Klon Centaur kit

[tomstibor]

Hello everyone,

I bought a Klon Centaur DIY kit on e-bay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Klon-Centaur-Golden-Professional-Overdrive-Effects-Pedal-Booster-FX-Pedal/193030766027?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

It is very nice kit. I tried to assembled it yesterday but I have got some issues. I think I done everything correctly, there are some youtube assembling tutorials for this kit too.

When I connected pedal into my signal chain, the signal doesn't go thru the pedal (it should be true bypass it has got 3DPT switch), when I switch the pedal on with foot switch it runs and when I rotate with output knob it is very humming, when I add more gain it is humming too. And the "treble" knob works too I hear on that noise.

The main issue is the hum and that signal doesn't go thru the pedal.

Could you please help me?

[DIY Bass]

Welcome to the boards. 

You will find a debugging thread here https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=29816.0

Go there and read it, and then post the information in that thread back here, and that will give everyone a better idea about where to start looking.

One thing to look closely at is the wiring for your stomp switch.  If bypass is not going through then the switch or it's wiring is likely to be an issue.  If you have a multimeter then with no power to the pedal measure the connectivity of each switch lug to where it is supposed to connect, and also measure whether the switch contacts work as they are supposed to.

[Slowpoke101]

Also welcome.

The Centaur usually uses buffered bypass and not true bypass. But this is not really a concern at the moment. I suggest you do as diybass recommended as the information generated is very helpful for diagnostic purposes.

But there appears to be one very obvious problem. The output jack does not appear to be wired correctly. Check your wiring diagrams for both the input and output jacks.

[theehman]

I've had 2 of these kits and on both of them they sent 2 MAX1044 and 1 op-amp.  The first one was a pre-built kit I bought on ebay "as-is / not working".  The 2nd I built myself.
  What ICs came with your kit?

[patrick398]

I've had 2 of these kits and on both of them they sent 2 MAX1044 and 1 op-amp.  The first one was a pre-built kit I bought on ebay "as-is / not working".  The 2nd I built myself.
  What ICs came with your kit?

I can see two TL072s in the picture. Can't make out the other but assume it's the 1044. I'm suspicious of the soldering on the pots, looks a little blobby and dull to me. Would be interested to see a pic of the underside of the board.
But yes, more info needed

And welcome to the finest place on the internet

[pinkjimiphoton]

they @#$%ed up the switch wiring with that kit. you gotta compare it to a schematic and figure out how to wire it up right.

i had issues with the same kit. it will work, but not as they show it in their really shitty build doc. somewhere, i MAY have the proper wiring, but its been several years since i did it.

[GuitarPhil]

Hello everyone,

I bought a Klon Centaur DIY kit on e-bay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Klon-Centaur-Golden-Professional-Overdrive-Effects-Pedal-Booster-FX-Pedal/193030766027?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

It is very nice kit. I tried to assembled it yesterday but I have got some issues. I think I done everything correctly, there are some youtube assembling tutorials for this kit too.

When I connected pedal into my signal chain, the signal doesn't go thru the pedal (it should be true bypass it has got 3DPT switch), when I switch the pedal on with foot switch it runs and when I rotate with output knob it is very humming, when I add more gain it is humming too. And the "treble" knob works too I hear on that noise.

The main issue is the hum and that signal doesn't go thru the pedal.

Could you please help me?

The bypass switch wiring seems totally wrong. Have you got it rotated 90 degrees and then wired it up that way?

I just checked the wiring on your jack sockets with some similar ones I have and you need to move one of the wires (I think the white wire on the left jack in the photo) to the centre lug of the socket: the one that's not connected at the moment. This goes to the shield of the jack lead so your cables at the moment are not grounded, thus creating the hum and noise you are hearing.

[kitsune]

Bump!

Would be nice to know what's wrong on this build as it looks like it's following the diagram. I'm gonna build this very same kit soon, so I'm a bit intrigued. 

[pinkjimiphoton]

the diagram they supply is clocked wrong, and it appears they adapted from an earlier dpdt to a 3pdt in the later versions. the circuit works, and fine, BUT ya gotta do the legwork to determine which lugs on the switch go to which pads on the board. looking at the schematic, you'll figure it out.

i mean, basically, its in, out, ground and hot. but use your meter to find out which, and you'll be fine. if i still had one, i'd open it up and take a gut shot for ya, but it was sold a long time ago. i DID look thru mynotes, but couldn't find anything yet. if i do, i'll post. just several thousand pages of shit to go thru.

[theehman]

I'll try to take a look at mine tonight and see if it's the same.

[kitsune]

the diagram they supply is clocked wrong, and it appears they adapted from an earlier dpdt to a 3pdt in the later versions. the circuit works, and fine, BUT ya gotta do the legwork to determine which lugs on the switch go to which pads on the board. looking at the schematic, you'll figure it out.

i mean, basically, its in, out, ground and hot. but use your meter to find out which, and you'll be fine. if i still had one, i'd open it up and take a gut shot for ya, but it was sold a long time ago. i DID look thru mynotes, but couldn't find anything yet. if i do, i'll post. just several thousand pages of shit to go thru.

I've seen a few videos of people putting this kit together using this diagram for the 3pdt and none of them mentioned a problem in the footswitch wiring so I really wonder if it's the cause too.
here's one video where the guy did the same footswitch wiring:

[GuitarPhil]

I had forgotten that the Klon is not true bypass so the footswitch may be wired ok as is but the output jack is definitely wired wrong. The white wire needs to be moved to the other unused terminal as per my previous post.

[kitsune]

I just watched another video where the footswitch was mounted in a different orientation, OP might try to turn his footswitch 90° to be sure it's not the problem.



It's hard to see cause the guy filmed the whole thing with an out of focus potato in 240p but his footswitch is in a different position:


Edit: Apparently this guy changed the wiring too sorry I did not look well (hard to see with that image quality) OP should try this wiring too.

[GuitarPhil]

I got confused by the fact they have used the output jack to switch the battery on when a jack lead is inserted so I think I referred to the output jack being wired wrong when it's the input jack wiring that's wrong - to be clear the input jack is the one on the left in the OP's photo!

If you look carefully at the still frame from the video you will see that the input jack is rotated 90 degrees compared to the OP's - you can see the slanted edge on the left in the OP's photo while in the video it's on the right. The result is that there is no ground on the input jack lead from the guitar so it's going to hum like hell! Move that white wire on the left hand (input) jack to the unused terminal as I explained in my earlier post and it should stop the hum.

I hope I have not added to the confusion 

[kitsune]

I got confused by the fact they have used the output jack to switch the battery on when a jack lead is inserted so I think I referred to the output jack being wired wrong when it's the input jack wiring that's wrong - to be clear the input jack is the one on the left in the OP's photo!

If you look carefully at the still frame from the video you will see that the input jack is rotated 90 degrees compared to the OP's - you can see the slanted edge on the left in the OP's photo while in the video it's on the right. The result is that there is no ground on the input jack lead from the guitar so it's going to hum like hell! Move that white wire on the left hand (input) jack to the unused terminal as I explained in my earlier post and it should stop the hum.

I hope I have not added to the confusion 

You are probably right about the input jacks too, they look both to be at wrong orientation of 90° angle. Anyway I think OP might not come back soon but it will help others for future klone builds at least.

I think it's the kind of error people make when they have no clue of how to wire a switch and the jacks and they just follow instructions so I'll go study this better to avoid getting the same problem later.

EDIT:

You were right Guitar Phil, I took another screenshot of the build from the other cleaner video and it's obvious that the jacks are wrongly wired on OP's kit:



It seems that the jacks are upside down 180° so OP needs to invert his red and white cable on the left jack. The right jack seems to be wired as needed even if it is positioned upside down. The 3PDT switch should be wired correctly.

[theehman]

Here are some pictures of mine.  Hope these help!

[kitsune]

Here are some pictures of mine.  Hope these help!

Looks like you modified yours, did you wire the battery to the input jack so that it turns it off when you unplug it? I think the original circuit is made so you unplug the output jack to switch the battery off.

[theehman]

Looks like you modified yours, did you wire the battery to the input jack so that it turns it off when you unplug it? I think the original circuit is made so you unplug the output jack to switch the battery off.

No, the battery clip is soldered to the pcb on the right side which runs the traces back to the DC jack.

[kitsune]

Looks like you modified yours, did you wire the battery to the input jack so that it turns it off when you unplug it? I think the original circuit is made so you unplug the output jack to switch the battery off.

No, the battery clip is soldered to the pcb on the right side which runs the traces back to the DC jack.

Oh ok, well I thought the green cable you extended with a piece of black cable was the ground of the battery that you decided to plug to the input jack instead of the output jack.