# Cataclysm Problems



## harry_hood (Feb 7, 2021)

Hello all, I put together a cataclysm delay and could use some help on troubleshooting.  It passes sound fine when bypassed and the led lights when on.  I do get a faint, distorted echo and I can vary timing, repeats and create a self oscillation effect.  But it will not pass the direct sound at all meaning essentially no output. I have gone over some of the easy stuff including verifying correct values, going over solder joints with magnifying glass, checked pots with multimeter, swapped out both the PT2399 and TL072.  Any thoughts on specific parts of the schematic I might want to focus in on, or other next steps? Or maybe you see something obvious that I've missed? Thanks for any help!


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## dlazzarini (Feb 7, 2021)

harry_hood said:


> Hello all, I put together a cataclysm delay and could use some help on troubleshooting.  It passes sound fine when bypassed and the led lights when on.  I do get a faint, distorted echo and I can vary timing, repeats and create a self oscillation effect.  But it will not pass the direct sound at all meaning essentially no output. I have gone over some of the easy stuff including verifying correct values, going over solder joints with magnifying glass, checked pots with multimeter, swapped out both the PT2399 and TL072.  Any thoughts on specific parts of the schematic I might want to focus in on, or other next steps? Or maybe you see something obvious that I've missed? Thanks for any help!


Could use more pics showing dc, in/out jack connections and solder side of board


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## harry_hood (Feb 8, 2021)

Sure, here are a few more


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## music6000 (Feb 8, 2021)

Can you confirm you are plugging Input & Output Jacks correctly to Guitar & Amp?


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## zgrav (Feb 8, 2021)

check the wiring.  it looks like your jacks might have the tips connected to ground.


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## chongmagic (Feb 8, 2021)

zgrav said:


> check the wiring.  it looks like your jacks might have the tips connected to ground.


This.. looks like you have your jacks wired backwards. The sloped side is always ground, you have it wired to the tips.


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## music6000 (Feb 8, 2021)

Optical illusion, his footswitch wires are going to the Jack tips!


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## harry_hood (Feb 8, 2021)

To verify the other ask above, I did try reversing my input and output cabling to the pedal but just added a lot of hum when pedal engaged.  The labeled picture is right. I've been doing side jacks so my wiring may look backwards since the the long wires (purple and yellow) are for the sleeve and go to board.  The tip wires (white and blue) go to the footswitch.


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## music6000 (Feb 8, 2021)

harry_hood said:


> To verify the other ask above, I did try reversing my input and output cabling to the pedal but just added a lot of hum when pedal engaged.  The labeled picture is right. I've been doing side jacks so my wiring may look backwards since the the long wires (purple and yellow) are for the sleeve and go to board.  The tip wires (white and blue) go to the footswitch.


Your Board needs a Good Clean!
That area circled in Red looks like bad solder joint!
I use CRC Contact Cleaner, others use Isopryl & toothbrush:


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## harry_hood (Feb 8, 2021)

Thank you, going to take me a day or two to get back to this.  Will clean my board, take a look at that solder joint you identified, and look through other solder joints again on a clean board.


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## harry_hood (Feb 11, 2021)

Update.  Got the board cleaned up a bit and redid the solder joint for the 78L05 IC (see white arrow on picture).  Unfortunately still not working - same symptoms.

I am new to this, tempted to start over and build anew, but would like to learn something here to help in future.  I have an old fluke 77 multimeter that can test continuity, resistance but not capacitors.  Do not have oscilloscope but had wondered if I could use my looper to feed a signal and trace to find out where things stop (have tried this but so far not working for me). Any thoughts (or a link to a good resource) on learning how to debug this?


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## peccary (Feb 11, 2021)

harry_hood said:


> Update.  Got the board cleaned up a bit and redid the solder joint for the 78L05 IC (see white arrow on picture).  Unfortunately still not working - same symptoms.
> 
> I am new to this, tempted to start over and build anew, but would like to learn something here to help in future.  I have an old fluke 77 multimeter that can test continuity, resistance but not capacitors.  Do not have oscilloscope but had wondered if I could use my looper to feed a signal and trace to find out where things stop (have tried this but so far not working for me). Any thoughts (or a link to a good resource) on learning how to debug this?



You can make an audio probe pretty easily, and you likely already have everything you need to make one: http://diy-fever.com/misc/audio-probe/ 

You can use the schematic and trace the audio path with the probe and not only will you feel like a mad scientist, but you'll also be able to find out where the signal is getting lost.


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## harry_hood (Feb 11, 2021)

peccary said:


> You can make an audio probe pretty easily, and you likely already have everything you need to make one: http://diy-fever.com/misc/audio-probe/
> 
> You can use the schematic and trace the audio path with the probe and not only will you feel like a mad scientist, but you'll also be able to find out where the signal is getting lost.


Rainy weekend coming up - perfect project


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## zgrav (Feb 11, 2021)

your looper is great for playing audio while you use the probe to trace the signal through the board


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## harry_hood (Feb 14, 2021)

Fixed. Had a few errors and learned a lot of troubleshooting tips on this one. I share so others may learn from my mistakes (or get a good laugh, whichever you prefer) 

when I soldered the socket for TL072 to the board I only got 7 of the 8 pins through  - pin 1 didn't go through the board. Doh!  So I removed the socket and just soldered the TL072 straight to board
only getting delayed sound from output, but wasn't getting the "clean" analog sound through. using audio probe eventually found that I wasn't getting continuity for the clean signal to pin 6 of the TL072.  think I damaged the trace removing the socket in item 1 above. Installed a jumper over the damaged path - picture attached - it is ugly but it works
So learned some valuable stuff on this build - get a brighter light so I can actually see what I'm doing and not mistake number 1 above, which led to problem 2 above.  Plus built and learned how to use an audio probe. Thanks for tips above and to @Mcknib for guidance


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## zgrav (Feb 14, 2021)

glad you got it working!


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