Hello! My Zendrive has no drive!

[Kipper4]

Doh......

Yep.

[SirHugo]

I'm going to replace all the outboard wiring today and wire the switch back in, reflow and see what that dose. I'm wondering if there's something I can use to clean the board that's safe, and perhaps in my basement, would mineral spirits work? I have acetone aswell but I'm fearful that will eat the plastic. I scraped and brushed away the extra flux but there's still what looks like oily residue where it was, and it was after cleaning it that this new issue with the LED began.

[duck_arse]

try methylated spirits. dunno what it's called where you are. it may well leave a powdery white residue, or a sticky film behind. give it another go over with clean metho and a toothbrush.

don't clean your teeth with that brush again.

[SirHugo]

Haha I'll be sure not to, I think it's the same as mineral spirits and if not I'll find it .
Thanks man

[vigilante397]

I'm wondering if there's something I can use to clean the board that's safe, and perhaps in my basement

I just leave the flux on the board more often than not but when I do get motivated and clean my boards I always use isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol). Never had any problems.

[SirHugo]

Oh nice that I most certainly  have, really I was just cleaning it since there was a lot after reflowing several times so I worried it was causing some issues and I've tried a lot to fix it over the past few weeks so I figured I'd give it a try. I'm hoping to replace all the wiring and reflowing again tonight.

[chromesphere]

Hi Hugo, thought I would just throw it out there but that noise isn't your power supply?  Can you power the pedal with a 9v battery and confirm?

[SirHugo]

I'm afraid it isnt wired to have a battery. But I have plugged in other drives and pedals into it and they dosnt make any extra noise so I think the power source is clean. I also tried a few other wall worts and power brick I have with no avail. I haven't had a chance yet to re wire and reflow yet so hopefully tomorrow I may have some updates.

[SirHugo]

Welp I carefully rewired all the outboard componants and it's dead I'm nearly 100% sure meter readings are all over the place, and certain spots not squeal when touched by the meter, I'm just going to re order everything and start from scratch.
Thanks for all your help

[SirHugo]

I have another pedal with an issue but that's for another thred, and may be fixed with a replacement component.

[chromesphere]

Yeah this one turned into a tough one Hugo.  Did you end up testing the effect externally from the offboard wiring?

[SirHugo]

Yes it kind of worked similar to when it was originally having issues, ie thin and lots of treble and very noisy.

[chromesphere]

Well atleast you know the problem is isolated to the PCB.  Did you try scrapping off the flux from the pcb and reflowing any dodgy looking solder joints?  Also check the component side doesn't have any accidental connections.  You can post some up to date photos of the pcb again showing just the pcb outside of the enclosure, someone might be able to spot an error.

[SirHugo]

Here's how it's looking now, and no light, no signal (bypassed or on) just loud hum .
There are points on it that never seem to get shiny when reflowed.
They just turn grey immediately after heat has been taken away.

[chromesphere]

When I say "externally from your offboard wiring" I mean, cutting the effect free from the offboard wiring.  So you have a populated pcb with in out plus and ground wires.  I use alligator clips and a simple offboard wiring diagram to check the pcb.  This isolates the pcb from any other source of a problem in the offboard wiring scheme.  Pedal builders call it "rock before you box". 

There is a test wiring diagram in one of my docs, go to page 5 "testing your effect".  Hook up populated pcb with that wiring scheme.  When you have your effect working you can just solder those four wire back together and heatshrink the bare connections so they don't short.

http://www.diyguitarpedals.com.au/shop/boms/7_Min_Fuzz.pdf

I wouldn't worry about the dull solder joints.  it doesn't matter too much as long as you have a solid connection.  Usually cold solder joints that are problematic are visually identifiable...ahem...usually...

[thermionix]

In the pics, the jack on the right doesn't have the sleeve connected.  Probably not your whole issue, as it may have been fine inside the enclosure.  But outside, you need to jumper that to ground somewhere, other jack's sleeve will do.

[Kipper4]

Are you using single core wire?  Or stranded?

[SirHugo]

Standard. I just threw a ground on that jack and now it works in bypass but it's dead dead when the effect is on, no LED and no signal, audio probe yields either no sound or squeezing. I assume something in the power area may be messed up when this issue started my LEDR read 9.72 on both sides and 9.72 on the LED it's self where as before when it lit is was sitting at 1.80.
Also when I audio probe the cuicit in bypass it seems to only have sound in the drive section and it sounds very overdriven and thick.

[SirHugo]

So is it dead ? I haven't re ordered anything yet. I can't tell if the PCB is a goner or just some componants.