Some basic questions that Im just not getting.

[harkkam]

I've built up my knowledge about different parts and what not and I have them collected as well. I have all the tools and I can solder well. But there is just a few problems I am having.

I don't know how to solder the circuit board to the input and output jacks, I dont understand what a board ground looks like and how Im supposed to connect the jacks to the DPDT switch.

1. The input jack has three prongs and the output jack has two. What are these prongs?
2. How do I connect these prongs to the switch.
3. When I see a part telling me to connect it to ground, do I just solder all the grounds to one point and then solder that to the input jack.

Im really confused about the jacks and ground. Thank you

[frequencycentral]

Hope this helps:

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/StompboxWiring/

TRS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector

[aron]

The first thing you should do is check out the FAQ:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/wiki/index.php?title=DIY_FAQ

Then check out the beginner project:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=6.0

[sean k]

I feel for you Bro, I can still remember those days about 9 years ago when I just couldn't get my head around ohms law which I now use as an all pervading calculation for life.

Everytime I wire up inputs and outputs, because I don't really do it alot, I plug a lead into it and check it with the multi meter on continuity setting. Then I know whats the tip and whats the sleeve. The other switch is the ring and thats usually used for stereo, or any other dual channel thing with a shared earth, and ring contact, if we're using a mono lead, can become a way to switch an earth... ie, we connect the battery negative to it and the battery is only on when we plug a lead in.

You follow that beavis picture and you'll see where everything goes and why given the switch connects the bottom two rows, in vertical lots, on one throw then the top two rows on the other throw.

As for your grounds... well, thats a tricky one. I follow a few fairly straight forward rules when it comes to grounds. As few loops as humanly possible and connect to ground at the highest impedance point... which is usually the input.  Usually we bus all the grounds together then run a wire to the input. My busses usually involve the stomp switch where I ground the fx input on bypass and all the coax earths go to that point.
I think whats also kinda as important as grounds is decoupling power supply points. Having a 100nano and  10uf caps over each opamp and separate supplies to groups of transistors but then again it depends on what you want to acheive. Cross talk as the system pulls and pushes might be a good thing but if you want pure pristene sounds then keep high impedance away from low impedance and decouple lots and then ground like your building drainage for the rich and the famous. Waters always a good analogy.