Checking what kind of sound I should be getting out of the Mini Heterodyne Receiver

[slacjs]

I've finished my build, but I'm not exactly sure I'm getting the sound I'm supposed to be getting. I've watched these videos and to me, they sound much better:

and this one:

Am I just not dialling it in correctly or have I done something wrong? I feel mine sounds a lot more "corrupted" than I'd expect it to be and it goes a bit all over the place. The octave cuts in and it seems there's not much sustain. Here are a few videos of the pedal. Cheers.

Edit: I've added some pics of the board. Cheers.

 

[Stickman393]

Hard to say. I have the data corrupter, seems to me that yours may be fizzling out a little too quickly, which to my mind explains the more random and unpredictable behavior you're talking about (weak input signal, poor tracking, early gating)

I'd poke around a little around the input section, confirm values, re-flow joints.

 

[slacjs]

Thanks for the advice. I've got it out and I'm reflowing the joints. I'll check the values afterwards. I've updated the post with some pictures of the board.

Another edit:

So I've checked values and resoldered what I could. I can only measure resistance with my multimeter, but I'm getting 0 resistance on R1 so I'll change that out. R23 is all over the place and random, could that be a bad resistor or a bad joint? R4 and R5 are supposed to be 47k but they start measuring at about 30k and slowly go up, then hover between 38 and 40k.

I wonder if it could be a bad joint or if I should replace them all, it's a bit of a pain because of one of the potentiometers.

Cheers.

 

[slacjs]

Another update in case anyone has any ideas.

I've changed out r1 and r23. r23 is supposed to be 10M ohms but it's reading at about 0.7M and R1 is reading 0. Is it possible for r1 to read 0? Could there be a route to ground somewhere that shouldn't be?

 

[Popnfreshbass]

Once in the circuit, resistors may not read what there values are. I bet if you measured the resitors you removed they would read correct now.

 

[Stickman393]

Reading 0 across R1 is unexpected. R23...I wouldn't be concerned if reading it in the circuit.

But...if you have 0 ohms Across R-1, the pedal should not output *any* sound.

Reason being...at that point you're also measuring resistance between input and ground. It kind of breaks ohms law, V/R=A. Your guitar creates V, your guitar's signal is A, a misplaced solder joint makes your guitar try to divide by zero and the instrument says "Ok, I can do that. Super possible" cause it never got a good education. Time stops. An infinite number of divisions take place in a second as the fabric of spacetime is pulled asunder...

Erm...or the guitar signal just gets shunted to ground. Cause path of least resistance.

I dunno, though, I would recommend picking up a multimeter if it's in the budget. I use a fluke 87 IV at work, but I'm happy as a clam using a cheapie...erm...Amazoncommercial model at home. Cause I'm not responsible enough to be trusted to put my fluke back in my toolbag when I'm finished.

I find it's usually better to troubleshoot using voltages than resistance. If you can get voltages, especially from IC1, that would make discerning if there's a problem infinitely easier.