I just received a BOSS RV-6 Reverb today and hooked it up to the generic adapter I have used for years with my BOSS DD-7 Digital Delay after playing on the supplied battery for a few minutes. The adapter is rated at 9V / 500mA and is the correct polarity. The pedal worked fine with the supplied battery, but shut down as soon as I plugged in the power supply. I tried it again with an adjacent outlet to make sure it wasn't a case of a switched outlet (new house), but the result was the same. I also tried a similar 9V / 330mA adapter with the same result. My brother reminded me a little while later that the adapters from my EHX pedals would probably work fine, and that turned out to be the case. The pedal works as expected with both the battery and the EHX adapter.
I think I dodged a bullet, but the experience has left me curious as to why the generic adapter did not work. The published current draws of the two pedals are comparable (52mA for the DD-7 vs. 65mA for the RV-6) and neither is close to the maximum of either adapter. The standard BOSS adapter is apparently regulated, whereas the generic is clearly not. I measured the 500mA adapter with no load and it was around 14.7V. I experimentally determined (with a 20R resistor) that it drops to 9V right around the advertised 500mA.
I presume that it was an over-voltage condition that caused it to shut down. Replicating the load with a 120R resistor (9V / 65mA = 138R), I estimate that the adapter was putting out nearly 12V when connected to the pedal. Does anyone know what sort of protection modern BOSS pedals use?
I think I dodged a bullet, but the experience has left me curious as to why the generic adapter did not work. The published current draws of the two pedals are comparable (52mA for the DD-7 vs. 65mA for the RV-6) and neither is close to the maximum of either adapter. The standard BOSS adapter is apparently regulated, whereas the generic is clearly not. I measured the 500mA adapter with no load and it was around 14.7V. I experimentally determined (with a 20R resistor) that it drops to 9V right around the advertised 500mA.
I presume that it was an over-voltage condition that caused it to shut down. Replicating the load with a 120R resistor (9V / 65mA = 138R), I estimate that the adapter was putting out nearly 12V when connected to the pedal. Does anyone know what sort of protection modern BOSS pedals use?