Quiet Informant

[FancyEspresso]

Just finished the Informant (1981 DRV clone) in buffered bypass and i absolutely love it! Only problem is... it's extremely quiet. Even with the volume maxed it's way below unity. I've been reflowing joints and no luck yet.. I might've messed up the 3PDT but i don't think that's the issue as it still switches fine, and I read somewhere that probably wouldn't affect the volume.. Do I have a bad IC? I would also love to learn how to use a multimeter and audio probe to help troubleshoot this if you know the voltages for the ICs and anything else i would need

 

[zgrav]

the schematic in your build docs shows you how everything is supposed to connect together. if you already have a multimeter, use google to get some instructions on how to use it. you can also use google to learn how to build an audio probe. with those two things you can start testing the connections between things on your PCB to see if they match how they are supposed to be connected on the schematic.

in general, while you are troubleshooting you would record the voltages you are getting at the different pins on the ICs and share them in the forum for feedback if you needed it.

most likely issue for lower volume than you expected is probably one or more resistors that have the wrong value. you can inspect the color bands on your resistors to see if they are for the values called for in the build document.

 

[FancyEspresso]

I haven't gotten around to getting a multimeter and the stuff for an audio probe, but this morning while i was messing around with it, I noticed that when i touch the pins on the A100k drive pot and the 4u7 C7 capacitor, the volume comes back, but only fully comes back when i'm not touching the strings, so i'm guessing it's something with grounding.. Any ideas on what that could be?

 

[zgrav]

nothing any better than your guesses except to add that you could start looking for bad solder points at those spots. mostly you are firing blanks until you start using some diagnostic tools.