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Hey guys,

Just signed up for this forum after building my Divided Octave kit. I will follow my issue like the build pdf says, so here we go:

Problem: Only the Bass Only side is working. the effect when engaged is really low in volume and almost sounds distorted. Its pretty much half the volume of a bypassed effect. Both Bypass switches work and both LED lights are engaging. Here are pics of the front and back of boards as well as close ups of the footswitch wiring. Please and thank you for any help.









If you guys need any more info or pics, just ask. Please and thanks

Would you say it's....wait for it....divided? Bwahahahaha, welcome to the forum, lots of great folks here. Are you glass diodes oriented correctly, the stripe goes towards the Seay are pad. Hard to tell I the pictures. Check over your resistors and caps to make sure values are correct.


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Pedal building is like the opposite of sex. All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Thanks for the reply. Yes every cap and resistor was checked with a DMM before install, mostly because the resistors were 1/8th watt and small. I also just checked continuity on both 3pdt switches and they are good. The glass diodes had a white dot which I put on the cathode side. I just checked the charge pump and it was 8.6v on pin 8 and -8.0v on pin 5. All the op-amps have 8.6v on pin 8 and -8.0v on pin 4. Pin 14 on the two longer IC's also are 8.6v.

***I just played it through an amp-sim with headphones. I can hear the regular effect and the bass only, but the regular effect has a static noise in the background where as the bass only is noise free.

Where do I go from here??

Be sure that all of your IC's are fully inserted into the socket--I see a couple that appear to be sitting up awfully high.

Speaking of IC's, they are the components in the Divided Octave most likely to fail or be DOA. One of the first things I would try would be to systematically replace each of the six 4558's with a known good one. Remove a 4558, pop the new/known good one in, test the pedal, and if it's still not working, replace the original chip and move on to the next 4558. Hopefully, you have another working pedal with a socketed 4558 that you can use for this purpose, but if you don't, they are inexpensive and widely available. And any general purpose, dual op amp IC should work fine in the circuit, so it doesn't have to be the KA4558 chip in your pedal--a JRC4558D, RP4558P, TL072, NE5532, OPA2134PA, etc. will do the job.

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

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

Ok, I'll have to order some as I only have single op amps. I did recall the 10k pot made a snapping soundo when I had to bend the terminals to fit in the holes. Could it possibility be that? My test this morning yielded a working pedal but with static in the background when effect was on. The background static goes away when you engage bass only. The mix and ringer work fine but am not hearing a discrenable difference with the tone knob. Anyways, I'll try to get my hands on some dial IC's and 10k pots just to see

Before I go substituting the dual op amps I have voltage readings on all the op amps as well as the MAX1044. I also checked resistance on both pots and they check out fine. Here ya go. If anything jumps out, let me know. Thanks again

max-1044:(IC7)
1:8.5
2. 4.2
3. 0.0
4. -4.1
5. -8.1
6. 4.04
7. 6.3
8. 8.5

IC1
1:-6.6
2:0.3
3:0.0
4:-8.1
5:.01
6:.01
7:.07
8:8.5

IC2
1:2.5
2:2.5
3:-4.5
4:-8.5
5 2.2
6:2.7
7:3.0
8:8.5

IC3:
1:2.1
2:2.1
3: 2.0
4:-8.4
5: 1.9
6: 2.1
7: 2.0
8: 8.4

IC4:
1: 7.4
2:-5.9
3: 2.5
4: -8.1
5: 0.0
6: 2.5
7: -2.5
8: 8.5

IC5:
1:7.2
2 -5.8
3: 0.0
4:-8.1
5: 0.0
6: 1.0
7: -6.7
8: 8.5

IC6:
1: 8.1
2: 0.03
3: 2.1
4: -8.1
5: 3.2
6: 2.4
7: 2.4
8: 8.2

What sound is coming out of the aux jack?

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*patience is a virtue*

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

The aux jack into the amp produces a clean unaffected sound, no different than the effect in bypass. When I use the pedal with the regular out to the amp, when the effect is on, the volume is cut in half and sounds distorted/noisy but if i listen closely the knobs work and so does the ringer. When I activate the Bass Only, it works perfect, no back ground noise, and the tone pot acts correctly.

Ok I did what Duhvoodooman asked and subbed in a Ne5532 into each of the Ic slots. No change at all. the best I got was a little more dry signal coming through with harder attack when i subbed in at IC4. I have a link so you can here whats going on. The pedal is in bypass at 0.00sec, effect on (problem) at 10 seconds, and bass only at 19 seconds. Let me know what I further need to do.

https://soundcloud.com/nickspera/dodebug

Crisis averted. Hooked up my pencil solder tip and reflowed every single joint on the board and BOOM. Works perfect. Sounds just like the original i had many years ago. Thanks guys!!!

Excellent news! Keeps me from having to post THIS SUGGESTION!

Actually, I was just about to post all of my corresponding pin voltages for the same IC's you tested (some of which were substantially different than yours!), so you saved me a lot of typing. The ol' "blanket re-flow" does the trick again!

P.S. OUTSTANDING job on the enclosure!! Really captures the vibe of the original!

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

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

Agreed! Be sure to post this in the "Show off your completed build" section, as you did a jam up job on that enclosure.

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"What you say is not enough, its what you try to do. "

Haha will do. I happen to be quite the Mu-tron clone aficionado. Been building confidence to do the Mu-tron Flanger that based off a Morley optical Wah. Need to buy an oscilloscope for that though for calibration. Heres a quick pic of my 3 clones.