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Did you build this from a kit or was it built by us, at ZDL? What is your serial number?
Just to be clear, you are saying that the pedal works fine, when it is either bypassed or engaged, but when it is engaged the effect doesn’t seem to be working (there is no tremolo), just a louder guitar signal. Is this correct?
About the volume issue, set the volume knob in the center and adjust VR10 until the gain is set to unity.
-BrachDoes it respond to the tap foot swtich?…(with the multiplier knob set to 1:1) Can you tap out a tempo?
-Brach25K is not enough resistance to stop the signal from getting through the high frequency signal path. But you wouldn’t get an accurate reading anyway unless you unsoldered the jumpers…the dc voltage from opamp pins will skew the reading of your ohm meter. The most likely cause is a bad solder joint somewhere. Make sure everything is soldered correctly…including the jumpers. You can double check that the high frequency optocoupler led is being lit up by making a tiny incision with you xacto knife (about 1mm long) on the heat shrink on the back side of the led (close to the led’s leads). That way you can see if the led is actually bright when it’s supposed to be bright (when the depth knob is at 0, for example…or when in calibration mode on the high harmonic mix setting).
If the LED is turning on then the problem has to be in the high frequency signal path somewhere…most likely a bad solder joint. Use the schematic to trace out the components in the high frequency path and then look for bad solder joints in those areas.
Let me know what you find.
-BrachSo that’s good that the FET fixed the no signal issue.
Now it sounds like something is wrong with the high frequency signal path. We need to know if the problem is with the digital control (as in the high optocoupler’s led isn’t lighting up) or if the problem is in the audio signal path.
With the depth knob at 0 (fully counter clockwise) what DC voltage do you get on the square pad of the high side optocoupler (opto1)…from ground (black lead on ground, red lead on the square pad)? It should be about 1.8V dc.
-BrachYes, that would do it. Good job noticing it was backwards. That is a FET (field effect transistor) which is responsible for momentarily muting the audio signal while the relay is switching to keep the relay click out of audio path. Since it’s backwards it might be constantly keeping the signal muted, so that’s why everything is really quiet.
Email us at info “at” zeppelindesignlabs.com and we’ll explain how to get a new FET.
-BrachScooter,
The good news is that you are getting at least some sound to pass through the circuit, so we know it seems to be working on some level. This problem sounds like a bad connection somewhere…like a bad solder joint in the audio path. The volume knob is off in the counter clockwise direction…is it behaving that way? I suggest you re-flow your solder joints again to make sure everything is connected the way it should be. Another possible cause could be the signal is partially shorting out somewhere, possibly against the back of one of the pots when the circuit board is installed in the chassis. Make sure the pieces of paper don’t have any holes in them and nothing is poking through.
Good luck.
-BrachHi Kit…
I’m trying to get back to working a few hours here at the lab. I’ve been out with some family health issues for the past several weeks.
I’m sorry about your Quaverato trouble. Since you are getting continuity to ground on the round pad only when power is on, this tells me that your microcontroller probably has been damaged so you may need a new one. You can try reflashing it to see if it can be salvaged, but if you don’t have the means to do that then your best bet is to get a new microcontroller.
If you want to inquire about getting a new microcontroller, you can contact us at info “at” zeppelindesignlabs.com
Once again, i’m sorry about this trouble…and sorry it took so long for us to get back to you about it.
-BrachBob,
I’m glad to hear that’s it’s working the way it should on a real amp. I’m not sure why it was behaving that way with the Pod…i guess just keep using the real amp.
Good luck.
-BrachThis is an odd symptom. I’ve never experienced this before. But it has to be something simple, like a bad connection or solder joint…there’s not much after the volume pot except the output jack. It’s hard to say much without hearing it myself. If you could send me a cell phone video showing me this problem i might be able to have some more insight.
Before you send the video tell me what circuit board version do you have? 6.x or 8.x?
If you have board version 8.x then see what happens when you remove (or lift one leg of) C17.
If you have version 6.x then proceed with the video.
Our email is info “at” zeppelindesignlabs.com
-BrachYou have a short somewhere. The first thing to check is your distance sensors…is one or both of them plugged in backwards?
The next thing to check is your solder joints. Are there any solder bridges? Is there any loose solder pieces on the board that could be shorting together 2 solder joints? Look carefully. You may want to re-flow the solder joints just to be sure.
Let me know what you find.
-BrachThanks for asking.
Believe it or not, I actually designed the Percolator intentionally using these caps…the decision wasn’t all about cutting cost. I could have used a few types of cheaper film caps, but I chose the Panasonic because I like the way they sound in the amp. The cheap 470pF ceramic caps probably seem like an odd decision but I am intrigued by the way they distort…distortion in these types of caps is a function of the voltage across them, they tend to impart more odd order harmonic distortion as the signal through them is bigger. I didn’t have a particular reason (other than cost) for using these particular electrolytic caps.
I fully support and encourage tweaking your amp with different parts. But I wouldn’t change any components until you hear the what the amp sounds like with all the stock components. Then if you do want to change out parts, it will give you a baseline for how the sound has changed.
We get our transformers from a supplier overseas and from a company here in the US called Edcor.
Thanks for the questions. Let me know if I can answer anything else.
Good luck with your build.
-BrachAndy,
I’m sorry to hear about your Quaverato issue. By the symptoms, it does sound like the microcontroller is damaged. You can try to re-flash it if you can borrow a PC, but if the microcontroller has been badly damaged it may not be flashable anyway. Otherwise, you can either get another microcontroller from us (contact us via email: info “at” zeppelindesignlabs.com). If you are into building electronics, you may have another atmega328p around, which you can flash with our software…if you can borrow a PC. If that sounds like too much of a headache, contact us and we’ll sell you a new microcontroller.
Once again, sorry for the trouble.
-BrachBy your symptoms, i’m assuming you have an older version of the Quaverato, which had a relatively low input impedance. Try putting a buffer pedal before the Quaverato…basically any non-true bypass pedal should work…even a Boss pedal that’s not engaged. That should help dive your Quaverato better. Alternatively, you can adjust your tone trim pots to your taste while it is in your pedal board. This may be a better option if you don’t want to put a buffer pedal before it.
-Brach
