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Messages - Chrisx5x5

#1
I'm building a 2020-vintage Tractor Beam from one of Peter's "barebones" kits and I have a peculiar problem with the LFO. The audio signal is passing through ok, and sweeping the "tune" trimmer gives a good simulation of the phasing effect, so I'm pretty sure the gates of the JFETs are reacting correctly to what they're hearing from the LFO. But no phasing effect when I'm not adjusting the trimmer.

Here's the strange part: if I apply my audio probe to pin 1 of the LM358 (with the Speed pot turned pretty far down) I get a soft clicking like I'd expect, but it's not regular, more of a heartbeat rhythm (like bump-BUMP, bump-BUMP, with a short pause where the commas are). Does anybody have an idea what would cause that?
I'm inclined to try swapping out the 10n capacitor that bridges pins 1 and 2 of the IC; as I understand it the oscillation is caused by that cap ramping up and down.  But before I start desoldering things I'm curious whether anybody else has ever seen this problem. Thanks.
#2
Finished my Klein Bottle (from the barebones kit) and it works! Now I need to take night classes to learn how to use it though  ;D

I took the long road when stuffing the PCB, finding what each resistor and cap was connected to on either side and measuring the resistance/capacitance between those points as a check on whether the soldering was good.
There was one SMD chip (IC9) which had a very tiny solder splash grounding out one of its pins to R67. Once I determined from the schematic that that couldn't be right, it was easy to fix. Watch out for those.

I have a couple of questions for the experts regarding the schematic:
1. Where on the big schematic are the three footswitches?
2. [probably related] Can someone help me understand what IC 2, IC4, IC6 are doing?

Cheers,
Chris
#3
VFE Projects / Re: Bumblebee Q4 Emitter voltage
May 31, 2020, 12:23:31 AM
Got it.  Thanks.
#4
VFE Projects / Bumblebee Q4 Emitter voltage
May 30, 2020, 08:18:10 PM
I am getting good signal and gain throughout, but no swell effect. Checking the voltages everything is OK except for the 3904 in the lower right of the voltage chart; I believe that's Q4. There I get a reading of 5.9V at the emitter instead of zero. 
I've socketed that location and swapped out the transistor; no change.
I don't understand that part of the circuit well enough to know what to try next.  Can someone please help? 
Thanks,
Chris





#5
Built a Merman using the V3 switching board and here's the problem with the relay/control IC:
IC 1 shows 5V at pin 1, 5V at pin 7 when in effect mode and 0V when in bypass mode, all of which is correct.
When I connect power I can hear the relay click, putting it into bypass mode.
Then if I depress the footswitch once, I hear the click, the LED lights and the pedal goes into effect mode just as it should.  It works just fine.
But then closing the footswitch again has no effect: the relay doesn't cycle, the pedal doesn't go into bypass, no discernible voltage at pins 3 and 6 (which trigger the relay).
Does that sound like it could be anything but a fault in IC1?  I haven't reflowed the solder joints but the behavior suggests that the IC is having no problem communicating with the relay or the footswitch.  I can try desoldering and replacing it with another control chip I have, but before going that route I'd like to know if there's anything obvious that I'm missing.
Any suggestions very much appreciated.