Collosalus won't flange

[Muadzin]

I've got a Collosalus that just won't flange. It will pass normal sound when activated, but no flanging whatsoever. I followed the biasing instructions and set the various trimpots to their starting positions, then I start turning BIAS and at best I only get some slight hiss added to the mix.

Some gratuitous gut shots to aid in troubleshooting:




I really, really, REALLY dislike using sidemounts so built it using topmounts. The downside of course is that I can't use board mounted pots.


Wiring for the pots is always color coded in my builds, yellow for lug 1, white for lug 2 and green for lug 3. I'm huge on color coding my wiring, makes things more manageable. To and from board is always purple, In/out always grey, Red for power and black for ground.


Any help to get this beast going is very much appreciated!

[midwayfair]

For this and all the builds you're troubleshooting:

Post voltages. Audio probe results will also help. Read this and follow the instructions.

You need to take take this out of the box. You absolutely 100% should not try to troubleshoot an effect this complex after boxing it.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

In addition to Jon's comments....

- Do you have a multimeter that can read frequency? Make sure that it can go up to ~1MHz
- Most "no flanging" issues are caused by lack of clock, bad bias on the BBD, or bad BBD itself.

Follow what Jon posted but, also try to take some freq measurements and post those too.

[blearyeyes]

I always rock em before I box em..... Great advice above and in the sticky posts at the top. To get help it's best to give all of that information up front.


Looks like you might have a solder bridge on the voltage regulator IC8. Hard to tell from pics.

While you're getting voltage readings check and make sure that the 15v output from IC8 is getting up the left side of the board to pin 8 of IC3 and IC2. That trace goes almost 3/4s of the way around the outside of the board. Mine was shorting out to the 9v / GND pads. Don't know why. I must have gotten the pad two hot de-soldering a broken wire.  Just use the circuit board picture with the traces on it and follow the money.  Refer back to the schematic as well. Really a great way to earn how the pedal works and how to read a schematic at least it was for me.

[skeeter]

When I  first plugged my collosalus in I had clean sound only, I played around with the trimmers eventually I got a little flangeing , Beans instructions are poor for this one 1/4 etc its  should be in clock face much easier to understand his instructions for the harbinger are much clearer , I just have to fix the hiss and ticking now seems to be more chorus than flanger I will keep adjusting the trimmers till I can get those jet sounds.

[blearyeyes]

This flanger isn't the best jet sound kinda pedal..

I think that the Flintlock might be more along those lines..

[alanp]

Audio probe the input for the BBD to check that signal is getting into it (a looper pedal is great for testing like this, just leave it playing something into the pedal on the bench and you have two hands free), and at the output of the BBD to check that audio is coming out (probably need to bias it until you do.)

[pedalhealer]

I have same problem... no flanger effect.
I found maybe a problem: The one side of C22 is go to the ground. It's not on the schematic.
I feel it hot, when I plug the power supply.

[pedalhealer]

I cut the C22 from the ground, so I got good voltage. IC6 5 pin need 7,38V not 0. It's wrong on the BOM.