Behringer FCB 1010 Pedal range

    The pedals on my FCB 1010 (with Uno4Kemper chip) do not work on the full range. The start reacting at about 50% of the total range.


    I calibrated them and tried different curves of the Uno4Kemper chip.
    No change...


    Are your pedals working full range? How did you achieve this...?

    Hmmm...as I wrote...mine is working fine as well.



    But I cannot use the full pedal range.


    Pedal heel down position: measured distance at front (toe) to the board appr. 5 cm


    But my pedals only show any effect for the last 2-3 cm....first 2-3 cm...nothing!


    Feels really weird...

    Quote from MisterB

    The pedals on my FCB 1010 (with Uno4Kemper chip) do not work on the full range. The start reacting at about 50% of the total range.


    I'm afraid you will need to realign the sensors inside your FCB1010. You can find info about this on the FCB1010 Yahoo forum
    > https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/fcb1010/files/HELP/
    > Expression_Pedal_Range_ Problems.pdf : "What to do if the recalibration procedure doesn't fix it."

    Quote from slateboy

    I've noticed that if you move the pedal by hand, rather than with your body weight on your foot (as you would playing live standing up) you get different high and low values. Make sure you calibrate with the same limb you intend to use.


    It's true that the values differ slightly but not to an extent where it's a dealbreaker. I even can get different values repeating the procedure.

    Quote from slateboy


    Anyone know if the curve is changeable on the regular uno chip?


    It's not, only on the UnO4Kemper V 1.03.

    Quote from Lokasenna

    The FCB is known for not having the best pedals. If you're handy with a soldering iron, or you know someone who is, it's really easy to remove the pedals and replace them with 1/4" jacks so you can use whatever expression pedal you want (Mission Engineering, etc).


    Hi Lokasenna,


    Can you help?


    I would like to replace both expression pedals on my FCB 1010 with something more reliable and with better sweep curves.


    Rewiring the existing pedal circuits to jack sockets sounds straightforward enough, but can you tell me which colour wires go to signal and earth etc?


    I see many expression pedals for sale, but some refer to being midi specific.


    Will any volume or expression pedal do the job or must it be a special midi expression pedal? If so, can you tell me what the difference is please, as I have an old potentiometer based volume foot pedal that I would like to use.


    Ideally I would simply like to mount the new pedals, or their internal mechanisms, in the FCB1010 in place of the old pedals, or alternatively cut the FCB 1010 short and place the new pedals alongside.


    Maybe I might even get to play guitar.


    Many thanks


    Paul

    First, here's what my FCB looks like right now, if that helps you get a rough idea: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.…CB%20External%20Jacks.jpg


    The wiring is pretty straightforward - each pedal on the FCB is attached to a tiny circuit board, and from there each of them has three wires (red/black/black) running back to the main board. Clip those three wires off at the tiny circuit board and then wire each set up to a TRS jack. I took the FCB's footswitch outputs off the chassis so I could use the existing holes - I wasn't sure if actually removing the board would affect anything, so it's still attached to the board and just taped up in a plastic bag (i.e. the big wad of black tape below the jacks in my picture).


    Unfortunately I don't remember which wires go to which terminals on the jack, specifically. I *think* Red goes to the ring, but I'm not sure. Regardless, if you attach the wires to the jack without soldering them, plug your pedals in, and power up the unit you'll find out pretty quick whether you got it right. It won't damage anything if you're wrong - the unit might not start up, might make a little buzzing noise (I wouldn't let it run for too long in this case, just to be safe), or the pedal might work backwards, but that's about it. If you get to a point where you can do the FCB's calibration procedure for both, you've got them on the right points.


    For pedals, you want a basic TRS expression pedal - no MIDI or anything - but I don't know exactly what values the FCB is looking for. I have a pair of Mission Engineering EP-1s, which have 10k linear pots in them, so I suspect any other pedal with a linear curve should be fine. No guarantees though. The other nice things about Mission are a) the pedals feel just like a Crybaby, so most guitarists are used to the weight and the range of motion, and b) they offer a spring-loaded option, so my wah pedal automatically springs back to zero like a Dunlop 95Q - the Kemper's Wah has a Bypass@Heel setting, so when I take my foot off the pedal it springs back and shuts the wah off.


    As for mounting the pedals, that's beyond me. Right now I've got one of the pedals sitting on the FCB where the old pedals were, but it gets a bit crowded on there with both of them. When I finish school at the end of June and have access to my worksite's power tools again, I'm planning to drill holes to mount the jacks properly, modify the unit to run on MIDI power, and chop the pedal end off like this guy did: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.…B1010%20Radical%20Mod.pdf - note that since the power supply lives at the pedal end, you can only chop the end off if you come up with another way to power it. Google "FCB 1010 midi phantom power" and you should get a few hits.


    After that, if my rough measurements are right, the FCB + pedals should fit nicely on my pedalboard.


    I'll make sure to take pictures and put a thread up with as much detail as possible whenever I get around to doing that.

    Hi Lokasenna


    Thanks for such a comprehensive reply and the picture - excellent, I will look out for your detailed thread, but you have given me more than enough to plan my own FCB conversion.


    One final question though, has there been a dramatic improvement in wha and volume pedal function since replacing the original FCB pedals?


    Thanks again,
    Paul