How to evaluate dead Whammy enclosure?

[gogostar]

Hi all!

A friend of mine has a dead Whammy. As we know it's not possible to fix.

So what can we do with this enclosure? As I know, it's a Whammy 4.

We think that we should build a new effect (not have to be Whammy-a-like). Maybe we can build a delay pedal. Expression pedal can control delay time. Or anything else...

Pedal hasn't shipped to me yet. Do you have any suggestions? As i know expression pedal doesn't have a potentiometer.

Is it possible to connect expression pedal instead of a potentiometer of any effect?

Thanks...

[JasonG]

Some guys have fixed them. I got one for 50.00 bucks because the solder joint on the output jack was bad. What is the problem? What is your experience with electronics? There is no pot in there and the way it is set up it would be hard to put one in.  Welcome to the forum!

[gogostar]

Thank you! I've been watching forum, thanks for every topics... This is my first major problem. I am not good at electronics, I just can clone or mod some pedals...

Pedal has shipped today. A qualified electornics man (also builds pedals, power supplies for years) sent it to us, he says "chip has burned cause of high voltage, nothing to do!". We think previous owner has used a differeent power supply or else...

Pedal does nothing, no LEDs lit, no signal passed.

I opened the enclosure. There's a optical system. There seems two leds, I think red one lights, other one takes it in...

How can i use that optical mechanism as a pot? There's a large PCB, also SMD. Where can i cut it to connect it as a potentiometer?

If possible, how much ohms can be set?

[MarcoMike]

1- never trust "qualified electornics men"... (no offence to anybody here) but many times I heard peaople saying "there is nothing to do" when the problem could be solved with some adhesive tape and a swiss army knife (...)
2- if you chose to get rid of the whammy "stuffing" I think there is no need to use the existing circuitry.... making a variable resistor with a photoresistor, an LED and a pedal seems really easy...

[gogostar]

Marco, you're absolutely right about "1"...

One of my friends suggested me your second subject... Can you or anyone help about that "DIY" optical pot? Especially replacing that part of the pedal...

How can i research about it? What are the keywords? Is there any tricks that i have to consider? I am not qualified...