Confession time

[bigchasbroon]

My very first build was a ts9 back in march. I built it and it had a very week trebly tone. I was pretty dissapointed and tried to fix it but couldnt figure out what was wrong and put it on the shelf while i built some others. last week i decided to have a go at debugging it again so i made an audio probe like everyone keeps saying and I found out in 2 minutes that I had put a 27pf cap instead of a 27nf cap right there at the input. That is despite having checked all the values of everything 3 times over.

Then this week I made a rebote 2.5 and it didnt work i got the magnifying glass out and check for shorts etc and checked the wiring then after 20 minutes noticed that I hadnt out the ICs into the scokets

So I just wondered what stupid mistakes have you made and are you man enough to confess?

[Naz Nomad]

... noticed that I hadnt out the ICs into the scokets

Yep ... not ashamed to say that I've done that more than once.

[R.G.]

If you've read my posts here, I did exactly the same thing.

[ianmgull]

When I first started building I nearly pulled my hair out looking for the source of hum (excessive shielded wire, ultra-paranoid star grounding schemes) before realizing that my cheapo $4 radio shack wallwart was unregulated and poorly filtered.

[Mark Hammer]

As someone with only 36 posts, that suggests you're new here.  Let me tell you, the list of "confessions" from us old-timers is immense, and posted here in copious quantity.

Welcome to a highly-esteemed club!

[Naz Nomad]

Wiring up the DC Jack before sticking it thru the hole ...
Soldering both ends of a wire that needed heatshrink sleeve on it ...
Printing and etching a PCB without remembering to flip the fekking picture first. (I have a couple of unique 'keyrings' due to that trick).

... yeah, we've all been there.  

[WLS]

...
Printing and etching a PCB without remembering to flip the fekking picture first...

Yea, I've done that!

The sad part is I have printed on my templates "This Side Up" big and bold, but still managed to screw it up!

[maarten]

Lost a lot of time on several occasions trying to get the hum down in things I was building. Really annoying to discover for a second and yet a third time it is still that same energy saving lamp over my desk....
Maarten

[drk]

i've forgot about the ic some times too :p

[GibsonGM]

Not plugging in the power supply ;o)  Omitting a ground wire, or connecting Vref to Gnd, lol.

[Brymus]

I had a time with a chip amp in BTL (cause I was using a swichcratf jack in a metal chassis on the output)
Thought it was a bad chip when I finally traced the whole circuit I found it,and explained for others to learn from.
That was a biggie and I think most would have blamed a bad chip or claimed the fix was something other than user stupididty(as was my case) - Thats the most recent OOPS
Before that...
My second amp build I hooked up a CT tranny to four diodes and literally exploded the first 450V filter cap( along with almost messing my pants )
And just barely missed being hurt quite badly as it happened just after I lifted my head up from trying to hear what the wierd noise was
(the dielectric boiling)
Those are the two worst mistakes I've made the rest are my eyesight (sticking a lead into the wrong row on the breadboard)
(getting the decimal point in the wrong place)

[JKowalski]

Soldering plugs on the end of cables, and forgetting to put the plug cover on the cable first.

Printing lettering on PCBs, I ALWAYS forget to flip the letters around. I have only twice got that correct, that's about 2/15 different times for me  

Forgetting to plug in jacks/power, often.

Forgetting to connect the power strips together on b-boards with a split power trace.

Having my two-channel scope set to channel two while the channel 1 probe is plugged in, and spending half an hour trying to figure out why I can't see my signal!   I mean, really... And that's happened more then once, I'm afraid.

[soggybag]

I've done most of these.

[Naz Nomad]

Ahhh, using a dummy plug in the IN jack to test the on/off function ... only to discover 30 mins later it's a stereo plug I've used ... such a 'tard.

[Renegadrian]

You plug power and in and out at the just finished board to discover that it makes no sound!!!
So you turn it over, check it a thousand times and swearing a thousand times, and suddenly you realize you just left the trannies/opamps off their sockets!!! ahahahah that happens quite often!!!

[Nasse]

I did put plus and minus wrong way. On two "projects". One was nice rhytm box with National Semiconductor rhytm pattern generator and white/pink noise chip (for snare). The other was better quality FM radio and stereo decoder kit. I fixed the fm radio, just put on all new semiconductors and exploded caps.

[humptydumpty]

haha, on the breadboard once, i had no cables plugged in, and i was wondering where the hum was coming from, turns out, twas comin from my foot

[bigchasbroon]

good to see that things that only happen to stupid people dont just happen to me. Ive done couple of others aswell like wiring the dc jack without putting the nut over the wires first.
My plan was  to buld a few pedals and work up to an tube amp but maybe thats not a good idea.

[MartyMart]

ALL of the above !! 

Not finding the IC's in their sockets but instead finding them embedded in your bare foot, is not a fun discovery !!

MM.