Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I just put together the Reverb 2 kit and this one, and it does not engage. The reverb 2 came out ok lol.
5. Is bypass working?
Yes
6. Does the LED come on?
No
7. If you answer yes to 5 and 6, what does the pedal do when it is "on"? Please be as specific as possible.
When engaged, the pedal only makes a very little bit of sound if the trim pot is turned all the way counter clockwise. But still no effect is added to the sound.
8. Do all of the controls work properly? Just 1 or 2 not working?
The rate knob does nothing.

I'll also mention i did wire the dc jack backwards the first time, could that have blown out circuitry and bricked components? There was no sign of smoke or noises. It also doesn't work outside of the housing either. I can't post any pictures, my camera's resolution is too big for the site. I can say with confidence there are no crossed solder pads, and i've gone over ever joint at least once. Also i'm using a known good Boss Psa supply, 9.6 VDC and 200 mA. Thank you for any help!

There is not any polarity protection in the schematic for this pedal, so yes, it is possible. Do you have a DMM and are you able to take DC voltage readings? I'd want to check voltages at the striped side of the zener diode, and pin 8 of each IC

_________________
MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

I do but of course not with me at the moment. The diode looks as if there is a break in color of it in the middle.

So i broke out the Dmm and here are my findings! See the pic attached, but TLDR pin 8 voltages are all 9.55v, and the diode measues +4.20v on the striped side, 0.00v on the other. Also, there's no continuity through the LED.

All your results make sense except for pin 1 on the topmost IC. That pin is in the half of this dual op amp (IC3a) that is part of the LFO circuit that drives the phase sweep, so its voltage should constantly fluctuate, not stay at a steady voltage reading. In my own Li'l Orange Phaser, it varies between 1.35V and 8.99V. You have to turn the Rate pot way down for the fluctuation to be slow enough to get good DMM voltage readings. You may want to check yours again to be sure that it is really staying at the 8.94V value and not swinging high/low, as it should.

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

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

That makes sense i believe the LFO was turned all the way down. Tomorrow i'll get it checked out and get back to you. Thanks!

So i checked pin 1 on the topmost IC (closest to the power connector), and found that regardless of where the LFO is turned to, the voltage goes from 1.42v to 8.92v and back every 6ish seconds. Also, i have 6.5v on the + side of the LED and 5.5v on the - side, even though there's no continuity.

So the speed of that voltage fluctuation doesn't change with the position of the rate knob?

Don't worry about the LED for right now--it's independent of the phaser circuit, other than sharing the same power source and ground.

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

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

Yes it does! I was turning the LFO, not the rate. It goes between the same voltages in just under half the time when the knob is at 100%.

Your voltages are good and the oscillaion indicates the LFO is working. Time to look for different causes.

Read this: http://www.byocelectronics.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52188

I know you already did it once, but it's a good idea to do it again.


Can you expand on this?

"the pedal only makes a very little bit of sound if the trim pot is turned all the way counter clockwise"

Do you mean that when you engage the pedal, the volume drops? Is the sound distorted? What happens when the trim pot is set to the middle?


This can help us a lot. You posted a photo of your readings, can you figure out how to post a photo of both sides of your PCB? If you are using a smartphone to take pics, there are a lot of apps to reduce the size of the image. Or you can just link pics from a site like google photos or some other sort of cloud site. Also, if you sign up for the tapatalk app,the app will host images for you and just link them to your post, and then you don't have to worry about the file size.

_________________
MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

Excellent question. The phasing effect only works in a very small arc of the trimpot's travel, typically right near the center-point of its sweep. It's easy to miss if you adjust the trimpot a little too quickly.


There's a PC app I use constantly to crop and resize photos called IrfanView. You can resize a photo in a matter of seconds with it. It's not a photo editing app, per se, though it does let you manipulate photos and other image files in many, many ways. Not only does it have a ton of useful functionality, but it's also FREE. You can grab it here: http://www.irfanview.com/

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

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

So what i meant is the higher you turn the trimpot, the less sound comes out. Once you get to about 1/4 of the way up, no sound comes out. When the pedal is engaged and the trim pot is all the way down, a very dark, non-distorted, non-phased quiet signal comes out. Bypass works as it should.

Definitely try the trimpot right at its midpoint and adjust s-l-o-w-l-y from there while playing through it. Try both directions from the midpoint and (assuming you can get phasing) just adjust it until it sounds best to your ear. It's easier to do with the Rate pot tuned up most of the way.

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

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

Thank you for the quick replies you guys are truly awesome. Unfortunately i won't be able to test it tonight, but i'll give it a shot tomorrow. I'm just a little confused by the small trimpot area, this is copied from the manual itself: "You are setting it so that the phaser has the fullest sweep that sounds as close to the way you want it to sound. There is actually a relatively large range on the trimpot that will give you working phase shifting, and much of it will sound very good." After i fixed the polarity issue, i tried it again while slowly sweeping the trimpot and didn't get any sound unless it was all the way off, like i mentioned earlier.

Getting closer i think! So i set the trimpot to the middle S L O W L Y adjusting the trimpot and nothing happened. I went and reflowed every joint since i hadn't done that yet, and now i get a very muffled sound through the pedal, regardless of where the trimpot or rate knob is set. But the phaser works! I can hear the phaser working at about 2 o clock on the trimpot, but still very quietly. But even with the rate knob all the way up, it's a pretty slow phasing effect. Bypass works as it should and the LED is still out.

In anticipation of being told to reflow solder again, i already did it for a second time lol. Still no dice. Extremely quiet operation regardless of rate/trimpot position. But the phaser is working.

I think you have some resistor placement problems. I can't make out the color coding on many of the resistors, but I'm pretty sure that you have R3 (470K) and R27 (4.7K) switched. They are down at the bottom right of the PCB, just about the LED--see labeled PCB diagram below for exact location. I would suggest going through the pedal and double-checking ALL of the resistors using the silkscreen labels on page 7 of the instructions, and the color band codes shown on page 4. There are less than 30 resistors in this circuit, so it shouldn't take too long. A magnifying glass or similar device will make this a faster and more accurate exercise.

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

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

You are 100% correct. It looks like i made that mistake twice on the pcb. I'll fix it tommorow!

I swapped the 4 resistors and it works! No drop in volume, no distortion, and as a bonus the LED even works lol. Can't thank you guys enough for your help!

Nice job guys!

_________________
MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

HTH! Not surprised about the LED--there's a resistor between it and the +9V power source, to limit the current through the LED. Should be 4.7K, but you had 470K there, so the LED wasn't getting enough juice to light up.

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

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