[SOLVED] No output when in an enclosure.

[KimJongFun]

Hey,

I built my own circuit and it works very well but only outside its enclosure.
The potentiometers don't touch the board, they are isolated from it.
The in and out jack are connected together and the out jack is connected to ground.
The switch is also connected to ground.
The enclosure is connected to ground via the in and out jacks.
At this point I have no idea of where it can come from.

Someone on facebook told me to try to disconnect the two jacks from each other and left the input connected to ground, it doesn't make much sense to me, they are still connected to each other through the box but I still tried that: still no output.

I tried to not ground the in and out, (out of despair) the result is not surprising: it makes a lot of noise.

[KarenColumbo]

Gotta be a short somewhere. Something touching the enclosure somewhere? underside/Top side of the PCB? Did you wire the switch correctly?

[KimJongFun]

That's my first guess, something is touching the enclosure, but I have absolutely no idea where and it seems that I already looked everywhere, the last thing I suspect would be the switch wiring, because I'm not 100% sure.

The bottom of the pcb is entierly covered of insulating tape (a roll is less expensive than a few potentiometer covers...) so the possibility of the bottom of the PCB touching a potentiometer or even the enclosure is unlikely.

The top is unlikely to touch anything since it already doesn't work when the enclosure is not yet closed, and if anything was touching, it would be the top of the electrolytic capacitors, but I'm not forcing to close the enclosure, so I think this possibility can be excluded too

The switch looks properly wired, it has the in and out to ground when the effect is disengaged, works as intented outside of the enclosure.
Like this:
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2017/41/4/1507787308-3pdtwiring-1.png
The switch:
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2017/41/4/1507787764-2124.jpg (no led yet)
This is the only special thing I got...

My jacks aren't switched, it's just mono jacks.
The DC jack isn't switched either.
I have a battery connector for testing purposes but it is useless now that I have a proper power supply.

[bluebunny]

Is the DC jack an insulated, plastic one?  Show us some more pictures.

[KimJongFun]

[thermionix]

What kind of "not working" is it?  Absolutely no sound at all?  A little noise but no signal?  Do you still have power where needed throughout the board?

Any chance you got the in and out jacks reversed in your mind because you're used to looking at it from the other side?

[KimJongFun]

Sorry, I thought I said it in the first post, I don't have any output, but I can hear a very quiet clicking sound.
I haven't checked power, I will.
Not possible, I double checked while testing yesterday, the enclosure was still open, so it was easy to check, a sine wave was applied to the input and we could follow it through the circuit.

I did the normal true bypass wiring without grounding the in and out and see how it goes.
Also cleaned the wiring a bit and removed the (now) unnecessary battery clip.
The switch also works fine (contact detected where it should)

[patrick398]

This has happened to me recently. I'd suggested taking it out of the box, reconfirming it still functions outside the box and then putting the jacks, switch, and pots in one at a time, checking if it's still working after you place each one in and tighten it up.

[KimJongFun]

well well well....
I changed the 3PDT wiring to something more standard (as said in a previous message) and it works fine now... I'm very surprised that the previous wiring didn't work in a aluminium enclosure.

Now I have a different problem, there is a hum in the background. which I didn't notice yesterday with the sine wave...

[antonis]

I suspect bad ground joints..
(IMHO, your solder joints on jack lugs are quite prone to "loose"..) 

[KimJongFun]

Well, they were on the pictures because I had to test what someone told me to do (but didn't work), the solder joints were good before.
Now the joints are not better, (but better than what's shown) about the same to be, and it works, I don't think a thick patty of solder would have helped.