brach

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 421 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Me and Charles playing the Altura together #41662
    brach
    Moderator

    That’s fun! Thanks for sharing!
    -Brach

    in reply to: No effect when engaged #41585
    brach
    Moderator

    IF THAT DOESN’T WORK, you can test to see if the relay is working by very quickly connecting the round pad of one of the diodes (D2 or D3) to ground. This has to be done when the pedal in powered on. You can temporarily solder a wire to one of the ground points on the pedal and use the other end of the wire to quickly touch the round pad of D2 or D3. One diode pin flips the relay one direction, and the other diode pin flips it in the other direction. You should hear the relay clicking.
    You can also check to see if there is continuity between all the components that are supposed to be connected (you might even want to do this before testing the relay)…As shown in the schematic:
    Check to see that pins 13 and 14 of the microcontroller are connected to R32 and R31, respectively.
    Check to see that the other pins of R32 and R31 are connected to the center pins of Q5 and Q4 respectively.
    Check to see that the pins closest to the relay of Q5 and Q4 are connected to the round pads of D3 and D2 respectively.
    When you check the continuity of these pins, put your meter probes on the pins AS CLOSE TO THE COMPONENT BODY AS POSSIBLE. Do not probe/test the pins at their solder joints. This is very important to ensure you are testing to see if the components are actually connected, not just the traces on the board that the solder joints are soldered to. This also makes it easier because you can do all these tests from the component side of the board.
    Good luck.
    -Brach

    in reply to: pedal won’t turn on #41583
    brach
    Moderator

    You are apparently getting power to the board (you are testing the wrong pins coming out of the 9V female power jack…use the 3rd pin on the bottom of the board). Are you getting 5 volts on the 5 volt test points?
    Do any of the other LEDs turn on? If so, then the power LED is probably backwards. Have you tested it yet?
    -Brach

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41577
    brach
    Moderator

    (I’m sorry about my spam filter!)
    That’s great to hear! I’m so glad it’s up and working now.
    I hope you enjoy your Quaverato for years to come!
    Take care.
    -Brach

    in reply to: No effect when engaged #41576
    brach
    Moderator

    I agree that the problem is in the relay circuitry. The fact that you aren’t hearing a click means the relay either isn’t getting a control voltage to cause it to switch or it just isn’t responding when it does receive the control voltage.
    Seeing that it used to work and now it stopped working, the problem is most likely a cold solder joint (I’m about 80% sure that this is the problem based on my experience helping people with this same type of issue). It’s very rare for relays to break and seeing that the other features of the microcontroller are working, that’s probably not the problem. It could be the transistors, but that would be much less likely than a solder joint going cold over time.
    That’s all I can say for now.
    Good luck!
    -Brach

    in reply to: No effect when engaged #41558
    brach
    Moderator

    What voltage do you get on the diodes…and on the microcontroller, according to the voltage chart?
    -Brach

    in reply to: No effect when engaged #41542
    brach
    Moderator

    Is the relay working? Work through step 5 of the troubleshooting manual. I hope that helps.
    Good luck!
    -Brach

    in reply to: VPM-1 #41529
    brach
    Moderator

    I’m sorry about your VPM-1 troubles.
    Are you saying you’re measuring 4.15 and 8.80 thousand volts?! Are you sure you are using your multimeter correctly?
    I don’t want to insult you, but you may not have the experience to successfully build this type of project. Unfortunately, the VPM-1 isn’t a very beginner friendly kit (as explained in the assembly manual)….the reason I’m bringing it up is because it may be difficult to help you in this forum if you don’t have the correct tools or much experience using them. You may need to take this kit to an electronics technician to get some live face-to-face help.
    I’m sorry about this.
    -Brach

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41459
    brach
    Moderator

    I’m sorry, I don’t think it got to us…could you please try to send it again: info”at”zeppelindesignlabs.com (change the “at” to the @ symbol).
    Thanks.
    -Brach

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41420
    brach
    Moderator

    Sorry for the bad news. Static electricity is very sneaky. Over the years I’ve damaged several microcontrollers by what I can only assume is static electricity. These IC’s can only handle at most 13 volts on a pin, but a static discharge isn’t even detectable by our senses until it is over 1000 volts…so they are really easy to damage without knowing it. And most of the time it doesn’t completely kill the chip, it only damages part of its functionality.
    Unfortunately, these flashed uCs are only available from us directly, not any of our distributors.
    But yes, please contact me via email and we’ll discuss this.
    -Brach

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41418
    brach
    Moderator

    So this conclusively tells us that the uC is the culprit. There’s no need to swap the transistors and please do not use sockets on them. Sockets have a tendency to become unstable over time, causing more problems down the road.
    Unfortunately, this isn’t a warranty issue because the uC was most likely damaged in this way from static electricity in assembly. We do a pre-flight test on all these microcontrollers before they are shipped, so I can say it was working when we shipped it. We do sell replacement microcontrollers, if you don’t have a way to flash one. But if you are able to borrow a PC and get a usbtiny programmer (available many places online), the flashing procedure is very easy to do. We give step-by-step instructions in the updater app (press the “?” in the app window).
    But all this being said, please contact me at info “at” zeppelindesignlabs.com and we can work with you to figure this out.
    -Brach

    in reply to: Too much gain #41415
    brach
    Moderator

    If the voltages on the opamp are all correct (as per the voltage chart on the troubleshooting guide) then that part of the circuit is probably working fine. The only thing I can think of is either one of the resistors is not the correct value, or perhaps a solder joint is not making a good connection. If you can’t figure it out, you could take some (detailed, in focus) photos of both sides of your circuit board (clearly showing all the solder joints and components…you’ll have to bend up the pots on the solder side of the board to show under them) and I could see if there’s anything that I could notice that could be causing the is problem.
    Good luck.
    -Brach

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41412
    brach
    Moderator

    That is very good information. This seems to point to the microcontroller (uC) because the signal getting from the uC to the high side transistor never gets down to 0 volts when the depths is up (unlike the low side). For some reason the pwm seems to never turn all the way off.
    The real test is to find out how it behaves when the uC’s signals are switched between the high and low sides. You can try this by lifting one leg of R14 and R13.
    https://zeppelindesignlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/zeppelin_design_labs_quaverato_pcb-jpg.webp
    In the pcb graphic, unsolder the green dots. Just leave the end of the resistors floating in the air while the other legs are still attached to the board on the purple dot. Find some very thin wire (I use “wire wrap” wire for these types of things) and run a jumper from the floating lead of R13 to the green pad of R14…and run another jumper from the floating lead of R14 to the green pad of R13.
    Now turn on the power and test the optocoupler LEDs. If the problem is with the uC then the low led will start behaving like the high led used to, and the high led will start behaving like it’s supposed to.
    If the problem is with the transistor (Q1) then the high led will misbehave the way it always has, and the low led will continue behaving correctly.
    Let me know what you find out.
    -Brach
    ps I should have had you measure the resistance of R13 and R14 first to ensure they are really 10k or at least the same resistance value. So do that before you unsolder anything. If they measure different then unsolder one lead and re-measure them.

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41404
    brach
    Moderator

    Thank you for the videos, although I wasn’t able to see the second video…it seems to be a dead link.
    But from the first video, I can see the problem seems to be with the LED, not the LDR (thank you for testing those resistances).
    This is a really weird problem that I’ve never seen before. The issue has to be with either the LED or the driving circuit or with the microcontroller.
    So to start on the top of the list, could you please measure the high side optocoupler LED with your diode tester on your multimeter (with the power off)? Just compare it with the low side LED to see if it’s the same. I expect it is.
    If it passes that test, lets try to test Q1 (with the power on). Could you please turn the depth knob all the voltage on all the pins of Q1 and compare them with the voltages on the same pins of Q2? Then turn the depth knob all the way up (clockwise) and do the same thing. Keep the LFO rate relatively slow during this test so you can see the voltage changing. The voltage should be changing in relation to the LFO rate, so compare how the changing voltage on the pins of Q1 compare to the changing voltage on the same pins of Q2. Use the DC voltage setting on your meter to measure these. If both the transistors seem to be behaving the same then the problem might be with your microcontroller. But first please ensure that R14 is soldered correctly and is really 10K ohms in value. Then make sure pin 15 of the microcontroller is soldered well and it is seated well in the socket. If all that is good then you may need to re-flash the microcontroller. You’ll have to get a USBTiny programmer for that. We have the software on our website that you can download for free. After you do all these tests, let me know what you find.
    -Brach
    PS it doesn’t hurt to resolder all the pins on the components that I mentioned here…sometimes bad solder joints can look good.

    in reply to: Depth not how it should be… #41394
    brach
    Moderator

    Thank you for the videos and audio. All this is reiterating the fact that the high side is not tremoloing the audio, and the low side is. If the high side was working correctly then your Quaverato would sound just like the one in the videos.
    There is almost certainly not a problem with the pots, but you can test this by measuring the voltage on the center pin to see if it’s getting from 0 to 5 volts. The transistor is not bad because you are telling me the high LED is pulsing. If the transistor was bad then it wouldn’t work. We’ve already established that the LDR is working, at least somewhat. You can do some more tests to ensure that the resistance of the LDR gets up to at least 1M ohms or so when it is in complete darkness. Right now, it seems like the only potential cause for this is that the high optocoupler is not sealed well and is letting some light in, causing the resistance to remain low across the LDR, so it never gets to compete darkness (up to 1M ohms across it). But i’ve already asked you to seal the optocoupler well and i’m assuming you’ve already done this.
    You can test the optocoupler (with the power off) by measuring the resistance across it’s pins in the darkness. You can test if it’s sealed well by shining a flashlight on it to see if the resistance changes. The resistance should get much higher than 1k7 ohms in the complete darkness. Test both LDRs this way to ensure they are both behaving the same.
    -Brach

Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 421 total)