Monday 15 May 2017

Electro-Harmonix Pog2

Much like the Nano Pog repair, this one is also written up after the fact and I have probably forgotten a lot of important details. I sold this one on, so this is mostly based on blurry pictures I took.

I got this with one of the slide pots broken off, and dead on powering up. The picture below is out of order and was taken after it was repaired.


All good.

Inside, the problem was immediately obvious. FB3 near the DC jack is missing but the pads have visible solder on them. It's very common for high-speed digital pedals to have ferrite beads installed on the 9V input and ground lines, to keep high-frequency noise out of the power wiring and comply with EMI/EMC regulations.

Guts
FB3 is gone.
My guess is that someone broke off one of the slider pots and tried to remove the board for a repair. It looks like an attempt was made to desolder the 9V jack and FB3 was lost in the process. I added an 0805 ferrite bead and the Pog powered up again, everything working.


 The architecture seems to be similar to the Nano Pog, with a larger Analog Devices ADSP-BF531 DSP, and additional controls for filters, volume swells and presets.

After desoldering the broken pot.


Replacement slider pots are available from Small Bear, replacements should be 10 kOhm. They also sell the rubber slider tips.

Update: I came across a similar repair at this blog that states the pots are 5k. My order confirmation email says 10k, I'm certain I matched the new part to the old one. It's likely that these are just used as voltage dividers and both values may be used in different batches or versions.

Compared to the Nano, I much prefer this version. The additional octaves are nice but attack/filter controls really take this from being a novelty to something pretty inspiring. Fun!

4 comments:

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  2. Great Blog. I'm trying to repair my POG2 too but can't seem to see a way of removing the PCB from the case without damaging the In/Out and 9Vdc sockets

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    1. It just pulls out, it is very tight though. I tend to use a guitar pick or an (unplugged) DC power cable to press in against the power jack, that makes it a little easier.

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    2. Many thanks for your reply, I'll give that a try. Also, apologies for another question. I also have a missing Ferrite Bead FB3. Looks like I can buy the SM package size from Mouser, but can't find reference to the right value; I'd be very grateful if you could let me know what value you used? Thanks again

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