LFO issue with Circulator

[Wizardofwoz66]

Built the Circulator board and tested it in the new Auditiorium platform (that thing is very helpful, highly recommend it lol), and I get no phase effect out. Signal comes out clear with the pedal on, so I'm assuming it has to be something with the LFO. I even took the LFO out of the circuit to make sure of this. Vcc and Vref values are correct on all ICs and there are no solder bridges, and everything has been reflowed to be sure. Changing the toggle switch from phase to vibrato results in volume reduction (since no dry signal survives in this mode, I assume), and no change is observed when changing the rate toggle. Board pictures attached, the silver in the lower middle isn't bridges, just silver sharpie from labeling the boards I got. Is there a way to investigate the LFO without an oscilloscope? Thanks in advance!

 

[Wizardofwoz66]

And the melted cap isn't the issue - still functional

 

[p_wats]

Not sure if you got this sorted, but this thread has many modifications for the Circulator that suggest the LFO can lock up sometimes in the stock configuration. Might be worth a look.

 

[Wizardofwoz66]

Thanks! I got it figured out, somehow I had put a belt of resistors in the wrong drawer on my cabinet and didn't check before populating, naturally it was one of the ones next to the 1uF film caps so it took me forever to find it works great now!

 

[p_wats]

Thanks! I got it figured out, somehow I had put a belt of resistors in the wrong drawer on my cabinet and didn't check before populating, naturally it was one of the ones next to the 1uF film caps so it took me forever to find it works great now!

Glad to hear it! After a few problematic builds recently I've started checking every resistor/cap obsessively. Ha.

Working on a Circulator as we speak, actually. thought I would like the vibe mode more, but we'll see if it grows on me.

 

[Wizardofwoz66]

I love the phasing in it, honestly I haven't liked the vibe functions on most phaser/chorus builds I've done. The only one I've vibed with is the Abyss from pedalpcb, eqd The Depths clone dedicated vibrato, I think it sounds great

 

[Coda]

Glad to hear it! After a few problematic builds recently I've started checking every resistor/cap obsessively. Ha.

Working on a Circulator as we speak, actually. thought I would like the vibe mode more, but we'll see if it grows on me.

I just completed a Circulator build, and I have found the Vibrato setting to be a lot of fun. I built it for the phaser, but the vibe setting is neat. It can do some crazy tones. It’s a classic EQD: one or two more controls than what seems necessary, lots of tones, 2/3rds of which are unusable at first. EQD pedals are great (in my opinion) because they get you out of your comfort zone...

 

[p_wats]

The vibrato settings are growing on me. I like the vibrato option on my modified Phase 45 and a few others, so I expected to like this more. We'll see how it compares to all the ones I'm currently working on (ROG Tri-Vibe, DuoVibe, etc.).