SOLVED Cataclysm Delay not Cataclysming (seeing a difference in this PCB from the last one I built)

Yroc006

Yroc006

Member
Hi there. Soooooo, I built one of these a few weeks ago, fired right up, love it, thought I'd build one for my brother. I finish up last night and there's no audio from the out pipe, bummer. Voltages all look good, cool. Start walking the tree with my audio probe and everything is going well until hit R7, which is especially frustrating since it's the last thing in line before the exit. Removed R7 to see if I was getting a signal to either one of the pads and i'm not, which confuses me. Looking at both boards side by side, I noticed a difference in the trace that comes out of the positive side of C6. My older working board looks like the picture on the product page, but the new board sort of looks like it's missing the trace from C6 to R7, which might explain the lack of signal. I tried a jumper to see if I could get signal to the resistor that way but it just goes to silence (my laymen's guess is it's going to ground), same if I jumper over R7 straight to the out pipe (just wanted to see what happens). So, i'm not entirely sure what to do here. I suppose I could just jumper out of C6 straight to the output, but that seems a bit sloppy, especially since I'm building this for my brother. I'm not electronically educated enough to know what R7 is doing exactly, but on my test rig with the guitar the other 99% of the circuit sounds correct. Any thoughts or ideas would be super helpful. Thank you!
 

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Remember that there are traces on both sides of the board. Just because the trace is not on the same side doesn't mean it isn't there. Have you got photos of the other side?
 
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Yroc006 said:
Hi there. Soooooo, I built one of these a few weeks ago, fired right up, love it, thought I'd build one for my brother. I finish up last night and there's no audio from the out pipe, bummer. Voltages all look good, cool. Start walking the tree with my audio probe and everything is going well until hit R7, which is especially frustrating since it's the last thing in line before the exit. Removed R7 to see if I was getting a signal to either one of the pads and i'm not, which confuses me. Looking at both boards side by side, I noticed a difference in the trace that comes out of the positive side of C6. My older working board looks like the picture on the product page, but the new board sort of looks like it's missing the trace from C6 to R7, which might explain the lack of signal. I tried a jumper to see if I could get signal to the resistor that way but it just goes to silence (my laymen's guess is it's going to ground), same if I jumper over R7 straight to the out pipe (just wanted to see what happens). So, i'm not entirely sure what to do here. I suppose I could just jumper out of C6 straight to the output, but that seems a bit sloppy, especially since I'm building this for my brother. I'm not electronically educated enough to know what R7 is doing exactly, but on my test rig with the guitar the other 99% of the circuit sounds correct. Any thoughts or ideas would be super helpful. Thank you!
Click to expand...
You should have Continuity on these 3 points in Red circles
If trace is missing between 100K & 1uF in red circles, just use a cut resistor leg & solder between pads on solder side of board :
Cataclysm Continuity Test.jpg
 
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Boba7 said:
So you do have sound on the + side of C6 ? But not on the - side ?
Click to expand...
Yes, That is the case. I'll replace C6 first and see if that makes a difference. The orientation is correct, but it may just be a bad part. R7 was a 100k. I was just working backwards from the out pipe and thought I'd ask before going scorched earth on components as it makes a bit of a mess of the board.
 
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If you have a DMM check to see if you have continuity between the OUT pad and Ground.

It looks like a batch of these boards has a problem, a trace on the bottom side of the board appears to have been absorbed by the ground plane.

The fix is fairly simple... Lift the right end of the 100K resistor (circled in red) and the negative lead of the 1uF capacitor (also circled in red) from the PCB. Connect the two lifted ends together, do not reconnect them to the PCB.

cataclysm-continuity-test-jpg.12374



Let me know if this helps.
 
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Robert said:
If you have a DMM check to see if you have continuity between the OUT pad and Ground.

It looks like a batch of these boards has a problem, a trace on the bottom side of the board appears to have been absorbed by the ground plane.

The fix is fairly simple... Lift the right end of the 100K resistor (circled in red) and the negative lead of the 1uF capacitor (also circled in red) from the PCB. Connect the two lifted ends together, do not reconnect them to the PCB.

cataclysm-continuity-test-jpg.12374



Let me know if this helps.
Click to expand...
coolio, I'll give it a go and let you know
 
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Do you have a 1uF Tantalum Cap, That would work better as you can use the Negative leg to the 100K resistor.
This will become your new OUT connection.
 
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Robert said:
If you have a DMM check to see if you have continuity between the OUT pad and Ground.

It looks like a batch of these boards has a problem, a trace on the bottom side of the board appears to have been absorbed by the ground plane.

The fix is fairly simple... Lift the right end of the 100K resistor (circled in red) and the negative lead of the 1uF capacitor (also circled in red) from the PCB. Connect the two lifted ends together, do not reconnect them to the PCB.

cataclysm-continuity-test-jpg.12374



Let me know if this helps.
Click to expand...
There is continuity between the out pipe, both sides of the R7 Resistor and the negative side of C6 according to my DMM. tested this with R7 and C6 removed from the board.
 
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music6000 said:
Do you have a 1uF Tantalum Cap, That would work better as you can use the Negative leg to the 100K resistor.
This will become your new OUT connection.
Click to expand...
Do you have a 1uF Tantalum Cap, That would work better as you can use the Negative leg to the 100K resistor.
This will become your new OUT connection.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Robert said:
If you have a DMM check to see if you have continuity between the OUT pad and Ground.

It looks like a batch of these boards has a problem, a trace on the bottom side of the board appears to have been absorbed by the ground plane.

The fix is fairly simple... Lift the right end of the 100K resistor (circled in red) and the negative lead of the 1uF capacitor (also circled in red) from the PCB. Connect the two lifted ends together, do not reconnect them to the PCB.

cataclysm-continuity-test-jpg.12374



Let me know if this helps.
Click to expand...
So, with the legs lifted, the signal stops at the jumper. I'm guessing that since there is is continuity from both sides of R7 with no component installed that the signal is still going to ground, maybe? Is it possible to cut a trace to prevent this, or is it a matter of making a jumper from this jumper straight to the switch?
 

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music6000 said:
Do you have a 1uF Tantalum Cap, That would work better as you can use the Negative leg to the 100K resistor.
This will become your new OUT connection.
Click to expand...
I missed this comment, sorry. I think that is sort of what I did with the electrolytic (see photo above). Since the resistor is still going to ground in the signal chain, I should be able to take that straight out as a jumper I believe. I'd have to see if I have a 1uf tantalum.
 
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Yroc006 said:
So, with the legs lifted, the signal stops at the jumper. I'm guessing that since there is is continuity from both sides of R7 with no component installed that the signal is still going to ground, maybe? Is it possible to cut a trace to prevent this, or is it a matter of making a jumper from this jumper straight to the switch?
Click to expand...
Insulated wire from the 2 lifted components to the OUT lug on the Footswitch.
 
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