# Photon Vibe - not working



## ChrisSchwarzkopf (May 28, 2019)

Hi there, I need your help with the construction of the Photon Vibe: / I finished the vibe and unfortunately it does not work properly. The following happens:

If the effect is off, the guitar signal goes through, however the bulb will still light / pulsate, although the LED is off.
If I turn on the effect, I get a loud humming / cracking, which I can make louder with the Vol knob and which pulsates just like the lamp (difficult to describe ...).
Speed and depth controls seem to work, at least the pulsation changes accordingly.
Sound from the guitar does not get through, except when I turn on the trimpots so that the lamp does not light up. then it sounds like a fuzz / distortion, where I can increase the distortion with the third trimpot.


I just do not understand why that may be, maybe someone has an idea?


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## griff10672 (May 28, 2019)

Audio probe it ..........


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (May 29, 2019)

I'll try that, thx


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (May 29, 2019)

I trief that but for Some reason the problem seems to start right at r1, i get crackling sounds at the output of the resistor and they did not disappear after changing it for another 22k... weird. Rather disappointed now, its the 2nd pedal that just won‘t work After the simulcast


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## JetFixxxer (May 29, 2019)

Verify the resistors.  I had the same issue Phase II and I installed a 4.7k instead of a 47k.


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## griff10672 (May 29, 2019)

I would take a look around the " Low " pot ..... maybe reflow the solder on it .... hard to say without a glimpse of the inside .... but if your problems start right at the R1 resistor .... I would reflow the connections on your in jack and that low pot .... take my advice with a grain of salt .... I'm no electrical engineer ... but I've debugged my share of builds ... 

Wayne


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 21, 2019)

Hello again, I made a lot of progress with the pedal and all the problems mentioned above are gone now. However, I am still strugglin with the pedal and don't really get it to work properly. First of all the is a massive Volume Drop when turning it on. The volume control seems to work only until 12 o'clock, after that not much happens. I also have a lot of trouble with the internal trimpots and I'm not sure if they work properly: TR1 makes the signal a little louder and nothing more happens. With TR2 (Gain?) I can make the lamp brighter, but the effect becomes much quieter as soon as the lamp lights up. If you turn the control all the way to the right, the lamp goes off and the clean signal is heard at normal volume. I do not really understand TR3. 

Overall, the pedal sounds more like a tremolo and less like a vibe / phaser. Which also does not work, if I use it with a distortion / Fuzz, since it then sounds awful. I have already checked everything through, measured all the resistors and caps, all solder joints are ok, so I suspect that it has something to do with the trimpots or with the fact that I have not installed the lamp that is described in the instructions, but this here: https : //www.banzaimusic.com/bulb-6-12V-20-40mA.html. 

If its the Lamp, I have this one at home, maybe its better? https://www.banzaimusic.com/Bulb-12V-20mA.html


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## zgrav (Jun 21, 2019)

you might not have all of your photoresistors working in the circuit, since each one of those combines to make the phasing you hear more powerful.  but at least some of them are working because you are getting some changes in your sound.   maybe you can get some suggestions from others about how to use your DMM to test whether each photoresistor is working when the light is flashing.

when  your effect is boxed and closed it shuts out the outside light so that only the LED controls how much the signal pulses.  as you can tell from adjusting the trim pots, the brighter the light, the more it chokes the sound.  you might want to do some google searches for "how to adjust a univibe"


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 21, 2019)

Thanks, I‘ll try that. Also its very weird that the effect Sounds Pretty detuned when audible


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 22, 2019)

Still not able to get this thing to sound good, frustrating ? any ideas how I can find out if the photo resistors work properly? The trimpots and the detuned sound are driving me nuts


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## Robert (Jun 22, 2019)

Does the lamp brightness go from almost completely dark to fully bright?


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 22, 2019)

Yes, when I adjust TR2...


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 22, 2019)

It actually can be completely dark and will light up after turning the pot halfway or so


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## Robert (Jun 22, 2019)

I just mean when the LFO is running does the brightness fluctuate from dark to bright?
If so, you can eliminate the lamp as a problem.


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 22, 2019)

Ah I See. Yeah I mean the lamp does pulsate so I guess it should be ok. Any chance the Photocells are somehow broken?


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## zgrav (Jun 24, 2019)

each one of the photocells is a potentiomer that turns up and down in response to how dark or how bright the LED is.  they are "probably" all functional, but you may not have all of them actually working due to a bad connection or a short or something.   each photcell also affects a different frequency (due to the different value capacitors in between them) so you need all of them working to get the full phasing effect intended.

you need to look at your circuit diagram and figure out how each one of the photocells is supposed to connect to things on the PCB, and then use your DMM to see if they are connected where they should be.  for starters, make sure that there is voltage going to one side of each photocell when the power is on (that is the part that connects to "VCC" on the circuit diagram).     if you have one or more photocells that are not getting voltage, then you need to find out why not and fix that part of the circuit.  that could be all you need to do to get your pedal working right.

second, you need to check the other side of each photoresistor to make sure it connects to part shown on the circuit diagram.  Using the circuit diagram, you can see that LDR1 should connect to pin 5 of IC1.2 (and also to C4), LDR2 should connect to pin 3 of IC2.1 (and also to C6), LDR3 to pin 5 of IC2.2 (and C11), and LDR4 to pin 3 of IC3.1 (and C15).

If some of those things don't connect like they are supposed to, then fixing that part of the circuit might do the trick.


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## ChrisSchwarzkopf (Jun 24, 2019)

Awesome thanks!


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