Hello everyone, so i got a Boss dm3 a while ago and have been powering it with a daisy chain with great results and all of a sudden today it stoped working. I pluggled all of my other pedals with the same daisy chain plug and it powers all of them just fine but not the dm3. I tried the dm3 on its own using a boss psa 9v and it worked, the led lit up super bright. I put it back in the daisy chain and stopped working! Its frustrating because all the other pedals get power. So should i run the dm3 on its own? Will i damage it with a psa 9v? Help! Thanks

Hello everyone, so i got a Boss dm3 a while ago and have been powering it with a daisy chain with great results and all of a sudden today it stoped working. I pluggled all of my other pedals with the same daisy chain plug and it powers all of them just fine but not the dm3. I tried the dm3 on its own using a boss psa 9v and it worked, the led lit up super bright. I put it back in the daisy chain and stopped working! Its frustrating because all the other pedals get power. So should i run the dm3 on its own? Will i damage it with a psa 9v? Help! Thanks

Did you try switching it to a different position on the daisy chain.

Yes i did and none of them will power the dm3. But the seperate 9v psa adapter does.

What happens when the DM3 is the only pedal on the daisychain?

Yes i did and none of them will power the dm3. But the seperate 9v psa adapter does.

Biz-ARRE! I'm fresh outta ideas.

Ok so even more weird, it started working with the daisy again. The led lights up again.

So wen its the only pedal by itself on the daisy chain the led is super low. Is the daisy chain messed up?

Ok so even more weird, it started working with the daisy again. The led lights up again.

So wen its the only pedal by itself on the daisy chain the led is super low. Is the daisy chain messed up?
That'd be my guess . . . but it's just an educated guess.

Hello everyone, so i got a Boss dm3 a while ago and have been powering it with a daisy chain with great results and all of a sudden today it stoped working. I pluggled all of my other pedals with the same daisy chain plug and it powers all of them just fine but not the dm3. I tried the dm3 on its own using a boss psa 9v and it worked, the led lit up super bright. I put it back in the daisy chain and stopped working! Its frustrating because all the other pedals get power. So should i run the dm3 on its own? Will i damage it with a psa 9v? Help! Thanks

Hi,
Your pedal is an older boss pedal that was built around the BOSS ACA 12V power adaptor. Youre going to need to do the jumper mod in my opinion.

here is the skinny

ACA Adapter

The ACA is an unregulated 9V or 12V adapter. For a long time both the ACA and the regulated PSA adapter was available but in the later part of the 90s the ACA adapter was discontinued as all Boss pedals then was designed to run with the PSA adapter.

When a power supply is unregulated, it means that the voltage level will drop as the load is increased. The ACA adapter may give out a full 12 volt when it is powering one or two pedals but if it is hooked up to a long row of pedals the voltage will drop. The ACA adapter is capable of supplying as much current as 250mA but problems keeping the voltage up may occur before the load reaches that level.

The early compact pedals was designed to run on either a 9V DC battery or 12V DC adapter. Because of this the ACA adapter was a 12V adapter. The voltage was reduced to 9V internally by using a 470 Ohm resistor and 1S2473 diode between the minus input on the power jack and ground. The resistor diode pair was later removed and at the same time the ACA adpater was redesigned to output 9V instead.

Powering ACA pedals with a PSA power supply
Powering the older pedals designed for 12V DC input with either a newer ACA or PSA adapter will not work very well. The voltage drop over the resistor and diode will prevent the pedal from getting enough power and its LED will usually only glow faintly. The solution is to use a daisy chain and plug in another pedal designed for the newer ACA or PSA adapter. The lead between the two pedals will short the resistor diode pair and the pedal will receive full power.

Hi,
Your pedal is an older boss pedal that was built around the BOSS ACA 12V power adaptor. Youre going to need to do the jumper mod in my opinion.

here is the skinny

ACA Adapter

The ACA is an unregulated 9V or 12V adapter. For a long time both the ACA and the regulated PSA adapter was available but in the later part of the 90s the ACA adapter was discontinued as all Boss pedals then was designed to run with the PSA adapter.

When a power supply is unregulated, it means that the voltage level will drop as the load is increased. The ACA adapter may give out a full 12 volt when it is powering one or two pedals but if it is hooked up to a long row of pedals the voltage will drop. The ACA adapter is capable of supplying as much current as 250mA but problems keeping the voltage up may occur before the load reaches that level.

The early compact pedals was designed to run on either a 9V DC battery or 12V DC adapter. Because of this the ACA adapter was a 12V adapter. The voltage was reduced to 9V internally by using a 470 Ohm resistor and 1S2473 diode between the minus input on the power jack and ground. The resistor diode pair was later removed and at the same time the ACA adpater was redesigned to output 9V instead.

Powering ACA pedals with a PSA power supply
Powering the older pedals designed for 12V DC input with either a newer ACA or PSA adapter will not work very well. The voltage drop over the resistor and diode will prevent the pedal from getting enough power and its LED will usually only glow faintly. The solution is to use a daisy chain and plug in another pedal designed for the newer ACA or PSA adapter. The lead between the two pedals will short the resistor diode pair and the pedal will receive full power.

Tavo to the rescue! Thanks dude, you taught me something.

Thanks Tavo, its working fine now with my other pedals. I had it set up in a daisy chain with all my other pedals for a long time, just today it stopped working. It totally freaked me out! Lol

I first discovered this years ago when the frenzy for Boss CE-2 pedals was going on. I finally got my coveted CE-2 and promptly burned out the resistor diode pair. Ironically
I clipped them out to resolder new ones in the burned section and the pedal worked fine.
then found out why. I now remove the resistor and jumper it with a copper wire and leave the diode in. This little fix results in a much improved slap back dynamic as the chip is now getting full power.
http://i60.servimg.com/u/f60/12/30/07/14/dm3mod10.jpg

Man that stuff is Chinese to me, i got a lot of learning to do. lol. Do you do the Mods for it Tavo?

I dont have time much these days. It is a real easy mod to do if you are good with a soldering iron or rather if you are careful. The boss pedals have very cheap tracings and lift off the board if they sustain heat for more than a few seconds.
good solder braid quickly wicks off the solder and frees the parts, the wire replacement is again very easy to do if you put aside the thought that this is possibly the best analog "echo" delay pedal ever made with irreplaceable original chips. :)
I just bought a 3rd one this week as a back up for my back up. :)

Cool, thanks for all the info. Im definantly going to look into the mod. Ill most likely get a back up one too just incase. its such an awesome pedal, i grabed it for $100 on CL and i never looked back. Thanks again.

Maybe there's a disturbance in the DM-3 Force this evening. Mine, which I've been using for years with a daisy chain (not because I knew all this!) with no problems, now only lights up dimly in the chain. And it has a wicked high-pitched whine. The latter I may have just forgotten, since I haven't used it in a while and I've usually used it live, when I was playing with so much noise around I never would have noticed.

I don't get why it would do this if it's in the chain, but I'm a tad nervous, seeing as this is the only DM-3 I have. In fact, I bought the sucker new and have used it for 25-ish years. Could something be preventing the shorting of the resistor and diode?

(Wow! That last bit sounded like I know what I'm doing!) :)

Thats crazy! Maybe 2012 is there dead peak.lol. mine is working just fine again but im still a little nervous. I better start looking for a back up soon.

Thats crazy! Maybe 2012 is there dead peak.lol.

You mean maybe the Mayan calendar isn't predicting the end of the world in 2012, but the end of Boss pedals? :eek:

Weird thing is that I can't seem to get it to work with the battery now. It powered up with the battery, lit up nice and bright, then when I plugged in the daisy chain, it went back to dim and the battery now does nothing. It's a perfectly good battery, too.

I think I'd best sleep on this one and hope I don't dream of pedal apocalypse.

Lol, Ill do the same.

I wonder if that will work on my Blues Driver, it has sounded like crap since I started using the power supply! But it is old, and has had so much beer spilled on it from shows and people standing in front of me dancing with beer in their hands maybe that has something to do with it to:) hahaha
TAVO YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!

Sea..You pedal is beginning to act up because the electrolytic caps that went into that pedal
were only meant to last about 15yrs and they are drying up if not near total death in 2012 (especially if your pedal is from 1984).
I have repaired about 5 so far that appeared worthless but a simple refresh of some of these electrolytics brought them back to life.

ps. chancey your pedal uses a PSA boss adapter, the ACA is only for those
older pedals

I love the fact that I am in Finland and you are in Cali, and we are up at the same time:) hahaha
I willl have my tech check the E.C.. Thanks!
I am not sure when it was made, but I do know it was one of the first ones they made, so prob 84-87ish.
Again THANKS!

your tech will most likely go "WAHHT" thats ridiculous but only because he either doesnt want to remove and test the cap or this will be the first time he's thought of this because most people only test caps in amplifiers. :)

Actually I called him today and he was like well I could have told you that...hahaha
Now bring it to me so i can fix you Sh*T for ya! hahaha

Tavo, I have a DM3 and an ACA, it works well, would it work better with a recap?

Ill most likely get a back up one too just incase. its such an awesome pedal, i grabed it for $100 on CL and i never looked back. Thanks again.

I see these fetch insane prices on the bay. $200 and up... If I see one for 150 beans should I even think about it and scoop it up immediately?

I waited a long time to get one because of the price so wen i saw it for $100 i jumped on it right away. But i think $150 is a deal if you find one for that price. Im thinking of getting a memory toy just to carry for back up. Does anyone have one of those?

I have DM-3 and CE 2 both Japan with the other pedal in the pic powered by a Visual Sound One Spot adapter. No problem. I didn't know about the 12v thang Thanks Tavo, good to know.

Hey RC, how do you like the ep booster at the end of your pedal chain?

Hey RC, how do you like the ep booster at the end of your pedal chain?
I tried it in front frist and found it just sounds better with my set up at the end. It is the closest thing to a magic pedal I ever had. I can't explain it, it just is. I leave it on all the time.

Tavo, I have a DM3 and an ACA, it works well, would it work better with a recap?

knee jerk response would be, does it sound good now? A DM-3 with good caps will actually produce a very slight boost to your signal with the right power supply.

Rc, cool i just got an ep booster and im still trying to figure out were to put it in my chain. Do you have it in the vintage settings?

Update: the dm3 has been kickn butt. Does anyone know of someone or place in the LA Cal area that can do a 12v to 9v mod on a Dm3?

Rc, cool i just got an ep booster and im still trying to figure out were to put it in my chain. Do you have it in the vintage settings?

Mine is a new one where they fixed it so you could have unity gain. I don't think that is to important but nice a 3 db bump isn't much to have to live with if it is the first version. Dipswitch 1 is down and dipswitch 2 is up for unity gain instead of 3db boost automatically. Just play with the different positions until you hear what you like. You are right the DM3 is the absolute bomb. If I got a pedal for a true backup it would be the DD-3 cheap reliable and sound great live.

Yes i did and none of them will power the dm3. But the seperate 9v psa adapter does.

DM3 needs an ACA adaptor. Get one.

Im looking but cant seem to find a 12v aca adaptor.

the current production ACA adapters appear to be 9 volts DC unregulated, which is useless for these pedals, as they want 12 volts.. you'd have to find an original
adaptor unless you wanted to spend mula on the BBE and voodolabs that have an ACA 12v option..

or swap in the doggone jumper wire :)

Thanks Tavo, looks like i got some saving up to do.

Am I missing something, probably, I usually am? I have had a few DM-3 over the years and they all worked fine on 9V or so I thought. Was the 12V limited to the first early ones or? Just curious, am I really missing out on mine running it at 9V? I can't imagine it sounding any better than it does now on 9V.

knee jerk response would be, does it sound good now? A DM-3 with good caps will actually produce a very slight boost to your signal with the right power supply.

Got the boost;-)

I've got one coming tomorrow, and I can't wait! I got it for $140, so I couldn't pass it up. I currently only have about five pedals and use a one-spot. I'll post, if anyone cares, if it works fine for me. I may get brave and try the mod, but I've never worked on pedals before. I can solder guitar electronics all day, but this makes me pucker a bit... hahaha.

I've got one coming tomorrow, and I can't wait! I got it for $140, so I couldn't pass it up. I currently only have about five pedals and use a one-spot. I'll post, if anyone cares, if it works fine for me. I may get brave and try the mod, but I've never worked on pedals before. I can solder guitar electronics all day, but this makes me pucker a bit... hahaha.

As long as you use solder wick, you will be fine. dont do it any other way. the
copper braid will pull the heat away from the PCB and keep the tracing from lifting off the board. in the even the tracing does lift up (hope to God it doesnt tear off) you need to use super glue gel to press it back down and leave it for 24 hrs.
Its also good to use a hemostat to hold each end of the jumper as you solder it on the backside of the pcb to keep the copper jumper from over heating. these Boss boards are cheap CHEAP.. but untouched they can mystically last 4 lifetimes. :)

knee jerk response would be, does it sound good now? A DM-3 with good caps will actually produce a very slight boost to your signal with the right power supply.

I only notice 2 or 3 days ago that my DM3 gives a slight volume boost, so I reckon my caps must be ok (late 80s model).

I got it yesterday and tried it out last night, sounds killer with my onespot, so I don't see any reason to modify it. The LED brightness looked normal, too. I can see why people love it... what a sound!

bumping this thread cuz you need it... update your vintage 12v boss pedal

http://i60.servimg.com/u/f60/12/30/07/14/dm3mod10.jpg

thanks, Tavo. I've been looking into getting a delay pedal as of late. there's just so many to choose from. right now I'm absorbing all the information I can. thanks, again.

I absolutely love mine... no need to ever get another... best slapback I've owned, by far.

I waited a long time to get one because of the price so wen i saw it for $100 i jumped on it right away. But i think $150 is a deal if you find one for that price. Im thinking of getting a memory toy just to carry for back up. Does anyone have one of those?

I have a Memory Toy and love it. I'm really surprised it's (apparently) not very popular here. The more I use it the more I appreciate its unique vibe - wet with a little "hair" added, sort of like an Echoplex preamp into a vintage analog delay, with true bypass to boot. Ok, maybe a little overstated but it is a great-sounding delay, especially for the money...

this is a thread about the Boss DM-3 and the evil plan to destroy all other analog delay pedals.

finally did a how to mod your boss DM-3 (power supply) pedal from the old ACA 12V unregulated to modern PSA 9v regulated video.. here's the link

http://nocturne.forumotion.ca/t41-how-to-update-your-80s-boss-analog-pedal-from-12v-aca-unregulated-to-modern-psa-9v-regulated