Uglyface vero w/LFO has got me stumped

[DelSpanisho]

I'm using this layout:



And here's my photo album with IC readings. The wiring's a mess so I took a TON of pictures:















I get a clean, albiet static-y and choppy bypassed signal, and static for the engaged signal, which can be made louder or softer by the volume knob (I wired it so pin 3 goes from the board, pin 2 goes to output, and pin 1 goes to ground, the original wiring on the layout is incorrect). There's two 3PDTs because I want to have LED's for both the LFO and the regular switch, but the LED for the first switch doesn't light up at all.

[nocentelli]

If your bypass signal is not clean, you've got a fundamental problem. Get that sorted first.

[DelSpanisho]

I've prodded over the entire circuit in detail, and absolutely nothing looks out of place. No wires accidentally touching each other, no wires soldered to the wrong pots, no components or cuts in the wrong places, nothing. If it's a fundamental issue then I guess I got the wrong components or something, and if that's the case then I'll remake the pedal all over again.

[Luke51411]

What's your 3pdt wiring scheme? It looks like you have the positive lug of the power jack going to the stomp switch.

[Luke51411]

Never mind... That must be the lfo switch.

[bluesdevil]

Definitely work on bypassed signal first. If you are sure you have the footswitch properly wired to jacks, then check for cold joints on those items. Use the continuity checker on your meter to check connections from jack lugs to switch lugs.

[DelSpanisho]

Definitely work on bypassed signal first. If you are sure you have the footswitch properly wired to jacks, then check for cold joints on those items. Use the continuity checker on your meter to check connections from jack lugs to switch lugs.

Thanks for the suggestion, I had continuity tested things before but you inspired me to try it again. Turns out the ground sleeves on each jack weren't connected, so I soldered a wire between the two. I get a clean bypassed signal now, but the engaged signal is just a sine wave beep noise. The "frequency" knob makes it higher or lower pitch, and the LFO switch gives it the standard "weeoohweeooh" sound, but I can't hear any of the original signal. It makes this noise without having anything in the input jack, it just oscillates on its own.

[kaycee]

IC 2&3  pin 4 are ground connections so you should be showing 0 voltage there. Don't know which pin is ground on the 555 but one of those should be zero too.

It's always a good idea to test the board is working before progressing to the bypass wiring stage, then you know that it's the switching if it worked before then.

[nocentelli]

....the engaged signal is just a sine wave beep noise. The "frequency" knob makes it higher or lower pitch, and the LFO switch gives it the standard "weeoohweeooh" sound, but I can't hear any of the original signal. It makes this noise without having anything in the input jack, it just oscillates on its own.

If you are getting oscillation, and you can tune it with the frequency pot and modulate it with the LFO, it seems your LFO and 555 are working ok.

Check the 386 is actually producing any guitar sound - C7 sends the fuzz signal to pin 4 of the 555, this is where the guitar sound is used to trigger the oscillation produced by the 555 timer: Check you have fuzz guitar signal at pin 4, it might be getting lost there. Probe the output at the negative leg of C5 and C7 - It should be a super loud dirty fuzz. C5 sends the fuzz to the sens pot and triggers the "envelope" by lighting the LED linked to the LDR. When you switch the LFO on, the LED is oscillated by the LFO instead.

[DelSpanisho]

Nothing at pin 4, C5,or C7.

[nocentelli]

Do you actually have guitar at the 386 input (pin3)? Is the R1 pulldown resistor much smaller than it should be (1k instead of 1M)? Is the input lpf cap C3 much larger than it should be (100n instead of 10n)?

[DelSpanisho]

I'm getting a clean signal at pin 3. I checked the color-coding of R1, and it's the right value, and C3 is too small to be 100n.

I'm wondering if it's somehow a grounding problem. The LED on the stomp switch still isn't lighting up, but the circuitboard is getting power.

[bluesdevil]

Go ahead and check to see if all ground points connect to circuit ground with your meter.... that may expose a problem.

[DelSpanisho]

Nope, everything's grounded. Pin 1 in the 7555 is connected to ground and reading 0v, and so is pin 4 on 386.

[bluesdevil]

Sorry, I meant checking the off board grounds are all connecting to circuit ground.
EDIT: oops, I just saw the reply saying you connected a wire between the 2 jack sleeves... I'm guessing one of those are also connected to circuit board's ground?

[nocentelli]

Are these voltages? Because if so, obviously something has changed since none of the pins are grounded.