Faulty ds1

[Unclereaper]

I am building a ds1 clone and you guys were very helpful with the last distortion. This one let's sound through when bypassed but barely anything when engaged. I've reflowed all the joints but still some components do not have sound on both sides.

[Unclereaper]

Now it is low output distortion and no led.

[ElectricDruid]

Ok, so how far does the sound get through the circuit? Have you tested it with an audio probe?

The schematic is confusing because of the various op-amp options. Which option have you chosen?

Also, have you got a photo of your build? Both sides of the board would be good, so we can spot any potential problems.

Thanks,
Tom

[Unclereaper]

Most of the components have sound but not all of them on both sides I'm using a tl072

[Unclereaper]

Empty shot of the board. ec2,ec3,ec4,r11,r4,r6,r9,r15,r13,r8,r5, only have sound on one side or not at all

[ElectricDruid]

Ok, looks pretty good so far.

Have you got sound on:

1) Emitter of Q1?
2) Collector of Q2?
3) Pin 1 of the op-amp?
4) Pin 7 of the op-amp?

That gets us quite a long way through the circuit. If it gets that far, we're looking at a problem in the tone circuit or the output buffer. If not, where exactly it disappears will give a good idea where to look in those earlier stages.

Tom

[patrick398]

Just thought it worth pointing out to the OP that you shouldn't really expect sound on both sides of all components, only those in the signal path. Components connected to gnd, power, or vref for example may have audio on one side but not the other. Disregard if this is glaringly obvious just thought i'd mention in case

[Unclereaper]

Q1 has sound on emitter base and u2 is on all 3 we is emitter base

[Unclereaper]

Ic has sound on 1 2 3 5 6 7

[ElectricDruid]

Ok, that's good. That means something is getting through as far as the tone control circuit. It also means that the input buffer and the gain op-amp are doing something.

Do you have signal on the wiper of the Tone pot?

Do you have signal on the wiper of the volume pot?

Do you have signal on the Emitter of Q3?

That gets us pretty much to the output, so I'm expecting the answer to one of those questions to be "no", but it's just about possible that the problem could still be later on. But let's get that far and see how we're doing.

Tom

[Unclereaper]

Sound on all pots and q3 except its collector

[willienillie]

That's almost the whole circuit then.  Still no LED, huh?  Seems you might have the footswitch wired incorrectly.  Looks like the schematic and PCB don't include provision for an LED, but you can still do it because you got a 3PDT switch.  I think you need to rotate the connections you did make on the switch by 90 degrees, then the leftover column of 3 lugs can be used for LED on/off.  That will require a connection to 9V and a CLR (current limiting resistor) to power the LED.  You can switch either the + or ground side of the LED.

I'm probably not being very clear.  I could rewire it for you much easier than explain it.  Maybe easiest to forget the LED temporarily, and just get the audio switching right first.  Then add the LED circuit last.  We'll walk you through it.

[Unclereaper]

That would be great it also seems to not work at all in the enclosure and I get the low output when it's not all inside.

[willienillie]

If you think of the lugs on the 3PDT like this:

-  -  -
-  -  -
-  -  -

You've wired to two rows:

-  -  -
-  -  -

What you instead need to wire to two columns:

-  -
-  -
-  -

It doesn't matter which two columns you use.  They are individual poles, like separate switches activated by the same button.  The leftover column (pole) will be used to turn the LED on and off.

[Unclereaper]

You are a genius brother the pedal works now even the led thank you very much.