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Messages - redmojosteve

#1
Errata, Corrections, Revisions / Harbinger 2
January 10, 2021, 07:34:47 AM
Hi
I have just completed a Harbinger 2 and all seems fine apart from a squeal type of noise (which now I think is injected by the power supply part of of the board). My version of the board is Rev 1 and I wonder if this is much different to the Harbinger build instructions which seem to reflect the original PCB version. Thanks
Steve
#2
General Questions / Harbinger two squealing
January 06, 2021, 04:30:43 AM
Morning
I have seen something like this for the Harbinger one but I never found an answer. I am sure someone has a better idea than me about where I should be concentrating my efforts!
My Harbinger two build does produce the correct output sounds, as far as I can tell, but there is a squeal which follows the volume and modulation of the sound, even without a signal input. To give some idea of the nature of the sound it seems to be like a sawtooth wave at around 2kHz.  Most of the voltages around the board are generally about 5-10% below those in the table in the build doc, but some of the voltages are quite a bit out e.g. IC1 pin1 +4.4V, pin 6 +4.7V, pin 7+3.5V; Q12 B +4.9, E +4; Q14 S +0.45 and the others voltages are more or less as specified, if a bit lower as mentioned above. I use a bench power supply and I have swapped the IC with another new one but no difference. I built the harbinger one some time ago without any problems (and loads of other pedals too, which have all worked!).
I wonder if anyone could give me an idea of what it could be please?
Thanks
#3
Swapped all of my PT2399s arounds and, well, I guess two working PT2399 out of four isn't bad. I wonder what the failure rate in the factory is? I'm now getting repeats and everything seems to be working fine. There is a bit more distortion on the repeats than I expected but that may be down to my lack of familiarity with the pedal and its multitude of switching arrangements. You are so right about twinkle tree lights!
Regards
Steve
#4
Thanks for the quick reply. The other 2399 does have the correct voltages and I've done the swapping around. I have even bought two new 2399s, just in case I'd fried the first ones, but they don't seem any different. Having read through a few threads on this topic, it seems the 2399 ICs can be a bit hit and miss in terms of performance. Perhaps I've got 50% failure rate in each batch of 2.  I'll leave the one with good values in place and try a bit of methodical swapping around of the others to see if this helps.
Cheers
Steve
#5
Hi
I have got the SDX all connected up and whilst it passes signal, and it adds a bit of gain, there is no delay effect in any switch or pot position. I have checked all of the resistors and caps (even though I checked them on assembly) but it all seems in order. I spotted another thread which showed voltages around the ICs. Here I have clearly got something wrong. I am getting:
IC3 - PT2399
Pin 7 - 4.57V
Pin 11 - 0.51V
Pin 12 - 4.68V
Pin 13 - 3.16V
Pin 14 - 0.1V
The other voltages are broadly in line with what I have seen tabled elsewhere.
Occasionally it does seem to pass some signal but it's crackles and pops which seems like it's generated by some random noise!
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Steve
#6
I can answer my own submission! I think there were a number of small issues which made things messy. The power supply wasn't regulated so I've fitted the filter board after which the performance was almost non existent. However when I checked the voltages I found I was getting around 5.6V dc before I remembered the issue with R54. I jumpered this and lo and behold it's all working nicely. Thanks for a great site!
Cheers
Steve
#7
Hi,
This is the first pedal I have built for a few years but I have been building EQ's, pre-amps and the odd compressor in the meantime all of which work nicely. That's the good bit. I have got the Harbinger all nicely constructed and it does seem to do what it's supposed to do ie. speed, intensity, gain etc work. Fet position for more gain works, but I must admit, the sound coming out is far from lush! I am getting quite a good bird impersonation (like a tweet!!) coming through with no input signal and the sound in general is very harsh like diode clipping. I have checked all of the component values and orientations and they are OK. The only change from the original is that I used a 200K trimmer for the offset as I couldn't get a 250K one. I couldn't see this making much difference as hopefully the trimmers would end up around middle sort of values. The lamp intensity seems to be just fine so I can't imagine it's far off being right but clearly it isn't. I can't find any solder bridges nor have I spotted any dry joints. Incidentally I am using the 9v layout and a 9v dc regulated supply. Has anyone had this sort of problem before?
Any advice is much appreciated.
Cheers
Steve