Modding Nova Delay?

Post by **CodeMonk** » 11 Jul 2011, 06:16

Not sure if this is the right forum. Did a search and found one 3 post thread about this.
Ok, not exactly a cheap pedal to mod. Its the most expensive pedal (retail) I have. Paid $150 for it on craigslist.
If you have one, you probably know its kind of a pain to change presets in a live setting. Tap dancing that would make Fred Astaire jealous (Did I just date myself?)
Would adding an external preset stomp switch (momentary switch I would guess) connected in parallel to the preset switch on the Nova Delay handle this?

Sure, I could pay someone to do this, but doing it myself is more my style. That and the fact that I just spent $200 on enclosures, 3PDT switches and other goodies

And I would probably have to turn in my DIY card if I paid someone to do a job that would be as simple as it appears to be.

Thanks

Hides-His-Eyes · Post by **Hides-His-Eyes** » 11 Jul 2011, 07:28

what button presses are currently required to switch presets?

Post by **CodeMonk** » 11 Jul 2011, 07:42

Hit the tap tempo quickly then the on/off to cycle through the presets.
Maybe If I moved the delay to the bottom of my pedalboard it wouldn't seem so bad

Perhaps I am being lazy trying to eliminate that one button tap.
But its one extra tap, seems like it could be done easier for live situation uses.
There is also a separate button to cycle through presets, but its not stompable.

Hides-His-Eyes · Post by **Hides-His-Eyes** » 11 Jul 2011, 08:24

You could probably wire an extra switch in parallel with the soft touch one then, yeah. if you can even get to the pads.

Post by **CodeMonk** » 11 Jul 2011, 08:40

I'll probably crack it open sometime this week and at least have a look.
I've cleaned off those type of pads on keyboards, telephones, remotes, etc. so its not a completely foreign territory for me

Was mainly curious if anyone here has done it before and if there are any "gotchas" to look out for.

Post by **CodeMonk** » 30 Jul 2011, 00:25

So I went and finally did it.

I was only interested in doing the preset switch mod. May do the tap tempo mod somewhere done the line

So without further ado...

Standard TC Electronics Nova Delay before:

Side panels removed:
For removal of the side panels and the main enclosure, Torx screws are used:

Pull off the top panel, and you get this below. Removing the nuts that hold the upper pots in is a bit of a pain as they are recessed. I used needle nose pliers:

This shows the top board and where we want to solder the switch wires. A momentary switch is used for this mod.
Lets call the pads where the standard switch is wired 1,2,3,4,5, and 6, left to right, top to bottom

Post by **CodeMonk** » 30 Jul 2011, 00:35

To Continue...

Lets find a place to put the jack...
I choose the back because there is loads of room there.

Jack mounted and wires ready to be soldered...
NOW...BEFORE YOU JUMP RIGHT IN...NOTE..DO NOT USE THE GROUND CONNECTION.
I used a stereo jack. like you would use for headphones. And used the tip and ring connections.
Its all I had laying around

Wires soldered in. Per solder pad assignments, I used 3 and 6.
Pads 1,2, and 3 are already connected to each other. 4 and 6 are connected together. Pad 5 doesn't seem to go anywhere as far as I can tell.

All that is left to do is button everything up and you are done.

The only Momentary switch I had was a cheap POS switch I got at Ratshack. Probably will break after 2 or 3 stomps

Have fun

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 30 Jul 2011, 02:30

nice one!

Post by **CodeMonk** » 13 Jan 2012, 05:47

Recently (well, a month or 3 ago ), I update things with a better switch...

And the whole pedalboard (New switch box is highlighted):

jpesce23 · Post by **jpesce23** » 28 Aug 2012, 15:57

Thanks for posting this! This seems to be the only how-to on the entire world wide web for this mod but it worked beautifully for me.

Would you happen to have any info on how to add an external tap tempo function as well as the preset in one stompbox using the same output jack from the ND1? Here's an example:

http://www.jhspedals.com/products/mod-s ... emote-mod/

I just don't want to shell out $90+ for something I'm sure is fairly easy. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

biliousfrog · Post by **biliousfrog** » 06 Sep 2012, 13:34

Now that I've seen this I'm seriously considering selling all my modulation pedals and getting the Nova modulation pedal, I never use more than two modulation pedals at a time anyway. The thing that put me off about the nova's is the clunky preset selection, I'd sooner have extra pedals...but this changes everything.

I'm now also thinking that I might trade in my (frickin' awesome) Flashback for this Nova delay as I need more than one delay sound too....potentially ending up with a kind of multi-effects setup made up of the Novas with a single pedal to toggle through both presets....dunno, just thinking out loud really.

Thanks a lot for detailing this.

Post by **jmwreck** » 08 Oct 2012, 05:39

CodeMonk wrote:
NOW...BEFORE YOU JUMP RIGHT IN...NOTE..DO NOT USE THE GROUND CONNECTION.

it all depends on the wiring, right? I mean, is it ok to use mono jacks, since only 2 wires were soldered on the presets pad?

prehistoric · Post by **prehistoric** » 29 Jan 2013, 21:49

thanks codemonk, just finished up the preset scroll external switch mod for a customer. appreciate the thoughtful article.

Post by **CodeMonk** » 30 Jan 2013, 00:49

Glad you found it useful.
And I still haven't done a tap tempo mod yet.
Had to any other projects and such taking up my time.

Someday though...

TubeOrgasmer · Post by **TubeOrgasmer** » 03 Feb 2013, 21:52

jmwreck wrote:
CodeMonk wrote:
NOW...BEFORE YOU JUMP RIGHT IN...NOTE..DO NOT USE THE GROUND CONNECTION.
it all depends on the wiring, right? I mean, is it ok to use mono jacks, since only 2 wires were soldered on the presets pad?

I think the case is that none of the two button pads is connected to ground, so if one of the lugs on the jack gets connected to ground, it wouldn't work. So you could use an isolated mono jack, or use a stereo jack and not use the sleeve connection, but then you'd need a stereo cable for the footswitch too.

Post by **CodeMonk** » 04 Feb 2013, 03:56

TubeOrgasmer wrote:
jmwreck wrote:
CodeMonk wrote:
NOW...BEFORE YOU JUMP RIGHT IN...NOTE..DO NOT USE THE GROUND CONNECTION.
it all depends on the wiring, right? I mean, is it ok to use mono jacks, since only 2 wires were soldered on the presets pad?
I think the case is that none of the two button pads is connected to ground, so if one of the lugs on the jack gets connected to ground, it wouldn't work. So you could use an isolated mono jack, or use a stereo jack and not use the sleeve connection, but then you'd need a stereo cable for the footswitch too.

Correct.
Since I didn't have any isolated mono jacks and a tone of stereo ones, that''s what I went with.
A mono jack isolated from ground (on both ends) would work just fine.

FFerrell · Post by **FFerrell** » 07 Feb 2014, 21:59

I was wondering if one of y'all could help me. I was modding a nova delay to do this, but now when I power it on, all the red lights come on, then they all go off and the mode light stays on. And nothing else happens.. Does anyone know how I could fix this?

Dirk_Hendrik · Post by **Dirk_Hendrik** » 08 Feb 2014, 07:58

FFerrell wrote:I was wondering if one of y'all could help me. I was modding a nova delay to do this, but now when I power it on, all the red lights come on, then they all go off and the mode light stays on. And nothing else happens.. Does anyone know how I could fix this?

Wat you describe is a problem pretty commonly seen with Nova's. As far as I understand when one is returned to TC it's always replaced, never repaired. Most probable cause. ESD damage. Especially when poking around in the innards of the thing.