Electronic – Troubleshooting wien bridge oscillator circuit with 741 op amp

troubleshootingwien-bridge

I built the standard Wien bridge oscillator circuit using the UA741CN op amp IC, however I am not getting any oscillation.
Schematic

I am powering this circuit with two 9V batteries. I'm using the values R1=R2=10KΩ, C1=C2=100nF, R3 = 1KΩ, R4 = 470Ω. The oscilloscope just shows a flat line, no matter what values I try. I also tried hooking up a 8 Ohm speaker to V_OUT and circuit ground, since the oscillation amplitude and expected frequency are sufficient to make the wave audible. But there is only static.

I have tried a number of things to troubleshoot the circuit:

  1. Using different resistor values, consistent with the circuit requirements.

  2. Built a working comparator circuit using the op amp chip to ensure that the chip is good.

  3. Checked all voltages.

I'm very new to electronics, so I might be missing something simple. I am wondering if somebody could provide a step-by-step guide that would eliminate any common problems with this circuit. enter image description here

Best Answer

After much struggle and consternation, I got oscillation, by putting a 100 Ω resistor between output (pin 6) and ground. Perhaps someone could explain why the oscillation doesn't happen without loading the output.