Need help with this pedal!

[carnevoodoo]

OK.  this pedal sounds great sometimes.  It is too quiet when the volume knob seems to be working, and too loud when it shorts out, or has a bad ground or something.  Either way, it is annoying.  I'm going to post pics and you tell me if you see anything horribly wrong!

Of course, I wish now that I had better pics, but I was in a hurry...

Also, should there only be one wire attached to the output jack?

[yano]

Do you have the outer ring of each jack grounded? That may not be the problem, but it should reduce noise.

If you want more help, you should say what circuit you are working with.
It would be more helpful than even all these images, especially since you don't show the bottom and top of the perfboard.

[carnevoodoo]

Do you have the outer ring of each jack grounded? That may not be the problem, but it should reduce noise.

If you want more help, you should say what circuit you are working with.
It would be more helpful than even all these images, especially since you don't show the bottom and top of the perfboard.

I don't know much about electronics.  This pedal was shipped to me and I am trying to make it work better.

How do you ground the outer ring?  I am assuming a wire is all it takes, but where do you attach it?  There is only one wire connected to the output jack of this thing, so I don't know if it could possibly be grounded.

Also, the perfboard is pretty securely fastened to a piece of cardboard.  I haven't gotten brave enough to pull it out yet, but if I must, I will.

[Samuel]

eeesh. Yeah jacks not grounded + that string of series resistors trailing from pot to pot doesn't fill one with confidence (I mean if that is some kind of insulating plate underneath then yeah it'll work but I wouldn't trust it too far...)

[yano]

I take it the jack on the left in the bottom picture is the output jack? What is that wire connected to (which lug) on the jack?

One of the lugs will be connected to the upper "prong" and the other will go to the ring of metal around the edge of the jack.

[carnevoodoo]

yeah.  The left jack is the output.  The green and dark blue wire connected to the on/off switch (the middle of it, I believe, looking at the pictures.  I was stupid and left this pedal at home) is going to the output jack, but I don't know which lug it is connected to.  It gets output, so I was just assuming that there was only one place it could be connected to on the output?  Is that a poor assumption?

Where do I attach a wire to ground the output jack.  To the lug on the outer ring and to...?

[carnevoodoo]

Oh, and should I cover those series resistors so they don't touch anything?

[carnevoodoo]

I actually do have one more question.  Can you tell what kind of electronics were used for this?  I mean what kind of transistors, etc?

Just curious.  I am really interested in building my own pedals, so I am looking at this as a learning experience.

[petemoore]

Set your DMM to beep, put one lead on the small smooth battery clip lead [negative]. This should go through the battery clips black wire, and by probing with the other DMM lead, you should be able to easily find places on the board that are connected to this ground point.
 Yer spossed to have one ground point for all grounds, just connect the sleeve connection from your jack to  ground point..
 To double check this, plug a cable in your jack, with DMM in beep mode, check for continuity [connection] between the sleeve of your open cable end to your ground points...battery negative, and all ground points.
 Both jacks should ground the sleeves of 1/4'' plug cables....input And output need solid grounding. I like the enclosure [metal or shielded enclosure, your Raco there IS metal] to be grounded for shielding against noise.
 I usually go through and check box, both jacks sleeve, wherever circuit grounds are made...if a ground connection is lifted, problems ensue.