ShortScale.org

The only OLC kit I tried was a failure as well.. I havent gotten around to debugging it yet.

Dingus wrote:The only OLC kit I tried was a failure as well.. I havent gotten around to debugging it yet.

Not sure if I would buy from there again. I am pretty sure I didn't screw anything up. Maybe I should try a different kit to boost my confidence so I can feel a little better about my skills. LOL

markleton wrote:I've had the same experience with OLC, kit not working despite putting it together correctly. I built the SLO clone thingy, got it troubleshooted loads and it still didn't work. Got a SECOND kit from OLC, wired it up even more carefully than the first and it still didn't work. Mark from OLC was less than helpful and I have two useless populated boards and the boxes have been recycled.

I've built loads of kits and pedals on stripboard before and since, and theirs was the worst to put together (plus it didn't work...).

That sucks. Depending on what I hear back was the problem, I could buy from there again. I guess it depends on if the screw up was mine or OLC.

Mike wrote:I would have offered to take a look if he hadn't agreed, but obviously postage to the UK and back is a bitch.

To get it working, I would have been totally cool with that. I appreciate it too. I should have picked up one of your pedals and saved the headache. LOL

So long time no update. Marc was able to figure out where things went wrong. I had four caps misplaced. Stuff like a 47p in place of 47n. I had a hard time telling them apart. If I try another build I will need to figure out how to identify those things better. At any rate, he is sending me the pedal set up with a new PCB. I am excited to have it back and working!

Multimeter

GOOGLE

HNB wrote:So long time no update. Marc was able to figure out where things went wrong. I had four caps misplaced. Stuff like a 47p in place of 47n. I had a hard time telling them apart. If I try another build I will need to figure out how to identify those things better. At any rate, he is sending me the pedal set up with a new PCB. I am excited to have it back and working!

Sounds like exceptional service, actually.

I did use google and stuff but the caps just don't have a lot printed on them. I thing a multimeter would have worked best for me. All the caps but one were little yellow rectangles. iirc the 47's both said something like 470 on them so I had a hard time figuring out which was what. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.

He did help me out. i paid for his help, but not as much as deserved for spending around five hours trying to troubleshoot before figuring out what went wrong. He even kindly installed a new pcb since he was worried the one I did might not be reliable anymore.

In the end I did learn something.

Yeah it sounds like he got the ball out of the park in terms of customer service here

Next time ask us, there are several people here can tell you how to identify components without a multimeter

Definately. I will try a pedal again at some point, but I will need to save some cash first. LOL

Got the pedal back and I am very happy. Sound JUST like I wanted it too.


DSC05658 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr


DSC05659 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr

Audio Demo
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Messing Around
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Good outcome in the end. Looks nice and sounds good

Totally. I am pleased with how it turned out. Sounds like I hoped it would. I know it isn't a direct ShredMaster clone, but it has a sound that I really like.

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Markleton, I got your OLC SLO Century kit sort of working a while back by careful adjustment of the presets but the Treble control didn't seem to work. I left it in a box without going any further because I didn't have any nuts for the ALPS 16mm pots, but I bought a cheap Chinese bag of M7 x 0.75 mm nuts to fit them a couple of weeks back so I looked at it again last night.

It turns out the reason the Treble control didn't work is because a wrong value cap was supplied, 47 pF instead of 470 pF. Like HNB said, the marking can be confusing. "470" means 47 pF, "471" means "470 pF" and "473" means 47 nF.

You're welcome to it back if you'd like. If not, next step is to drill a box, get some jack sockets and a power socket. And a nut for the stomp switch. Some time in the next couple of years.

NickS wrote:[youtube][/youtube]

Markleton, I got your OLC SLO Century kit sort of working a while back by careful adjustment of the presets but the Treble control didn't seem to work. I left it in a box without going any further because I didn't have any nuts for the ALPS 16mm pots, but I bought a cheap Chinese bag of M7 x 0.75 mm nuts to fit them a couple of weeks back so I looked at it again last night.

It turns out the reason the Treble control didn't work is because a wrong value cap was supplied, 47 pF instead of 470 pF. Like HNB said, the marking can be confusing. "470" means 47 pF, "471" means "470 pF" and "473" means 47 nF.

You're welcome to it back if you'd like. If not, next step is to drill a box, get some jack sockets and a power socket. And a nut for the stomp switch. Some time in the next couple of years.

Shit the bed! I just read through this thread for fun trying to remember when I had a crap time with the kit. I don't mind what happens to it, i have one of the enclosures lying around here somewhere. If you want to keep it go for it, you deserve it for bringing it back to life. If not let me know and I'll take it off your hands.

Various wires fell off in the last few years so I wired it up again last night. I haven't tested it yet but if it all pans out I'll wing it back to you as you've got an enclosure and I've got a Harley Benton thing. Don't hold your breath...

I remembered wrong. It wasn't the treble cap, it's that every cap that was supposed to be 22 nF (223) was in fact 220 nF (μ22) so the Bass control didn't work as a bass control. The Treble control wasn't working right because it was backwards. I put a couple of 22 nF in the tone stack and flipped the Treble control wiring and it seems OK.

Makes me wonder then if all along I had stuff done right, but was sent the wrong parts. Oh well. In the end I got guts that work.