Low Volume Tyrian

[bnellums]

Hi guys, I'm new to this whole pedal building thing so please excuse some of my apparent and not so apparent ignorance.
I just finished building the Tyrian Distortion pedal and I'm not sure if its quite right. It does work, but doesn't seem loud enough. I have it going into the effects return of my amp. When I engage the pedal the volume is attenuated. With the volume maxxed out and everything else at 12 o'clock it cuts the volume when it engages. My dry sound is much louder. I was wonder if any of you could point to likly culprits. I have an oscilloscope and was thinking of applying a signal and tracing it out but thought you guys might be able to shove me the right direction.

 

[Nostradoomus]

Tracing it with a scope is never a bad idea, but do you have your + and - wired to the jack correctly? Can’t quite see it but it looks reversed.

 

[bnellums]

Tracing it with a scope is never a bad idea, but do you have your + and - wired to the jack correctly? Can’t quite see it but it looks reversed.

When I first powered it up it didn't work at all. First thing I checked was the voltage and noticed I had the polarity reversed. I corrected it and it works now, just low volume. I must've bought a power plug that has reverse polarity. The polarity is correct now. Do you think I damaged a component when I powered it up reversed? Perhaps the IC's?

 

[Nostradoomus]

Sounds like you have a center positive supply or maybe even an AC adapter. That’s no good for what you want. You need a power supply with this symbol on it. DC 9v.
The 1n5817 diode should protect your components from getting fried. If I were you I’d get a proper power supply and wire the jack correctly and go from there. If the voltage of your adapter was too much for your diode it may have damaged some components downstream but we won’t know until you have the proper set up.

 

[bnellums]

Sounds like you have a center positive supply or maybe even an AC adapter. That’s no good for what you want. You need a power supply with this symbol on it. DC 9v.View attachment 5692
The 1n5817 diode should protect your components from getting fried. If I were you I’d get a proper power supply and wire the jack correctly and go from there. If the voltage of your adapter was too much for your diode it may have damaged some components downstream but we won’t know until you have the proper set up.

Well, that solved it. One thing I don't understand. When I initially plugged everything in to try it out, the plug wouldn't fit. I obviously bought the wrong one from Tayda. I am using a Dunlap DC Brick just like I use for all of my other pedals. My line 6 DL4 however has an adapter that came with it that did fit. I plugged that in and noticed it didn't work at all. Thats when I checked the power and discovered the polarity was reversed (the DL4 uses a power supply with opposite polarity). So swapping wires at the plug should have worked. I have a small electronics store down the road. Went and got the correct jack for the pedal. Soldered it in and it worked. Not sure why swapping the wires didn't work? Anyway, SUCCESS!
thanks a bunch!

 

[Nostradoomus]

The line 6 is an AC at 2.5mm, what you want is DC at 2.1mm. Glad it’s good now!

 

[bnellums]

After using this pedal for a few days I'm convinced the output is not what it should be. After verifying the power supply issue it still doesn't seem right. The picture is the input signal and the output signal. 440 hz frequency 120mv input. All pots maxxed out agression switch set down (red channel). The output still seems low. Both channels of the scope scaled the same. Any ideas?

 

[bnellums]

Here is the pic.