@billy
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Tim it sounds like a pot issue I can’t see all of your values from your photo and obviously can’t check the capacitors, R1 and R4 values cannot be clearly seen
Are your pots both B10K? it’ll either have B10K or a code of B103
If you haven’t already check all values also post a picture of the solder side of the pcb
Excellent as always Mark
I’ve a couple of mini me’s and a CE2 board
I’ll be studying your informative report and seeing what I can come up with
Have a great Christmas everyone
Cheers
If you look here you’ll see how the DC jack should be wired
Perhaps have a read through the post also a ratt deluxe
The battery +9v wire should go to the middle lug on the DC jack you’ve also got your other red +9v wire going to a ground pad on the 3PDT pcb
Pots can break but not easily you can use a piece of solid core wire to jumper across the broken leg use your meters continuity check to see if it actually broken if you’re not sure and can’t clearly see it’s broken
I would say no Stu mine doesn’t drop any noticeable volume but as you know pedal order can cause problems but you’re correct having it at the end of your chain
Saying that the one I built was in a combo with an FV1 eqd organizer which I know has a volume problem and if anything my AA increased the volume
Hi Beasley
Post a picture where we can see and trace your wiring to in and out jacks, dc jack and battery snap
You’ll get there it is a steep learning curve
The reverse polarity protection diode is to protect against using the wrong polarity adaptor
The majority of guitar effects circuits work with a +9vdc centre negative power adaptor that is to say the centre of the adaptor socket is ground (-) the sleeve or outer part is + voltage
Not all adaptors are the same some output AC instead of DC some are centre positive polarity (+) so if you accidentally plugged a centre positive adaptor into your pedal the diode would not conduct and not allow current to flow, protecting your circuit
Polarity, input and output voltages are usually listed on the adaptor label it is very easy to use the wrong type of adaptor
This link explains power adaptors in more depth, the importance of using correct polarity, quality filtered and regulated power adaptors are something most guitar players are completely ignorant of! just for info filtering helps reduce noise from voltage ripple and regulation ensures the output is regulated close to the voltage it should output e.g. 9vdc, cheap unfiltered, unregulated adpators can be noisy and output much higher voltages than they should I’ve tested some cheap adaptors and found some 9v adaptors actually put out as much as 14v
You can check your power adaptors output like this
Plug your adaptor into the wall set your meter to 20vdc insert your black probe into the centre of the adaptor socket and touch the outer part with your red probe, if it’s centre negative it should read around 9vdc if it’s centre positive it will read –9v
You can use both a battery and a power adaptor with the RATT your DC jack would be the 3 solder lug type ie switching what happens is when you plug an adaptor into the DC jack the battery would be disconnected when you remove the adaptor it would switch to battery power from what I can see you have the correct DC jack wiring as shown in the build doc would be like this
Again from what I can trace yours seems correct, battery + red wire to DC jack middle lug battery ground black wire to stereo jack ring lug
Top DC jack lug to pcb 9v and bottom ground to pcb ground
If you haven’t already, read the audio probe explained PDF it should give you some idea of how to use one
Reading a schematic is basically just a join the dots type thing starting at the IN pad through the connected circuit components to the OUT pad
For tracing the audio path again you would start at the IN pad through the components to the input of the first active component and so on until you reach the OUT pad so in the RATT you’d go from the IN pad through C1 then R4 into pin 3 of IC1 (first active component) out of IC1 at pin 6 etc
I’m not entirely sure from your previous posts whether you have used your adaptor to power the circuit what I’d suggest you do is read the article on power adaptors then check your adaptor label to make sure it’s the correct type, centre negative with a +9v dc output
If it is the correct adaptor I’d plug it in and check what power you get to the pcb at the 9v and ground pads
It sounds to me as if your problem may be a power issue or as Cybecow has already stated something is touching the bare metal enclosure causing a short
With troubleshooting after visually checking your wiring and components are the correct value and orientation, the first thing to check is,does your circuit actually get power
Depending on the pedal version ie Zen made by Alfonso or not which go for £400 to £600 an original klon £3000 the Cornish G2 £1000
At least 6 grand in the Queens pounds and a sovereign or 2 + an arm and a leg
GPCB price fully completed, boxed etc I could make the lot for around a grand easy, that’s pricing each build using top quality everything, at between £20 to £40, some would cost a little less some a little more
A Sho for example would cost at the most £20
Current determines how bright your LED is
As pff says it may well be your LED colour choice purple is a higher forward voltage around 3.6v and depending on the type UV, super bright etc may require much more current than your average 20mA for standard LEDs
Some purples need as much as 30mA to 40mA and beyond
The fixed CLR would be R10 the 330R in conjunction with the depth pot, R10 is obviously there when depth is set to 0 ohms CCW to make sure there is still some current limiting resistance protecting your LED
You may well be able to reduce R10 but would need to know the current rating for your LED then it’s just a case of a quick ohms law calculation to determine your CLR value or use a calculator like this
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tools/led-resistor-calculator/
The LED is part of the LFO circuit but changing R10 will not affect it
Whether or not it would be significantly brighter I don’t know, as it is with your depth at zero and R10 330R your current would be around 20mA dropping R10 to 220R would be around 40mA
First you need to know your LED current rating so you don’t burn it out
Also remember resistors have a tolerance rating metal film + or – 1% carbon 5% so a 220R metal film will range from 217 to 222 ohms carbon film 209 to 231
Pots have a 20% tolerance and it’s very unlikely it would be 0 ohms turned all the way down at the very least it’ll have a few ohms on it
Important if you’re getting near to your CLRs value limit
Use your meter to check resistor value to make sure it’s within the required range
Sorry Nouri I missed that bit
Wilkie to the rescue though and he’s the man as you can see
Cheers Ray!
The optocoupler LED side should have a mark usually a white dot which goes to the white dot you’ll see on the silkscreen
I’d advise having the kill switch for the cost of a switch you get an excellent buffer
SW1 is the speed switch
SW2 is the kill switch
Checking for continuity is just to ensure things are electrically connected as they should be and confirming switches etc work
It’s basically just a case of fault finding in a logical manner and as Tom says may lead you to a cold solder joint, short and so on
Obviously we don’t have your build in front of us, so go on the information and pictures you provide which is exactly what we need to hopefully get it fired up
Because you said you don’t get bypass signal etc checking your 3PDT continuity will confirm it’s definitely in bypass mode and perhaps indicate a switch fault or hidden solder bridge
Switches can be damaged internally from solder iron heat and you could have a solder bridge on the underside of your 3PDT pcb so doing these checks will either confirm there’s a problem or eliminate it as the cause
For example we know the 3PDT middle common row should only connect to one or the other throw and not both at the same time so if you had the middle connecting to both it’d indicate a fault in that area
Frustrating as it is you seem to be getting there and learning as you go so as Tom says don’t give up
I being the strange individual I am, enjoy troubleshooting and putting stuff I’ve previously learnt to the test and learning new stuff and techniques
We all get those what seem impossible to find faults regardless of experience
May sound daft but make sure your in cable is actually going to your in jack with it the wrong way up the in is actually on the right hand side a very common mistake with your enclosure upside down you would still get bypass signal in this situation
You may have the wrong DPDT or simply have it wired upside down when in the centre switch position you want it to connect as shown middle left to bottom left and middle right to top right
Obviously with continuity checking you’ll know if turned the other way whether it’ll connect correctly
Continuity for the 3PDT you’re just checking that the middle common row has continuity with the top row switched one way ( purple lines, effects mode) and middle has continuity with the bottom row switched the other way (red lines, bypass )
In effects mode your guitar signal goes into lug 2 via the in jack and is connected to lug 1 circuit in
Through your effects circuit out via circuit out lug 7 to your out jack lug 8 then your amp at the same time 4 LED cathode connects to 5 ground lighting your LED effects colour
Thrown the other way 2 in jack / signal in, now connects to 3 goes along the jumper to 9 which connects to 8 your out jack, bypassing the effects circuit and at the same time 5 now connects to 6 lighting your LED bypass colour
So using your meters continuity test you can check to see if it’s correct and these connections are made
On your 3PDT board just put any probe on each middle lug your other probe onto the corresponding top lug check all 3 beep then click the switch and check the middle 3 lugs beep with their corresponding bottom 3 lugs
Did you continuity check your connections
That’s the easiest way to check your switch connections are working as they should
You can see from the build doc how each position of the DPDT should connect shown by the blue lines, for example
Flip it up middle and bottom lugs should connect
Flip it to the centre position lugs should connect diagonally as shown and down middle and top should connect
Also worthwhile checking your 3PDT for continuity
Here’s a PDF in case you’re not used to continuity checking
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Upc_3zXdSRHGC3ILdiYD4deBSl7fGhlO/view?usp=drivesdk
Just for info you wouldn’t want any voltage on your switch lugs it would cause unwanted noise and popping
