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Chris,
Thanks for the kind words about the Quaverato.
To give the Quaverato “deeper” depth you can increase both tone trim pots the same number of turns to get their individual signals louder (turn them clockwise). Just make sure you increase the same number of turns on each pot to keep the same hi-to-low ratio. You may have to turn down the gain trim pot to make up for the increased volume.
Another thing you can do is to make sure there is no light getting into the optocouplers. Make sure there are no tiny holes in heat shrink (from the soldering iron shrinking the tube), especially on the LED side. I often use opaque black hot glue to cover the ends to ensure no light gets in.
Also, make sure you keep the harmonic mix knob at 12:00…make sure your knob is attached to the proper location on the pot otherwise what you think is 12:00 might not be.
Generally, the slower the LFO, the more pronounced the phasing effect will be. This is because the LDRs have a finite time it takes them to go back up to a high resistance after the LED has turned off. Slower LFO rates give the LDRs time to fully recover to their “off” resistance.
I hope this helps.
Good luck!
-BrachI’m glad to hear that was an easy fix.
We do have a pricing option for the expression upgrade…I’m not sure if we are able to display it on our website because of WordPress limitations. Just email us if you are interested in adding on the expression mod.
Upgrading to a stereo pedal from a mono pedal is a little trickier because it would involve replacing the optocouplers….so i don’t think we are currently offering that option.
Anyway, let me know if you have any more questions.
Enjoy your VPM-1!
-BrachChris,
Sorry about your tuner jack issues. With the tuner jack plugged into an amp and while you play guitar through the pedal, can you get the signal jump in and out while you wiggle the male jack that’s plugged into the tuner jack (up and down and left and right)? I’m just wanting to see if there might be a bad connection in the jack. Other than that all i can think of is that there might be a bad solder connection somewhere in that signal path…check J5.
Let me know.
-BrachI responded to your email…but for reference…
Try to work your way through the troubleshooting guide.
From your symptoms it sounds as though your microcontroller may not be working properly. Check for that through the trouble shooting guide.
Let me know what you find.
-BrachRichie,
It seems that you may have a couple of issues going on at once. Most likely, the biggest issue is probably a short or open somewhere. Shorts can sometimes happen when you close the chassis because all the pots and pcb and everything can get kind of squished together causing something to be connected that shouldn’t be connected. Check to make sure the backs of the pots aren’t shorting against anything, possibly through the insulation paper (make sure there are no punctures in it). Also, this type of issue can be caused by bad solder joints that aren’t making good connection. Please check and re-flow the solder joints on the board (pay close attention to the solder joints on the pots).
When you get the solder joints and connections situated, that may solve all of your problems. But i am curious how calibration mode worked for you. Did one side or the other not work?
-BrachI’m sorry about your Quaverato trouble. It’s weird that it suddenly stopped working.
There is a section in the troubleshooting guide that talks about this very topic (Appendix A). Work through that and let me know if you have any questions.
Good luck.
-BrachAlright everyone….
I just got done with the tutorial on tightening the treadle’s sweep. I updated both the Owner’s Manual and the Assembly Manual with an appendix called “TIGHTENING THE TREADLE ACTION.” Hopefully it’s clear enough and easy to understand. It describes the easiest way I’ve found to get a “stiffer” action in the treadle.
FYI…the original, bigger Ernie Ball volume pedals don’t have the tension washer on the axle so they depend a lot more on the string to get the proper tension. I have had success installing some tension washers on these volume pedals…after this washer mod they work great with excellent treadle stiffness. This has to be a consideration if/when we release this VPM-1 mod for the original sized Ernie Ball volume pedals.
-BrachOk, good work. Look at the solder side of the board to make sure all the solder joints are solid and there aren’t any bridges on that side (i’m still thinking uC pin 13 could be bridged).
Let me know what happens when you fix those connections.
Good luck.
-BrachYes, that is very odd…unlucky pins and all.
You are doing those continuity tests with the power off, correct? Are you sure your meter’s battery is good and it’s working correctly?
Are you referring to the “power led” or the “bypass led”… when you said it is connected to pin 13 of the microcontroller?
With the opamp…that is very unusual that pin 13 isn’t connected to the board somehow. With the power off, do you get continuity between pin 13’s pad and pin 13 on the IC? If not, try soldering the pin to the top of the baord. Do you get continuity between the pad of pin 13 and the pad of pin 14?
Lets try some higher order logic…When you test the relay connections as per the troubleshooting guide (5-C), does it appear that the relay is working as it should? (do this test with the power on so you can switch the relay).
Let me know what you find.
-Brach…about the voltages on pins 8 and 9…make sure you are able to get a resistance reading across the gain trim pot (TP5 and TP6), because that’s the only thing the separates those pins. Just make sure the gain trim pot isn’t open (not connected).
Pins 13 and 14 are connected so they should be the same voltage. Please re-check this.Trilby,
It seems like you are, but i just wanted to make sure that you are working through the troubleshooting guide…correct?
The red LED beside the bypass foot switch should be dark when the pedal is in bypass, and bright when the effect is engaged…is this correct or is it backwards?
Just follow the steps in the troubleshooting guide and let me know where you get stopped.
Good luck.
-BrachScooter,
Are you referring to the same noise that others in this thread have had…the high pitched whine, in which the frequency is affected by the rate knob and completely disappears when the depth knob is fully counter-clockwise?
I’m pretty sure this noise as a function of where the pedal is in the chain doesn’t have anything to do with an impedance matching issue. At least i can’t imagine how it could. This version of the pedal (8.2) has a very high input impedance and a low output impedance, so theoretically it should fit into an effects chain very nicely. I think it may have more to do with the power configuration of the pedal board. You could experiment with different pedal power wiring (like putting it at the beginning of the power chain), but it’s best to put the Quaverato on it’s own power circuit because it draws a decent amount of power (over 50mA). It’s usually fine to share power with pedals that draw very little current, but you can run into noise issues when you share power between higher current drawing pedals.
If you can’t find a decent power configuration that helps then the next step is to try putting a 1uF cap across pins 7 and 8 as described in post #25415 above. This seems to have cleared up this issue for at least a few people.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
-BrachI have a tutorial that i’m working on that describes how to tighten the treadle on these VP Jr pedals. I’m hoping to have it done within the next 2 weeks. Sorry it’s taken so long to get it done. My work schedule has suffered from this pandemic. Anyway, the process is pretty easy, you just have to take the whole pedal apart so it takes some time. I’ll post on this forum again when it’s done.
-Brach
