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Building How-to » Atoner » no ts.
no ts. [message #1897] Thu, 22 May 2008 17:43 Go to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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i finally got the atoner working but the tone sweep is not working. ive checked all the connections and ive made sure the switch is wired just like the diagram, is that wrong? is there a reason for the empty transistor slot 2n3904? the only other thing i could think of is the ic says 14558 but the instructions say 4558, any suggestions? what happens is that the tone sweep doesnt make any noise with any of its four knobs,except for the speed knob which makes a tone when turned all the way up, and it makes this noise in bypass mode as well. thanks for the help.

[Updated on: Thu, 22 May 2008 17:44]

Re: no ts. [message #1902] Fri, 23 May 2008 17:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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Hmm.. what empty transistor 2n3904? That should have a transistor in it, the board should be full for the tone sweep atoner. Not having that transistor would cause the symptoms you describe
Re: no ts. [message #1906] Fri, 23 May 2008 18:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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the transistor is not listed in the parts list, and it was not included in the kit...in the ts section there are two places for transistors, the included one and the one on the instructions is the 2n5485...the board has a transistor socket(labled 2n3904) next to the 555 ic, i guess it was left out accidentally? where do i get one?

parts list:
http://www.commonsound.com/atoner/pcb1.7/ts_kit_parts1of1.pd f

board:
http://www.commonsound.com/atoner/pcb1.7/tonesweep_wiring.pd f
Re: no ts. [message #1907] Fri, 23 May 2008 18:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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http://www.radioshack.com/sm-2n3904-npn-small-signal-transis tor--pi-2062609.html

will that work?
Re: no ts. [message #1908] Fri, 23 May 2008 20:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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i guessits not the right transistor then, its still makeing a loud tone when i turn the speed knob all the way up and stays on when i turn off/on the tone sweep, but it sort of works a little? is the ts wireing diagram wrong?
Re: no ts. [message #1909] Fri, 23 May 2008 23:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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Congrats, you found a mistake in the parts list! Razz

I just updated the parts list to add the 2N3904, so no one else should have this problem.

That should be the right transistor from Radioshack.

The loud tone when you turn the speed knob up is normal. That means the LFO is working... when you turn it all the way up it goes into the audio range, and what you're hearing is the actual LFO's frequency, which will be active even when TS is switched "off". It's a neat effect to pull out when playing live (faster and faster until it becomes audible), but if you want to disable it you could increase the resistor in series with the speed pot... For now I would just leave it until you get the rest of TS working...

What do you mean TS "sorta works a little"? With Position and TS Volume all the way up, do you hear any sort of tone when you turn TS Pitch? Does anything change when you click TS Depth on or off? I looked over the wiring diagram again, and it looks correct.

Re: no ts. [message #1910] Sat, 24 May 2008 06:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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k heres how its working, should it be like this?

if the ts pitch knob is turned up less than half way it doesnt really come through, but the rest of the knob is good. ts speed knob has to be allmost full, turning it up 3/4 of the way you can start to hear it, all the way up its just a solid tone when turned up full. the ts knob acts as a blend and that works fine i guess. ts depth has to be turned up fully or it wont work, but if i turn it back half way the sound still comes through slightly, even if the led is blinking, and clicking it off does nothing. is it working properly? thanks~
Re: no ts. [message #1915] Mon, 26 May 2008 20:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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and what are thoes tpmodmix holes for in the board? theres like 4 or 5 randomly scattered holes, what are they used for? thanks
Re: no ts. [message #1916] Tue, 27 May 2008 02:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJe5ikw7tK8

around 45 seconds i start messing with the tone sweep, could somoene tell me if its supposed to do that? i still hear tone sweep stuff when the pedal is bypassed, thou~
Re: no ts. [message #1917] Tue, 27 May 2008 14:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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Hey... thanks for your patience over the holiday weekend, I'm realizing I need to write the definitive tweaking guide to the Sweptoner.

Let's start with this....
Dial in this setting:
-TS volume all the way up
-Blend all the way down
-Squelch all the way down (you should already have tweaked the squelch trim pot)
-Position all the way up (you should already have tweaked the position trim pots)
-LFO Depth all the way down
-Envelope Depth all the way down
-TS Depth down, but not clicked off
-TS Speed at the slowest speed (all the way down)

Now turn the TS Pitch knob from all the way down to all the way up. You should hear a steady tone sweep from very low to very high. If the tone doesn't come in until TS Pitch is already 25%-50% up, that's probably a FET tweaking issue, but the effect is working.

Now turn TS Pitch to a nice middle-range pitch. Slowly turn TS Speed up. The TS LED should start flashing faster and faster. At maximum, you should hear a low tone (the TS LFO is oscillating in the audio range). Turn it back a bit to a setting where the LED flashes about 2-4 times per second.

Now gradually turn the TS Depth knob up. At first you'll continue hearing a steady tone, but then the tone will start to modulate up and down in pitch, in time with the flashing TS LED. At the maximum the pitch should go several octaves from a low tone to whatever the TS Pitch knob is set at.

After everything works more or less, Tonesweep Atoners sometimes need a simple resistor change to maximize the TS Depth modulation. The fix is to replace the 2k7 resistor that's between the TS_DEPTH connectors and the 2N5485 FET, with a 220k. (I've had to do this in more or less half the Sweptoners, but they seem to need it in waves, probably due to differences in production batches of the 2N5485 FETs)

The next thing, sometimes done in conjunction with the 2k7/220k resistor change, is that Sweptoners sometimes need their FETs to be selected. This is done by trying FET after FET until a good sounding one is found. "Good sounding" is subjective, but characteristics to look for are wide range of pitch modulation with TS Depth at max, and good pitch range for TS Pitch knob, and a nice sounding timbre to the TS tone.

After a good FET is found, sometimes the pitch range needs to be set in case the lower end of the TS Pitch pot produces no sound. This can be done quickly by putting a resistor in parallel with the 100k TS Pitch pot. For instance if the pitch becomes audible at 50%, then that equates to a pot value of 50k, so we need to put a 100k resistor in parallel (100k parallel to 100k equals 50k)

Finally, the TS Speed can be tweaked if desired. Perhaps you want to use slowly rising and falling pitch sounds. Perhaps you want only very rapid sounds. Perhaps you want to use the audio-range FM modulation LFO sound and don't care for slowly modulating sounds.... You can set the range by changing the 10uF cap next to the 4558 in the TS section. A 100uF will make it super slow, and a 1uF will make it super fast... You also can set a limit on the fast end of the range by changing the 100 ohm resistor that's connected to TS Speed lug 2. A larger value will limit the fast range more. If you don't limit the range at all, it will stop oscillating when you turn speed all the way up, so it should have some resistance there.

Hope that helps!! I know that's a lot of info, but it's how I've done it for years. If anyone doesn't have spare parts laying around and wants to tweak it, email me and I will mail you a free baggie of misc resistors and caps and some FETS (you pay for postage outside the USA).
Re: no ts. [message #1918] Tue, 27 May 2008 15:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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slikviq wrote on Mon, 26 May 2008 19:32

and what are thoes tpmodmix holes for in the board? theres like 4 or 5 randomly scattered holes, what are they used for? thanks


Those are test points for an oscilloscope. They are basically the ones referenced in the tweaking guides:
http://www.commonsound.com/kits/doku.php?id=commonsound:aton er
Re: no ts. [message #1922] Tue, 27 May 2008 18:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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thanks, ill email about the parts if i need to, heres a video of the instructions you gave me to test it, you can clearly see my hand on each knob~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWvn9dMXQ48
Re: no ts. [message #1923] Wed, 28 May 2008 12:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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Wow, the video is very useful. Thanks.

I can see the TS LFO is working (TS Speed and TS Depth)... But the TS Pitch isn't sweeping the pitch, it more or less stays at a high frequency.

Replace the 2k7 by the 2N5485 FET with a 220k resistor. This will open up the pitch range on the 555 by not clamping the FET so tight.

I'm updating the diagram on commonsound to show this as the default action (really, there's never a situation where it will HURT to use the 220k instead of the 2k7)

Thanks for your patience, I think we're close now!
Re: no ts. [message #1935] Thu, 26 June 2008 04:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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just got back from vacation, swapped the resistor and now the tone sweep is working...it can do a weird square wave tremolo sounding effect when turned up really fast...the pitch is supposed to go lower as you turn the ts pitch knob clockwise and higher as you turn it counter clockwise right?
Re: no ts. [message #1936] Sat, 28 June 2008 19:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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pitch is supposed to go higher as you turn it clockwise... make sure the pot is wired at lugs 2 and 3
Re: no ts. [message #1939] Sat, 28 June 2008 23:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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ok i think i was just listening wrong, the more you turn it clockwise the higher it gets until it just clicks and you can get a square tremolo like thing if you set it right? aside from that heres a test of it with the same settings as the other video...i think its working?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbs4mNE-5DA

sorry to be so bothersome, thanks for all the help.
Re: no ts. [message #1941] Wed, 09 July 2008 01:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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From the video, TS Speed is definitely working.
TS Depth seems to be working although it seems to jump quickly from no modulation to full modulation (could just be how you turned the knob, I couldn't see)

TS Pitch doesn't seem to be doing very much, it should vary the pitch of that tone from a very low to very high. It looks like youre turning it and the pitch isn't changing. Perhaps something around the FET, did you replace the 2k7 with a 220k?
Re: no ts. [message #1944] Wed, 09 July 2008 05:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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ts depth is being that way for some reason, its wired correctly but it only turns on when fully clockwise, any remedies for that?
i did replace the 2k7 with the 220k resistor, im not sure what it could be?
Re: no ts. [message #1945] Wed, 09 July 2008 10:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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TS Depth is OK, it sounds like it's working, but the only thing to do about it going to full when on is to try a bunch of different FETs. But I wouldn't worry about it

TS Pitch is the one I'm not sure is working. Can you get different tones, or just that one high pitch?

[Updated on: Wed, 09 July 2008 10:08]

Re: no ts. [message #1948] Fri, 11 July 2008 00:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LimDsqJSAq4

i have depth full and high speed starting, is this the range im supposed to get?
Re: no ts. [message #1949] Sat, 12 July 2008 15:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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Ok, I see that you are turning the pitch knob and the tone is sorta changing, but it should go from a low pitch to a high pitch (it's just staying at a high pitch and cutting out).

Check around the TS Pitch pot, and the 555 chip. Is the 0.1uf (104) cap from pin 2/6 of the 555 OK? Does the TS Pitch pot connect to pins 6 and 7 of the 555? Are pins 2 and 6 connected? Use a meter, not just your eyes to verify connections.
Is the TS Pitch pot 100k?

[Updated on: Sat, 12 July 2008 15:37]

Re: no ts. [message #1951] Mon, 14 July 2008 00:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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i have a voltage meter, how would i test with that? ill check the pitch pot next time i take the board out, last time i took the entire board out i wasnt sure it was going to go back in the enclosure...is it easy to remove the pots from the board and put them back in afterward?
Re: no ts. [message #1952] Mon, 14 July 2008 13:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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You actually can cheat and test the Pitch pot without removing the board or the pot. Just turn the pot all the way up (Clockwise), and put your meter on Ohms (resistance). Then measure between pins 1 and 3. It should be a little less than 100k, probably 70k-95k.
Re: no ts. [message #1960] Thu, 31 July 2008 05:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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the pot is 100k, how to i check the 555 with the voltage meter?

could this be due to the 2n3904 being from radio shack?

[Updated on: Thu, 31 July 2008 05:25]

Re: no ts. [message #1961] Tue, 05 August 2008 23:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dann  is currently offline dann
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how's the FET? if the pitch pot is good, check around the FET. Is it from Radioshack too?

the 2n3904 isn't critical so it should be OK

Re: no ts. [message #1965] Wed, 06 August 2008 01:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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actually ive changed out every fet you sent, all with the same results...only the 2n3904 was from radio shack
Re: no ts. [message #2149] Thu, 12 March 2009 06:22 Go to previous message
slikviq  is currently offline slikviq
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i never did get this to work...how much would it cost for me to send this in and have you guys get it working?
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