Low Tide Modulator (no effect)

[zeitguy]

Recent build of Low Tide Modulator (Shallow Water clone). Using a J201 instead of the SK208-Y. Also a MN3207 instead of the VD3207D BB chip.

When circuit is on, signal goes through without issues. But no effect is heard at all. When Mix is all the way up, no signal is heard. I played around with the trim pots and nothing happened. Any ideas from you great pros?! Is my MN3207 the issue?

 

[comradehoser]

Never seen 0 ohm resistors to wire up a stomp switch before.

It would be useful to see the jacks in the image just to see if everything is wired correctly. You know power is flowing because of DMM measurements, or... ?

The effect can be a bit subtle in some settings. Make sure you have mix and depth right of noon, and the skew left of noon. I think there is a very useful post floating around on the forum on the setup and calibration procedures you might want to follow.

[edit: here it is. I would also suggest reading some of the many troubleshooting threads around the low tide.]

A few questions and trouble shooting

Hi, I'm Detrital, new here but not to building pedals. If I've posted in the wrong spot - Sorry. Please bump me to where I should be... I've got a few builds that are giving me trouble. Any help is appreciated. ElectroVibe - No build docs yet, but the silkscreen is mostly complete. I need to...

forum.pedalpcb.com

 

[comradehoser]

If the above instructions don't work, it can probably help to take readings at the IC pins with the power plugged in and power on.

 

[SlowPony]

I have the same issue going on with mine.

 

[LukeFRC]

4k7 missing to the right of the boost and pad switch?

 

[Kroars]

Recently had this same thing happen and it was a bad LM258P from mouser. I’ve built a handful of these with no issue whatsoever. On my last build of two, one worked perfectly and the other not so much. Didn’t seem to be any modulation and signaled dies when Mix turned fully CW. Long story short, change out your LM258P. Mine even measured perfectly and biased at 1.15v on pin 1 as per the original. No dice. I actually went through 3 out of the tube of 20 I purchased to find another that worked. Hope this helps someone.

Edit: Further poking around found that the culprit was actually an older Harris 4046. For some reason, a particular LM258P helped a ton. Although, when I replaced the 4046 with a newer TI version, every LM258P worked. Very strange.

 

[Scentless]

When you subbed the J201 for the 2SK208-Y, did you use through-hole? Did you orient it with the PCB (flat side with the diagram)? I swapped in a 2N5457 through hole (I’m a chicken with smd) and oriented it as such. I’m not getting any signal, and the LED isn’t working either. Would anyone have any troubleshooting tips/advice I should start at? I’ve built a couple of StewMac kits, but this is my first free-range build, so I’m rather bummed. Any advice from seasoned wizards would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Nostradoomus]

When you subbed the J201 for the 2SK208-Y, did you use through-hole? Did you orient it with the PCB (flat side with the diagram)? I swapped in a 2N5457 through hole (I’m a chicken with smd) and oriented it as such. I’m not getting any signal, and the LED isn’t working either. Would anyone have any troubleshooting tips/advice I should start at? I’ve built a couple of StewMac kits, but this is my first free-range build, so I’m rather bummed. Any advice from seasoned wizards would be greatly appreciated.

yes, my advice is to start your own thread with plenty of pictures and measurements of ICs/transistors