Help in Stasis Leak stompbox build?

[HankStarvin]

Greetings

After a visit in Youtube, i noticed i can't live without Stasis Leak stompbox. However nowdays buying a factory one is out of question. DIY-fever has got me. You all understand how it goes. Last 10ish pedals and 3 amps are from kits.

Before this one i also thought i've learned something during earlier makes. But my widened ego has clearly attracted attention of some kind of entity and appears that in her/his mind some level of humility is needed in my poor excuse of brain.

Manual of said kit lacked information of wiring. This is unfortunate, since my earlier kits have all arrived with foolproof instruction, letting need to learn for other people. That's why i don't have knowledge of things. As a musician i'm of course capable to improvise and after converting a picture of ready pedal to something that is buildable from parts i got with this kit, i came up with this solution. Appears that the reason of me not being world famous of my leads lies sovewhere in area of not picking the right things in improvised pieces of art.

Anyways... This is what i came up with. Can someone tell me, where i failed?





Symptoms:
- Tap light always on (not sure if it should)
- There is sound when effect on, but just raw guitar sound. Some hissing in backround. Sound is little reduced, but i believe that is normal in delays.

This is second edition. First i tried to use tap switch wired just to it's place without running the wires thru jack. In here repaired to appear more like pic in manual (however without understanding the need of doing so). Ground wire to output was also from next to output lug in pcb.

And... It is possible i fried something by using center + power. Noticed i grabbed wrong one after only few seconds. But shouldn't it just fry the diode, if that happens?

Ideas, anyone?


...

And You! You can stop laughing now. Just remeber your own start in this building business. At least i didn't see smoke.


Edit: Maybe i turn that rightmost, lower cap in correct position and come asking after that, if help is still needed....

[ElectricDruid]

Edit: Welcome!! (Sorry, I didn't notice this was your first post)

You could start by using the right colour wires! You've got white for ground and black for signal. That might not upset you, but it makes me terribly twitchy! Red and black for power, maybe green for grounds in bipolar powered circuits. That leaves you white, yellow, blue, orange, purple, etc for all your various signal wires. It even helps to decide on your own colour scheme for input and output wires and then stick to it. That way you can compare a new build to a previous build and spot the difference. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of actual working-out your brain has to do helps. Make the debugging as simple as possible.

I can't see anything wrong with your offboard wiring at first look. I would hope (knowing Rick Holt/Freq Central) that the circuit has decent power protection and that you won't have fried it, but that's an assumption not a fact.
I'd start by getting an audio probe and making sure that you'Re getting signal to the PCB at the places where it's supposed to go in and come out. Then I'd check power on that op-amp, and check for signal on the two op-amp output pins (1 and 7).

I don't suppose we have a schematic for this board?

[antonis]

And You! You can stop laughing now.

Welcome...

[eh la bas ma]

schematics : https://frequencycentral.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/GT-Stasis-Leak-schematic.pdf

I remember the coolaudio chip was delivered in a protection bag because it's very sensitive to statics. I hope yours is still ok. I think it's not safe to even touch it if you didn't touch ground with your fingers first. If it's damaged, you can order a new one.

[ElectricDruid]

schematics : https://frequencycentral.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/GT-Stasis-Leak-schematic.pdf

There's no diode power protection on that schematic...

[duck_arse]

we don't even say welcome to the forum without a circuit diagram. also, what druid sez - the word hosed comes to mind, reverse supply will probably fry most of that boards brains.

[HankStarvin]

Greetings

Had to do some playing, so now i finally have time to essentials. Lately making tools of trade has appeared more attractive to me than said trade itself, but can't just stay home and solder, now can i...

Edit: Welcome!! (Sorry, I didn't notice this was your first post)

Thank you. (We'll live. I'm not too attached to internet and its protocols anyway).

You could start by using the right colour wires!

Yes i could. Sadly i had first no clue of what is going on with wiring so i followed a pic in manual just to change the plan later. There is actually logic in it (if we forget that black wiring in guitar bypass route was copied from said pic). Most of them should be green anyway (ground loops mainly, i believe).

...Anything you can do to reduce the amount of actual working-out your brain has to do helps. Make the debugging as simple as possible.

Sadly in wiring phase of this project i had unbelievably strong faith in mental image where i never find myself in situation where i'd need to ask something about the pedal, not to mention posting a pic of it to show everyone. Possibility of failure didn't pay even half a second visit in my mind (yes, i play lead guitar. How did you guess?!?). Now, that i have realized i really belong among the common mortals, wiring will follow common standards in future.

I can't see anything wrong with your offboard wiring at first look.

Me neither. Instead of that, i noticed from the pic i took, that i had one capacitor upside down because of minor distraction in middle of build and general sloppiness.
(that's what one gets for being such fool that allows one's ex to call, ramble about alcoholism in which area i was supposed to be pro because of being musician and finally, for reasons still unknown, burst in tears and hanging up the call. Attached picture is me trying to understand, what happened)



Anyway...

Where was i?!?

Oh...

I thought that wrongly oriented cap together with my moment of darkness in choosing pedal power could fry something. However them digital brains (that Belton thingamamob) are too much to understand for me and i (so far. Trying to learn all the way) can't come up with any idea, what to measure to check its condition.

...(knowing Rick Holt/Freq Central) that the circuit has decent power protection...

Not sure, if i should be assured or wary because of this...

Are we talking of same person that in who's profile i found the owner being almost 1000 years old and female? I planned to approach (i find it difficult to find correct noun to address said person with) but got cold feet because of that profile description.

I'm to check things mentioned in this thread, maybe even rewiring this. However i'm afraid that i've really fried that Belton brain of this.

So far thank you and everyone else for answers to this thread.

[ElectricDruid]

Are we talking of same person that in who's profile i found the owner being almost 1000 years old and female? I planned to approach (i find it difficult to find correct noun to address said person with) but got cold feet because of that profile description.

Don't worry, Rick is quite approachable. The profile shows only that he's got a sense of humour and he's protecting his privacy a little.

I'm to check things mentioned in this thread, maybe even rewiring this. However i'm afraid that i've really fried that Belton brain of this.

The wiring doesn't seem to be the problem, so don't start hacking that apart unless you're sure that's where the problem lies.

If you're getting sound through when bypassed, then that part is working. If you're getting *something* through when the effect is on, then it looks like signal is getting to the board and coming back again, so that part is ok. This can be checked with an audio probe on the PCBs "In" and "Out" points (http://diy-fever.com/misc/audio-probe/). The question seems to be "what's happening on the board?"

When the effect is on, the dry signal goes through both sides of U3 (dual op-amp). You should hear it on pin 1 and pin 7. If all that is working and you're still not getting anything, then it's possible the Belton ABE module is toast. However, if the other dual op-amp were dead (U2, the one that's used for the modules outputs) you wouldn't hear anything from it, or if there was something up with R1 or the power supply to the module. So it's not yet certain it's dead. The quickest way to know for sure would be to swap a new one in and try it, but I don't suppose you have another one hanging about, do you?

[HankStarvin]

Good morning.

Appeared that my poor ego needed at least an illusion of feeling of success, so instead of adding grey to my 3 remaining hairs i decided to build a Klon-clone instead of continuing the Stasis Leak project. But now, because waking up feeling that i didn't get any younger while sleeping, day is already ruined and i don't lose anything if i return to this and keep failing.

...The profile shows only that he's got a sense of humour and he's protecting his privacy a little.

I could claim i have some sort of sense of humour myself. Sadly...

Who yelled "LIES"?!?

Mhm...

I was saying that i often fail addressing larger audiences with jokes only i know the backround of. I also have to confess that my parents didn't babtize me as Hank. I just tend to forget my real name in internet.

It's Mika! Now i remembered it. Don't tell anyone.

And no! I'm not japanese girl, so anyone who sends me private messages with words "kawai", "desu" or pictures of their private parts will be laughed at. Around here we just have lots of poor people and usually parents can't afford enough letters to name their male brats Mikael, referring to one archangel (or something like that).

The wiring doesn't seem to be the problem, so don't start hacking that apart unless you're sure that's where the problem lies.

I meant i could rewire it with more orthodox colours just in case of future need. Not sure at all, if i don't have to return with the case later. Somewhat confidence lost with this one.

Doesn't hurt to learn the routine, eh. So far the kits i've built have been too easy and even the wire colors have been shown, so...

If you're getting *something* through when the effect is on...

That'll be my dry guitar signal. It is somewhat reduced, but i believe that it is always reduced compared to original in this type of pedals. After all, there will (at least should) be effect added to it, so it sums later with it and becomes louder.

...audio probe on the PCBs "In" and "Out" points (http://diy-fever.com/misc/audio-probe/)....

Thanks for the link. Maybe in tinker that some day. But for me this shows as a good reason for finaly learning how to use a oscilloscope.

Yes. Had to tinker such thing also, because someone claimed that smd's are bad (yes they are, but not impossible).

I start with checking the op amps. For those i may have spares. No extra Beltons around here. This was bought as a diy kit, so..

But thanks again. Now i have to move on to doing something instead of writing of the possibility...

M

[HankStarvin]

Aaand we have working effect.

Most of the thanks go to Electric Druid, who proved to be worth the name.

I started with my Machine That Goes Beep, Oscilloscope, Multimeter and heavens know what else very professional looking gear with led lights and glowing screens (at least the Wife was so impressed she practically purred). After i noticed that i'll spend the rest of the night tuning the scope just to see if there is that 1000,08Hz square wave i sent to it, i tossed it and the Machine That Goes Beep and started to look for voltages in op-amps. And pin 7 in second one was dead.

Changed both op amps just to be sure. Bah. Some distorted, very far delays, which disappeared after some time. But at least it gave me hope of the Belton-gizmo being operational after all. At that point i decided to remove inestines from case. I replaced both caps (C4 and C6 in schematic) just to be sure, resoldered the base of failing op amp (with absolutely none visible reason for that) and put the thing back together pondering that if this doesn't work, i'm in the absolute end of my skills in this.

To my (and i believe to everyone who's reading this) great suprise, i came up with working pedal. And what a wonderful delays it has.

Now it has TL072CP's (didn't have correct ones) and new caps are 50V versions (also because of lacks in inventory). If i've lost some magic dust in sound due those minor changes, please don't tell me. Without reference to original i would never know.

Another cap tested failed. Sadly can't tell which one, because i lost their order in some point. Imma test them op amps later (in some other device) but i believe they - at least one of them - may prove good. Not sure if failed cap can cause all of this though.

Thanks again.

And nice forum you guys have in here. I think i'll stay around and try to learn something from you guys.

[antonis]

Now it has TL072CP's (didn't have correct ones) and new caps are 50V versions (also because of lacks in inventory). If i've lost some magic dust in sound due those minor changes, please don't tell me.

You should wonder if you've earned some magic dust..