Arcadiator ground problem

[AntKnee]

So a while back I built an arcadiator and the buyer contacted me after delivery to tell me it had a constant clicking and gliching sound. I went to his place, observed the sound, attempted to replace the ICs and adjust the trimpot, but nothing would stop it. I told him I would build him another one to replace it. I took it home and tested it at my house and got the same problematic results.

Now, I've built two more, tested them with flawless performance in my office, which is a detached building from my house. I was about to contact him for delivery, but I decided to test it in my house. The same problem occurs. I went back to my office, and no problem occurs.

My house is old, built in the 40s, and still has most of the original electrical wiring, which does not have a "modern" ground. While this is a bit of a safety concern, its never been a problem and all my other pedals and electronics function normally in the house. My customers house is also old, and now I'm thinking the problem is related to the ground and/or the power supply in each of our houses. I have contacted him to see if he could test it at another location and he is happy to try it at his rehearsal space later on to see what happens.

None of my other pedals exhibit odd behavior in my house only, but perhaps there is something about the arcadiator circuit that requires a proper ground?

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[AntKnee]

Update:

I tried some more scenarios.

In my house, If I use a wall wart 9v supply, with no other pedals in a chain, it works fine. If I use it in my pedal chain with a wart, but with my other pedals on my voodoo pedal power, there is a problem. If I use it with a battery in or out of the pedal chain, there is a problem. It seems that since the voodoo has a 3 prong plug and wants a ground, if I am connected to it via the ground in the pedal chain, the problem occurs. The wall wart does not require a 3 prong ground, so there is no problem.

Can I add some kind of pull down or some other ground protection to fix this?

[matmosphere]

In having a the same problem with a few pedals when I use my bbe suppa charger. No problems with my one spot though. The plug on the one spot is a tiny bit longer than the chords that came with the bbe thing. I'm pretty sure the problems are only happening with the latest nut outside dc jacks I got from Tayda (surprise) so I'm guessing those jacks are from a bad batch, that doesn't like shorter plugs.

Haven't had time to really get into it though, but it might be worth looking at.

[AntKnee]

Just tried swapping out the power jack to a different style, didn't help.

I also tried my entire pedal board both in my office and in my house to rule that out and I found that if the arcadiator is in my pedal chain, in either location, it has a problem. If I use a wall wart with no other pedals in the chain, it works fine. I think I can rule out the house wiring, but I think it has something to do with the ground and power supply. I have the same problem with 3 different arcadiator pedals.

[jimilee]

What happened at the rehearsal space?

[AntKnee]

Ok. I think I figured it out.

The clicking and clock noise seems to be coming from my TC Flashback X4, which is on the same power supply as my Arcadiator. When I put the X4 on a wall wart, the noise stops. Earlier when I tested in my office, I was testing the arcadiator alone, but when I went into my house, I was testing it on the pedal board power supply with the X4. I thought it was the house wiring, but its not. I've tried my pedalboard in my office and in the house with the X4 on its own power supply and the arcadiator works fine. It is just sensitive to the X4 for some reason. If it directly shares power with the X4, it has a problem.

It turns out my customer was also using his arcadiator on a shared power supply with digital delays, so it seems that I was replicating his problem at my house purely by coincidence. We had both tried the arcadiator alone in the audio path, but still on the shared power supply with digital delays. So it was logical for me to conclude the problem was the arcadiator and not the power supply. I was wrong!

Now, is there any way to really isolate the arcadiator so it doesn't pick up that noise? None of my other pedals have this problem.

[AntKnee]

Oh, I should also mention the I must use a single pedal wall wart power supply on the X4. A one spot type power supply, even when used alone, still creates the noise.

[matmosphere]

The x4 alone uses 300mA, I think the one spot puts  out 1500, what else do you have plugged in? You might have too much for that supply to handle.

[AntKnee]

The x4 alone uses 300mA, I think the one spot puts  out 1500, what else do you have plugged in? You might have too much for that supply to handle.

I am using a voodoo power plus 2, not a one spot type daisy chain. The power consumption isn't the problem. I was only saying that a one spot type supply, used with no other pedals attached, still did not help my problem. Only a dedicated single boss style power supply isolates the clock noise from the X4.

[AntKnee]

I'd still like to know if there's a way to protect the arcadiator in some way. Been lookibg into it. I found this:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=78359.0
but its a bit over my head. Would a voltage regulator help, and where would it go?
Am I the only one thats experienced this?

[matmosphere]

The x4 alone uses 300mA, I think the one spot puts  out 1500, what else do you have plugged in? You might have too much for that supply to handle.

I am using a voodoo power plus 2, not a one spot type daisy chain. The power consumption isn't the problem. I was only saying that a one spot type supply, used with no other pedals attached, still did not help my problem. Only a dedicated single boss style power supply isolates the clock noise from the X4.

I don't really understand what you're saying here. What is the x4 plugged into and what's the Arcadiator plugged into? The highest output on the power plus 2 is 250ma which isn't enough to power the x4. According to its specs it requires 300mA so it's going to need its own separate supply regardless of what's going on with the Arcadiator.

I would try the Arcadiator powered from the power plus 2 and the x4 on its own supply and see if that solves the problem.

[AntKnee]

I don't really understand what you're saying here. What is the x4 plugged into and what's the Arcadiator plugged into? The highest output on the power plus 2 is 250ma which isn't enough to power the x4. According to its specs it requires 300mA so it's going to need its own separate supply regardless of what's going on with the Arcadiator.

I would try the Arcadiator powered from the power plus 2 and the x4 on its own supply and see if that solves the problem.

Sorry, all my rambling explanations about everything I tried are confusing. Ultimately, your suggestion is the exact solution that I found. The x4 is on its own power supply, and the Arcadiator is on the voodoo.
However, in order to eliminate the noise from the x4 from surfacing in the arcadiator, I had to use a boss style wall wart. I tried putting the x4 alone on a one spot style power supply, but the noise was still there.