First Overdrive based on Blue Collar

[DottJ]

No, i,ve try ad you say to make the Connection between Board and plug but nothing when i turn on the pedal no sound... Any other suggestion?

[mcknib]

So you soldered a +9v wire from the pad below the tone 2 pad to the same lug as the LED on the DC jack applied power and got no effect signal are you getting 9v to the board?

If so and you don't have any problems in your circuit and you're getting bypass signal then one or both of your connections from the board in and out to the 3pdt switch lugs would be the next thing to check simply reflow your solder and make sure that your IN and OUT jack socket tips are wired to the correct side of the 3pdt when you have it the wrong way up IN would be on the left it's easy to mix them up

If you did have your IN tip wired where your OUT tip should go and visa versa you'd get bypass but no effect.

If it's non of the above then:

Best to post some nice clear in focus images of both sides of the board and off board wiring that can be traced so everyone can have a look and perhaps see something it's a lot easier and quicker when you can see it and with peoples combined knowledge you'll hopefully have it rockin' soon 

[DottJ]

I think the best way to solve this problem is to rewire the board with pot 3pdt etc...
if in this way i don't solve the problem, could i check if some resistance is burned without solder again all the board?
thanks

[mcknib]

Post some images rather than re do it, it might just be a single wire to the wrong pad there are lots of experienced knowledgeable people on here that may spot something amiss better that than going round in circles with lots of questions answers and suggestions I think and hopefully it'll mean a quicker solution for you

[DottJ]

Hi,
this are the image.
take in mind that tis is not the final wiring but is just to hear if the pedal works... and unfortunately it doesn't...

could you see something wrong specially in the last link!!?





in this link you could see the wiring with letters

http://postimg.org/image/wn59tsj51/

[mcknib]

It looks like you've got lots of potential for shorts make sure no bare metal parts are touching the enclosure.

You want to reflow your solder you don't want any balls of solder e.g both ends of your Z wire etc and your ground wires on the output jack look as if that joint could be dry.

It's very hard to see your DC jack check that it's a centre negative jack put one meter probe in the centre of the DC plug and the other onto the ground lug to see if it has continuity. Did you check what voltage your were getting to the board?

Your OUT jack looks correctly wired but double check by inserting a jack and following the connections round to their lugs like this:



I'd reflow all of your solder joints on the solder side of the vero too you want to heat the lead and the pad at the same time then apply a little solder just dab it on quickly it does melt and flow pretty quick on vero with no solder mask and make sure you don't have any solder bridging over onto the next row you want your solder joints to look shiny something like this then snip off as much as you can of the component lead or wire sticking through:



I'd be inclined to replace those caps with box film or green mylar 100v the image below shows a 1uF cap in both cases the box being 63v and the other one 250v a lot smaller and easier to work with.

[DottJ]

Hi, thanks for the answer, to "check what voltage your were getting to the board?" could i use the tester from the input/output cable of the board just to see if the power arrives at the end of the board and then when the pedal is on to check the voltage? correct?
i think there is something wrong regarding the wiring or the board, when i don't switch on the pedal, all works great. the sound of the guitar is ok...

It looks like you've got lots of potential for shorts make sure no bare metal parts are touching the enclosure.

You want to reflow your solder you don't want any balls of solder e.g both ends of your Z wire etc and your ground wires on the output jack look as if that joint could be dry.

It's very hard to see your DC jack check that it's a centre negative jack put one meter probe in the centre of the DC plug and the other onto the ground lug to see if it has continuity. Did you check what voltage your were getting to the board?

Your OUT jack looks correctly wired but double check by inserting a jack and following the connections round to their lugs like this:



I'd reflow all of your solder joints on the solder side of the vero too you want to heat the lead and the pad at the same time then apply a little solder just dab it on quickly it does melt and flow pretty quick on vero with no solder mask and make sure you don't have any solder bridging over onto the next row you want your solder joints to look shiny something like this then snip off as much as you can of the component lead or wire sticking through:



I'd be inclined to replace those caps with box film or green mylar 100v the image below shows a 1uF cap in both cases the box being 63v and the other one 250v a lot smaller and easier to work with.

[mcknib]

I mean when you have it powered do you actually get +9v going to the board along your L wire?

Just in case you don't know put your meter to 20 vdc ground your black probe into an enclosure screw hole and put your red probe to your L power wire pad on the vero and check you're actually getting power to the board while your at it check your ground by sticking your red probe on the OUT jack ground lug see if you get 0v like this:



Note I don't mean do exactly what I'm doing in the picture just use this method i.e black probe in the screw hole red probe to probe whatever it is you're checking.

There is a page here that tell's you the information required for posting a debugging thread

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=29816.0

and one with some simple checks

http://www.diystompboxes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Debugging

Apologies I should have pointed you towards these at the start I've not been able to have a good look at your layout it's hard to see what hole some of the film caps go to and being at work using my phone

[Belanger]

my next build

[mcknib]

i think there is something wrong regarding the wiring or the board, when i don't switch on the pedal, all works great. the sound of the guitar is ok...

That tells you your bypassed signal is ok so the jacks and 3pdt are most likely ok for bypass mode your fault is probably in the vero circuit or your board in and outs to the 3pdt or in and outs to your jack tips or no power getting to the board.

As far as I can tell at a glance you've got the vero laid out correctly so the first thing to do is make sure you're getting power to the vero as explained and that it is grounded.

It's not the usual looking DC jack you're using hence me saying check it is a centre negative one.

Once you've done that and confirmed there is power to the board and it's grounded I'd personally reflow all of my solder joints and remove some of the solder as I said there are quite a few blobs of solder on the 3pdt, jacks etc. It shouldn't take you long to reflow them all.

If that doesn't do it:
Upload an image or the solder side of the vero as well.

[DottJ]

Hi, i've checked as you explain and at the board arrives 9 v, so there is power. the dc is what another user suggest because i don't want to use battery.
but i've tested as you explain.

my next step is to solder all the components to another  vero board and rewire all. i think is a good solution and a good exercise to solder.

My only doubt is: there is the possibility that i have burned some components??
thanks for all the help you are giving to me!!!!

[mcknib]

Have you actually tried it outside of the enclosure as I said before there may be something shorting to the bare metal do you have the solder side of the vero insulated from the enclosure


Before you go to the trouble of re doing it I would first try to reflow the solder joints recheck your layout is correct and everything goes to the pads they're supposed to it may just be a dry solder joint on the board or 3pdt and a little clean up may do the trick you should be able to remove some of the excess solder fairly easily just flick it off onto your iron clean the tip and redo until you get rid of the excess and hopefully get a better connection.

You could also continuity check the circuit using the schematic or layout making sure that those components that should be connected are and those that should not aren't that may lead you to the problem area.

Also make sure none of the rows are connected by running something sharp like an exacto / stanley knife in the grooves between them

http://www.guitarpcb.com/PDF%20Files/Checking%20for%20Continuity.pdf

If you decide to put it on another vero board just carefully melt the solder and pull your resistors etc gently out one lead at a time if you don't have a de soldering pump.

Be careful with the diodes too much heat from your soldering iron may damage them only apply heat for around 3 to 4 seconds. Hopefully you've got another IC socket because that will be difficult to de solder.

Things that are more likely to be damaged by heat are diodes, transistors, IC's and switch lugs you'd need a significant amount of heat to destroy resistors and caps so as long as you've not used a flamethrower they should be ok!

[DottJ]

Hi, i've rewired the connection between the board and other component.. nothing to do... when i turn on the pedal i could not ear something.

now i'm quite sure it is a vero board problem....... i've done all of the check  in this page
http://www.guitarpcb.com/PDF%20Files/Checking%20for%20Continuity.pdf

and all is good except for the green output because o go from the board to the volume and then from the volume to the board.. like i've write in this image http://postimg.org/image/wn59tsj51/

i'm quite sure i have to rewire the vero but how could i check if the peace i take from this board are good to put in a new board???

thanks

[mcknib]

Do you mean there's no continuity from the board output to the volume pot lug 2? the yellow wire K?

I don't follow what you say

all is good except for the green output because o go from the board to the volume and then from the volume to the board

When you continuity check as in the PDF you should get a beep if there's an electrical connection if your meter doesn't have the beep you should look for a small amount of resistance of a few ohms or less.

Your meter should be set to the diode symbol shown in the PDF with your black probe in the COMM socket and red probe in the resistance ohms Ω socket.

I notice now it doesn't tell you in the PDF which inputs you should put your probes into on your meter so not really good for beginners! so apologies if that confused you I'll update it thanks.

[DottJ]

I mean that your image out with a green cable from the bord directly to the output but in my wiring my output goes to the volume pot in 3 position and than from the 2 position there is a cable that returns to the 3pdt.....
So if i put the tester from the output to the 3pdt there is no beep.... Now i have fine a good wiring without the possibility to have short....   

[mcknib]

Gotcha yeah your 'board' output comes from volume lug 2 and goes to the 3pdt and out to your amp via the output jack.

The volume pots wired as a voltage divider all 3 lugs being used what it does is signal comes in via lug 3 and either goes out via lug 2 when turned up or if you turn it down it dumps some or all of the signal to ground via lug 1. So it varies the voltage / signal either going out or being dumped to ground.

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm

Anyway you should have continuity from your K wire lug 2 to the 3pdt lug  and as you say from lug 3 to the board J wire with the volume turned all the way up and giving you 'full' output as explained all the way down dumps it all to ground.

When doing a continuity check you're best to put your probes on the components i.e in this case lug 2 of the volume pot and the 3pdt lug it goes to rather than on the ends of the wire, you're looking to see if the components are connected rather than the ends of the wire which we already know are connected or at least should be! It's very rare to get an internal break in the wire. So if you put your probes on the wire ends you may just be checking the wires joined rather than the components are connected.

Anyway I can already see you're learning as you debug one of the only benefits of debugging haha

Perhaps now that you've taken a voltage reading you could take the voltages on your 4558 op amp pins and post them it may reveal something to those with a greater knowledge than me, so everyone! at the very least it'll be a good excercise - you know how the pins are numbered 1 to 4 top to bottom left and 5 to 8 bottom to top right list them like this pin 1 - 4.5v pin 2 - 4.5v and so on and you can see from the pinout below that you'd expect pin 4 VCC- to be ground 0v or very little and pin 8 +VCC to be power supply +9v we can see from the schematic with the two 10K resistors at +9v / V+ forming a voltage divider that you should get a vref of around 4.5v going into pin 5

[DottJ]

Hi, i have just try to solve my problem... Nothing to do. But i've tested the 3pdt with tester and is installed in the right way.
I've checked the chip 4558 and at position 8 there is 9v ...
There is a loud "pop" when i push to turn on and off the pedal..
Tomorrow i try to unbox all component if i couldn't solve the problem is there someone that could help me maybe watching and testing with me via Skype???

Thanks

[DottJ]

Hi, i've tested all the pin of the 4885. I have power only on the 8... There is 9v on the pin1 2 3 i have 0,2v the pin 4-5-6 are without power... Is it correct??? Have i problem with board?

[mcknib]

I'd think you should have power +9v to pin 8 ground to pin 4 and the rest should be Vref around 4.5v check your voltages on the socket with the IC removed