Degenerator delay time knob problem

[Cc0919]

Hi, just recently finished up my 4th or 5th madbean project and have a bit of a weird problem. I doubt anyone will be able to answer, I guess I'm just trying to get a handle on how to track down the issue. I'm usually pretty good at fixing things that are completely non working, but not "sort of working"

Built the Degenerator, everything seemed good upon first test, but then I realized there's something up with my Delay time pot. Full CCW, it works as intended. As I turn CW, it continues to work as intended, until I get to about 1/4 or 1/3 of a turn, at that point I hear static similar to quickly pulling out a cable quickly, then no delay. Pot is as specified (50kB) and reading it while turning it, it doesn't seem to have any issues and is measuring correctly. I know this is kind of vague, but I figured I'd ask for pointers here, since I haven't encountered this before. Feel free to delete if this is against forum rules

[mauman]

Welcome!  This is the place for help requests.

Could you post some pictures of your build?  Sharp and close are best. That will help troubleshooting.

While you're doing that, did you equip the optional capacitor C12?  It comes into play as you increase the Delay pot.  If you did equip it, try removing it.

[Cc0919]

Thanks! I left C12 out, but I actually believe I sorted it out, and I am an idiot. Yesterday before posting I switched out the PT2399 in order to rule it out and the second one had the same problem so I assumed all was good.. but today I noticed I could turn one slightly further than the other before it "breaks". I had like 5, so I gave all of 'em a try, I don't know if mine are just particularly bad quality, but I finally found one that works (nearly) the entire turn CW to lower delay time.

[mauman]

Congrats!  You may have gotten a bad batch, and most any IC is subject to knock-offs and counterfeiting these days.  I tend to source ICs from reliable vendors like the ones linked at the top of this page, if there's a problem they'll usually make it good.