Valvecaster Help

[Johnny Halo]

There is nothing connected to pin 9 and I get a reading. 5 also gets a reading.

I presume that the jumpered lugs on the switch will not give a reading in bypass mode. (True bypass?) And the lug for the led is nil as well.

With the effect on, the jumpered lugs are nil and the led lug reads.

[Renegadrian]

Remember that pin 9 is connected to pin 4 and 5, it is just in the middle.
So as Rick readings, at pin 4 and 5 he gets almost 12V on one pin and 0 at the other
pin 9 gets half of it (almost 6V)

[Johnny Halo]

Wow, do I feel like an idiot!  After pouring over the pedal and the schemos, retracing everything, I decided to switch the polarity on the plug.

Lo, and behold, IT WORKS! I do really well with the obvious. 

Thank you to everyone who chimed in and offered your words of wisdom.

This has been a great learning experience. I will get some pix up when I get it finished.

[kurtlives]

Mine has a loud hum at 9v even with the regulator. Works perfectly at 12v.

Are they two different power supplies?

I think the 9V has its polarity messed up.

[Renegadrian]

...Did you check the DC jack polarity???

What did I win???   

EDIT: Seems I got second prize... 

[Johnny Halo]

O.K. Here 'tis my first build...

It started out as an old tube tester made by Geiger, as in Counter...


And completed and on...


Side view...


And the innards...


I did get a 12au7 tube for it (old Tung Sol - $2!) and sounds much better than the at7. I am really surprised how crunchy it gets. I probably should have put the tone control in, it is on the bright side. Not a bad thing, mind you. Maybe the next one.

I just want to thank everyone again for all of your help with this project.

[kurtlives]

Try putting a small cap (100pF 1000pf) on the first triodes plate to tame the highs.

Trust me you don't want a tone control. The VC tone control is lame.

[Renegadrian]

+1 on the useless tone control - strange that you find it shiny, others reported to be somewhere on the dark side...

[Johnny Halo]

"try putting a small cap (100pF 1000pf) on the first triodes plate to tame the highs"

OK - where is the first triodes plate?    Is this added on or in place of something else?

[Renegadrian]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/tubedummy.html
http://www.nj7p.org/Tube4.php?tube=12Au7

[kurtlives]

+1 on the useless tone control - strange that you find it shiny, others reported to be somewhere on the dark side...

I found my kinda bright too actually. I like birhgt though.

I should mention that small cap should be in parallel with the resistor.

The resistor is either 100K or 220K I forget now. It is a resistor that is going to the first half of the tube, it goes from the B+ to pin 1.