Can RT2/50 power a 7-pin MIDI pedal?

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LarsTurms

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As the title says...I probably made a wrong assumption and bought an additional MIDI pedal I was hoping to run into (and power from) my RT2/50. Except it doesn't work and the pedal doesn't light up.

RT2/50 MIDI works fine connected to RM4 and the pedal also works perfectly in RM4.

1. Is RT2/50 actually capable of powering the pedals or is there something wrong with my one?

2. Is there a way to make it happen? (e.g. swap the midi board for RM4 or something similar)

Thanks!
 
LarsTurms said:
As the title says...I probably made a wrong assumption and bought an additional MIDI pedal I was hoping to run into (and power from) my RT2/50. Except it doesn't work and the pedal doesn't light up.

RT2/50 MIDI works fine connected to RM4 and the pedal also works perfectly in RM4.

1. Is RT2/50 actually capable of powering the pedals or is there something wrong with my one?

2. Is there a way to make it happen? (e.g. swap the midi board for RM4 or something similar)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't know the answer to that one but why do you not power it from the RM4 and run the midi thru to the RT2/50?

Just a thought :)
 
Because RM4 is busy receiving MIDI from my GSP1101;-)

I'm sure there may be some MIDI merge devices which will allow me to do what I want but first I want to make sure my RT2/50 works as it's supposed to. I took the MIDI board out as I suspected the common fuse failure. Funnily enough the fuse has been already replaced in the past but I checked with multimeter and the fuse seems to be okay. I also tried the dip switches (the two separate ones) but doesn't seem to make a difference although I probably haven't checked all possible combinations.
 
LarsTurms said:
Because RM4 is busy receiving MIDI from my GSP1101;-)

I'm sure there may be some MIDI merge devices which will allow me to do what I want but first I want to make sure my RT2/50 works as it's supposed to. I took the MIDI board out as I suspected the common fuse failure. Funnily enough the fuse has been already replaced in the past but I checked with multimeter and the fuse seems to be okay. I also tried the dip switches (the two separate ones) but doesn't seem to make a difference although I probably haven't checked all possible combinations.
Click to expand...

Set each midi device to its own channel rather than omni and you can daisy chain them all together, with the midi pedal controller telling each individual item in the rack what to do independently.

The whole point of midi is simultaneous control of many devices, all responding to different messages on their own channel.

Randall manuals can be found here:

http://www2.randallamplifiers.com/About-Us/Product-Manuals/Product-Manuals.html

Granted there is not much on the midi in the main one!
 
suphuckers said:
I'm completely confused why you'd need 2 pedals.
Click to expand...
Basically one is for your usual preset changes etc. The second one is for things like looper etc. Same set up I run today, just changing the pedal to one with phantom power.

webrthomson said:
Set each midi device to its own channel ...

Randall manuals can be found here:

http://www2.randallamplifiers.com/About-Us/Product-Manuals/Product-Manuals.html

Granted there is not much on the midi in the main one!
Click to expand...
Thanks webrthomson. I agree the RT2/50 manual is not the best. I however understand midi and have all channels set up correctly (and it works with other pedal). Unless I use a merger it's not an option to plug this pedal to RM4 because it's already occupied. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear, English isn't my first language.

My only question is whether the RT2/50 is supposed to have a capability of providing power in the 7 pin midi in or not. (Mine surely doesn't)
 
LarsTurms said:
suphuckers said:
I'm completely confused why you'd need 2 pedals.
Click to expand...
Basically one is for your usual preset changes etc. The second one is for things like looper etc. Same set up I run today, just changing the pedal to one with phantom power.
Click to expand...

I still don't understand why you need 2 pedals.

webrthomson said:
The whole point of midi is simultaneous control of many devices
Click to expand...

I mean if you have 2 pedals and one of them isn't capable of controlling your entire rig, your problem isn't phantom power. Your problem is... you need a new midi controller. Or what am I missing?

...but on that note I'm gonna try to walk away from this discussion before somebody gets their feelings hurt or something (see my sig) LoL

Good Luck!
 
I appreciate the comments but I have this figured. Now if someone could tell me if the RT2/50 can indeed provide the power through the midi in connector as RM4 does (the midi boards look the same as far as I can tell, although haven't compared them side by side). Thanks!
 
Lars,

My "guess" is... If the RT2/50 has a 7 pin plug on it (which I don't know because I don't own one) I'd say it probably CAN do phantom power. I'm pretty sure the only reason for the 6/7 pins is for power. Otherwise it would have a 5 pin plug. I could be wrong but.. I think that's your answer. I have seen older equipment that had a weird cable that attached to a wall wart for power. I'm "guessing" that's not going to be the case with the RT2/50.

I still cant fathom any reason for 2 midi pedals (other then playing on 2 stages at the same time, and needing a separate pedal for each stage.) but...
 
Thanks suphuckers. That was my exact guess too - not only the same 7-pin connector as RM4 but even the same midi board. Doesn't have any power though. Now I'm not sure if there's something wrong with it or if it's normal. As far as I can tell the fuse and everything else on the midi board is okay. Looking at the schematics the phantom power should be provided to the board by the two wires closest to the fuse but there's no voltage on them. I checked all the fuses I found on the main board and they're all good too. I'm starting to think I for once overestimated RT2/50 capabilities :-( Mod possibility? Or it's a sign that I should revive my old and mighty Lexicon G2 for the midi switching madness!!
 
Hi LarsTurms,

It hapens that I am just fiddeling with Midi and my own RT2-50 lately. I could check the power issue on my RT2-50.

Which schematics are you talking about?

grtz, Thijs
 
I just dug up the MIDI schematic from my library and the RT 2/50 is indeed able to supply a 9V phantom supply via 7-pin cables. If yours is not doing so, it's either an issue with the cable or the fuse on the MIDI PCB itself is blown and needs to be replaced. Test the cable with a simple replacement for another or a continuity tester on each pin.

These are typically solder-stye fuses that you may mistake for a capacitor. If you are not experienced with soldering on fragile PCB's (the MIDI PCB is fragile, has potential to be damaged via heat or static electricity and is a good bit harder to work on than a module is), take it to a tech or email me for help. The component is F1 on the PCB.

If the pedal LED's light up and you just aren't getting any changes happening the pedal and unit are likely just on different MIDI channels.

Good luck!

Rob
 
Jaded Faith said:
I just dug up the MIDI schematic from my library and the RT 2/50 is indeed able to supply a 9V phantom supply via 7-pin cables. If yours is not doing so, it's either an issue with the cable or the fuse on the MIDI PCB itself is blown and needs to be replaced. Test the cable with a simple replacement for another or a continuity tester on each pin.

These are typically solder-stye fuses that you may mistake for a capacitor. If you are not experienced with soldering on fragile PCB's (the MIDI PCB is fragile, has potential to be damaged via heat or static electricity and is a good bit harder to work on than a module is), take it to a tech or email me for help. The component is F1 on the PCB.

If the pedal LED's light up and you just aren't getting any changes happening the pedal and unit are likely just on different MIDI channels.

Good luck!

Rob
Click to expand...

It may also be possible the dipswitches are set to off or power pin 3+5
if your pedal only allows PP on pin 1+7 it simply won't work
 
Thanks Rob, that's great information and thanks for being active on this forum. I didn't want to go too far with the investigation without knowing if it's even broken in the first place.

So far I can confirm the following:
1. Pedal doesn't light up in RT2/50 but works fine in RM4 and the cable is okay.
2. All dip switches on the midi board are set up correctly (thanks Nightdare, already checked that).
3. The fuse on the midi board is okay (the current goes through) although it has been replaced in the past.

Next steps:
- double check everything again
- put in the midi board from RM4 and see if it resolves the problem

My suspicion is the midi board doesn't get power from the main board (or at least I couldn't measure any voltage there) but the above step should prove it.

Thanks guys!
 
LarsTurms said:
.
3. The fuse on the midi board is okay (the current goes through) although it has been replaced in the past.
Click to expand...

Maybe a previous owner had an issue they couldn't resolve?

(the midi boards look the same as far as I can tell, although haven't compared them side by side)
Click to expand...

Are they the same? Rob? Can you swap the boards out?
 
My RT2-50 doesn't give phantom power either on pins 6 and 7. No matter what dip-switch config I use. :!:

Jaded Faith
Could you share those RT2-50 schemo's to with me? I couldn't find any, and I would like to tweak the amp, especially the amount of feedback.
 
Thanks tschrama, looks like back to square one. I may have to approach Randall directly to find out.
 
I'm confused. You say you can't use the RM4's midi in because it's recieving from the GSP1101, that doesn't seem logical to me.

Why not go RM4 -> GSP1101 -> RT2/50 (or RM4 - RT2/50 -> GSP1101) ?

I know you're looking for a solution for the RT2/50 powering the pedal, but it seems to me that this can be easily avoided.

Anyway, if you need to keep this setup for whatever reason, you could look into a cable like his one:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/rocktron-5-pin-to-7-pin-rdmh-midi-cable
5 pin + power on the rack end, 7 pin phantom powered on the pedal end. Just stick a small adapter in the rack, job done.
 

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