Introduction
The Atomic™ power supply is specially designed
to generate high currents to power the heatersand
high voltages required by the vacuum tubes within
Effectrode pedals. Further,the Atomic featuresa
unique ‘soft-start’ voltage capability,which
eliminates tube heater filament flash and thus
extends the life ofthe tubes.
The Atomic can power up to fourlarge Effectrode
tube pedals, such as the Blackbird™ preamp or
Tube-Vibe™,or eight ofoursmaller pedals, like the
Fire Bottle™ boost or Mercury™ fuzz.Each power
outlet is fully isolated toeliminate earth loops, fully
linear regulated andheavily filtered to keep noise to
an absolute minimum without compromising tone
quality.
Additionally,one of the power outlets can be
configured for 9VDC center negative operation
(600mAmaximum).This outlet has addtional
regulation and filtering to ensure even partcularly
noise sensitive effectspedals willalways operate
quietly and cleanly. InfacttheAtomic is as quiet as
a pure direct currentsource, a.k.a. battery power.
Thank you fortrusting Effectrode tobe youreffects
pedal company.Wewish you many years of musical
enjoyment from this veryspecial, hand-built unit.
Phil Taylor – Designer
Heater Filament Flash
The function ofheater filament–the partof the tube
that glows orange inside–is to heat the cathode so
that itis able to emitelectrons (current) and therefore
amplify the smallsignal fromyourelectricguitars’
pickup.The filament ismade oflength of extremely
thin tungsten wire,housed within aminiscule nickel
tube,and is connected tothe tube pins on the base of
the glass envelope by spot welds.
The filaments ofsome–mainly European tube types,
such as Amperex, Mullard, Philips Miniwatt and
Brimar–frequently possesshigh resistance regions.
These high resistance regions are due to weaknesses
in the spot welds and/or stressesresulting from
adverse bends when forming the tungsten wire to
pack it inside the cathode.The high resistance causes
intense localised heating on the tungsten wire and it’s
not uncommon tosee a brief,bright burstofwhite light
from the heater filamentwhen powering up European
tubes fromcold.This is aserious defect,which can
result in premature tube failure.
Toprevent heaterflash and extend tube life the
Atomic ‘soft-starts’ atlow voltage topre-heat the
tube heaters. On power-up,the LEDs on the front
panel willblink red for 15 seconds inidicating the
Atomic is in low voltage pre-heat mode and then the
LEDs willturn green to indicate fullvoltage (12VDC)
operation.
