Has anyone built the Pirate Shift ? Missing chorus problem

[eh là bas ma]

Hi,

I hope this is the right place to post this .

I've been trying to finish the pirate shift for two weeks now , beeing a beginner and all,  i can't cant manage to get the chorus into play.
doc : https://pcbguitarmania.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Pirate-Shift.pdf
The delay is working, and there is a modulation when i keep moving a wire along both negative legs of the photo coupler (LDR1)
If i bridge them, depth pot come to life and some modulation appears if i keep turning it, but that's all, it won't hold.
The LED (D5) responds to Speed , Wave has no effect.

I know other people had this problem; they did something in the end to activate the chorus (a bridge somewhere) but i can't figure it out

Any help would be greatly welcome .

[jimiisdead]

Hey Man.

I just finished building it last week. I had the same problem. Didn't try to bridge anything though. I found out that you need to wire "FWSTCH GND" to both grounds (i.e. one jack input and one to the footswitch). That worked form me.

Although I was a bit disappointed with the pedal. I thought you could have the chorus effect without the delay effect. But if you turn the delay way down, it just sounds like a really short delay with almost no modulation. If you get yours running, tell me if you experience the same problem. I think the orginal pedal doesnt have this issue.

[eh là bas ma]

Hello, I did it some time ago now.

The modulation does go down when i turn down the Delay pot,  I just increase Depth pot and i can hear the modulation again.
Following pcbguitarmania's instructions, I replaced the Xvive optocoupler by a red LED and a photo resistor.
My Pirate Shift is allright, except for background noises in the signal path when I turn up the delay pot.
GuitarMania told me maybe my guitar signal is too hot, I tried with passive pick-ups, but i couldn't get a clean delay . Any ideas ?

[Scruffie]

My Pirate Shift is allright, except for background noises in the signal path when I turn up the delay pot.

Sounds like sampling/aliasing noise, some of which is to be expected but if it's too loud it could be an incorrect cap value, could be your power supply or it might be worth trying different PT2399, some are just quieter than others (PT2399 from Tayda are not recommended).

It's also worth trying a tantalum capacitor for C3.