I mentioned. Go to about 12:25 for the expression pedal section. This video has other great mods, too, like MIDI Phantom power and upgrading the foot switches.



For mobile users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m0v3Rr6f4U#t=744
 
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