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hi guys im having trouble with my chorus rev 1.0 there is a clicking sound when the pedal is in bypass when it's on the clicking goes way. the problem is the same with batteries or power supply, different amplifiers and different guitars, the only thing that affects the click sound is the rate knob it turns it off and speed it up the click sound, i went back and resoldered all the pedal to make sure every thing is good. what should i do?

Hi,

This is typical caused by wires being too long. Please post clear, in focus photos of your build, including both sides of the pcb and the wiring.

here it is let me know if you need more shots, thanks again morgan

sorry guys this was my 1st time posting pictures they are huge

i think this will be better

The first thing I recommend is rotating the output jack a bit so that the tab that contacts the tip of the plug doesn't sit so close to the depth pot. The way it appears to reside now, it looks like when you have a plug in the jack, the contact would be a millimeter or so from the depth pot; and that pot has DC voltage going up and down. That could be causing it.

Second, get some acetone, or something similar, and an old toothbrush, and clean the bottom of the pcb. You've got a lot of flux smeared around that could be causing an issue. It should clean right up with a little brushing.

Third, R1 look like it's in terrible shape. If the 1st two things don't clear up your issue, replace that resistor, and R17 & R19 while you're at it, with new resistors. If you plan to build pedals for a while, invest in a solder sucker. It makes it much easier to remove components on these 2-sided boards.

For future reference - you're using a bit too much solder on your joints. You shouldn't have so much solder oozing through to the component side of the pcb. If that stuff comes in contact with some parts of some components, it can cause some damage. Search for "Stephen's Tips for a Successful Build" to see how solder joints should look, and for a tutorial on using a solder pump.

thank you morgan for the help, let me explain from the beginning when i built the pedal in the summer i was in the process of building my pedal board and had a lot of pedals in the chain including a boss pedal tunner with buffer i put the pedal in the chain and was too loud so i read a tread when somebody advice to change r1 to 1m, r19 to 47k and c1 to 0.47 so i did that and the pedal was perfect but i had order already and truebypass strip because my tone was not to my liking but it took 2 months for me to get it when i got it i separeted the pedals in this 5 chanels strip with the tunner out (boss pedal)and i use a dedicated buffer(this1smyne mini buffer) at the end of the strip to go to the amp and i have as close as possible the same tone as having guitar and amp also my pedals work so much better that way now. having sad that i never tried only this pedal in the chain too know if had this problem when i first built it. now where this pedal sits i only have true bypass pedals which is byoc compressor, mxr micro flanger, byoc phaser and this one, if i put a buffer in front of this one the clicking goes way when the pedal is in bypass but the sound on the other pedals change to where i don't like. So what i did to resolve the problem is order a second buffer and put a 3dpt switch on it to only turn it on when i need it to use the chorus, when i did that is that i found out the this pedal have the clicking problem (i even tried only this pedal between guitar and amp and the problem is the same) now to answer your recommendations.
first when i took the pictures the rate and depth knob wasn't in place with the bolts, when is in place i have like a 1/4" of space from the jacks.
second i did clean it with a toothbrush an acetone and the problem continues the same.
third the r1, r19 i had check them with a multimeter before put in back to make sure it wasn't the different values from the mod i had done the was making the noise even though if is truebypass pedal in my mind i shouding matter? right?
i have a litle more solder on the joints because i had redone all the solder joints when i found out i had this problem.
what sould i do now. something is wrong because with a buffer in front of it the problem goes away im thinking that's the reason why they have the rev 1.1 but is there a way for me to fix it. thanks again

Okay - first let's make a few things more clear. The clicking you are describing typically comes from voltage being modulated by the LFO interfering with the audio signal. This is not a typical issue with this circuit; of the hundreds of successful builds, there have only been one or two builds exhibiting this symptom, and those are typically only clicking when the circuit is engaged, not when it is in bypass. Therefore, the actual circuit design is not likely at fault; it is more likely that something in your particular build is causing this. Since your symptom arises only in bypass, we can assume that LFO noise is being transposed onto the audio signal in bypass as it runs from the tip of the output jack, down through pcb traces to the footswitch, across the footswitch, and back through the pcb to the output jack. Placing a buffer on the signal prior to the circuit would lower the signal impedance which in this case appears to be insulating the signal from the LFO clicking. The Rev 1.1 mods changes the polarity of the input buffer; it does not add a buffer to the circuit, nor was it designed to reduce LFO noise. So don't worry about that.

Moving onto what we can do to fix the problem, the most obvious thing is this; the vast majority of working builds with no issues do not have the large amount of solder build up on the component side of the pcb. Therefore, it would seem that with your build having so much solder built up around almost every connection, that is causing some cross-talk between the LFO circuit and the audio circuit somewhere. However, fixing that is probably impractical because there are so many solder joints on this pcb and the components are very crowded; it would likely take hours and hours to wick or suck the solder from so many joints and attempting to do so would likley result in damage to some components and maybe the pcb itself. I do suggest you try though; remove all of the ICs from their sockets, make sure your iron tip is clean, shiny, and hot, and reheat each joint from the solder side of the pcb to see if you can draw some solder back away from the component side. You might get just enough separation to kill the noise. But don't leave the iron on any one joint for too long so you don't do any damage to the components.

If that doesn't work, you can try moving the input and output wires. First, remove the wire from the tip of the input jack to the input of the pcb, and remove the wire from the pcb to lug 4 of the footswitch. Replace this with a single wire from the tip of the input jack straight to lug 4 of the footswitch and route it away from the pcb. This will get the input signal off the pcb and away from any interference it might be encountering there. Even better, if possible, use shielded cable for that connection and ground the shield to the middle lug of the input jack. If that doesn't fix it, do the same thing with the output; remove the wires from the tip of the output jack to the pcb, and lug 8 of the footswitch to the pcb, and replace them with a single shielded cable from the tip of the output jack to lug 8 of the footswitch, grounding the cable shield to the output jack ground. Doing this should isolate your bypass signal from being affected by the LFO voltage swing.

OL CIRCUITS has a nice tutorial on using shielded cable.

A third fix is obvious; just keep a buffer on this pedal. There are a few reports from other builders that placing a buffer before this circuit reduces some loading and makes it perform better. If you are only using an AC power supply and no battery, you should be able to fit the mini buffer circuit in the battery compartment (or do a search for Stephen's micro buffer - it fits there). All you need to do is run the input jack to the input of the buffer, the output of the buffer to lug 4 of the footswitch, connect the buffer to power and ground, and you have a buffered signal both in bypass and effect mode. Since you are using a true bypass strip for this pedal, you'll still get true bypass from the strip and the buffer in the chorus pedal should cure the clicking in bypass mode. However, I suggest replacing the input and output jack wiring first to see if getting the bypass signal off the pcb cures the problem first.

hi morgan i was able to fix the problem, i had used the wires from the kit to do what you had suggest with the input and output but had no luck then i did it with shielded cable and grounded like you suggested turn it on and the problem was still there when i touched the rate knob the problem went away so i ran a wire from the ground to the metal of the pot.the only thing is you said lug 9 for the output and i belive is lug8. i also skipped the solder part because i had a lot less solder when i first built and the problem was there.
the buffer i built one from parts from radioshack and some i had laying around i decided to put the input in lug 5 and the output in the point 5 of the pcb board doing this way i think i kept the pedal truebypass.

if anyone need a good mini buffer i built from this http://www.muzique.com/schem/eagle.htm and i did the job way better the a boss buffer.

Morgan you are the man thanks again.

Glad you got it patched up. Thanks for pointing out my mistake on lug 8 vs lug 9. I went back and edited my post so as not to confuse others in the future.