Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi guys, my first post here. I've been lurking for a while and you all seem amazingly helpful.

I put my Tremolo circuit together slowly and carefully, plugged it in, and the bypass worked but nothing else. I read another thread in which I guy tried powering it with a battery and it started working for him, so I did this and the LED came on, and I got a volume boost but nothing else.

So I then decided that perhaps some of my solder joints were cold so I've gone over everything, and now the LED doesn't even turn on...please help! I've attached some pictures for you to look at.

Thanks in advance,
Jono

If your pedal powers up with a battery but not a power supply you've probably wired the two + wires from the adapter jack to the PCB backwards.

Some shots of the wiring to the jacks would help.

Thanks for the reply. I found an issue with the power jack and fixed that. The main issue is now that even when I use a working battery, after it had originally worked, the LED doesn't even turn on. I'll try and get pictures of the leads in a bit.

I found that I'd put the rate and depth pots the wrong way round, but I've corrected that now. However, there still appears to be no power going through the circuit board as the LED will not light up. The bypass circuit is working though and so is the switch as I am able to switch from the clean channel to the tremolo channel (obviously only getting any sound from the clean channel). I've checked my soldering and it seems alright...I also checked that all the parts were in the correct place and they are.

What could be causing the lack of current through the circuit??

Here is a picture of my connections for the jacks but they are working as the bypass circuit works:

The LED doesn't light because you have it installed backwards.

If you have a DMM take some voltage readings. You should have 9V in the following places...

Bottom of R2

Bottom of Q1

Bottom of R6

Bottom of R7

Bottom of R11

Ok cool, how could you tell the LED is the wrong way round? I'll switch it and see what happens. Right now I don't have a multimeter but I'll try and get my hands on one asap.

Thanks Stephen, I appreciate your help.

Jonathon

I switched the LED round and it's still not working...it lit up briefly the first time I turned the circuit on.

The bypass circuit is still working.

OK, I'm a complete moron and I apologize. I got my build instruction diagrams mixed up. You had the LED in the right way to begin with. Notice on the silk screen side of the PCB on page 15 of the build instructions it shows the flat of the LED towards the bottom. On page 16 it shows the flat of the LED towards the top. THIS is the correct way to have it. The silk screen side is backwards.

A multimeter is your best friend for troubleshooting. And, you can pick one up usually for less than $5 at a harbor freight. $10 if you go go radio shack.

So I'll re-fix the LED !

Am I imagining it or is there a DMM guide on here? I picked one up earlier but I have no idea how it works etc.

Jonathon

Set your DMM to read DC Volts and place it in it's 20V range or whatever is closest to that. Make sure your black probe is in the COMMON jack and the red probe is in the VOLTAGE / RESISTANCE jack.

Insert a battery into your pedal or plug it into a power supply and insert a plug into the INPUT jack.

Touch the black probe to a ground point. The ground lug of the IN or OUT jack will work. One of the screw holes for the pedal's bottom plate will also work. Now touch the red probe to the places on the PCB mentioned above and write down your results. They should all be the same voltage as your power supply.

Thanks for your help, once again.

I'm not brilliant with the DMM as I don't quite understand it, but powering the circuit by battery or dc, I get no reading at any of the points on the circuit. I fixed the LED so it is definitely the correct way round.

Jonathon

If I use the DMM on the dc jack it comes up with 9 volts, sometimes, but the reading seems to get no further than that point.

Check the battery in your DMM. If it's good then you probably have issues with poor soldering or a broken wire if you only get 9V "sometimes" at the adapter jack and no further.

So, some good news!! I've managed to get it all working including the LED flashing with the trem. HOWEVER, there is still one problem: there is no sound output from the pedal when it is switched on. Any solutions?

You're a saint Stephen!

I have checked all the things you told me to earlier with the DMM and each reads just over 9v. If I turn my amp up to 10 I can hear the oscillations, vaguely, so the issue is just a ridiculously low output volume...

Time to look into buying or making a signal probe. Which is nothing more than a glorified 1uf electrolytic capacitor and some wire.

http://buildyourownclone.com/signaltest ... ctions.pdf

The two basic parts of the trem circuit are the oscillator and the volume boost. Your oscillator section is working. Your pedal is passing signal when on and when in bypass. This is good news! If you get some new pics up both sides of the board we caan see what's going on. More than likely it's a soldering issue, but it could also be resistors or caps switched around.

OK, I'll consider that! Not sure my electronics skills are up to it right now, or maybe I'm just lazy...are there any other potential solutions?

There isn't a universal cause for your signal loss so there is no single fix for it. If you are sure that all your components are in the right places and that all of your soldering is good you'll need to trace a signal thru the circuit to see where you are losing it. The Tremolo is a very simple circuit so it shouldn't be hard to track down the problem. As TD said the oscillator is working so that's half the circuit you won't have to troubleshoot right there.

If you've got the 1uf capacitor and a spare 3' or so guitar cable you can easily make a signal probe out of it. Cut the plug off one end and separate the center conductor from the cable's shield (ground). Splice on about a foot of wire to the cable's shield. This will be your ground connection. Solder the negative lead of the capacitor to the cable's center conductor. The positive lead of the cap is the probe. Plug the cable into your amp, ground the shield to the pedal and you're ready to troubleshoot.

I made an incredibly dodgy signal tester, as you told me to, and I get a buzzing noise on each component...the buzz occurs whether I play the guitar at the same time or not. Help!

More than likely a grounding problem with the signal tester. Try getting a better connection to the chassis with the ground lead, or it could be the soldering. Jacks take more heat to solder than components, so it could be a cold joint.

I tried to get a better connection to the ground. There's a small buzz in the background, but there's a clearer and louder buzz when i touch the cap to each component's leads...it happens on all the components though so as far as I can tell none are broken.

Something isn't right with your probe. The buzz should be quieter when the probe is in contact with the circuit and louder when the probe breaks contact with the circuit.

Make sure your probe is well grounded to the pedal's chassis. Touch the probe's lead to the following locations to track the signal thru the circuit.

Input jack tip, stomp switch lug 4, stomp switch lug 5, top & bottom of C1, top of R1, R2 & R3, top of Q1 (Gate), middle of Q1 (source), top & bottom of C2, lugs 3&2 of volume pot, stomp switch lugs 7&8, output jack tip.

When I've got a camera I'll try and post a picture of my signal tester...see if you can see what's wrong with it maybe.

I've been modding a DS1 and I had a problem with it. I found out that the issue was that I was testing it outside the casing which acted as a ground. Could this be the issue with my Tremolo pedal? I've only been testing the circuit board on its own?