VFE Bumblebee - no swell

[jimilee]

Yep all of my voltages are good! Are my Mix and Trigger pots wired in okay? I had some issues with that at the beginning.

The pot on the bottom left is wired backwards. Are you getting any compression at all? It will only swell in one setting.


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[zachlovescoffee]

Yeah compression seems to work. The pedal actually sounds great just no swell at all, I'd at least as far as I can tell. Nothing like the demo vids on YouTube.

[jimilee]

Yeah compression seems to work. The pedal actually sounds great just no swell at all, I'd at least as far as I can tell. Nothing like the demo vids on YouTube.

Have you tried any other 5457s? This is the only other thing that controls the swell. 1.47 is the top of the range, have anything lower?

[zachlovescoffee]

Turns out I'm a fool. I measured all of my 2n5457 incorrectly. They are all less than 1.2vgs. Assuming I am measuring them correctly now anyway — depending on how I put them in I either get -1.3v or 1.2v. Since none of them work I'm going to assume it doesn't really matter what measurement I got.

I just cannot catch a break with this pedal. I designed my artwork wrong too. My board is too far up on the 9v and jacks. So there goes a $20 Gorva out the door.

Does anyone have a few good 2n5457 that work with this pedal I could buy?

[jimilee]

Turns out I'm a fool. I measured all of my 2n5457 incorrectly. They are all less than 1.2vgs. Assuming I am measuring them correctly now anyway — depending on how I put them in I either get -1.3v or 1.2v. Since none of them work I'm going to assume it doesn't really matter what measurement I got.

I just cannot catch a break with this pedal. I designed my artwork wrong too. My board is too far up on the 9v and jacks. So there goes a $20 Gorva out the door.

Does anyone have a few good 2n5457 that work with this pedal I could buy?

While troubleshooting mine, I trashed my board and had  some made. You're still doing good.


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[zachlovescoffee]

Sending some updated photos in case it helps with troubleshooting. As far as I can tell the compression is working. It's VERY subtle even on full sustain. The level knob seems to do absolutely nothing. All up or all down, no change in output. If I stack the Bumblebee with my AionFX Convex parallel optical compressor I get a TON of tasty squish. And that squish sounds different than if I just have the Convex on. So I can only assume the Bumblee compressor is working. Is there a less subjective way to verify that?

It seems like maybe my problem here is that I just don't have a 2n5457 that is in spec to work. They seem to be dang impossible to find. I've bought 30 surface mounts and all of them are junk. Less than 1.2v or way over 2. Now that I'm looking at the AionFX site where I bought a bunch of these maybe they are fine? I was getting values of -1.3v on a lot of them. That seems like it's right in the 1.25-1.5 range for these.

I'm just really at a loss for what to do now on this pedal.

https://aionfx.com/project/2n5457-jfet/

https://aionfx.com/project/convex-parallel-compressor/

[Aentons]

Can you repost your updated voltages please? Also, include voltages for each leg of the optocoupler. If it's working correctly, you should be able to hear the compression.

Sorry you are having trouble with this, it can be a tough one.

[zachlovescoffee]

I'll repost voltages next -- here are the SMD 2n5457's I measured. I lined up the source, gate, drain with the diagram. Depending on how I orient the chip in the sockets I get different readings.

With S = S, D = D, G = G I get .9v. When I flip it around I get -1.3v. Could someone tell me which way works? When I do the normal through-hole 2N5457 with S=S, D=D, G=G then it gives me 1.1 or 1.2v consistently depending on the component. So that seems fine. If I flip them, as a test like above, I get -1.3v.

stand by for new voltages!

[zachlovescoffee]

Voltages all look normal to me. At least, based on the reference values. The 5088's were all 7.10-7.12v just on the one leg of each component. The other values were very close to 0. The image makes it look like they were *all* 7.xx. But that's a drawing error

[Aentons]

Voltages all look normal to me. At least, based on the reference values. The 5088's were all 7.10-7.12v just on the one leg of each component. The other values were very close to 0. The image makes it look like they were *all* 7.xx. But that's a drawing error

Yep, those look ok. If your Level control is not working, it's possible your signal isn't making it to the board. Can you post switch board voltages?

[zachlovescoffee]

What measurements on switch board and where? I'm getting signal through the pedal to amp.

[Aentons]

What measurements on switch board and where? I'm getting signal through the pedal to amp.

I think the switch board build doc has the voltages to measure in it. It could be letting the bypass signal thru and not switching to the audio board

[zachlovescoffee]

Just re-read the switching board doc and not many reference voltages laid out except just a few here and there by mention of split power rail/relay voltages. I'll check what I can check when I get home based on that data.

If anyone has some other reference voltages to check I'll do those too!

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/_folders/VFE/pdf/VFE_SBv3.pdf

[Aentons]

You will also want to use an audio probe on the input and output wires to the audio board while switching between bypass to see if the switch board is actually sending and receiving anything from the audio board

[zachlovescoffee]

I used my audio probe and as far as I can tell the audio is getting from the switching board to the main board. I could pick up audio coming off the relay chip on the board. Nice and loud and also at the input and output jack wires in bypass and effect mode.

However, once I get on the actual board the audio drops significantly. And I can only get it on the compression side. No audio at all near on the swell circuit from what I can tell.