Recent content by DigitalZombie

Just to follow up, I boxed mine up and I think it sounds excellent. A little noisier than my Russian-spec muff clone at higher gain settings, but not unusable. The EQ control on this is amazing. There are so many sound options I don't think I'll ever need another OD/distortion.

Interesting. I have mine all wired up but haven't given it the sound test yet. Just checked voltages with C102 & 103 the "right" way and sure enough I'm getting -7v and 14.6v. Does your at least sound good? My breadboard build was all splatty and had horrible oscillation with the gain at noon...

Finally got around to this one after having the PCB since last July. I try to breadboard everything first to see if there's any mods I'd like to do before involving any solder. I couldn't get it to work properly, dealing with terrible misbiasing issues. Right away I could see where I was...

🤦 I was probably making margaritas at the same time I was assembling the board. Works now - good sounding compressor.

Is this a scientific phrase I'm not familiar with? But no, while I understand it's kind of a go-to problem area I can guarantee the pots aren't touching the board. Besides, the area where the signal dies isn't near the pots as it is.

I get next to nothing at the output unless I turn the Ratio to minimum. When I start to turn it up it abruptly cuts off to (almost) dead and I have to turn the level up all the way to hear anything at all. I started probing and the signal dies at the anode of D2. I checked continuity and...

Figured it out! The 220k bias resistor had a bad solder joint, so it wasn't connecting to ground. Confirmed when I pulled the 220 off my breadboard it's octave city. I would recommend this as a mod - maybe put it on a toggle, or even a 2nd footswitch to disconnect it from ground.

OK, so the octave definitely starts at Q3c. Q3 is somehow way mis-biased. I tried rebuilding on my breadboard which is usually how I can quickly identify a problem, and with the After control turned all the way down (full resistance) the voltages come out within spec if I try to calculate based...

If possible would you mind posting photos of your unpopulated board so I can see the traces? It would make it easier for me to audio probe the circuit.

This was before I realized the magic of cleaning the flux off the board after population, so please reserve that advice. As I mentioned I doubled-checked the printed value of every resistor against the build doc...

Feral, if you've built one could you tell me which transistors you used at what gain? Not sure what other documentation you'd want other than what I've already stated. I guess I could note Q voltages but I don't have a benchmark to compare to unless I trace this SMD factory unit. I'll try to...

I haven't seen anyone else post about it but does anyone else get really REALLY pronounced octave up on their Carcass build? I don't just mean when you've got the controls boosted, I mean ALL the time. It similar to running a Green Ringer in front of it. I kept watching video demos online but...

Nice. I've had this same image printed and taped up next to my workbench for years. Could use a new one.

FWIW, if you look at the most recent build doc, the boss here quietly changed C3 to 47n. I don't know if he got it verified somewhere else or what. I hope he reaches out to those who purchased the previous board to let them know about the change, as it is significant.

The current build doc is dated 2/16/21, so make sure you're using the right doc for your board. I have the old doc too and R11 is definitely 47k. It's part of the bias network to the last transistor and putting a 1M there would definitely make it not work.