Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi all.

New to the forum but I have a few projects under my belt including pedals and amps.

I completed (I thought) a silver pony 2 build today but when I plugged her in there were some issues.

1. When I turn on the drive channel, the pedal is silent.

2.When I turn on the boost channel, there is a sort of oscillation noise. (it seems to drop in pitch as I increase the boost volume)

I can take pictures if need be but I was hoping someone could point me to any areas of the circuit that might cause these issues when improperly built.

Thanks in advance if you have any tips, My apologies if this is the wrong subform.

Regarding the posting of photos let me ask you this. If your car needed to be repaired would you deny your mechanic a look under the hood? Without photos the best we can do is take shots in the dark. Even if your pedal has a symptom exactly the same as another doesn’t necessarily mean they require the same fix.

_________________
"It’s your soldering."

As Stephen has pointed out, we are extremely limited in helping you without photos. About the only thing I would recommend without seeing the build would be this:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52188

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

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

Thanks guys. thanks for the link voodoo, I'm reading through it now. And your point is well taken on the photos Stephen- was hoping for a shortcut after an afternoon of banging my head against the wall. I've attached some photos below. Thanks again for your time.

I don't see any obvious problems, like component misplacements or wrong wire connections. Working through that solder joint re-flowing process would be a good idea, as it often solves problems such as what you have described. Pay special attention to your wire connections at the jacks and footswitches, as well as the PCB, since these are the joints that look the most suspect. The great majority of your component solder joints look quite good.

Couple of other items:

• The dual-gang pot for the drive control has a tendency sit very close against the PCB and could cause a short. Try slipping a thick piece of paper, like a business card, between the back of the pot and the PCB for insulation between the two.
• Do you have access to a multimeter and know how to take DC voltage readings with one?

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

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

Thanks Voodoo. I do have a multimeter but I'm a neophyte with it- can you point me to a primer on reading dc voltage?

I do have a couple pieces of masking tape between that pot and the board, but I can probably find something a little thicker to be safe.

I will also give reflowing a try- to your point, soldering the switch and jack wires was a bit of a chore because I did that with everything in the case, it was a challenge to get good angles in there and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if I had fatigued some of the joints in the process, or failed to get good connections in the first place.

To measure the DC voltage levels, set your multimeter to the DC voltage mode; use the 20VDC range setting if it's not an auto-ranging meter. Put the black probe into one of the corner screw bosses of the enclosure--this is your ground connection. Then touch the red probe to the point that you want to measure. Of course, your power source needs to be connected and there needs to be a cable in the input jack.

I would start by checking the voltages on each of the four IC's. See the left side of the image below for the numbering of the pins.

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

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

So i had a chance to take another crack at it this weekend. reflowed a lot of the joints for the switches.

When using the multimeter- what readings should i be looking for at each ic pin? Should it be the same across each? I see a lot of 1.34. Are the proper readings written out somewhere?

Sorry. Like i said im a bit of a neophyte. Appreciate all the feedback.

We just need the readings from the TL072 chips.

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*patience is a virtue*

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

Thanks again, Sorry for the delayed response I've had a couple of busy weeks,

here are the the readings I'm getting on the tl072 chips, left to right, looking into the back of the case with the jack side oriented away from me:

Chip 1 (far left, the one oriented 90 degrees from the others)
Pin Reading
1 1.36
2 1.36
3 1.13
4 0.00
5 1.24
6 1.25
7 1.37
8 2.11

Chip 2 (center)
Pin Reading
1 1.02
2 1.23
3 1.24
4 -1.45
5 1.24
6 1.22
7 1.47
8 2.23

Chip 3 (far right)
pin Reading
1 1.23
2 1.23
3 1.24
4 -1.40
5 1.24
6 1.22
7 1.22
8 2.22


appreciate ya'lls time and insights!

Those voltages are MUCH too low. Could you please check the voltages on the charge pump (LT1054) pins and post those?

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

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

here are the readings for the lt 1054

pin Reading
1 2.76
2 1.31
3 0.00
4 -1.12
5 -2.16
6 1.82
7 1.14
8 2.65

What are you using as a power source?

For reference, the IC voltages for my fully functional Silver Pony 2 are shown below:

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

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

oh jeeze, looks like the 9v I was using was pretty close to dead.

here are the readings running off a 9v electro harmonix wall wart:


Chip 1 (far left, the one oriented 90 degrees from the others)
Pin Reading
1 4.88
2 4.9
3 3.74
4 0.00
5 4.85
6 4.86
7 4.33
8 9.83

Chip 2 (center)
Pin Reading
1 4.92
2 4.91
3 4.90
4 -9.17
5 4.9
6 4.9
7 4.89
8 17.48

Chip 3 (far right)
pin Reading
1 4.9
2 4.89
3 4.9
4 -9.16
5 4.9
6 4.9
7 4.9
8 17.45
lt1052
pin Reading
1 9.83
2 9.78
3 0.01
4 0.11
5 0.71
6 6.76
7 0.34
8 9.8

OK, those voltages look good. For whatever reason, I've seen two different sets of voltages on my LT1054 at different times, and yours agrees pretty closely with one of them. And your voltages on what you refer to as chip 2 and chip 3 are right where they should be, so the charge pump is obviously working.

Just to check, since you've been working on this pedal for nearly a month now, how is it currently acting on the drive and boost settings? Don't run them both on at the same time to answer this question--I want to know how they are acting individually.

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

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

Well. I've not done much tweaking in the last couple weeks but the current state is:

Drive and Boost bypassed:
silent, nothing coming out of the pedal

Drive engaged, boost off:
very very faint signal, even with everything cranked

Boost on, drive off:
with the boost knob low, its similar to the drive channel, very very faint signal,
if I turn the volume up to maybe 8-9 o clock It starts to oscillate and reduces in pitch as I increase the boost.

Something I just noticed in testing all this is that when the boost foot switch is fully depressed, ( I press down on it all the way and hold the switch down) it passes signal.

That's interesting. Did you try the same thing on the Drive side?

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

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

The drive side on its own does not do this. both together do though.

Pardon me if this question seems overly elementary, but are you pressing the footswitches down until they click? These are not "momentary contact" switches like you find on many commercial pedals, they are purely mechanical in function.

Not getting any bypassed signal surely sounds like a problem with the I/O jack or footswitch wiring, or maybe one of the footswitches themselves. Suggest that you do some continuity testing. Use the continuity mode of your multimeter (most use THIS SYMBOL for that test mode) or set the meter to the lowest resistance test range to do this. In continuity mode, the presence of a continuous circuit will cause the meter to beep; in resistance mode, you'd be looking for nearly zero resistance (certainly no more than a couple of ohms). Test the meter by touching the two probes together to confirm that you can verify continuity.

Start by putting both footswitches in bypass mode, disconnect the pedal's power source, and then touch one meter probe to the TIP of the input jack (soldered to the "IN" eyelet). You'll use the other probe to move through the bypass circuit path and test at different points. You should get continuity at ALL of these test points, so if you don't, we'll look between the last point where you see continuity and the first point you don't. Test in the order shown:

1. Solder joint at eyelet "4" on the PCB above the Drive footswitch
2. Solder joint at eyelet "8" on the PCB above the Drive footswitch
3. Solder joint at eyelet "4" on the PCB above the Boost footswitch
4. Solder joint at eyelet "8" on the PCB above the Boost footswitch
5. The TIP of the output jack (soldered to the "OUT" eyelet)

Report results here, and we'll go from there.

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

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