Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I finished building the Echo Royal, and all of the lights are working properly. The dry signal and bypass sound great.
When I turn the mix knob, the repeats are very weak and heavily distorted. It is more of just a buzz, not even a note. It also seems like I do not have control of the rate or reps.
The only thing that I can spot on the board, is some bridged solder joints near the Blend knob. I remember seeing this as I was soldering, and it almost seemed as if the solder pads are touching. So, is it ok if these are bridged? I circled the area in red on one of the photos.
Please, any advice would be appreciated!

Bridged Solder Area

I'll let someone (i.e. Keith/byoc or Morgan) who better understands these complicated delay circuits provide guidance, but I will say that those two resistors adjacent to the Mix pot are directly connected to that pot leg on the PCB, so no problem there.

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

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

I reflowed all of the solder joints that I could reach. It did not seem to fix anything.

Pull the PT2399 chips out of their sockets. Use a small piece of wire or clipping from a component to make a jumper between pins 15 and 14 on both of the empty sockets.

Then pull the V571 out of its socket. Jumper pin 11 to 7 of the empty socket.

What does the mix knob do now?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

When I pull the 2399's and put in the jumpers, I get a clean bypass and dry sound. Turning the blend knob clockwise all the way results in no sound at all.

With the 2399's and the 571 pulled (and jumped), I get a clean sound regardless of where the blend knob is rotated.

Leave the 571 out and its jumpers in place. Put the PT2399 chips back in their sockets. Now what does the blend knob do?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

With the 571 out (and jumped), and the 2399's in, I get a clean sound. There is no change to the sound when I turn the blend knob.

Are you able to adjust the delay time? You should get one repeat and only one repeat with the 571 chip removed.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

I tried it again and I get no repeats even when I turn the reps and delay knobs.
When I place the 571 back in its socket, I get repeats, but they are very distorted.
Also, with the repeats, it seems like I cannot adjust the rate or delay, only the tap tempo when I switch modes.

One more configuration with the jumpers. Leave the 571 in its socket and jumper both the PT2399 chips. What's it doing now?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

When I jump the 2399's and have the 571 inserted. I get a clean sound, no repeats.
When I dial the blend knob clockwise, the sound fades out and eventually I get no sound at all when it is at full mix.

Unfortunately, what you are telling me doesn't make much sense and isn't helping me to diagnose your problem. It doesn't make sense that the PT2399 chips don't produce delay when they 571 is bypassed, but do when the 571 is installed. And it doesn't make sense that the 571 isn't working when the PT2399 are bypassed, but does something when the PT2399 are installed.

And then on top of that, when you are able to hear the PT2399 chips, you cannot control the delay time. So you've probably got several things wrong with your build.

Please reflow all of your solder joints and see what that does.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

I think that I figured out one part of the puzzle.
I started to notice that if I squeeze the delay pot it would wobble the sound.
I replaced it with a different pot that I had laying around, and now the delay works when I turn the knob.
It must have been a bad potentiometer.

However, I am still getting a fuzzy sound. It is not near as bad, but definitely not clean.
I replaced the pot that came with the kit (50k) with a 500k. The 500k is pretty scratchy also.
I don't know if that would be contributing to the static sound.

The delay time and multiplier pot values aren't really important. 500k will work just fine. So, is your pedal pretty much completely "working" now, it just has distorted repeats and some crackle/static noise when you turn certain knobs?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Yes, that is correct.
Everything is working... just repeats are distorted.

Okay. I'm sorry to ask you to do this again, but can you run through all the jumpers again. Jumper the 571 so that only the PT2399 chips are in their sockets and vice versa. Let me know how it behaves now.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

I am getting the same results as before.
2399's out - no repeats, no sound with mix all the way up
751 out - no repeats, clean sound regardless of the mix position.
All IC's in - very distorted repeats

I have spent all day on this. I have reflowed all solder joints. I have switched out the op-amps. I have replaced all of the wiring. I have tested every single resistor and double checked all capacitors. I just don't know what else to do.

With both chips in, I have noticed that I get a distorted repeat, and then a VERY soft repeat.

I was also taking the voltages for all pins on each chip. I did notice one strange thing. Pin 10 on IC6 has voltages that go all over the place. It jumps up and down really fast. I don't know if it is supposed to do that? Also, a few pins on the 4558 jump around too. I assume that is because it is fed by pin 10 on the IC6?

Please contact sales@buildyourownclone.com and request replacement PT2399 and 571 chips. Pin 10 of IC6 makes the tempo light blink. The 4558 chip is the low frequency oscillator that modulates the delay. So you should expect to see fluctuating voltages at those places.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Just sent in an email. I am crossing my fingers in hopes that this solves the issue!

Thanks!

I received the chips in the mail yesterday. I swapped out the 571 first, and I am happy to report that it now sounds amazing!
The horribly distorted repeats are gone and now they are crystal clear. The old 571 chip was the problem.
The rest of the pedal works perfectly too.

I am so happy that it works. I had almost given up on this one!

Thank you for all of your help!

Thanks for sticking with it.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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