Troubleshooting

[Tony Barnes]

Hey all,

Finished my Quaverato build, and let me be completely candid: I am a rank amateur in the soldering department. Total beginner. I felt like I did an okay job, though. I may be in way over my head in the “mistake fixing” department, however.

What I’m saying is that this may turn out to be a fairly long thread.

Plugged pedal in, powered up per step 3a of the Calibration and Setup instructions. Red power LED came on. But when I hit the bypass button, nothing happens. (The wires there were fairly challenging for my solder skill set.) I WOULD check the continuity around the bypass switch as a start, but I have no idea HOW to check continuity in that part… where do I test and what values?

[brach]

Thanks for the introduction and honesty about your skill level…that’s helpful for me to know in what I can and can’t assume with your build.
The fist: Did you solder the jumpers as in the pictures in the manual?
When you hit the bypass button does the led even come on? How about the green tap led? Does that work?
Both foot switches should be connected to ground when they are pressed and open otherwise. You can test this by using your continuity tester on your multimeter (it’s the function that beeps when the meter leads are connected). With one lead of your meter touch the chassis (it should be at ground potential…put the lead tip through one of the screw holes to free up one hand) and with the other lead touch pin 3 of the micro controller (U1). Pin 3 should (only) be connected to ground when the bypass button is pressed (you should hear a beep when it is pressed). Pin 4 of the micro should only be connected to ground when the tap button is pressed. If they don’t beep when they are pressed or continually beep then check your wire soldering.
Test those things and let me know what you find.
-Brach

[Tony Barnes]

Hey Brach,

Thanks for the help.

I have NOT soldered the jumpers yet, because that step comes a little later in the instructions. Is that key? Should I do that BEFORE testing the other bits?

With the jumpers unsoldered, there is continuity through some of the pins on the micro controller to ground all the time, and when the tap is pressed those both still have continuity AND one other pin is
connected to ground.

I don’t know how the pins are numbered, so when viewing the schematic on page 11 of the instructions, the “always on” pins are on the top row, #7 from the left, and the bottom row, #8 from the left. The tap footswitch, when pressed, grounds the 4th pin from the left on the bottom row.

Hope this makes sense, please ask for any clarification that helps.

Thanks,

Tony

[brach]

I’m assuming what you mean by “nothing happens when you press the bypass switch” is the bypass and tap leds are not working…is this correct? If they don’t work then don’t worry about the jumpers yet….let’s get them working first.
Pin 1 on the micro is the pin with the square pad, so pin 3 is just 2 pins down from that one on the same side of the chip. Pins 8 and 22 (the pins you noticed were always connected to ground) are the chips ground pins and should be connected to ground. We only care about weather pin 3 is connected to ground when the bypass switch is pressed. The same for the tap switch and pin 4.
In your previous post I couldn’t tell what you were saying about what pins 3 and 4 were doing. Let me know if those pins (3 and 4) are connected to ground when the button is pressed AND not connected to ground when the button is not pressed. The pedal does not need to be powered to do this test.
-Brach

[Tony Barnes]

Hey Brach,

Thanks for sticking with me on this.

Okay: Pin 4 grounds when the tap button is pushed. Pin 3 does not ground when the bypass button is pushed. Neither the tap nor the bypass LEDs are illuminating at any time, yet.

Thanks,

Tony

[brach]

I’m assuming that neither pin (3 or 4) is grounded when the button is not pressed. Is this correct?
The fact that pin 3 does not ground when the button is pressed tells me that the foot switch isn’t connected properly. The solder joint is probably bad where the wire connects to the circuit board. One of the wires appears to not be making connection to the board…Or/and I suppose it could mean that pin 3 of the IC isn’t connected properly to the board….check the microcontroller’s solder joints.
You may need to watch some youtube tutorials on soldering and desoldering if you don’t have much experience with this.
Good luck.
-Brach

[Tony Barnes]

Okay, I’ll look into this. I have to head out of town for a few days and won’t be at my bench, but I’ll update when I’ve checked the wire connections.

Thanks!

Tony

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