madbeanpedals::forum

Projects => General Questions => Topic started by: mixographer on May 12, 2022, 08:04:41 AM

Title: Snarkdoodle low output?
Post by: mixographer on May 12, 2022, 08:04:41 AM
I've read about the snarkdoodle in the past, and heard it's quite loud. And I watched some Red Llama videos and that seemed quite loud. Now I've built a snarkdoodle and at full gain and volume it's barely over the sound of the guitar clean. I've got a 1M and s 10k pot in it now. Any ideas why my output would be so low? Anything I should check?

Thanks!

Jimmy
Title: Re: Snarkdoodle low output?
Post by: Govmnt_Lacky on May 12, 2022, 10:36:13 AM
Check ALL of your resistor values in the circuit. Verify that they are the proper values in accordance with the build document.
Title: Re: Snarkdoodle low output?
Post by: mauman on May 12, 2022, 01:57:59 PM
+1.  Also, the 4049 IC has to be the unbuffered version (UBE suffix.)  You can tell that by the number on the part, it should be "4049UBE" and not just "4049" or "4049B" or "4049BE."
Title: Re: Snarkdoodle low output?
Post by: mixographer on May 12, 2022, 05:21:16 PM
Good suggestions, thank you very much. All the resistor are correct. And I definitely have the unbuffered hex inverter.

But checking the values of everything led to an interesting discovery! I have a magnitude problem in one of my capacitors.

Take a guess? Spoiler alert, I noticed 2 100nF caps on the board and there is only one in the BOM. That is correct, instead of 100 pufs I had 100 nanos at C4! I have replaced this with the correct value and the pedal now sounds great. So it comes down to probably the most common problem in my bench, builder error!

Thanks for the advice and support!

Jimmy
Title: Re: Snarkdoodle low output?
Post by: Govmnt_Lacky on May 12, 2022, 05:37:29 PM
Quote from: mixographer on May 12, 2022, 05:21:16 PM
So it comes down to probably the most common problem in my bench, builder error!

Welcome to the club!  ;D