that isn't entirely true. in fact, even the info on calibration on the line 6 site isn't quite true.
i had a long play with my fbv shortboard tonight since i wasn't getting the full range from the pedal (when the toe was all the way down i'd have 100% but then when i took my foot off it sprang back to 96%).
here's what i came up with.
- press stomp, modulation and reverb (you can hold two and press the third) to get into "view pedal L status mode". this isn't actually necessary to calibrate the pedal, but it helps a lot since you can see the actual numbers. the display reads something like "L 175 044 009 235". the stats are
- the pedal you're viewing (L or R for left or right, or rather internal and external)
- position (0~255) -- a number given by the light bouncing off the metal attached to the pedal and capped at max
- output (0~127) -- the number being given to the pod after calibration adjustment)
- min (0~255) -- a constantly updated minimum of position
- max (0~255) -- the value of position when the pedal toe button was pressed in calibration mode
play with the pedal and watch the numbers. you want output to be 0 when the pedal's in the heel position and you take your foot off, and you want it to be 127 when it's in the toe position and you take your foot off. doesn't matter if it isn't at the moment -- that's what calibration's for.
to get out of "view pedal status mode", press bank down, delay and reverb. you don't have to switch off, that's bullshit. actually, pressing these three buttons seems to cancel most modes -- more on those later -- and display "line 6" for a few seconds.
- OPTIONAL, and may void your warranty: if the numbers in position are giving a bad range (such as 0 for the whole bottom half of the pedal), unscrew the bottom of the pedalboard (remembering the two screws on the back, and don't unscrew the middle two screws on the bottom -- they hold on another bit of metal) and pop the cover off (can be tricky, but keep trying). see the L-shaped piece of metal coming from the pedal? on the circuit board below that are two little components. one shines a bit of light (infra red, i reckon) out and the other detects it coming back. the signal the detector receives gives the position number. gently bend the L-shaped bit of metal to improve your range of values. be sure to do this in the dark, or ambient light will skew your results. bear in mind that position is capped by max, and don't worry if you can't fill the whole range. put the cover back on when you're happy.
- get into calibrate mode. to do this, press bank down, modulation and delay. it doesn't matter where the pedal is when you do this. if you're in "view pedal status mode", position and output show up as 0 and max and min are reset.
- you don't have to move the pedal all the way to the heel position while in calibrate mode since min is constantly updated. you'll have to at some point, though, so you may as well do it now. all you have to do now is move the pedal to the position you want to set max to and press the pedal toe button. unless you get 255 from position with your foot off the pedal, you don't want to press the pedal toe button with the actual pedal. instead, get out a screwdriver or something and use that to press the button (you need to push hard) while the pedal's not being touched. this way you can set your max to where the pedal settles to without your foot on it.
- output is now being shifted/scaled depending on your new min and max. have another play and watch your output figure -- hopefully it's now moving nicely from 0 to 127, and staying at 127 when your foot's off the pedal. if not, you can try calibrating again or you can pop the back off and do a bit of bending.
- exit "view pedal status mode" as described earlier (bank down, delay, reverb). all done.
if you have an external pedal, you can get into its "view pedal status mode" with bank down, stomp and delay. there doesn't seem to be any combination to get into its calibration mode for me, but that's probably because i don't have an external pedal.
it says on the line 6 site that holding bank down, stomp and delay for three seconds lets you calibrate it (in fact, it takes you to the status mode), but then they also said you have to hold stomp, delay and reverb to calibrate the internal pedal. this works, but you don't have to hold it. if anyone knows how to get into the calibrate mode for the external pedal (so
position and
output show as 0, etc), let me know. to exit, same buttons as before.
bank down, modulation and reverb shows you the pedalboard name and version -- mine shows "FBV-SB V1_00". to cancel, press any button after a few seconds (when tap starts flashing again) or do the same exit buttons as before.
bank down, stomp and reverb gets you into test mode. first it tests the LCD by making all panels dark, then it lets you test the switches and LEDs as well as the LCD by first lighting all the LEDs, then toggling them when you press their button and also showing the name of each button on the LCD. the only way i've found to exit this mode is to move on to "comm test" by pressing the same exit buttons as before (bank down, delay and reverb). it does a communications test (presumably saying hello to the pod and getting something back), gives a result then does a pedal test. i don't know what the pedal test does -- it just flashes "test pedals" too quickly for me (but not my camera) to see and you're back in normal operation mode.
one more thing which may be useful is that if you press the bank up or down buttons, any other button but channel a, b, c or d will cancel the bank change, and not perform that button's usual function.
that's all i've found, hope it helps.
--bart nagel
bart @@bnagel.net
Linear Mode
