Ocelot Octaver Issues: Too Quiet!

J

JaredM

New member
Hello there, first time poster here. I've been wanting to build an octaver pedal for a while now, and I finally found the Ocelot PCB here. Ordered the parts then got to soldering them on.

Problem is, when I went to plug in my bass and test it, I wasn't getting the effect I was anticipating. The master volume knob worked, and when the pedal was on, the tone of the signal coming out sounded a bit different, but otherwise it sounded just like a plain signal to me. I went to it with my multimeter, but as far as I can tell, the connections all seem to be working.

Poking around on the web, I found out about making my own audio probe to try and diagnose the problem. I did that this past weekend, and got an interesting result: when I clipped the audio input of the probe to the input that should be the Sub 1 Octave signal, I was hearing audio, and it did sound a bit different, but it was drastically more quiet.

Looking around, apparently this is a feature of the Boss OC2 that the Ocelot is cloning, so this may be expected. But I'd just appreciate a second pair of eyes to make sure there's nothing obvious going wrong here. I'm similarly not seeing the LED light up when the pedal is plugged in and powered on, which makes me think something else is afoot here.

20261024_203206.jpg 20261024_203223.jpg

(Please ignore the broken ground cable coming from the input jack, it's snapped the umpteenth time).

Thank you!
 
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Holy flying components Batman! Your pots all also all soldered backwards. If any are A type, may get wonky and only really work at 10% of the pot's throw.
Also need that ground on the in jack. Out jack, meh. Should work without it.
Agree on the out wire. I see a few other joints that look suspect from component side but can't say for sure without seeing the other side.
 
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Yeah, forgive me, this is the first time I've ordered my own components. Only other pedal I've done was a chorus pedal kit from the now deceased BYOC, which came with the enclosure. I've yet to order one for this pedal, should get on that.

Noted about the mounting type, GAStan. Looks like I slipped up there.

Will do with resoldering the out wire. Here's a photo of the reverse side. You can see the pots underneath are linear taper. 20261025_155823.jpg
 
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You have the correct pots for this build. Usually though they would be soldered directly to the board, rather than with wires. The also solder with the pot on the reverse side of the board. You need something substantial between the pot casing and the PCB to insulte it and make sure that the pot can't short any of the PCB contacts. With the pots soldered to the PCB, when you attach the pots to the enclosure they will hold the PCB in place.

I have this PCB on my pedla board and it sounds exactly like the OC-2 that I used to have. oodles of octave bass goodness. Stick with it
 
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JaredM said:
Much appreciated. Think I'll devote some time tonight to this. Do you think the extra wires and solder joints on the pots could be weakening the signal?
Click to expand...
You got that your pots are backwards right?

They're normally mounted on the opposite side of the board from the rest of the components, so they way you did it, the pins are reversed.
 
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JaredM said:
Yes, I did. Do you have any recommendations on what I should use to insulate the pots from the contacts on the other side of the board?
Click to expand...
These are the standard solution for the pots most of us use

www.taydaelectronics.com

Dust Seal Cover For Potentiometer

Tayda Electronics - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping
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The flat-back pots you have there don't have an off-the-shelf insulator I'm aware of, so you'd have to get crafty with some glue and some sort of thin plastic.
 
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