Nautilus No Envelope

[hagcel]

Hey,

I finished off a Nautilus tonight but I'm having some problems.

Overall it sounds like a distortion pedal with some white noise and a very high pitch tone. Bandpass gives the clearest and loudest high pitch tone.

The Gain knob functions. The HP/LP/BP filter works. The range switch turns the LED on and off but I get no movement in the brightness of the LED.

Sweep, Peak, Hi/Lo don't appear to effect the sound.

I used the Macron MI1210CLF-R from small bear. I verified they do have F written on them.

Here is a photo of the Macrons.



Anyway I get test if the Macrons are good? Can they be damaged by heat?

This is frustrating because I had a good streak going finishing off a Multiplex, Zero Point SDX and a couple flangers without issue  

For ICs I am using:

TL074CN x2
TC1044SCPA

Thanks for any suggestions!

BTW next to the lower Macron it looks weird because I didn't have a 1n8 so I used a 1n, 560pf and 220pf

I did reflow everything

[jkokura]

I would suspect that crazy cap situation first.

After that, I would go through with a fine tooth comb to make sure my parts are correct. Read every resistor and measure it if possible.

Have you got an audio probe handy?

Jacob

[hagcel]

Yeah, Pin 3 sounds good on IC 1. All other pins are noisy. Pins 1 and 2 are quiet but distorted. Pins 11, 13 and 14 has distortrion with high pitch noise.

I replaced that 1n8 with a 2n2 for testing purposes. Didn't make a difference though.

I did measure every resistor before I added it to the board but I will go back through and veryify all parts.

Thanks
Josh

[midwayfair]

Probe for a voltage change at the cathode of D2 while playing. Anything? Flip the range. Anything?

This will tell you if your envelope is rectifying. If it isn't, that narrows down your problems considerably.

The macrons are highly unlikely to have been damaged by heat.

[hagcel]

It sits around 3.4v with no guitar. It jumps up to 6+ depending on how hard the guitar is strum...

I verified all caps and resistors by color and number codes and I verified IC and diode orientation.

Also I noticed now that I shut off my bench light that the LED is brightest with no signal. If I strum the guitar it shuts off. As the sound decays the LED slowly starts to light back up again.

If I flip the range switch the other way the LED is normally about half bright. When I strum the LED goes full brightness.

[hagcel]

Well.....I started reflowing again and I got it to work.

Should the Peak control be noisy at high settings?

[midwayfair]

Should the Peak control be noisy at high settings?

Yeah, it might be a little noisy. It depends on a few other settings.

Glad you got it to work ... I've had to reflow some things two or three times before they fixed themselves.

Nah getcha funkawn.

[hagcel]

It took a little while to figure out how to use it and get the trim pot set but now it all sounds great. If a few knobs are set wrong it seems to give little or no effect but once you find the sweet spot it sounds awesome!!

[chordball]

It took a little while to figure out how to use it and get the trim pot set but now it all sounds great. If a few knobs are set wrong it seems to give little or no effect but once you find the sweet spot it sounds awesome!!

Good thing you didn't build a Meatsphere! I really thought I screwed mine up for the longest time until I figured out all the controls.

Good work on the nautilus though. I really love mine. I haven't had time to finish it up and post yet, but when I do I'll share my mods. To me, adding controls for attack and decay really take the Nautilus to the next level.

[hagcel]

Oh yeah an attack and decay mod would be awesome! I'd love to hear how you did it. I have been finding myself wishing for more controls as I've been playing with it.