Dead spots in Depth control

[Riff Man J]

I just finished building the Quaverato kit – I couldn’t be happier with the tone. I didn’t bother tweaking the frequency cutoffs because it seems like they already put the time in to figure out the “best” settings.

However, unfortunately I have noticed a odd behavior with the depth control. There are a couple dead spots around 11 o’clock and 1-2 o’clock on the potentiometer, where the entire effect cuts out. The rate LED becomes solid. When I do hit a dead spot I can still hear the clean signal, and the output volume matches the volume control. Interestingly, the depth levels in between the dead spots still function as normal.

Any ideas as to what may cause this? Since it’s so abrupt and affects 2 different points on the knob, it would seem like an issue with the microcontroller reading the voltage or something?

[Riff Man J]

Idk it seems like it could be the pot the more I think about it. But I don’t want to have to replace it before asking someone what their thoughts are. The effect is still 100% usable, just a little less flexible than it should be now.

[brach]

Riff Man J,
That’s a very interesting problem to have. To me, it seems like the pot may have some dead or dirty spots on the carbon track that’s bringing the voltage down to 0 volts at those points. You can check this with your voltmeter. Test the voltage of the center pin of the pot when the wiper is on those dead spots. The center pin should have a continuous voltage from 0v to 5v as you sweep the pot from one side to the other. If the voltage drops to 0v on those spots then the pot needs to be cleaned or replaced. If the voltage is continuous all the way across the sweep of the pot then the problem has to be software related.
Let me know what you find.
-Brach

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