As much as I hate stupid questions...

[cakeworks]

Yeah, sorry about clogging this up with stupid questions but I don't know anyone who i can ask this stuff.

I am having trouble with dc jack. well im pretty sure its the jack because the circuit works with a battery but i took the battery socket out and put the jack in instead and now nothing comes through at all when its running through the circuit.  (its fine bypassed)

basically i'm wondering where i could find a wiring diagram for your average dc jack (the large plastic ones with the off center jack)

thank's for bearing with me in my electrical naivity

[chokeyou]

generalguitargadgets.com has a pretty comprehensive selection of power diagrams, i think its all under the tech pages

also, i noticed beavisaudio had a great writeup as well, I thought I bookmarked his site but you should be able to find it.

[monty.carlos]

Check tonepad.com.  Under "fx projects" is a pdf file called "offboard wiring".  Everything you'll need is there.

[cakeworks]

thank you

[rockhorst]

There's a trick to wire both a battery and a dc jack in such a way that the battery will work only when dc jack isn't present. That's somewhere on tonepad or GGG. I tried this but for some reason the dc jacks I tried feel the need for a little mechanical pressure on the 'switch' (the the jack has three lugs an a switch). I tried to 'deform' the switch a bit so that it would properly function, but I just can't convince it to do the job properly 

[Doug_H]

Best bet is to buzz out the jack with your dvm's continuity tester. Figure out which lug is ground, hot, and switch. Battery hot (red) connects to the switch so when the jack is unplugged, the switch is "on" and the battery connects to the circuit. Also, I have heard that some of these dc jacks are vulnerable to damage from soldering heat. If you leave the soldering iron on too long, or use too much heat  the integrity of the jack will fail. (I don't know if the contacts come loose or what the problem is. I have not experienced it myself.)

Doug

[Mark Hammer]

ALWAYS have a spare barrel-style plug on hand for this.

The are normally two contacts inside the jack that are in contact with each other.  When the plug is inserted, it will bump one of those contacts out of the way.  Ths is what allows the power source to switch over from battery to DC.  Pull the plug out and the battery is instantly connected.

Unfortunately, unlike most closed-circuit phone jacks, you can't see them because they are inside the housing.  So, you need an unused plug to insert and break the normal connection.  Now, with the plug inserted, use your meter to test the connection/continuity between the solder lug for the outer shaft of the plug (which will carry V+, Boss style), and the solder tabs on the inside-the-chassis side of the jack.  Continuity will only be present for one of the tabs on the jack.  That is the one that should go to the V+ connection on the board.

Now take the plug out and check for continuity between that just-identified solder tab and one of the other available solder tabs on the jack.  The one with continuity after the plug has been removed is the one you should attach your positive battery lead to.

[Ashurbanipal]

Just skimmed this thread, so sorry if someone already said this but...

If you have one of those metal DC jacks and the metal is in contact with your project box, you could be shorting the + to ground. Either use a plastic DC jack, insulate the metal jack from the box, or use a power supply where the +/- are reversed so that - goes to ground.

[cakeworks]

well after debugging, i realised that I had soldered the + signal to the ground vero strip and the ground to the + strip! that happened after i had tested it as a success because the wires came loose. then i had the jack wired correctly but it still didnt work, now i have it wired up with a jack and a battery and it works well enough.

question: i have one of those battery sockets that are simply the connections for the 9volt in a sleeve with two wires coming out. Is that cool to glue to the side of the case or do i need something stronger to hold it in place?