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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:16 am 
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Hi, I had already many issues with my build (see viewtopic.php?f=50&t=55922) but have been able to fix the problems. I have happily used my pedal for several months, but i picked it up yesterday after not using it for a month and it just produce no sound now. I have reflow somes joints, changed some wires that looked suspicious, unpacked it many times and I just can't find what is wrong with my build. Since it has worked fine for a while, I would assume the components and the soldering are okay, otherwise it would not have worked in the first place. So what could be wrong this time?

Thanks


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:51 am 
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Often times when a pedal that works fine at first and then suddenly stops working for no apparent reason it is due to poor soldering.

Before you go taking the pedal apart though I would suggest going over the signal path with a signal probe. You can get one from BYOC or you can make one out of an instrument cable and a capacitor. Don’y worry if you can’t read a schematic. Get the probe and we can help guide you thru the rest.

https://buildyourownclone.com/collectio ... gnaltester

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:45 am 
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Ok I have ordered the signal probe, I will get in touch once it has been delivered


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PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 3:49 am 
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Well there we go, the probe has been delivered today and I can finally go through the process of finding what's wrong. Where shall we start?


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PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:27 am 
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Neither the drive or boost channels work?

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PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:10 am 
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OK, let’s start with the following.

OD Circuit
Power the pedal, install a plug into the input jack and check for signal at the following locations with your probe. Base (center) of Q5 (clean), Pin 5 of IC4 (clean), Pin 7 of IC4 (dirty), Pin 3 of IC4 (dirty), Pin 1 of IC4 (dirty), Pin 2 of IC5 (dirty), Pin 1 of IC5 (dirty & louder).

Boost Circuit
Check for signal at the I (input) and O (output) eyelets on the boost PCB.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:09 am 
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Ok i have been through the verifications you suggest, here's what i got :

- Q5 was ok
- both IC5 pins were ok
- the boost was ok

-Every pin of the IC4 I have tried were dirty

Also, when taking the pedal out of the enclosure to check for bad solder joints, I powered it and try it out on my amp and it was working fine. I decided to put it back into the enclosure and it was not working anymore. Also, when manipulating the pedal out of the enclosure for doing the tests with the signal probe, I had a lot of noise that was getting either louder or quieter when I was moving the pedal around. Touching the jack solders joints with my hands was also interacting with the noise


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:20 pm 
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Do you have output at the center eyelet of VR7 that you can make louder or quieter with the drive level knob?

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 6:12 am 
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A circuit that works normally outside the enclosure and doesn’t when inside would seem to indicate that you have something shorting out against the enclosure.

Noise with the PCB out of the enclosure may be due to the fact that the circuit no longer has protection from radiated noise that the enclosure would normally provide.

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:49 am 
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Stephen wrote:
A circuit that works normally outside the enclosure and doesn’t when inside would seem to indicate that you have something shorting out against the enclosure.

Another possibility (though less likely) might be a wonky solder joint that disconnects due to flexing of the PCB when the nuts are all tightened down.

Stephen wrote:
Noise with the PCB out of the enclosure may be due to the fact that the circuit no longer has protection from radiated noise that the enclosure would normally provide.

That's electro-magnetic noise, as opposed to dogs barking and trucks driving by your house.... :wink:

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 6:09 am 
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I have no guitar sound on the center of VR7, I just have a sinewave-like sound that does seems to get louder if I turn the level knob. If I turn the drive knob up, the pitch gets higher and eventually disappear when the knob is at maximum


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:30 am 
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Do you have signal a C21? Even if you can't read a schematic very well, you should be able to see major sections of circuit. Test for signal at points in between the sections. When you find where you have signal before a section, but not after a section, then you know that it is that section that you need to focus on.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:47 am 
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Ok I have tested the signal at C14, C16 and C21 which I guess are the components where the section join themselves. And I got signal through every time ( by "signal" I mean this weird sinewave noise that i got without even plucking the guitar). What's the next step?


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:48 am 
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Did you test with a guitar signal? The idea is to see if the guitar signal is passing through the various stages of the effect circuit.

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:23 am 
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Yes I did, I had my guitar plugged into the "in" jack as it is shown in the signal probe schematic and the probe connected to the "out" jack. I was strumming the guitar to check if I could get anything through and I only had a sinewave-like sound


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:34 am 
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you said but the probe gets plugged into your amp not the pedal’s output jack. As you touch the probe’s tip to the components in the circuit the signal travels thru the probe to your amp so you can hear it.

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 5:16 am 
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No no you have understood this right : I have connected the probe to the output jack with the clip, and plugged a cable into the probe to my amplifier to make the test. An other cable made the junction between my guitar and the input jack


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