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Hello everyone !!

I've been having a lot of fun building my own Delay Pedal and i was expecting that it wouldn't go so smoothly as plug everything and go for a ride with it.
It is the first pedal i build and also i don't have that much experience with electronic and soldering. Tried to be as precise as i could though so i don't think
i've made serious damage to any component or mistook one part with another or the polarity of the capacitor and all.
So when i first plugged the pedal with my guitar i could only hear the dry signal of my guitar with both the red light on and off.
After going through some reflowing i didn't get anything better until i could compare the voltage of the chip V571D with another similar pedal. I went through
some more reflowing on that chip and i managed to get some Wet signal after that. But it seems that there still is something not quite working. I lose a lot of
Db on the signal when the pedal is on.
Also i can't seem to get a slow delay. Maybe it would be more clear if you can listen to what it sound, i've made a recording of the pedal with the level Knob and
the repeat knob in the middle and turning the delay knob from Max to Min, you can listen to the recording with this link :

https://soundcloud.com/garrier-jean/delay-pedal

At the end of the recording you can also hear when i switch the pedal off and see the difference between the dry and the wet sound...

Two questions:

1. Did you dial in the four trimpots as described on pp. 25 - 28 of the instructions? These steps are critical to the proper operation of the pedal. In particular, your Clock trimpot is adjusted farther from the centerpoint than I would expect to see.
2. Do you have a multimeter and know how to use it?

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I'm a little confused by your description and the sound clip didn't really clear up this one question for me. Is it just the wet signal that is weak or is it both overall mix that is weak?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Hello duhvoodooman Thank you for your answer !

The reason this TrimClock is so much to the left is that i've been trying to play with it to see if i could get a longer delay signal but i don't get anything much better whatever its position is.
I used a friend's multimeter that led me to see there was a problem with this one chip so if you tell me what i could be looking for i'm sure i would manage testing the pedal. I just need to
buy myself a multimeter now


Hello byoc

Sorry if it was not clear. The recording that i linked is my guitar being plugged through the pedal and to my sound card. So the first part is the pedal being on and the end is when i turn it off just by pressing the footswitch. Therefore i guess when the pedal is on it is both the dry and the wet signal that are a bit weaker.

Thank you for you answer.

Jean

Remove the 571, 3205, and 3102. Do not worry about the wet signal for now. First focus on getting the dry signal correct. If that isn't correct, then the wet signal will never be correct.

With those chips removed, describe the dry signal as compared to the bypass signal.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Ok BYOC

I removed those three chips as you can see on the picture.
When the light is off i get a clean unaffected sound, just like if the guitar was plugged straight to the sound card.
When the light is on i simply get nothing. No sound not a scratch.

Is that normal ?

No. If the pedal was working correctly, it would simply be a buffer pedal right now. It should sound exactly the same as bypass.

Are you using a sound card for convenience or is that your only means of amplification. I would much prefer you use some sort of analog means of amplification...at least during the trouble shooting phase.

Anyhow...the fact that you get wet signal out of the pedal, but don't seem to be getting any dry signal now suggests that R31/47k has a cold solder joint. viewtopic.php?f=20&t=39391 You can find the PCB map here.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Hello BYOC

I can only test it through my sound card so far, my amp is being repaired and i won't get it back before a week or two ...
I tried resoldering R31, tested the pedal still nothing
Tried resoldering R34, tested the pedal still nothing
Tried resoldering the chip 4552, tested the pedal still nothing ...
each time i had clean signal when pedal off and nothing when the light was on.

But you had dry signal passing before you removed the chips? If so, my first guess would be that something has come loose. Maybe the wire connecting lug/eyelet 5.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

I just noticed that you all your trim pots in the wrong spots. Having the 100k trimmer in the cancel spot would explain the weak wet signal. And having the 10k in the clock trim spot would explain why your delay time was so short.

But it shouldn't really make much of a difference with the dry signal though. The bias trimmer is just a voltage divide and the value of the trimpot is of little consequence. So I still stand by my previous statement that you've likely had something come loose recently.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Urgh !!!! As i was building this pedal with my friend and asked him if the trimpots had different values he didn't think so and since his pedal was working well i never paid more attention to that but it is so obvious looking at it now !!! Thank you so much to bring my attention to that ! I will put them back at the good place, double check that nothing came loose and come back to you when i've done that.
Thank you so much for helping me !!

Alright !!

So it has not been an easy job taking out those trimpot and putting them to their right place. A few burn here and there but it is definitly getting better !
I've also resoldered the ring n°5 you've mentionned and i did get a wet signal back after that but that is bit weaker than the dry signal and that seems
to cut out the higher frequency of the guitar. I've recorrded it you can listen to it on this link : (on this recording i kept the chips out)

https://soundcloud.com/garrier-jean/san ... off-and-on

I tried then to put the chip back on and see what i got and it is much better with the trimpot at their right position. though the delay signal is getting
louder than the dry signal on this recording but i know i had the level slider all the way up :

https://soundcloud.com/garrier-jean/delay-with-chips

I don't know if you can help me more than this. I'm already very grateful for everything you did. I've managed to borrow a multimeter for the week so
maybe if there are things i can measure to get a better understanding i would be able to do that.

You should still be focusing on getting good dry signal to pass without the 571, 3205, or 3102 chips in their sockets. That's going to be much easier to trouble shoot, and as I've said before, if the dry signal isn't working properly, it's not going to work properly with the other chips installed either. Your wiring at the footswitch/jacks/PCB could use a lot of improvement. If you'd like to keep going, I'd like to see voltage readings again of the 4558. If you could build a signal tester out of an old guitar cable and a spare capacitor, that would probably be the most useful trouble shooting tool at this point.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

You may find these posts useful:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52211

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33293


You can refer to the Signal Tester instructions for guidance on how to make & use one.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Hello BYOC !!

If you can guide me further into testing the pedal i would really like to keep going !
I'm going to try and clean up the solder of the footswitch.
For the moment i tested the chip 4558 while removing the other chips and plugging the 9v battery. I can't say the measures remained stable all the time but after a few minutes testing it would kind of settle down to these results. I drew the schematic just like if i was looking at the chip from the same point of view as on the previous picture of the PCB.

Also i'm going to make the signal tester you suggested, i looked at the link duhvoodooman posted and there is something i'm not sure to understand, it looks like you are supposed to solder the red pin to the capacitor and then to the tip of a jack ? Is that correct ? Cause i feel like the tip of the jack wouldn't be convenient to test things no ?

Those voltages are not remotely correct. Do you have a plug inserted into the input jack to turn power on to the pedal? Do you need assistance with how to take voltage readings?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Ok so i did not have a jack plugged inside the pedal when i took those first measurements.
Here is what i get with the jack being plugged in now.

Your battery is dying. Please replace it with something that gives you a proper 9V (or at least 8.75) and try again. Keep in mind, the battery might test at 9V out of the circuit, but under load, a dying battery will read much lower. This circuit uses a lot of current. It will still "work" with a dying battery, but it will not sound good....which kinda sounds like what you've got going on. It's best to use a quality DC adapter. If you want to use batteries, be prepared to change them fairly regularly.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Well i'm afraid its not the battery because i bought it especially for the use of this pedal and i only used it through testing the pedal so not that much. Also it is a decent brand battery (Duracell). I've just tested it and it read 8.73V. Would there be a problem somewhere else related to how it powers the pedal ? Unfortunatly i don't have a 9V adapter but i'm going to look into it.
Is there nothing else to do until i get an adapter ?

It's very difficult to give you any sort of pin point precise advice on where to resolve your problem. You're voltages are all actually perfect, but only relative to the supply voltage, which is too low, i.e., pins 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 are exactly half of pin 8, but pin 8 should be 9V. Unfortunately, I can't tell if your battery is dying or if you've got something that is draining your current.

Based on your sound clips is sounds like your signal is being bleed off somewhere. It could be your wiring. It could be a short on the PCB. It's also possible that you have wrong values in the C3 or C28 positions, but I cannot tell from your pics.

Having a proper 9VDC adapter would be a big help. For now, you can test the current draw of your battery. You do this by first making sure there's a cable in the input. Then only connect the battery snap to one of the battery terminals. It doesn't matter which terminal you connect and don't connect. Then, based on your meter, you will most likely need to move the red probe to the 10A socket to measure amperes. Set the dial to at least 200mA. Touch the one probe to the open terminal of the battery snap and the other probe to the open terminal of the battery. If you get a negative reading, just swap where the probes are touching.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Hello

Ok i tested what you told me and the only result i could get was with the dial of the meter set on 20mA. The result was 0.06mA. Does that make sense ?
I will let you know when i have a proper 9v DC adapter. Hopefully by the end of the week.

As for the C3 and C28, do you mean by wrong value that i could have swap them with other capacitor ? If thats what you meant i checked their values and they are both 682k which is their right place on the pcb.

Otherwise you were mentioning a signal tester to be made out of a jack and a capacitor ? Is that of any use before we solve this other problem ?

It could be, but probably not. Your dry signal is close enough to your bypass signal that it will probably be too difficult to hear when you find a problem.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

will we be able to go further if i get a 9v dc Adapter then or is it the best we can do ?

Hopefully yes, but we can't make guarantees without knowing what the cause of the problem is.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Hello,

So i have a proper 9v DC adapter now and those are the result i get on the chip now :