Help troubleshooting a pedalpcb board

G

giselefortner

New member
Hello,
I'm completely new to pedal building and decided to start with a couple of kits from Das Musikding, both featuring PedalPCB boards.

I've assembled their Woodpecker Tremolo, but it's not working, and I'm unsure how to troubleshoot it. The only components functioning are the gain circuit and the LED. The pedal passes audio when bypassed, and the gain works correctly, but there's no tremolo effect at all. I've tested for continuity (somewhat blindly) and noticed that one of the pots, the 10k one, has continuity between two of its legs, while the others do not, even when removed from the board. Is this normal?

The other kit I bought also includes a 10k pot, and it didn't show continuity initially. However, after I broke off the small metal tab for mounting, the same issue appeared with that pot as well. Is this common?
 
The continuity part of your meter isn't really relevant for pots. You want to use ohms instead. Set the meter for a range that will allow you to read the pot's value in its entirety. And post pics of your board so we can help you run through a troubleshooting method
 
Welcome to the hobby/obsession as well as to the forum.
As mentioned before, pics=1000 words
Both sides of the PCB if able, including all wiring.
 
giselefortner said:
Hello,
I'm completely new to pedal building and decided to start with a couple of kits from Das Musikding, both featuring PedalPCB boards.

I've assembled their Woodpecker Tremolo, but it's not working, and I'm unsure how to troubleshoot it. The only components functioning are the gain circuit and the LED. The pedal passes audio when bypassed, and the gain works correctly, but there's no tremolo effect at all. I've tested for continuity (somewhat blindly) and noticed that one of the pots, the 10k one, has continuity between two of its legs, while the others do not, even when removed from the board. Is this normal?

The other kit I bought also includes a 10k pot, and it didn't show continuity initially. However, after I broke off the small metal tab for mounting, the same issue appeared with that pot as well. Is this common?
Click to expand...

Depends on which 2 legs of the pot. Pots might show continuity between middle and edge pins when dialed all the way in one direction. (e.g. a 10K pot goes from 0 ohms to 10k ohms, so if it's dialed all the way to zero, then you get the beep).

+1 to pictures. And if everything works except the tremolo effect, I'd look for something around Q3 (wrong resistor value, no continuity) and maybe Q2 (do you know what kind of transistors you got in the kit? BC5xx transistors have similar characteristics but opposite pinout from the 2N508x)
 
Based on what you've described, it sounds like the tremolo's LFO (Low-Frequency Oscillator) circuit, which creates the rhythmic volume pulse, isn't functioning. The gain working and the LED turning on are good signs that power is getting to parts of the board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top