Apart from it working, the only way would be to find some obscure omission that causes it not to work. So it would help if you could post a link or two to this 'muff' project. Even better if you can post details here. With hardware like this, it's about schematics and close up images of the hardware, sometimes PCB layouts etc. and the fluky stuff as well. Especially as you built it, and by the way congratulations for that. It's just that, your post involves quite a lot of research to find out what it is about. The chances that there is someone here who knows the answer to your question because they also did it, is slim. But sometimes we can figure it out independently.
Also, by 'the chip' which chip do you mean? Just to save some time.