short circuit and possible damage?

[Michael]

i have a simple question...

if i accidently touch the battery and the batteryclip te wrong way around... (minus to plus and plus to minus), will i damage my effectpedal (in this case a fuzz).

Or does it not harm anything....

It seems like a fairly easy mistake or accident to happen.

but im not sure of the possible damage this can course... like in a fuzz.

Im only asking in regard to a battery... i know that doing this on a powersupply with multiple pedals is not good.

Michael

[petemoore]

i have a simple question...

if i accidently touch the battery and the batteryclip te wrong way around... (minus to plus and plus to minus), will i damage my effectpedal (in this case a fuzz).
  well..yes it can.

Or does it not harm anything....
  If you're lucky, but you may never know, I like knowing RP has never been seen by a circuit.
It seems like a fairly easy mistake or accident to happen.
  Even in good lighting.
  A Reverse Polarity Protection diode will oftehn stop RP voltage before it does damage.
but im not sure of the possible damage this can course... like in a fuzz.

Im only asking in regard to a battery... i know that doing this on a powersupply with multiple pedals is not good.
  Shorts are terrible mess when the PS dies or 1/2 dies, same but less so with just a fried battery.
  Reverse polarity..drag too, the resistors don't care though, only polarized parts like OA's and polarized caps really care much [they show this by frying or not]..gets a bit hard to tell, I just do A/B testing..test that circuit against a clone of itself or test that cap against a known good one, if all around the active is made 'well' again, and works good, it almost certainly is good.

Michael

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Most stompbox transistor circuits will survive reverse polarity, but it is usually fatal for chips. Especially if reversed for an appreciable time.

[GibsonGM]

You might want to look into adding a protection diode to your projects,  at minimum.  It's just a reverse-biased Si diode from power to ground.  If you put the battery in backwards, it begins to conduct, fries itself, and saves your circuit (or at least has a chance of saving it).  They're shown in fuzz face circuits at the Fuzz Central site (see Axis Fuzz).    You can get more advanced using transistors, depending on what you require, how 'important' the pedal is and so on.