Boss TR-2 tremolo is ticking>>>?

[sevenisthenumber]

My tr-2 started ticking today. Its a mild tick that is just enough to drive me nuts. Any ideas?

[sevenisthenumber]

it even does it when its off.

[O]

What did you do different? Did you mod it? Open it? Connect it with other pedals where it usually isn't?

[diezel]

My tr-2 started ticking today. Its a mild tick that is just enough to drive me nuts. Any ideas?

hi there

i had a boss ce-2 that did exactly the same. Mines was cured by taking the solder iron over the component solder joints as it was just a bad joint somewhere

did the trick and the pedal was fine after that

[sevenisthenumber]

 
so.....   I re-cased this Boss tr-2. The only mods are on r19 i put a 10k pot and a new led. The big mod was i put in a 2nd 3pdt switch that flips between the stock rate knob and a second one so i can select between the two. I get the crazy (tick.tick.tick) that is the speed of the rate knob. When i take the waveform pot out it goes away and it seems that something to do with that pot?
i dont know.

[ayayay!]

How are you powering it?  Try it with battery only, not connected via daisy chain to any other pedals.  Just guitar ->TR-2 -> amp.  Report back when done. 

[Joe Kramer]

Hey Seven,

You can try using shielded wire for the inputs and outputs, connecting the shield from the jacks to the jack ground lugs, and the shield for the PCB lines to the PCB ground.  You could also change the LFO op amps (ICs 3 and 4 I think) to TLO62s, which are easier on the power supply lines.

Regards,
Joe

[sevenisthenumber]

joe,

a little confused on using the shielded cable. Shield from jacks and lugs? Shield from pcb?
Thanks, I really need the advice and to learn through this one!

[ayayay!]

Did you try the battery-only setup yet? 

[sevenisthenumber]

i will try it in the morn with just the bat!

[sevenisthenumber]

It still does it with just a battery?

[Joe Kramer]

Hey Seven,

Just read your earlier post again.  If the ticking started after you re-boxed and added the extra pot & switch, I'd say your problem is somewhere in those mods.  You have to be careful when dealing with circuits using LFOs or clocks, because these can generate strong interference signals that can bleed into the weaker input and output sections of the circuit.  My guess is that some of the wiring you added is crossing over other wires or the PCB in a sensitive area.  Try touching or moving some of those wires while you're plugged in, and listen.  Chances are you will hear changes in the volume of the ticking.  If so, you'll need to reroute those and possibly shield them.

About shielding: usually you won't need to ground both ends of a shielded wire when it's already inside a box.  (You should already have at least one good ground wire from the PCB to the case, probably going to a ground lug of the input or output jack, so that your box is already grounded.)  For the shielding coming from your PCB to, say, your new DP3T, it's probably easiest to ground the shield to a spot on the PCB.  No need to ground the other end.  With your new RATE pot, you might find it easier to ground that closer to the pot itself, and then leave the other end disconnected.  Without going into the whole complicated subject of ground loops, as long as you have some shielding to block the internal interference, and that solution doesn't cause a whole new set of noise problems, then you're good.  As well as the shielding, you should be careful routing your wires, especially making sure to keep the input/output lines as far away as possible from any lines carrying the LFO signal.   

I once re-boxed a cheap analog delay and ran into weird problems, but shielding the input, output, and the DELAY (clock) control fixed it right up!

Regards,
Joe