ElectroVibe Issue

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PedalGuy

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Hi! I need some help troubleshooting my ElectroVibe; The effect works fine with the jacks not touching the enclosure. As soon as I put them back in though, the effect stops working and I hear the dry guitar signal through my amp. There is no continuity between the tip and the enclosure so I really don't understand what's going on.
Also; when I use the ElectroVibe with my Twin Face it produces a loud whistling LFO effect that sounds like a siren. This only happens on the silicone side, not the germanium side. I can still hear the LFO even with the EV bypassed, though it is less noticeable.
 
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PedalGuy said:
Hi! I need some help troubleshooting my ElectroVibe; The effect works fine with the jacks not touching the enclosure. As soon as I put them back in though, the effect stops working and I hear the dry guitar signal through my amp. There is no continuity between the tip and the enclosure so I really don't understand what's going on.
Also; when I use the ElectroVibe with my Twin Face it produces a loud whistling LFO effect that sounds like a siren. This only happens on the silicone side, not the germanium side. I can still hear the LFO even with the EV bypassed, though it is less noticeable.
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Insulation Tape does not work !!!
 
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music6000 said:
Cut a square piece of Plastic from a used plastic ice cream bowl or lid or credit card, cardboard is a bit too soft for my liking!
when you slide it under the pot, the tits of the solder will keep it in place!
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Done! I'm not sure if I didn't push it back all the way or something else is causing that horrible noise but at least I can hear the wet signal now.

Edit: I've double checked; they are both properly insulated now. The noise is still present.
 
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I mad dual gang pot covers wit a 3D from a file uploaded by another per on this board. I’ll send you a couple, or any other Electrovibe builders.

Dust Covers For Dual Gang Pots?

I'm building the ElectroVibe and am using these pots for the speed controls: https://stompboxparts.com/pots/16mm-dual-gang-potentiometer-smooth-shaft-short-pcb-leg/ What is the thing to do with dust covers for these? I am cutting away some of the wall of the regular ones but it won't cover the...
forum.pedalpcb.com forum.pedalpcb.com
 
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PedalGuy said:
Done! I'm not sure if I didn't push it back all the way or something else is causing that horrible noise but at least I can hear the wet signal now.

Edit: I've double checked; they are both properly insulated now. The noise is still present.
Click to expand...
Does the pedal work as it's suppose to in the enclosure with the IN & OUT jacks not in the Enclosure as it is now???
 
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music6000 said:
Does the pedal work as it's suppose to in the enclosure with the IN & OUT jacks not in the Enclosure as it is now???
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Yes. It works perfectly fine ()whith both jacks in the enclosure as well) though even with volume at 100% the output is still slightly quieter than bypass. I'm not sure if that's normal or another symptom of whatever is causing the noise as well. I did create a thread concerning the noise a while back so I do already have a folder with pictures (obviously outdated) and some audio recordings of the vibe. I used it AFTER a Big Muff and Klon Centaur clone. It doesn't matter as the noise only scales with overall volume (It just means the clip is a little more noisy in general). I'm pretty sure this is what's causing the silicon fuzz noise as well (I've added the fuzz face noise to the folder as well).

PedalGuy said:
Hi! I've recently finished building the ElectroVibe "Uni-Vibe". It sounds wonderful but it produces a high pitched noise (roughly 11.622kHz; wav recorded using Amplitube 5 HiAmp). It's not particularly loud with my master volume at 9 o'clock and channel volume at 3 o'clock on my Custom Hiwatt 50, though it is annoying. Using the Vibe with no other pedals connected and turning my guitar volume all the way up/down had no effect on the severity/pitch of the noise. Any ideas?

Pictures
Click to expand...
 
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Big Monk said:
It only takes a single resistor change to increase the volume. R4 changed to 2.2M should give you plenty of volume.
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So it's a feature not a bug? BTW I was just thinking; could this be a twin face issue? The silicone side of my twin face is significantly noisier than the germanium side and starts to "scream"/whistle with the fuzz pot maxed out.
Edit: I was talking about that siren effect; the high pitched vibe noise is always present (as stated above).
 
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Big Monk said:
Unity Volume (or lack thereof) was/is a known issue of the vintage Univibe.

The screaming/siren noise in the Si Fuzz Face might be oscillation.
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Possibly. I have also tried using an ILC7660S instead TC1044S but that made everything much worse (and also changed the pitch of the noise). I also used some random BC108s for this build. Maybe that's causing the silicon fuzz issues. As for the vibe... No idea what's causing that noise.
 
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Big Monk said:
Did you measure the BC108s? If they were in a high gain bucket (BC108B/C), oscillation is the likely issue.

Try tacking in a 100-220 pF cap across the feedback resistor (R8) on the Si sode and see if that eliminates it.

View attachment 26612

As for the Vibe noise, it sounds like you are getting oscillation with the Si Fuzz Face engaged and normal bleed through, possibly because of a non-isolated power supply when disengaged.
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I ordered some new transistors anyway so I'm just gonna wait for those to arrive first. I have an isolated power supply (Truetone 1Spot Pro). I'll upload another clip of just the Vibe without any other pedals active; it's even more noisy/noticeable without all the other noise. I don't think it's the power supply.
Edit: Done! Same folder.
 
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Big Monk said:
Post some sound clips so we can hear the noise.


EDIT: Just saw them above. I’m not hearing anything wrong.
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Maybe turn the volume up? Or perhaps you are too old ;) Anyway... I have just used an audio probe and LDR2 is producing a really strange modulation effect/noise which sounds exactly like the effect I'm hearing with my silicon fuzz connected.

Edit: It is very subtle but there is a very high pitched noise in the background (following the LFO I believe). You might wanna use headphones I will upload another EQed version to make it louder/more audible.
 
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Big Monk said:
In the "vibenoise" clip, is there anything else connected?

What is the difference in configuration between "vibenoise" and "vibesolo"?
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"vibesolo" is the vibe with no other pedals connected. "vibenoise" has some other pedals connected (Big Muff and bypassed hydra delay).

Edit: "VibeSilicon" = Vibe + Silicon Twin Face
Edit 2: I've just uploaded the EQed file.
 
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Big Monk said:
Barring the oscillation noise, which is not due to the Electrovibe anyway, it does not sound like there is anything wrong with your electrovibe.

For curiosity sake, where are you running the vibe in the chain?
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Guitar->ElectroVibe->Twin Face->18V Colorsound Powerboost replica (with some mods)->Hydra Delay->Amp or Audio Interface. After reflowing the solder on the LDRs the oscillation noise has now improved a little (I think).
 
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Unfortunatly I "broke" the Vibe; I put it back into the enclosure but some capacitors were sitting to high/low. I was able to press down hard enough to get the screws back in but now the lamp is not oscillating and I'm not getting any signal when the effect is engaged. Any ideas?

Edit: It takes 1-2 sec. (at least that's what it feels like to me) for the lamp to turn on btw. I can see the LED turn on before the lamp.
 
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Well... I tried replacing components and broke the PCB (two of the pads are gone). I used jumper wires but the lamp still won't oscillate, so it's probably not the capacitors or resistors causing this issue.
 
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Big Monk said:
Sometimes it’s best to take a break.

I’m guilty of this as well. You want the effect to work so badly that you often go beyond reasonable means to “fix” it.

In this case, given all the audio clips you posted, I don’t think there was actually anything wrong with it.

Take a day or two off on this one and then come back and start fresh by checking all your connections and audio probing the circuit strategically.
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I probably should take a break but I don't understand why the Vibe "randomly" stopped working; I had it in the enclosure working properly. Then I put the screws in and the effect didn't work anymore. I thought that maybe one of the capacitors was damaged but the only "tall" caps are C22, C11 and C17. I replaced C17 (and soldered a wire from the - side to pin 2 of the LT1054). C22 and C11 should not affect the lamp at all as far as I can tell (at least the rate at which it flashes).
 
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I'm getting lower voltage readings than expected with: 8.65V instead of 9V on the charge pump (pin 8), 15.7V instead of 18V on C11, 12.17V instead of 15V on the voltage regulator (output with 15.32 on the input) and around 15.7V on the lamp instead of 18V (with my current trim pot settings). Are those voltages fine?

BTW: I do hear my signal even when the effect is on but there is modulation happening as the lamp is not flashing/oscillating.
 
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