IC and/or transistor question

[zener]

Are ICs and transistors sensitive to coldness.

It's quite cold now here in my country. Two days ago, I built the Insanity Box and it worked but not as good as that of Aron. I just put the circuit beside my bed on top of an aluminum box. Today I played with it again and there's nothing. I desoldered everyting and soldered again, still there's nothing. My Dist+, Rocket and breadboarded Hot Silicon are just beside the Insanity Box and they all worked with the same battery.

Nobody in our house has access to my room without my keys. My ICs and transistors are socketed so there's no chance of solder heat killing them.

Any take on this?

Thanks for any help :wink:

Zener

[Nasse]

:shock: I always thought it is very warm climate in Philippines, like tropical or subtropical nice and sunny weather. Bananas and exotic paradise fruits grow it the trees and women have very little clothes on, exotic birds and butterflies fly around and flowers smell... But never been there... Just shovelled thickness of half metre snow in front of my house (there is that song White Christmas) and it was 16 C below zero, but it is getting warmer... Merry Christmas for Everybody!

Batteries may have little output if much below freezing point, alkaline fresh ones take quite well coldness but I never use them because they are more expensive and have more nasty waste in them...

Your problem sounds not like temperature related. Maybe there is short circuit somewhere or something has a hairline crack or some wire is broken under its insulation. Maybe. And check the battery and its clip, swithches and jacks. Is there something touching the enclosure when the box is closed?

[zener]

From the start, I know my question sounds a bit stupid, but I still asked it hoping a small chance of it to make any sense :? .  You're probably right. There may be some loosening somewhere. Since desoldering didn't do anything, it must have been on the wires. I'll check that one after I finished my last project, LPB booster. Just finished Ross Compressor a while ago.

Yeah, Philippines is tropical country but you can't feel it when December comes. The cool breeze of the air is more than enough for our body to chill. Especially for us who live here in a village a little bit high in the hill. But of course, nothing beat the winter where it's daylight but there's no light.

Merry Christmas

Zener

[Nasse]

Sorry my answer was a quick guess only. And what I know about title is very limited.

I wonder if commercial pedal makers test their pedals at different temperatures. Just read an article in a computer mag about corrosion. When there is temperature chances and high relative humidity that causes a potential risk of corrosion. Some weeks ago in this forum someone was mentioning that if you live near sea there is always some salt in the air and that makes teh corrosion many times more possible. Sockets and connectors may have most and first of the trouble. Protective laqcuer on a pcb may be helpful in hard conditions. I remember my bandmate played in a dance band and they left their equipment and instruments in a van outdoors for 24 hrs in the restaurants parkplace, it was -10 C at night.

Opamp datasheets have info about suitable operating temperature, and by buying a "military" spec component you can have it more extreme. With discrete components and bias settings and how components interact in a complicated circuit is not easy to understand. Germanium fuzzface is well-known pedal that may lose it magig sound if temperature chances, but silicon ones does not have this problem.

But diodes and transistors do react temperature chances, and you can measure it. So obvioúsly you might hear some differences in sound, too. Maybe I must try how my fuzzface sounds when it is in the freezer!