Electrovibe Deadish - Part Trois

[zachlovescoffee]

Hello fine friends! Well I don't know what the heck is up now. I had the pedal working great, I boxed it up and even posted a build report. Then all of a sudden it just went to crap.

The only mods I've done is to replace R4 with a 2M2 implemented with some sockets. What I have now is signal in bypass with or without power. Signal when turned on but ONLY in chorus mode. When I switch to vibrato mode, the signal is dead. This is true also with no power in bypass. If it's toggled to vibrato, nothing goes through.

I cannot for the life of me figure out what's going on. Vibrato is just the dry signal, which routes through the chorus when toggled to chorus, yes? So how is it possible that signal is being passed from dry to wet and it works (though no effect as far as I can tell) but it doesn't work in dry?

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated! I have build an audio probe and have a tiny amp on my desk that I've been using with Signal Generator Pro to test. I'm not sure where/how to start with the audio probe though.

 

[zachlovescoffee]

I love this audio probe thing! I sort of figured out how to use it but I'm not certain I know the best way to use it. I marked up some observations. I tried measuring the LEDRs and two of them were nice and loud but the others were weak. I may not have marked them 100%. I checked out the transistors and some of them were loud and others were quiet or dead silent.

The volume resistor R4 (2M2) was loud on chorus but super quiet on vibrato. Even with volume maxed.

 

[ADAOCE]

Why didn’t you use the breakout boards for the foot switches?

 

[zachlovescoffee]

Why didn’t you use the breakout boards for the foot switches?

I did originally but they were defective or something went wrong. I most likely damaged them.

 

[zachlovescoffee]

No idea but I took it apart again and touched up a few solder blobs and did some more testing and it works fine again. So weird.

 

[Big Monk]

No idea but I took it apart again and touched up a few solder blobs and did some more testing and it works fine again. So weird.

Have you cleaned all the flux off?

 

[zachlovescoffee]

Have you cleaned all the flux off?

I think so? I sprayed it with contact cleaner. Is there a better way?

 

[zachlovescoffee]

Unsolved! I boxed it back up and poof the vibrato channel dies again. There is an appreciable volume cut overall to the chorus channel too. I’m absolutely flummoxed how this thing works beautifully out of the box, but as soon as I box it back up then it craps put.

 

[Big Monk]

Unsolved! I boxed it back up and poof the vibrato channel dies again. There is an appreciable volume cut overall to the chorus channel too. I’m absolutely flummoxed how this thing works beautifully out of the box, but as soon as I box it back up then it craps put.

Are you over tightening anything/everything? Are you insulating the pots from the board?

 

[Robert]

Make sure the dual pots are properly insulated from the back of the PCB.

EDIT: Monk beat me to it.


Something making contact with the back of one of the dual pots is the most likely cause for this sort of thing.

 

[music6000]

Unsolved! I boxed it back up and poof the vibrato channel dies again. There is an appreciable volume cut overall to the chorus channel too. I’m absolutely flummoxed how this thing works beautifully out of the box, but as soon as I box it back up then it craps put.

You Both just beat me about good insulated speed pots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[music6000]

Are you over tightening anything/everything? Are you insulating the pots from the board?

Hey, you really are an Electrovibraholic!!!!

 

[zachlovescoffee]

I love this thing! When I have it working it sounds fantastic. Really cool tones. Fabu work by PedalPCB.

I think I’m insulating them well. I have a piece of doubles over black electrical tape under each pot. I can try something else.

I’m not tightening things down too much as far as I know. I take it until I feel resistance and then just a little past that. Very little torque.

All pots and switches move freely and easily.

 

[Big Monk]

I love this thing! When I have it working it sounds fantastic. Really cool tones. Fabu work by PedalPCB.

I think I’m insulating them well. I have a piece of doubles over black electrical tape under each pot. I can try something else.

I’m not tightening things down too much as far as I know. I take it until I feel resistance and then just a little past that. Very little torque.

All pots and switches move freely and easily.

If it works outside the box but not in, something is making contact where it shouldn’t or you are forcing something to lift, etc.

 

[ADAOCE]

I’ve used electrical tape before and it fails. The barbs from the parts will poke right through tape. Get a piece of cardboard or thin hard plastic