Kliche Mini problem

[Michi1590]

Hey Guys,

i finished my second pedal from pedalpcb, the kliche mini.
Now i have some problem with the circuit. The pedal is working in its standard function. So switch on/off is working. Also tone & volume control is fine. But the circuit itself doesnt work. The Gain control nearly doesnt change the sound. No distortion at all. In my opinion the sound gets a bit thicker when i activate the pedal, but very minimal.

Can anybody help me pls.

Greetings, Michael

 

[longwetsocks]

Pulled the Dual Pot from the PCB and tested it. Works perfectly. Soldered it back in. Now I'm checking IC voltages:
IC1 TL072
pin 1 = 4.58v
pin 2 = 4.58v
pin 3 = 1.23v
pin 4 = 0v
pin 5 = 4.41v
pin 6 = 4.58v
pin 7 = 4.70v
pin 8 = 9.13v

IC2 TL072
pin 1 = 4.65v
pin 2 = 4.58v
pin 3 = 4.52v
pin 4 = -8.75v
pin 5 = 4.52v
pin 6 = 4.58v
pin 7 = 4.52v
pin 8 = 16.47v

IC3 TC1044
pin 1 = 9.12v
pin 2 = 4.78v
pin 3 = -9.12v
pin 4 = -4.17v
pin 5 = -8.75v
pin 6 = 4.20v
pin 7 = 3.95v
pin 8 = 9.12v

Any ideas?

 

[music6000]

I should be looking at R9, R10, R11, C7, C8 right? I'll confirm values on those and their solder joints, and try swapping ICs.

Does the Volume pot have the plastic Dust Cover.

 

[music6000]

Check your Resistor Values with this, Click on Bands for 4 or 5 colours :

Resistor Calculator

Resistor Calculator is an App developed by CherryJourney to help the user find the value of a resistor.

resistor.cherryjourney.pt

 

[longwetsocks]

Does the Volume pot have the plastic Dust Cover.

The volume pot does have the plastic dust cover on it. I'll run through the board and check my resistor values shortly.

 

[longwetsocks]

All my resistors look to be correct. I'm thinking I have to have dry solder somewhere. Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

IC voltages are all good, no surprise there. Did you build the Kilche Mini or the Kliche Clean?
Quickest way to find a bad solder joint is Thorough Visual Inspection. Use plenty of light and magnification. Look for cold solder joints, missing solder joints and solder bridges.

 

[longwetsocks]

IC voltages are all good, no surprise there. Did you build the Kilche Mini or the Kliche Clean?
Quickest way to find a bad solder joint is Thorough Visual Inspection. Use plenty of light and magnification. Look for cold solder joints, missing solder joints and solder bridges.

Thanks Chuck. I built the Kliche Mini. I'm going to give it a nice thorough visual inspection and reflow anything that looks suspect. Hopefully that does it. Given I'm not hearing much of the gain, where in the circuit would you begin to focus?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Check R12 & R15, they carry the dirty signal to the next stage. Make sure that the black wire to the stomp switch isn't permanently grounded because that kills the dirty signal. Be sure to inspect everywhere because there may be more than one problem.

 

[longwetsocks]

Thank you Chuck! I will check the three of those after work.

 

[longwetsocks]

Alright, I reflowed every thing on the board aside from what's under the volume pot. The black wire is grounded when the pedal is off but not grounded when it's on. Still not getting a good gain sound out of this thing.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Do you have an anal probe audio probe?

 

[Robert]

I can't explain why it would cause the problem you're having, but check your jack wiring. The blue and yellow wires don't appear to be going to the right lugs of the Input / Output jacks.

On the Input jack the blue wire should be connected to the left lug (closest to the left side of the enclosure).
On the Output jack the yellow wire should be on the bottom lug (closest to the PCB / dual pot).

View attachment 3023

 

[longwetsocks]

I can't explain why it would cause the problem you're having, but check your jack wiring. The blue and yellow wires don't appear to be going to the right lugs of the Input / Output jacks.

On the Input jack the blue wire should be connected to the left lug (closest to the left side of the enclosure).
On the Output jack the yellow wire should be on the bottom lug (closest to the PCB / dual pot).

Yeah I had those wired up wrong but fixed them last week. The way I had it originally, I was getting no sound at all, obviously. Also Chuck, I do not have an Audio Probe

 

[longwetsocks]

I have another Kliche Mini PCB and parts to build a second pedal cause I was going to build one for a friend. I may go ahead and build that one to compare.

 

[zgrav]

the good news is that it is easy to build an audio probe out of a few parts you likely have at hand.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I would advise that you get the first one fixed, then make more. Like zgrav said, an AP is easy to make with stuff you already have.
Here's how to make one.

 

[longwetsocks]

Wow you're right. That is extremely easy to build. I should have a 100nf laying around.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Doesn't even need to be 100nF, but they seem to be the most common so that's what everyone uses.

 

[longwetsocks]

Something interesting I noticed last night while testing: I measured the resistance at the 100K gain pot in the circuit. The first section of the dual pot was measuring 1.5K Ohm and the second section of pins was measuring 35K Ohm. With a resistance as low as 1.5K in circuit, the signal will basically amount to nothing right? Explaining why I hear no gain. What could cause that resistance to shoot so low?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Can you be more specific? Which pins and where was the pot set? Power was off, correct?