The Trouble with Trannies. . . . ??

[MartyMart]

. . . Er, the small black plastic/metal can type, not big hairy blokes dressed up in womens. . . . .
Anyway, I feel like i've been taking "stupid pills"  or something, after some very successful builds ie: BSIAB II, Sonic Distortion, Reamer, Buzz Box i've had a spate of "Non operationalization" ( as Bush would say )  builds, which all involve "transistors"  !!
English Channel, nothing but problems due to "bad" J201's, still not quite right, 2nd Buzz Box, just wont make any noise, my orange sunshine fuzz, which was fine, now just "hums" and yesterday i perfed a "Brian may treble booster"  which does . . . . NADA  !!
I'm starting to think that transistors and me just dont mix?  perhaps I should stay with op-amp based circuits. . . . .??

I should add that I use sockets for all major parts, so i'm not "frying" them, and I take my time, being careful to not leave solder traces everywhere.

Any thoughts on this?
Are transistor circuits more "fussy" even though they may be simple builds ?

Marty. :?

[petemoore]

. . . Er, the small black plastic/metal can type, not big hairy blokes dressed up in womens. . . . .
Anyway, I feel like i've been taking "stupid pills"  or something, after some very successful builds ie: BSIAB II, Sonic Distortion, Reamer, Buzz Box i've had a spate of "Non operationalization" ( as Bush would say )  builds, which all involve "transistors"  !!
English Channel, nothing but problems due to "bad" J201's, still not quite right, 2nd Buzz Box, just wont make any noise, my orange sunshine fuzz, which was fine, now just "hums" and yesterday i perfed a "Brian may treble booster"  which does . . . . NADA  !!
I'm starting to think that transistors and me just dont mix?  perhaps I should stay with op-amp based circuits. . . . .??
 Jfets can be finicky
 Buzz Box is tricky
 Orange Sunshine has an problem
 BMTB has a problem
 Once the transistors are setup, they will work, provided they're not fried, which can be checked with the DMM. All these Schematics work.
 GEO has transistor biasing reference information, this is good to know when setting up circuits.
 Debugging page has all the things to try to get at the problems from different approaches.
 What voltages are you reading on the Orange Sunshines transistors?
 
 

I should add that I use sockets for all major parts, so i'm not "frying" them, and I take my time, being careful to not leave solder traces everywhere.

Any thoughts on this?
Are transistor circuits more "fussy" even though they may be simple builds ?

Marty. :?

[Torchy]

crp

[RDV]

Pinout?

RDV

[Torchy]

crp

[MartyMart]

Thanks guys, yeah pin out could be a problem, sometimes even different versions of the same tranny have a different pin out !!
How frustrating is that ?
Have tried 2N5089 and 2N2222  in the BMTB, I dont have the exact one as per the Torchy lay out ( BC182L )

Is there an obvious straight sub ??

My batch of J201's was just bad !  several are not working at all !!
This caused me to re=bui;d the english channel, when I didn't need to !

Marty.

[Torchy]

crp

[toneman]

test the polarity (& workeeness) of trannya B4 using.
if U don't have a HFE tester, rig up a LED tester.
At least U'll get the polarity straight if LED works.
Make *sure* LED polarity is what U think,
otherwise, U'll have another "problem".
chicken or egg?
tranny or LED?
decisions decisions
stayON
tone

[Mark Hammer]

As much as they make perfing so much easier than chips do, the "true" pinout of transistors is a perennial source of irritation and frustration among builders.  My recommendation is this:  BEFORE YOU EVER MAKE ANYTHING WITH TRANSISTORS, ESPECIALLY IF IT IS ALL TRANSISTORS, ARM YOURSELF WITH ALL RELEVANT DATASHEETS FROM ALL RELEVANT MANUFACTURERS.  Although it doesn't help much for FETs, having a DMM with hfe testing handy is also recommended.  

You wouldn't think that with just three pins there would be so many ways for pins to be arranged in a manner OTHER than what you thought....but you'd be wrong.  For all the years I've been on this forum and its predecessors, you would have thought the number of instances where bad builds miraculously came to life when a trannie was rotated a half turn would have dropped.  No dice.  The nightmare keeps coming back to haunt.

[Torchy]

crp

[petemoore]

BMTB has a problem

Care to elaborate ? 3 builds and all worked first time  :?:

>>>Not the schematic...the build...

[Torchy]

crp