GSSL HELP THREAD!!!

[Harpo]

if i put the black of my voltmeter on + of the bridge circular regulator....and red on - of the 3 tips of the toroid i have: -22v on the left, -22 on the center and 0 on the right

At least confusing and probe wires mixed up.
A transformer receives AC voltage and transforms it up or down to an AC voltage out, so set your multimeter for an AC voltage reading when measuring AC voltage. Doesn't matter which colour probe attaches to a winding end for an (unsigned) AC voltage readout.
Your rectifiers + and - connections are already at rectified and smoothed DC voltage potentials, so sign does matter.
Set your meter for reading DC voltages in a higher than expected range, just in case your meter is not autosensing. Plug your black wire probe into your meters [com] terminal with probe tip pointing at 0V reference voltage and keep it there for nearly all further measurements in this circuit. The red wire probe is plugged into your meters [V/Ohm/...whatnot] terminal and probe tip points to the potential that you want to measure in respect to this 0V reference voltage. Expect the rectifiers + node at at least about +20.5VDC [15VAC * SQRT(2) -0.7V diode drop] in respect to 0V reference voltage if your transformer -more unlikely- would be operating at rated load. Depending on type and VA-rating add some 5%-15% on top to this +20.5VDC for a lightly or unloaded transformer. Now taking your red wire probe tip to the rectifiers - node, expect an at least -20.5VDC readout. Keep in mind AC mains voltage isn't a constant and can vary by +/-10% and your transformer secondary voltages will vary by the same %.

about the shorted out ic pins: i try to swap, without success, all ics except tl74 an 72 obviously .....do you think these are broken ?

My cristal ball is too blurry to look back in time wether you shorted out IC pins or not and depending on pin if this shorting would cause any harm or not. Unless all supply rails are operating correctly, listening to artifacts from maybe broken parts doesn't make much sense.

 

[noiseattitude]

Nothing ....i tried to connect the center tip of the trafos in other way ....to bypass a piece of trace ....but nothing, ever the same problem: when i move the make up gain the +15 & -15 voltage change on -13 + 16..... I'm  sad. Sorry for the stress, but i don't know when i have to start .....and i'm  angry with me if i think that all was good if I had seen the fuc**ng jumper on hpf

 

[Harpo]

Nothing ....i tried to connect the center tip of the trafos in other way ....to bypass a piece of trace ....but nothing, ever the same problem: when i move the make up gain the +15 & -15 voltage change on -13 + 16..... I'm  sad. Sorry for the stress, but i don't know when i have to start .....

Can you post some close up pics from component side and trace side of your main board and control board, as well as showing how interconnections to pots, switches and the transformer are done in your build ?

In what spot exactly did you take the voltage measurements and where exactly was your point of reference located on pcb ?

As the +15V rail will not rise in respect to the 7815 voltage regulators reference, your different point of reference must be shifting. Most likely reason probably will be a broken trace at or somewhere in between the AC inlet center connection on pcb and the trace to the 1000uF caps.
The make up gain pot is connected between +12V and 0V reference voltage at the pots outer pins with the pots center pin wiper connection going to a 2-pole bypass-switches throw position. The switches opposite side throw position goes to 0V reference voltage. The switches common pole position for this half of the 2-pole switch goes to "E" and further to a 620K summing resistor on main board. If you mixed up the switches throw and pole pin connections, the +12V rail would be shorted out when you turn the pots wiper towards ist CW position.

 

[noiseattitude]

Of course Harpo ..... I'll shot some pics in a couple of minutes. And many many thanks again for your patience

 

[noiseattitude]

Here the Pics: I tried 4 times to resolder the trafos .....so here the solder is not too good, but seeing with the magnifyng no shorts.

 

[noiseattitude]

Hi Harpo, for to spot the voltage I put the black on the  bridge on the right edge (on the right of vca sections). The red on the bridge where it says +15 and -15. For the +12-12, i keep the black in the same place....e the red where the pcb (on traces side) says + and - 12.

 

[Harpo]

Giovanni, allow some remarks:
you didn't scratch off/remove the isolating coating from your transformer wire ends. These may or may not conduct to pcb.
Not a good idea to solder these transformer wires directly from traceside. Any machanical force/gravitation will break these traces sooner or later (just as the obviously broken trace at the top of the center connection). Just use the drill holes and stick the wire ends thru from component side if you don't use connectors.
Disconnect your wrong meter for showing the amount of gain reduction. Neither the TL072 nor the 7xL12 voltage regulators will drive the load represented by a 100mA meter. You want a meter with 100uA up to 1mA fullsize deflection.
I couldn't identify your bypass and makeup pot wire connections within this spagetti. Please double check this yourself as previously described.
Good luck

 

[noiseattitude]

Thanks Harpo ..... but the meter is 1mA  ...... DC 1mA

 

[noiseattitude]

So i understood that i have to do a new connection for the trasformer .....but I don't understand where i can make this ....if my traces are broken on the standard trafos holes ..... sorry Harpo

 

[Harpo]

Thanks Harpo ..... but the meter is 1mA  ...... DC 1mA

OK then. It looked like the mA scale showing two digits (20,40,60,...) in its lower range in the blurry pic. Thankfully only optical artifact it seems.

So i understood that i have to do a new connection for the trasformer .....but I don't understand where i can make this ....if my traces are broken on the standard trafos holes

I would, but noone could force you to do the same. At least the transformer secondary wire ends for the center tap connection show their isolating transparent coating not removed, giving a barely if at all conduction. Most likely the same for the outer winding wire ends. For now only the trace above the center tap pad looks broken. A piece of wire or snipoff from a resistorleg and some solder at removed pcb coating should fix it.

 

[noiseattitude]

Thanks Harpo for your advices.....So I have to assume that the problem is always that damn central connection of the transformer ? and I have to figure out a way to connect it to better ..... right?

 

[noiseattitude]

Update: i tried to pass some audios. The result: the Vu Meter(dc meter) goes good and move in right way but i can not hear any compression ! The makeup gain now don't work (first it work with the left channel). The right channel is affected by strong distortion ........  :'(

 

[Harpo]

Got the coating scrapped off the transformer wire ends in order to solder to copper and not to the transparent plastic coating ?
Got all supply rails working ? (the 78L12 might be latching. A simple fix by adding 4 diodes to prevent the latching of the +/-12V and +/-15V supply rails is previously described.)
Prove the audio path working without any artifacts by temporarily pulling the audio-VCAs from your powered off unit and shorting VCA-pins 1/8 with a piece of wire. If this checks out OK when powered on again, power down, remove the jumping wires and push the VCAs back into their socket.
If now one side audio distortion comes back and distortion follows a L/R audio-VCA swap, exchange the faulty VCA, else check for shorts and correct parts values in the L/R DBX-202C substitution stages.

 

[noiseattitude]

Got the coating scrapped off the transformer wire ends in order to solder to copper and not to the transparent plastic coating ?
Got all supply rails working ? (the 78L12 might be latching. A simple fix by adding 4 diodes to prevent the latching of the +/-12V and +/-15V supply rails is previously described.)
Prove the audio path working without any artifacts by temporarily pulling the audio-VCAs from your powered off unit and shorting VCA-pins 1/8 with a piece of wire. If this checks out OK when powered on again, power down, remove the jumping wires and push the VCAs back into their socket.
If now one side audio distortion comes back and distortion follows a L/R audio-VCA swap, exchange the faulty VCA, else check for shorts and correct parts values in the L/R DBX-202C substitution stages.

The 78L12 have 12.1v | 0 |14v ....if the makeup gain is on zero , but if I move it all on the right also the voltage on 78L12 change on 13.8 | 1.7 | 14.8 

Now i'll try to read better your last message (excuse me but my english is poor .....and i have to read a few of time for understand.

 

[noiseattitude]

Yessssssssssss, Harpo, you are the MAN ! Many, many thanks for all. I have found the problem. Or maybe it is better to say: You founded the problem eheheh!
I swapped the 2180B between VCA's Left and Right, and the distortion moves to the left !!! Yeah, but the miracle is that now on the right all work perfectly !!!!! Meter, treshold.....ratio etc.
So i tried to swap the VCA's 2180B left on the other socket near Sidechain written... and (in bypass mode) the distortion disappared !!!!!!!! Obviusly when I pass on Compression mode....i have the caos eheheh but now i know what I have to do: changing this fuckin 2180b. Could you confirm this please? ..... Now I have to resolve the latching .....I'll read better the technique with diodes (i have a bunch of it).... If I have other problems i will contact you again hoping not to disturb too much.

 

[micah421]

ALMOST THERE:

If anyone can help me wire up my

1.- Power Transformer Input

2- "Bypass" switch from my Super SideChain board (To-Return "2 cables") to my DPDT switch(I believe a DPDT is not required but I think I can still use it although a single pole would have worked I believe)

POWER TRANSFORMER INPUT CONNECTION

I believe the Grey and Brown cables get tied together and I believe the blue and violet cables are tied together.
That is about all I think I know. My power switch has two "+" prongs and two "N" prongs. My rear power plug has a ground(which I grounded to chasis) and a "N" prong and something else(the labeling is hard to read but Im assuming its "+".

Can anyone help me connect those all properly?

"BYPASS" SWITCH

I have the Super SideChain PCB board and it has two wires that connect to the bypass toggle. My toggle is a DPDT that has 6 prongs on the back that are all not labled. Looks like 3 on one side and 3 on the other side. The two top ones are small prongs, the 2 in the middle are larger prongs and the two on the bottom are small prongs.

Any help with that would be great.

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH

 

[osso1001]

Hi all, I'm just another newbie with problems on his first project;-). I did a couple of DIs reampboxes and guitar pedals, but my first with a Toroid! After having all the peaces for a couple of months finally was powering it up, and...:
( must say that I did power it up with no IC's VCAs, and without control board.

I appreciate any thoughts/help in advance,
My 10R on the PSU constantly burns, I did read on this threat, to look for shorts, so I did, and really cant figure it anywhere.
on the78L12 I read:
1-10Kohm
2-0
316Kohm

on the 79L12:
1-0
2-16Koh
3-6kohm

Don't know if that proves nothing, but I guess, that the only short to ground will be on the ground pins, right?!

Also did saw/read before that would be possible that there was a short between the 19L12, and the capacitor in between both... couldn't find it... there is any other possibility?

well... felling frustrated :-(
Again Thanx for any Ideas/Thoughts, in Advance!
Cheers, Mario

 

[Gustav]

My 10R on the PSU constantly burns, I did read on this threat, to look for shorts, so I did, and really cant figure it anywhere.
on the78L12 I read:
1-10Kohm
2-0
316Kohm

on the 79L12:
1-0
2-16Koh
3-6kohm

Hi Osso.

You are measuring resistance, but we need to know the voltages with reference to ground.  Check the input pins on the 7815 and 7915 regulators, just to see the voltages after rectification/before regulation - or actually,  disconnect the toroid and measure the voltages on the secondaries to get a look at what you're feeding the circuit in the first place.

I think that would be a good place to start.

Gustav

 

[Harpo]

POWER TRANSFORMER INPUT CONNECTION

I believe the Grey and Brown cables get tied together and I believe the blue and violet cables are tied together.
That is about all I think I know. My power switch has two "+" prongs and two "N" prongs. My rear power plug has a ground(which I grounded to chasis) and a "N" prong and something else(the labeling is hard to read but Im assuming its "+".

Can anyone help me connect those all properly?

Of course NOT when you don't mention your local AC mains voltage and ask for a reply from an intercontinental forum. (please update your profile with your location data).
When wiring AC mains connections, you don't want to 'believe' whatever. You need to know exactly what you are doing.
For your mains switch, this seem to be an illuminated switch (with whatever interna, might be incandescent bulb, neon, LED with or without current limiting resistor for whatever operating voltage) and from your parts order you would have a parts-ID to look up the corresponding datasheet.

 

[osso1001]

thanks Gustav for your fast reply,
So... I'm not sure if thats what you meant, but I disconnected the toroid and measured  on each side of the entrance on the pcb... got 122mv and 129.4mv.
without torroid also got on the7915.. -o,29 and on the 7815..0,425v  all DC
did all this without new resistor, must say!
cheers,Mario