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Big mostly DIY board. Bear hug, some other drives, etc.

Really slick graphic! Is that an etch or a decal?

Decal. It's a little sloppy.... I really should clean it up some!

KOT Clone with some 8ball inspired mods: 47n input caps for a lil more bass, 250k gain pots, 100pf caps in the loop of the IC. It sounds quite glorious.

Do you like the vibrato sound on this? I like the VB2 wiggle and want something at least close to that.

All the N.Y. State Courts are closed, local justice and city courts are closed, I can't do in person visits with incarcerated clients, Fed Courts are screening everyone and taking temperatures: Erie County where the WDNY is located has a bunch of confirmed cases, and there are confirmed cases in a county whose jail I went into on Thursday last week.

I feel like I could have unwittingly spread the virus by just doing my normal work last week and I feel bad about it. As a nation and world wide community of humans we need to shut it down for a few weeks and get this thing under control

Nothing before the comps in the chain.

Have you used a spare LED to make sure that both the vactrol is the right way round despite the dot? I've seen it wrong before. What are you using in Q1?
Sounds like it's time for an audio probe to see where it is being introduced.

I used the spare LED before I installed the vactrols.

What about after you installed it, if you touch the legs of the LED to the legs of the vactrol, does it light up??  What are you using in Q1?
Sounds like it's time for an audio probe to see where it is being introduced.

That's a good idea, I'll give it a shot!

Nothing before the comps in the chain.

Have you used a spare LED to make sure that both the vactrol is the right way round despite the dot? I've seen it wrong before. What are you using in Q1?
Sounds like it's time for an audio probe to see where it is being introduced.

I used the spare LED before I installed the vactrols.

Nothing before the comps in the chain.

Not it, both pedals have the hissy buzz of death at every level of volume and compression, and even blend.

I've reflowed all the solder joints, checked the wiring, tightened every nut... made sure the IC's are firmly seated in the sockets.

Attempt at pictures again:

https://imgur.com/gallery/iadxlf9

I think I've been cursed by the ghost of vactrols past, or something, because I can't build an optical compressor that actually works.

I finished building and boxing the Convex and Oceanid projects from AION FX over the past couple of days, and have had a persistent problem: terrible hissing and/or distortion when the comps are on.

Here are some pictures of the board side of the compressors:



And here are some audio clips of the behavior.

Recorded with low output (Lambertone Crema) humbuckers. The same behavior occurs when I use my Tele with single coils.

https://soundcloud.com/andrewbrautigam/oceanid-sound-samples

https://soundcloud.com/andrewbrautigam/convex-sound-samples

I am stumped.

IC voltages for the convex are

1:4.53
2:4.55
3:4.51
4:0
5:4.28
6:4.53
7:4.52
8:8.98

Q1
G: 1.85
S: 4.47
D: 8.98

Q2

C:3.98
B: 0
E: 0

Q3:
E: 7.48
B: 3.93
C: 0

Q4:
C: 0
B: 8.25
E: 9.1

Q5:

E: ? Draining slowly from 1v to 0???
B: 0
C: 9.09

Oceanic:

Ic1& IC2 - essentially the same a few milivolts lower on IC2

1: 4.89
2:4.89
3:2.44
4:0
5: 2.44
6:4.89
7:4.89
8:2.44

IC3

1: .01
2: ..01
3: .03
4: 0
5: 0
6: .05
7: .025
8: 8.84

Ic4

1: .14
2: .14
3: .04
4: 0
5: .08
6: .14
7: .72
8: 8.85

Q1: C-B- E

9-4.43-4.6

Q2 : CBE

7.98 - .69 - .10

I hope there's some clue in these numbers. I'm going nuts!

On the 5c4 works likes the spot indicates the positive leg of the LED, evidently. I actually made an LED light up on my breadboard..... I'm a real DIY person now

That's really strange. What reading are you getting? Are you sure you're working with the LED side and not the LDR side?

Yes, as long as the spot is on the LED side of the vactrol.

You should be able to use the diode setting on a multimeter to determine the polarity. On the LED side of the vactrol, place the black probe on one lead, the red on the other. If you get a Vf reading no connect, you've got the orientation backward; if you get a reading in line with LED read outs, the anode is connected to red and cathode to black.

My multimeter reads the same in both configurations. In diode measuring setting, which works on normal diodes but not LED's I guess