pulsar build report

[lowstar]

hi everybody,

just threw the pulsar together from the tonepad layout. i do like it a lot. no noise probs so far, but it isn´t boxed up yet...we´ll see. the only quirk: the rate poti. i found the fix, but didn´t want to cut on the board so far, so i solved it by wiring a log pot the other way round, now it´s easy to dial in the right speed. either i´ll order a rev log poti or try the mod by ...s**t i forgot the name.

cheers,
lowstar

[geertjacobs]

Doing the fix with the cut worked fine for me.
Nice pedal isn't it...

[Wild Zebra]

  I'm gonna have to start from scratch on the Pulsar.  It was one of my never got to work circuits.  And I really wanted it to.  I even pulled it out a few days ago.  Still no go.  I'could hear the osc speeding up and down, but all I got was a misbiased type sound coming through.  I searched hell and high water for bad traces changed IC and trannies.  Think I'm gonna have to scrap it and start fresh.

Congrats

[geertjacobs]

Think I'm gonna have to scrap it and start fresh.

Check the orientation of the transistors! I needed a friend to help me out on that one too...

[Wild Zebra]

  Am I missing something there.  I remember that was brought up before.  They are 5088's, Do I need to do some creative bending?

[geertjacobs]

I replaced the 2n5088's by bc550's and their pinout is different.
When looking at the schematic there's not that much else that can wrong.

[lowstar]

hey zebra,
try signal tracing it...and if you don´t have a tracer, build one. it was really most helpful for me with my builds that didn´t work right away (and there were a lot of them, especially the vero stuff) to follow the signal through the circuit and see what the groups did or did not do...somewhere in the layouts gallery there is a diy sig tracer, i believe.
cheers,
lowstar

[theblueark]

Hey cool I was just gonna build one on vero this week. How's the ticking issue? Any ticking on yours?

[lowstar]

well after  boxing it up today, there is a light pulsing (in lower frequencies, so i can´t call it ticking i guess) that becomes more obvious when you play with headphones (e.g. homerecording) or if there´s a distortion or overdrive or overdriven amp after the pulsar. clean into a guitar amp, you can´t hear anything. step on the crunch, and you´re gonna hear it a little bit. i made the wires very short already.
next week i´m gonna a/b it with the original to see if it is inherent in the design.
until then
cheers,
lowstar

[Wild Zebra]

  vero layout would be nice!