09/07/2023
This time on 'Tales From The Workbench', a BBE pedals OptiComp Optical Compressor.
I picked this up online recently; known faulty. It would pass a signal in bypass mode but nothing when engaged other than the status LED turning on.
A quick inspection of the PCB revealed that a previous attempt had been made to repair the pedal; evident by a number of soldering iron burns a numerous components inside.
Looking closer at the PCB, I realise that the solder pads of the reverse polarity protection diode were either missing or damaged. And since the audio signal was lost at the first op-amp stage, I concluded that the wrong polarity power supply had been used with the pedal and had fried the diode and all three of the op-amps.
I repaired the damaged solder pads; replaced the diode, all three op-amps as well as a few of the components that had been burnt in the previous repair attempt purely for aesthetic reasons and crossed my fingers.
After plugging it in, she fired up the first time and sounds great.
Another successful repair!
