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Moodring issues - potentially Belton Brick related?

Started by p_wats, September 20, 2018, 09:38:16 AM

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p_wats

I'm trying to clear out some old half-finished projects, so I put together a 2014 Moodring board I snatched from Rej a while back to use up a leftover BTDR-2 Belton Brick.

I thought it was working, but noticed the long Belton Brick isn't producing much reverb (if any). I'll caveat this with saying I seem to remember not using this particular brick over the years for a reason (it's been in my parts stash for a long time and I have a vague memory of maybe thinking it was behaving strange the first time I tried to use it).

All my voltages are within expected range given my PSU and all controls work to some degree:

Space increases the pre-delay
Dwell interacts with the Space control to increase the zaniness of the signal
Mood changes the tone
Ring increases or decreases the mix of pre-delay/reverb (though the reverb is minimal)

Basically, all that's missing is actual reverb. It sounds like the brick is trying, but not getting there and what gets through sounds a bit nasty.

I'm not too married to making this work, as I don't need another reverb and could use the parts for something else as I wait for an order from Tayda, but figured I'd post here before admitting defeat and tossing it.

madbean

If the brick is getting 5v and ground, then best to audio probe the output pins of the brick first. See if you have good reverb there. If not, there could be something wrong with it.

p_wats

Quote from: madbean on September 20, 2018, 09:53:27 AM
If the brick is getting 5v and ground, then best to audio probe the output pins of the brick first. See if you have good reverb there. If not, there could be something wrong with it.

Good idea. I haven't actually done any probing yet--just measurements, etc.

p_wats

Got out the probe last night and the clean signal hits the input of the brick just fine, but the signal coming out of the two output pins (5, 6) is a high speed oscillation (slight different on both pins).

p_wats

I'll probably gut this build for parts, as I'm out of board mount B100K pots and don't need another reverb at the moment.

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madbean

If the brick is bad don't throw it out. Take is apart for science!

p_wats

Quote from: madbean on September 21, 2018, 03:25:03 PM
If the brick is bad don't throw it out. Take is apart for science!
Good idea. I'll post pics.

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p_wats

I got the case open, but inside it appears to still be a solid gooped brick. I cut away at the corners bit didnt get anywhere.

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alanp

"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken."
- Terry Pratchett
My OSHpark shared projects
My website

p_wats

Quote from: alanp on September 21, 2018, 09:45:02 PM
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=13162.0
The gut shots in that thread are actually BDTR-1. Likely not much difference, but still potentially fun to get a look at first hand.

Besides, who doesn't like taking things apart themselves?

Boba7

I took a btdr2 apart a little while ago. Just keep digging through the goop, you'll get there! :)


p_wats

Quote from: Boba7 on September 21, 2018, 11:56:25 PM
Wont help you but here's the link: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=26311.0
Thanks! I'm not sure I care to work through the goop that badly. Your photos are enough for me. Thanks!