Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I bought 4 pedal kits from BYOC in January 2019. 3 of 4 were successful builds, and I cannot figure out what is wrong with the 4th - it's the Li'l Orange Phaser, and it's the simplest one of all!
I tried wiping the circuit board down with naphtha, although not with a toothbrush. I also remelted all of the solder joints on the circuit board. I completely redid the wiring to the power and I/O jacks, found a loose connection to the output jack and put a beautiful dollop of solder on it. Still, nothing
Initially, the LED would come on, but no signal would pass either in bypass or when activated. That's when I changed wiring to all the jacks. Now, I get audio in bypass, but it cuts out when the pedal is activated, and the LED does not light up.
The aluminum caps, diode, ICs and transistors all appear to be installed with the correct orientation. As best I can tell from the photo in the instructions, the resistors appear to be in the right places.
I sure would appreciate it if someone could tell me where I went wrong and how to fix it! Photos are attached. Would be happy to upload more if anything is unclear.

The general rule I like to state is that if you can see into the eyelet, there isn't enough solder. Go through and resolder all your joints so that they eyelets are fully flowed, and see what happens.

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The tone is in my hands?!
Email: nick@buildyourownclone.com

Do you have access to a multimeter and know how to use one?

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

OK, I can see that some of the eyelets are not full. Will go back and fill'em up.

I do have a multimeter, though I'm far from expert with it.

If reworking your soldering doesn't fix the problem (some tips for that HERE). I would recommend that you measure the DC voltage levels on the op amp pins. Here's how to do that:

With power supplied to the pedal and a cable in the input jack, set the multimeter to read DC voltage. If it's not an auto-ranging meter, set the voltage range to 20 VDC. Contact ground with the black probe (I recommend just placing the probe in one of the four corner screw bosses of the enclosure for this purpose) and then touch the red probe to whatever point of the circuit you wish to test.

Measure all 8 pins on the op amp; pin #1 is the one with the square solder pad on the PCB, and the rest are numbered in a "U" shape around the IC. Assuming a power source voltage of 9.0 VDC, pin 8 (directly across from pin 1) should be at that source voltage, pin 4 should be at ground potential (0 VDC), and the other six should all be right around 4.5 VDC. Post your results here.

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I re-flowed all of the connections and added solder to all the eyelets where there may have been a shortage. It didn't work. Then, I used a soft toothbrush and some naphtha to try and clear up any solder spatter. Still didn't work.

Will try testing the pin DC voltages next. Thanks for the suggestion!

It wouldn't hurt to show some photos of your updated soldering, too! Good luck.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

OK, here are the two sides. Sorry the solder side is a little blurry - I even used daylight to try and make it clear.

It does look a little better to me, thanks for sharing those. Probably sufficient for what we need, but if someone asks for better images, here's what I'd try:

1. Stand the board up against something on a table with the sunlight facing it.
2. Hold your phone steady by resting the bottom on the table.
3. Use the timer function to eliminate any shake from pressing the shutter button.
4. Most importantly, don't zoom in on the camera. Take it from a distance and crop it down afterward.

Now, about the pedal: have you tried dialing in the trimpot? I haven't built a phaser in ages, but my memory is that the trimpot may cut the signal in its extreme settings. I doubt this is your problem, but if you're looking for harmless things to try while waiting for someone with more modulation knowledge to chime in… it couldn't hurt.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

I did fool around with the trimpot last week, but no settings made a difference. Since the LED isn't lighting, I thought there might be a problem with the connection to the DC adapter. However, that was the first thing I re-soldered. So...

Thanks for the tips re: photos.

So just to be clear, now you are getting bypass signal, but no LED or no signal at all (not even unaffected dry signal) when the pedal is engaged?

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*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

I measured the voltages, and they are, unsurprisingly, very different than expected. I am calling the ICs 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being horizontal and closest to the DC jack, and 3 being closest to the foot switch. Here are the voltages:
IC 1 pins
1: 2.75
2: 2.65
3: 0.68
4: zero
5: zero
6: 8.59
7: 8.57
8: 9.18

IC 2 pins
1: 8.61
2: 8.62
3: zero
4: zero
5: zero
6: 8.61
7: 8.63
8: 9.18

IC 3 pins
1: 8.61
2: 8.59
3: zero
4: zero
5: 0.27
6: 8.56
7: 8.57
8: 9.18

For clarification, the phaser does pass signal in bypass, but cuts the signal (and the LED does not light) when I press the switch to activate it.

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"It’s your soldering."

OK, I reversed IC3 and IC1. Thanks for the diagram - first time I've seen that one.

You very clearly have a problem with the reference voltage. Don't confuse this with the JFET bias voltage that you can adjust with the trimpot (although it is affected by this because the reference voltage is the +V voltage to the JFET bias). This is the voltage divide formed by D1, R20 and C7. R20 is mislabeled on the schematic BTW. It should be 10k not 18k. Anyhow, You should have 4.5V ~ 5.1V here, but the fact that you are getting 0 volts here implies that either D1 or C7 is shorted to ground. I know this because pins 3 and 5 of all your ICs should be at least 4.5V and they are all reading zero. So if you're voltage readings are correct, then I think it's pretty safe to assume that the problem is with D1 or C7.

Check your soldering very closely and make sure that you do not have any solder bridges that would be shorting these components to ground. That would be the first place I would look. It's hard to tell from your solder-side pics since they are so out of focus. Also, there appears to be a lot of scratches too. One in particular that looks like it may go across the positive terminal of C7.

Otherwise, I would assume the D1 is blown and completely shorted out to ground and would need to be replaced. You don't have to use a 5.1v zener diode if you don't have one. You can use a 10k resistor is you have one of those handy. The 10k isn't ideal, and you'll eventually want to replace it with the proper 5.1V zener, but it will get the pedal working well enough so that you can verify the problem was indeed a blown diode.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Yeah, those voltages definitely aren't right. What DC voltage reading do you get from the bottom (square solder pad) of D1?

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2