Question about a Rat

[Bounty Hunter]

I have an old (bought in late 80's) ProCo Rat and am curious about something. I have noticed that when it is powered with a 9v battery, there seems to be a constant drain on the battery; it eats batteries at an incredible rate. It can be off, and the indicator light will have an extremely dim glow to it, so dim in fact that you can only see it in the dark.

If I unplug the cords when not using it, the battery life is increased. What's up with this? Do all stomp boxes have this problem, or is it a fluke? It is no big deal, just curious.

Thanks in advance.

[Primal]

I think I know what the problem is. When you plug in your cable, it completes the circuit so that there is power to the pedal. If you don't, it will eat batteries faster. All effects (that I know of) have this problem. Just get in the habit of unplugging everything when you are done.

It is possible that the pedal needs a true bypass switch or circuit.

[truerussian558]

yes im making an effect box right now and this is a standard thing, the circuit gets completed when you plug it in, so its always on, but you can always modify it, by adding an on/off switch to it so it doesnt depend on the plug

[Sindlei]

when something is plugged into the input of the pedal, it is active, when you're not using it, unplug the input from the pedal.

[truerussian558]

yes but adding an on off switch makes it so it doesnt drain the bateries, when you are using a bypass, because it does so with this configuration

[lovekraft]

If you're using the bypass switch to turn the effect's power on and off, you're asking for huge switching pops every time you turn it on or off. I always thought a power switch was a good idea for stomps, but it needs to be completely separate from the bypass switching.