[brach]

By obvious i assume you mean the jumpers have been soldered and the guitar and amp are in the correct jacks?…I don’t mean to be insulting, but this happens even to me sometimes.
What board version do you have?
-Brach

[brach]

These lines have to do with the “Quiet switching” feature (in board version 8.2), in which the audio signal is shunted to ground via a FET before the relay switches, and then after the relay switches the FET switch is relased and the signal is passed through to the output again. All this happens in about 25mS or so.
This helps with the audible relay click that happens sometimes.

[brach]

Make sure that pin 11 on the microcontroller is being low (close to 0 volts) when the bypass mode is enabled. Also make sure that when momentary mode is enabled pin 11 goes high (close to 5 volts). Test this and let me know what you find.
-Brach

[brach]

Nick,
That’s the speaker being overdriven to the extent that it’s voice coil is hitting the speaker magnet. The little on-board speaker isn’t meant to reproduce the sound very accurately, it’s just meant as somewhat of a monitor to let you know the Macchiato is making sound at all. So it can be misleading when it causes problems like this. In fact, the next version of the Macchiato (which we are currently working on) will not have an on-baord speaker, partially to keep issues like this from happening.
To cure this problem, just lower the volume of the Macchiato.
Sorry about this issue.
Take care,
-Brach

[brach]

YummyFuzz,
I’m glad to hear that mod is working for you! It sounds like you did a good job tweaking the trim pots to get the sound you want. That’s just what I hope people do with the Quavearto!
Take care.
-Brach

[brach]

Thanks for the new sound file.
I know this sounds dumb, but make sure the cables are plugged into the correct jacks. This mistake happens to me every once in a while because i’m not paying close enough attention when the pedal is flipped upside down. If that’s not the issue, continue…
Plug in amp to the pedal. Make sure the pedal in engaged (not bypassed)… With a metal object, like some tweezers or screw driver, that you are holding (make sure you are holding the metal part of the tool) touch the tip of output jack…you should hear a loud noise from the amp. Then touch pin 6 of U2 (the first TL072 in the signal path). You should hear a similar loud sound from the amp.
Did these two points make the expected noise?
Let me know what you find.

[brach]

Dan,
I’m glad it’s working now. Good job!
You don’t need to re-calibrate the trim pots with a meter now…if the tone needs adjustment, just use your ears and make the adjustments that way. The calibrations process with the meter is just supposed to get things in the same ball park, after that you need to use your ears to tweak the tone the way you like.
-Brach

[brach]

I’m really glad you are enjoying your Quaverato. Good job making it look unique…it’s looks great! I love it when our customers mod our kits to personalize them…that’s what DIY is all about…being creative and tweaking things to personal taste.
Take care.
-Brach

[brach]

Good idea.

[brach]

The pedal uses around 50mA, so to be safe use a power supply capbale of suppling 100mA.

[brach]

Dan,
Thanks for the pictures. A lot of your leads seem really long, you may want to clip them shorter so they have less chance of shorting together. Make sure the the back of the pots aren’t shorting any leads on the board.
Are you able to hear any LFO sound when the pedal is engaged and you turn up your amp loud? If so, is the rate and volume of the LFO adjustable with the controls?
Are those little pieces of solder on the top of the board near R33? If so, clean those up (and any others around the board). Also, resolder R29 and push it closer to the board. If any of the components around that area of the board are touching or shorted out against anything then the muting circuit may be malfunctioning. So check all the solder joints on the components around R29 to make sure nothing is shorted.
Let me know what you find.
-Brach

[brach]

Thanks for the photos and sound file. Since you are getting the sound of the LFO out of the pedal, it seems to be mostly working, there is probably just something wrong in the signal path.
Does the volume of the LFO change when you adjust the volume control?
Does the rate change when you adjust the rate control?
Make sure there are not solder shorts anywhere, also make sure the back of the pots aren’t shorting out of the solder joints on the board.
Let me know about the controls.
-Brach

[brach]

Did you remember to solder the jumpers?

[brach]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us…it helps in knowing what issues exist in real life.
1) I would hope that the grounded chassis would keep this from happening much, but power transformers do emmit a lot of flux. If you want to keep it on your amp, maybe try to keep the pedal on the side of your amp away from the power transformer (the side where the guitar input is). Also, mind how your input and output cables are laying on the amp top. They can pick up hum too.
2) Yes it can add emphasise some higher frequencies, but you can “tune” it with the high and low trim pots to get more of a natural sound.
3) Amp sag should just happen when you hit the gutiar hard, whereas the sag from the tremolo LFO will happen in steady time. One idea is to set the tremolo LFO faster (like 2:1 or faster ratio) so that when you hit the amp hard on the down beat the LFO can still be hard and the two phenomena don’t have as much effect on each other…just an idea.
4) The battery should be fine for short stints. I estimate around 6 or 7 hours of use with a typical 9 volt battery.
Your 9v/300mA power supply is fine…the pedal uses around 50mA, so anything more than double that should be fine.
Thanks agian for your comments.
-Brach

[brach]

Nice build! Good job!

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