SOLVED Ceasar started making a noise in bypass..

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

I recently rewired more board, and have discovered my, previously working fine, Caesar chorus has started making a faint high pitch clicking, only when in bypass. I took it out of the housing a tried reseating ICS, and reflowing anything that looked suspicious, but that hasn't helped. What are the most likely components that would cause a high pitch clicking?

 

[MichaelW]

Did you re-route your I/O wires when you re-housed it? What did you rewire it for?
And of course......pictures would help

 

[eh là bas ma]

led speed indicator maybe ? something wrong in the lfo section ?

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Did you re-route your I/O wires when you re-housed it? What did you rewire it for?
And of course......pictures would help

I rewired my pedalboard, the Caesar pedal was just moved; I didn't even open it when it started making a noise. I reflowed the I/O jacks after but that didn't help. Sorry forget to post the photos.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

led speed indicator maybe ? something wrong in the lfo section ?

The LED showed indicator seems to be working normally but I will check the sooner points.

 

[eh là bas ma]

Are the clickings synchronized with the speed led ?

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Are the clickings synchronized with the speed led ?

They may be, is hard to tell exactly.

 

[eh là bas ma]

I know you are an experienced builder, with all respect, can I humbly suggest to have a look on your soldering pads ?

Wouldn't it be fair to say that some of your solder pads have bubble-shaped solder joints some original looks ?

*As if* there is just a little bit too much solder, dare I say ?

Probably just my imagination...

 

[Nic]

Did you change the order of the pedals? Could sone other pedal in the chain amplify a problem that was not as present before. How are you pedals powered ?

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

I know you are an experienced builder, with all respect, can I humbly suggest to have a look on your soldering pads ?

Wouldn't it be fair to say that some of your solder pads have bubble-shaped solder joints some original looks ?

*As if* there is just a little bit too much solder, dare I say ?

Probably just my imagination...

Thanks for being so gentle. I'll try to clean up the solder pads.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Did you change the order of the pedals? Could sone other pedal in the chain amplify a problem that was not as present before. How are you pedals powered ?

I did change to order of the pedals, but when I leave the Ceasar in the signal chain but remove the power, the noise goes away

 

[MichaelW]

I did change to order of the pedals, but when I leave the Ceasar in the signal chain but remove the power, the noise goes away

Take everything out of the chain, and just guitar into the chorus into the amp. Is the noise still happening? Try some different power supplies. Does the noise still persist? If it was working before and the problem started when you changed the order of pedals then it's likely something external to the pedal, like power supply or it doesn't like the pedal before it.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Take everything out of the chain, and just guitar into the chorus into the amp. Is the noise still happening? Try some different power supplies. Does the noise still persist? If it was working before and the problem started when you changed the order of pedals then it's likely something external to the pedal, like power supply or it doesn't like the pedal before it.

Okay, Guitar to Caesar to Amp with stand alone 9V and with Ojai power supply still had the clicking which does appear to be synced to the rate LED.

 

[eh là bas ma]

Is it still noisy if you take the Rate led out of the circuit ?

If the noise disappears, it's probably the led.

I can see four possible solutions :

- try a different low-current led.
- increase the led resistor up to something between 15 or 20k.
- get rid of the Rate led for good.
- re-work most of your solder pads, to get some beautiful dome-shaped soldering joints. (this solution might work too if you still have noise without the Rate led)

Edit: I wonder if it's really safe to bend the legs of your components on such a dense circuit, with traces so close to the pads... I would have thought this is an invitation for shorts... a welcome party, so to speak, if you'll pardon my english.
On the contrary, I've always been taught that legs should point upward, so that you can lift your iron along the leg, thus achieving a dome-shaped solder joints ?

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Is it still noisy if you take the Rate led out of the circuit ?

If the noise disappears, it's probably the led.

I can see four possible solutions :

- try a different low-current led.
- increase the led resistor up to something between 15 or 20k.
- get rid of the Rate led for good.
- re-work most of your solder pads, to get some beautiful dome-shaped soldering joints. (this solution might work too if you still have noise without the Rate led)

Edit: I wonder if it's really safe to bend the legs of your components on such a dense circuit, with traces so close to the pads... I would have thought this is an invitation fo shorts... a welcome party, so to speak, if you'll pardon my english.
On the contrary, I've always been taught that legs should point upward, so that you can lift your iron along the leg, thus achieving a dome-shaped solder joints ?

Thanks for the suggesting, I'll get working on trying them out.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Thanks for the suggesting, I'll get working on trying them out.

I reworked the solder pads and got rid of the rate LED, but the nose persists. I did discover that the be rate of the clicking can be controlled by the rate knob. Again the clicking is only when the pedal is in bypass and not when it's engaged.

 

[eh là bas ma]

I did discover that the be rate of the clicking can be controlled by the rate knob. Again the clicking is only when the pedal is in bypass and not when it's engaged.

I would suspect a bad connection on some cap somewhere, or a short around the 3PDT connections ?

Edit: Probably a longshot, but sometimes, a single strand of wire can short the closest pad. If you moved the stompbox, maybe a tiny bit of wire moved and made a short ?
If the noise is in bypass, I would carefully check the bypass ground connections on the footswitch, and on the pcb's 3PDT pads.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

So I thought I got it but no. I realized that my pots didn't have insulated on. Street I put the insulated on all the pots there noise was gone until I but it back in the enclosure. The house is back but I discovered when I touch the rate pot the sound good away. I thinking we're getting closer.

 

[owlexifry]

you are using insulated jacks, therefore your enclosure doesn't have any continuity to the ground of the circuit = no shielding is happening.

maybe you can try running a wire from a grounding point to make contact with the enclosure (jack hole or something) to allow the enclosure to do its shielding thing.
this made a night and day difference in my mutron phasor ii build where i previously had noise.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

you are using insulated jacks, therefore your enclosure doesn't have any continuity to the ground of the circuit = no shielding is happening.

maybe you can try running a wire from a grounding point to make contact with the enclosure (jack hole or something) to allow the enclosure to do its shielding thing.
this made a night and day difference in my mutron phasor ii build where i previously had noise.

This makes a lot of sense. If I sand the paint off a spot on the inside, could I solder a wire to the enclosure?