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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 2:32 pm 
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Hi all,
I built a 5 knob compressor back in May. It worked great for quite a while, but started acting up about a month ago. About 75% of the time, it takes the input signal and distorts it heavily, while reducing the volume by half. I play with a Les Paul. The odd thing is that the problem happens most of the time but all of it. Perhaps I've done something to the IC inside? Should I replace it? Here is a picture of the top side of my board. ImageThanks!


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 3:08 pm 
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I'd start by clipping off the legs of the LED down to their solder joints. Looks like they could be touching, which would cause a power short. If that doesn't help, a new IC would be a logical next step, since it's the most delicate component in the circuit.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:07 pm 
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duhvoodooman wrote:
I'd start by clipping off the legs of the LED down to their solder joints. Looks like they could be touching, which would cause a power short. If that doesn't help, a new IC would be a logical next step, since it's the most delicate component in the circuit.


The LED most likely got like that when I was fooling around with the IC earlier. I'll still clip them, if that doesn't work I'll order the IC. thanks! I'll report back.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:38 pm 
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A couple other things to check:

- Have you tried re-tuning the circuit with the trim pot?
- Does the ratio knob affect the distortion? Since the signal is split in this circuit, it's handy to know if it's the dry signal or the compressed signal that is being distorted.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 7:59 pm 
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Morgan wrote:
A couple other things to check:

- Have you tried re-tuning the circuit with the trim pot?
- Does the ratio knob affect the distortion? Since the signal is split in this circuit, it's handy to know if it's the dry signal or the compressed signal that is being distorted.


I have tried it with the trimpot. That didn't help things really at all.

Also, ratio knob does effect things. If I turn it all the way to the right, it is clean. If it is all the way left, its like you took a fuzz and turned the tone knob to negative.

Turning it off and back on also effects things. If it acts up, I can continually turn it off and back on over and over until it returns to normal. Any idea why that would happen?

Thanks.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:00 pm 
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grantcox wrote:
duhvoodooman wrote:
I'd start by clipping off the legs of the LED down to their solder joints. Looks like they could be touching, which would cause a power short. If that doesn't help, a new IC would be a logical next step, since it's the most delicate component in the circuit.


The LED most likely got like that when I was fooling around with the IC earlier. I'll still clip them, if that doesn't work I'll order the IC. thanks! I'll report back.


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Trimmed the leads, but they weren't actually touching to start with. No fix. Read the above post...it can be remedied by turning it off and back on continually.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:27 pm 
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When you say turning it off and on, do you mean disconnecting the power, or unplugging the input jack (which would reset the power)? Or do you mean switching the bypass switch repeatedly? If the latter, maybe you have a bad switch.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:55 pm 
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grantcox wrote:
Read the above post...it can be remedied by turning it off and back on continually.

Ah, that sounds like it could be a twitchy footswitch connection. First, make sure that the 8-pin header on the footswitch PCB is firmly seated in the socket on the main PCB. If that isn't the problem, try wiggling the footswitch from the inside when the pedal acts up. If that causes it to cut in and out, I'd try replacing the footswitch.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 9:23 pm 
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Markw1 wrote:
When you say turning it off and on, do you mean disconnecting the power, or unplugging the input jack (which would reset the power)? Or do you mean switching the bypass switch repeatedly? If the latter, maybe you have a bad switch.


It is from taking it from bypass to active. I will check my connections and see if I can fix anything. Thanks guys!

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 10:36 pm 
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ImageImage

The connections look okay, I think. I may reflow some. Tested for continuity in the foot switch, it tested fine.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:07 am 
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Have you tried tracing the audio signal with a probe? I would start at the input and work my way back to where it gets munched...


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:36 am 
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Okay. I reflowed solder, and it seemed to help. It distorted near the extent of what it was. However, there is still some distortion on my dry (unaffected) signal, when I move the ratio knob to the left. This isn't too big of a problem, since I just use the compressor to get some sustain and more highs out of my Les Paul, but I would still like for the issue to be fixed. Should I replace the IC, or does the unaffected input signal never go through the IC? Thanks.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:33 pm 
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mmarsh wrote:
Have you tried tracing the audio signal with a probe? I would start at the input and work my way back to where it gets munched...


I don't have an oscilloscope...could I do this with a multimeter?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 2:40 am 
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You don’t need an O-scope. Just a capacitor and some wire or an old signal cable.

http://byocelectronics.com/signaltesterinstructions.pdf

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