Build Your Own Clone Message Board

starting new thread , didnt want to confuse with previous thread which may be solved ; (had a LED-with- mind-of \-its- own, maybe solved. was sooo bizzaro , on / off / flicker / dead..)

BUT now all I get is static when ON, no signal.

Bypass works.

BASS ONLY kills the static , but still no signal

Effect worked for a awhile (sounded awesome) but was havig 'other 'issuess
I swaer at one point, the sound degraded to a severe FUZZ ala video game.
Now all I get is static.

any circuit point I could check with vom ?

I had some interesting videos of the ghostly LED from before,
and now video of the static ( just hissy dirty static)
but I cant shrink files enough to allow up load ?

thanks in advance for help, or ask ?s

The build quality physically is pretty good, and repeatedly inspected. (poorly , as Twilt soon pointed out ! )

I have to verify that solder bridge at board center/slightly right.
At one point , I figured that was a incorrect bridge & separated them

Hey there. Im not one of the Mods here, but im sure they will chime in shortly.

Visually, I see that the one transistor in the lower left is installed backwards.

Im not sure if this would account for all of your issues. But someone else will be along soon to further assist.

~Troy

LOL Imma fing idiot sometimes

thanks Twilt !

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- Technically, alcohol IS a solution ..

For sure, fix the backwards transistor first, and see where you're at. We can think about taking voltage measurements or other actions then.

No problem with that solder bridge--those two diodes (D2 & D3) are connected head to head--see schematic upper-left. BTW, there's a PCB map near the bottom of this post: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=39392


Could you upload them to a hosting site like Google Drive or Dropbox and post links here?

Also, larger photos would be a huge help. Those are really too small to show the kind of detail we need to see to help troubleshoot effectively. Here's the kind of photo quality we love to see, though we realize it's beyond the realm of possibility for most folks: viewtopic.php?p=482910#p482910

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

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

yeaha I can see why proper pix size is beyond the pale, especially if Im gonna insist on ignoring transistors stuck in any which way

but this plain-wrapper Macbook won't convert incoming 2Meg-ish heic files to a jpeg anywhere close to that slightly<1M sweet spot,
no matter what aspects (quality & size) I pick . 500K file is about as close as this crappy pic software permits without blowing thru the cheap & chintzy 1M limit around here ... I’ll keep pluggin at it , while you guys bump the allowable file size to 2022 specs.


NOW ,back to the pedal news

obviously I had Q7 flipped (ya da man, twilt) . It is now replaced with a new Fairchild / same part# .

The pedal function remains same as before (ie, Q7 correction didnt fix faults), but I now describe a few more setting combos , since there were odd differences noted , see table below -
essential factoids - 1) pedal produces only static when on, except IF silenced by BASS ONLY
and OUTPUT & AUX jacks respond differently to the foot-switch setting matrix (!?!?!?!)

as readers may be aware , there are ON and BASS ONLY foot switches , so toggling them on / off in the possible combinations;

operations now-

OUTPUT jack to amp;
off switches = clean bypass / dry signal
ON = fairly loud, stable static ( not as loud as dry signal.)
ON + BASS ONLY ; dead silent; no static , still no guitar signalr
BASS ONLY= dry guitar at ful volume (same as Bypass volume). No static , no FX.

AUX JACK to amp
off switches = clean bypass / dry signal
ON = still static ... BUT much MUCH quieter volume than the static was , when using output jack (!!)
ON + BASS ONLY ; static ( ! huh ?) - same lower volume static as 1 line above ... repeat ; on AUX jack, BASS ONLY function no longer silences the static , as it did via the OUT jack[/b huh?? ])
BASS ONLY- full volume dry guitar. no static. no FX


Both foot switches now reliably control related LEDS ( I didnt change any components, but had a couple of stomp switch wires fracturing while moving assembly in & out & around so much … so, not impossible there were wire issues , although I could NOT previously control the on/off/flickering LED by moving switch wires , ala a 'jiggle test' ..... ) . Bottom line now is both LEDS seem OK (I do have some replacement switches on hand to try IF NEEDED, but have not tried yet, just in case I melted some switch contacts ) .


Also, neither toggle switch ( stabilize / ringer), & neither pot (tone / blend) , has any audible effect while flipping the foot switch combination as above beside occasional audible pop


new picts coming next post

latest pic. so far, I cant get any closer to the 1M size cutoff than this 1/2 size pic, without totally screwing quality ...

how about bumping that 1M limit to ,say, 2M and I'll post some better solder porn

Two tips on getting the pics below the 1MB size limit but still stay plenty big & detailed:

1) Crop out as much of the non-pedal background as possible. Don't try to get everything in each shot--better to do multiple closeups if they show the detail we need to see.
2) You can also reduce the color resolution using any number of image editors and make the file size much smaller. We don't need to see your photos in 24-bit color; 8-bit (256 colors) is just fine. I just reduced a 5.6MB photo to under 900KB with that change. Irfanview will do this very easily and it's freeware.

Hope that helps. You can also upload to a photo hosting site and post links here, if that's easier for you.

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

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

thanks again DVM for the photo tips, I will work on them.
I'll be happy to frame smaller sections , was worried that would confuse the faithful,
& agree best tack would be to scale back the colors. Crappy lappy Macs have shitty software, I've never bothered upgrading ...


by the way , a documentation error noted -
on the DIVIDED OCTAVE schematic, R57 is mislabeled as a "22n" fwiw

in order to fit the ICs into the sockets, without dickin up a IC leg,
I have had to bend the IC legs inward (the IC legs too wide to slip into the sockets)

I am trying to use plastic implents , worried about static blowing an IC, but pretty sure I am contacting some legs .

Is this a valid concern ? Do these ICs need significatn anti-static handling ?

Ground yourself before you handle them and you should be fine. I've never ruined one with static and I've installed probably a couple of hundred of them, all by hand.

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

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