Hi All,
Have completed build of this pedal, voltages looking good and getting flinging but awful hum present with effect engaged or not?
Also not entirely sure how to wire the foot switch, as wired it as per other pedals with led but could get it to switch off led?
Have scope and multimeter just need to trace audio path to see why I'm getting hum?
Any help would be good as I've seen a lot of problems with this pedal!!
No special wiring needed for the foot switch, no LED and hum, probably a problem with your off board wiring in the power and ground department.
If you're testing it before it's boxed, make sure both in and out jacks are grounded.
AFAIK, there is no problem with the Flintlock pcb. I've built 3 or 4 of them and they all worked fine.
Is there an IC voltage chart for correct voltages on this build, might help find my problem a bit quicker.
corrected the mistake i've made with the footswitch and also found that the PSU unit i was using was the hum problem.
have twiddled the pedal into chaos now so need to go back and setup again!!
got some great sounds in it, just need to tame this beast!!
Congrats on getting it going! I hate debugging outside issues, they're always the last thing to occur to you.
I've found some other issues with it.
When range fully on I get a hum sound at about 1.9Meg in the sweep?
Don't know why?
Also there is some high pitched interference which seems to be part of the seeep as well?
The flange part of the sound, sound distorted as well so I'm not out of the woods with this pedal.
Some of this maybe due to using some alternative caps?
Again a full voltage chart would help me trace any issues if anyone has one please?
I haven't got a full voltage chart I'm afraid but if you post yours I can see what I can spot.
What cap changes did you make?
I think there used to be some voltages posted in the lectric-fx section, but we lost that in when the forum lost data, and I can't find them on my drive.
I grabbed an older flintlock and took these real quick, so hopefully these are on. Let me know if you see anything off with these, Scruff.
Flintlock Flanger Voltages (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V8m8_mBcDe2wbahvu-O4BR8d9je8F3c2y7myJj3WbXo/edit?usp=sharing)
I have several caps which should be poly rather than ceramic, so i will change them first.
Not sure if i've got my 2n5457 in correctly so will check this along with voltages, thank you for the voltage chart. :)
just getting distortion no flange now!!
changed 2n5457 for 2n3819, aaargggg!!!!!
Woah there Nelly, take a step back.
Did you change any cap values? Composition isn't important, just that they're the right values.
Putting in the J-FET wrong would kill the flange so break out a datasheet.
Posting up your voltages and photos of your board so another set of eyes can look at them and taking a breather before you want to throw it out the window is the best course of action now.
all cap values are the same, just i've used a few ceramic caps in parallel to get values, i've ordered some more so can change.
i'll post up some pictures and voltages.
IC1
1 - 7.2v
2 - 7.2v
3 - 6.5v
4 - 0v
5 - 14.33v
6 - 13v
7 - 13.68v
8 - 14.25v
IC2
1 - 4.8v
2 - 4.8v
3 - 4.8v
4 - 0v
5 - 7.2v
6 - 7.2v
7 - 7.7v
8 - 14.4v
IC3 looks pretty close to your voltages
IC4
1 - 2.2v
2 - 7.2v
3 - up&down
4 - 0v
5 - 7.2v
6 - 7.2v
7 - up&down
8 - 14.91v
IC6 voltages look close to yours
IC7 is getting 9v and 15v
IC10
1 - 15.01v
2 - 7.55v
3 - 13.72v
4 - 1.1v
5 - 0V
6 - 7.5v
7 - 9.28v
8 - 9.28
IC11 voltages look good very close
IC12 voltages look good very close
IC13 pin 1 is only 2.2v all other voltages look close
Q1 (2N3819)
D - 6.8v
S - 7.2v
G - 6.8v
IC8 and IC9 will follow
no sign of flanging now, just works as distortion effect, when adjusting speed can slightly hear that it is working but too much distortion and fuzz to make out.
IC1.2 is way out, that'd explain the distortion, either your bias trim is set wrong or there's a problem there.
ive taken out all IC's and i put them in one by one and looked at 15v test point and all is good.
IC2 pins are out and i cant see why?
Ive tried adjusting bias but nothing changes apart from getting no sound all the way one way?
Anyone got any pointers please?
I need to look at IC1 sorry!!!
Adjusted bias and IC1 falls in, IC2 is out so need to find what's wrong there?
Getting low voltage on 2.1 and high voltage on 2.2!
IC2
1 - 4.8v
2 - 4.8v
3 - 4.8v
4 - 0v
5 - 7.2v
6 - 7.2v
7 - 7.7v
8 - 14.4v
These are right, unless you're saying changing the bias has changed them in which case you must have a short somewhere.
When I take out the 4049 I get 15.06v at test point and when it's in the voltage drops to 14.96v, so could be a problem here?
When I've had hum before it's normally a component drawing too much current and the circuit voltage dropping below where it needs to be, this might be the case here so I e ordered a couple more cd4049 as I need another one for the electric mistress.
It seems I'm not getting an effect signal which could be that the 4049 is down, I'll try and have a look with scope and see where the signal gets too.
Any other ideas?
The 4049 is very current hungry so the voltage dropping with it in isn't surprising.
Did you install C37? It seems it causes some problems if it's put in.
Did you check the FET datasheet and resolve the wet signal disappearing?
Does IC1.2s pin 7 voltage vary with the bias trimmer?
Post up some photos so I can give the board a look over.
i've taken out the 4049 and put it in the electric mistress and now that doesn't work!! so i'm thinking the 4049 has gone plop!!
as both pedals did work previously.
Ive put in TL072 instead of the 1458, i also have a few 4558 if needed which i think work for IC4.
other side
TL072 is not a suitable replacement for IC4 and 4558 aren't much better, they may work but they also might not, a TL022, TL062, LM358 or the LM1458 you had in there are better choices, you had moving voltages on IC4 so it appears the LFO was working anyway.
Well if the 4049 killed a working pedal then yeah, quite possibly it's dead, they are static sensitive.
You've put the 2N3819 in the wrong pads, it's D,G,S not G,S,D.
You might find all that long wiring for the pots causes issues, might explain the high pitched interference you had.
Ok great stuff, I actually have some more 2n5457 which arrived yesterday so will change and shorten all the wires.
I will also change back the 1458 in IC4.
IC4 now like this with LM1458 in!!
1 - 13.97
2 - 7.1
3 - 14
4 - 0
5 - 7v
6 - 0
7 - 14.98
8 - 14.98
so defo something wrong!!!
replaced IC9 4049 and 4047 no change, this pedal is getting closer to the bin now!!!
electric mistress now works as i've put in the 4049, one down.
getting voltage drop when put in brand new MN3007 so will test this in the electric mistress to make sure works.
Im going to test all voltages again then try and trace with scope!!
also scruffle, i thought IC2 was wrong as pin 1 on your sheet says 9v, but i take that its a misprint and meant to be 3v?
I hadn't looked at them but yeah, those voltages are no good. Your IC2 was fine, the only issue you had was half of IC1.
Odd that your IC4 worked and now doesn't...
Again, your IC10 voltages were fine apart from the bias which is fed by the half of IC1 with the wrong voltages.
well i've twiddled and adjusted the c-max and c-range and now have flanging again!!
I've not test frequencies but there is a loud swoop/swoosh which i twiddled out as its was unusable.
Have got it sounding ok apart from a little high pitch chirp in the background?
do i need to put in that other cap C37?
I've also shortened all the wires and tested outside the box.
I'm pretty sure the frequencies are not 69khz to 2.6mhz!!!
Does this matter?
Quote from: Spenzerleehorton on August 17, 2018, 09:25:56 AM
I've also shortened all the wires and tested outside the box.
I'm pretty sure the frequencies are not 69khz to 2.6mhz!!!
Does this matter?
Spenzer,
Is this your first pedal build? What kind of guitar are you going to use with this flanger?
And what kind of soldering iron are you using?
Not my first build, I got Les Paul and other guitars, and my iron is an adjustable digital one.
Les Paul's are awesome. Excellent choice.
Have you built any distortion/fuzz boxes? I'm asking this because the flintlock is a complex build
and I'm wondering if you've bitten off a bit more than you can chew.
Learning how to trouble-shoot is a very important part of pedal DIY.
Quote from: Spenzerleehorton on August 17, 2018, 09:25:56 AM
I'm pretty sure the frequencies are not 69khz to 2.6mhz!!!
Do they matter to be exact?..... NO
However, if you do not dial them in close to these numbers you can experience clock whine at the ends of the sweep as well as other noise.
Well I've built an mxr flanger, tremolo, phase 90, electric mistress, arbiter fuzz, 2 x SSL4000, 4 x 1176 Rev d compresssors, 2xLA2A compressors, 4 x DBX 160, about 20 valve mics and a fender champ.
So I think I know my way a soldering iron, but some circuits are difficult to pin down when they are small and compact, I'm always learning but have never been taught anything academically.
Quote from: Spenzerleehorton on August 18, 2018, 02:36:35 AM
Well I've built an mxr flanger, tremolo, phase 90, electric mistress, arbiter fuzz, 2 x SSL4000, 4 x 1176 Rev d compresssors, 2xLA2A compressors, 4 x DBX 160, about 20 valve mics and a fender champ.
So I think I know my way a soldering iron, but some circuits are difficult to pin down when they are small and compact, I'm always learning but have never been taught anything academically.
Excellent.
Have you had to trouble-shoot any of your builds? Such as problems with the MXR flanger, or the Electric Mistress?
Yes all builds have some problems, mxr flanger had a wrong cap value which stumped me, silly mistake but I figured it out in the end.
Electric mistress went fine and worked first time but I did manage to make it into a weird delay pedal at one point!!
The Ada all works now just need a bit more time to fully get my head around the circuit and now I know I don't have to dial in the exact frequencies as per manual. and I've got flanging now so just need to get shot of the high pitched chirp in the flange sound.
Right, the chirping is likely heterodyning which is when two clocks interact, in this case the 4047 and the LT1054, this build can be built without it so it's likely one of 3 things;
1) It's out of the enclosure.
2) Your wiring (if you can make those pots in to onboard pots with resistor/cap offcuts like some do that would eliminate this question) is causing cross interference. You could also just poke them around and see if it gets better as you move them.
3) Your clock settings are off and causing the issue, the LT1054 runs at 35-45kHz if I recall correctly, if your lower 4047 frequency was too close to that it could cause an issue. If you have a way of measuring frequency you really should use it, it'll definitely help get the best out of the pedal anyway.
Do not install C37 unless you're willing to go through more debugging, while it was added as a safety net for this problem it was never actually tested and was just taken from the data sheet, someone on here recently built the Countdown phaser and added it and it caused all sorts of issues.
If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on reason #2. I gave up on offboard wiring
unless I have no choice. The person that invented onboard pots deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
For what its worth, my Flintlock could never calibrate to the exact frequencies in the calibration doc, no matter how much I played with it. I'm guessing a couple caps may have been at one extreme or another of their tolerances. I got about the right range, just a little shifted. It still sounds great to my ears.
Thank you all, now I know these things I think I'll be fine, happy days!!!
I will add that in the MXR flanger i had chirps in the flange and i had a wrong cap in there, will double check i haven't done the same thing here!!
Pedal sounding pretty good now, does a great job at a nice chorus, some really wacky sounds in there, love it!!
Now to make a big muff PI and get this envelope filter working better.