Tremopanation Help

[bcalla]

I am at the troubleshooting phase, and I may be here a while.

I'm a little confused by LaceSensor's wiring diagram (below), specifically for the right jack.  I don't understand what the right black wire connects to.  I get "right output jack sleeve," but I'm confused by "and sleeve switch lug."  Is that the same as the "Right Output jack Tip Switch" which is referred to regarding the blue left output?

[LaceSensor]

You should be using switches jacks.
One one side of the jack will be the tip, ring and sleeve. On the other side are switches for the tip ring and sleeve.

Attach the wires accordingly as labelled!

The pedal acts in stereo, hence a right and left output.
However, if only one jack is used  the outputs sum to mono (left) via the right output tip connecting to it's switching which with no jack inserted is the routed to the left output, summing both tremolos to mono.

Check out gov lackys wiring diagram for his full size wob clone.

Anything that is black above is essentially signal ground...

[LaceSensor]

Can't believe I wrote Reft instead of Right lol

[bcalla]

Thanks.  I took another run at it and I think I have the summed mono figured out.  I am using a switching jack, and I didn't send the right ground to the left jack's ground.  Since the left jack is isolated, it doesn't get the right signal unless both signal and ground are connected.  (BTW, if you connect the switch from the right jack to the left tip without connecting ground, you get some strange behavior.  The LFO 1 speed pot controls both LFOs.  I'm hoping to get a chance to do a full test tomorrow and I'm optimistic that this wiring error was causing all the problems I was having).

I haven't been able to test stereo yet - I need to move an amp for that.  I am temporarily using a metal open switched jack, so the right is not isolated.  I'll have to get one in my next Smallbear or Mouser order.

[bcalla]

OK, I made great progress on this.  I ordered some switching jacks from Mouser because the ones I had only switched the tip. So now I have both the tip & sleeve switched. 

I put everything back together, hooked it up to 2 amps, and it sounded fantastic.  And no ticking or any other unwanted sounds.

Until...  I tried to lower the depth or bypass the effect.  When I do either, I get a horrible hum from whichever channel I adjusted / bypassed.

I know that grounding can be an issue so I pulled everything apart and rewired to keep power ground and signal ground separate.  This didn't decrease the hum.

Below is a wiring diagram that matches the physical layout of my pedal.  Since the wiring is so confusing, I combined the basic wiring with the transformer/phase switch on one diagram.  It's still confusing...  I will try any suggestions.  I love this effect and really want to get it finished.  I was hoping to get this in the fall contest.

[LaceSensor]

where you have GND on both the footswitches, jumper that also to the DC jack GND and report back
also, is your CV pedal jack the plastic isolated type? I assume it is, just checking.

[bcalla]

where you have GND on both the footswitches, jumper that also to the DC jack GND and report back

I actually had that originally but removed it thinking that it was unnecessary and possibly contributing to the hum.  I jumpered it back, no change.

also, is your CV pedal jack the plastic isolated type? I assume it is, just checking.

All jacks are plastic/insulated.  Below is a picture:

[LaceSensor]

whats going on at C7?

other than that parts seem to check out, but I cant see the electro cap values, obvs

also, I think you might have you tip and sleeve the wrong way round on the switched output jack (red and green wires) but I cant tell for sure.

[bcalla]

I think you might mean C7.  That's a strange looking 2n cap I found at Mouser.  It almost looks like an LED.

After submitting my last post I started thinking about something I read recently that RG posted on another site regarding noise elimination.  He said that the ideally a pedal should be grounded to the enclosure in only one place, but having all jacks grounded doesn't often cause a problem.  In my Tremopanation, nothing is grounded to the enclosure.  I will test grounding the input.

Also, RG posted this regarding a transformer isolated splitter that was humming:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=109086.msg996421#msg996421

Based on this I will try running resistors to ground on the output jacks.  I'll report back after testing.

[bcalla]

also, I think you might have you tip and sleeve the wrong way round on the switched output jack (red and green wires) but I cant tell for sure.

You're right.  I realized I did this yesterday when I was re-wiring the grounds.  But then I also realized it didn't matter - because the phase switch reverses polarity it can go either way.  Well, I think that makes sense...

[LaceSensor]

also, I think you might have you tip and sleeve the wrong way round on the switched output jack (red and green wires) but I cant tell for sure.

You're right.  I realized I did this yesterday when I was re-wiring the grounds.  But then I also realized it didn't matter - because the phase switch reverses polarity it can go either way.  Well, I think that makes sense...

Ok so C7 accounted for
I personally would rewire the jack *just incase*

the other stuff, yeah you should ground the enclosure but it should make a big hum regardless

[stevie1556]

I want to get mine built up shortly, but I'm following this thread just in case I get any problems.

Hope you get it working soon bud.

[bcalla]

Success!!

Here's what I did.  First, I succumbed to peer pressure and swapped the leads on the switched jack  - I knew that Lace was right and it was the right thing to do, but I was trying to avoid even more re-wiring.

Next, I grounded the input jack to the enclosure.  See photo.  This alone made no difference in the hum.



Next I grounded the right output jack to the enclosure through a 470R resistor.  See photo, that's the resistor inside the heat shrink.  RG said it should be between 100R & 1K, and I had a loose 470R handy.



At this point, I had no hum!   I tested removing the input jack ground, and the hum came back.  So at least in my case, these 2 steps together worked, neither one made a difference on its own.  Below is my updated wiring diagram, bright pink items are new.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Powder coated enclosure + isolated jacks = huge potential for hum 

Glad you got it sorted though! How does it sound? 

[LaceSensor]

You always need to properly ground the enclosure

my fave way to do it these days is to solder some thin wire around the toothed washer that comes with footswitches and GND that to the input jack. Star grounding or similar to the other GND points INCLUDING the output jacks.

It bugs me a bit that people rely on contact to the enclosure with metal jacks on the output. Ive seen "pro" builders do this and it just screams lazy for the sake on 1 more wire