AMZ MOSFET Booster, bunch of newb questions

[O Lively]

This: http://www.muzique.com/schem/mosfet.htm  
is my first build, and it is NOT going smoothly.
I've finally gotten the orientation of the transistor's pins right(found it here: http://www.freewebs.com/loudnoise/Mosboost.pdf) It was different than the datasheet shows.

When i hook it up, there is only a faint signal coming through, adjusting the pot makes no difference.
If i disconnect the battery, it will immediately let lots more signal through, then fade out.
If i hook the battery up backwards, no sound till i disconnect, then it swells and cuts. Adjusting the pot makes no difference in these cases either.

anyone experienced symptoms like this before?
Maybe i hooked the diode up backwards? Bad Transistor?

i deleted c2 simply because i forgot to buy it, figure i'll add it in later, and right now i'm working without a switch/bypass, if that makes any difference.

[Morocotopo]

O, welcome tot the forum.

Read this post:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=29816.0

and post yout voltages, pictures would help too, for us to see if anything is obviously wrong.

[O Lively]

I don't have a way to post pics right now, but here are some voltages(not sure which ones you need):

Point A to ground: 5.2v
Vr to ground: 5.38v
negative side of C5 to ground: 3.88v
Gate to ground: 4.96v
source to ground: 3.84v
Drain to Ground: 5.2v
gate to drain: -.81v
source to drain: -1.3v
source to gate: -.7v

Z1
A=4.96v
K=3.84v

[O Lively]

I've got wit wired Point to Point, the components for the voltage divider all share the same junction(R1, R2, C3, and R3) Is this wrong?

[MikeH]

What is you battery voltage?  All your voltages seem low.

Pinouts can be a very difficult thing to decipher; Many manufacturers use different pinouts for the same transistor, so unless you have the exact datasheet from the manufacturer (which can be difficult to discern as well because many times the part only has the model number on it, not the company that produced it), you can't be sure that you pinout is right.  To make matters worse, sometimes transistor devices will actually work if they are in backwards, just not properly.

[O Lively]

I started with a brand new battery, it's at 8.99v now

The MOSFET is a Fairchild BS170, i read the pinout off the Fairchild Datasheet, which was backwards from the way i originally wired it up, with the gate in the middle like the first way i tried, just opposite source and drain. Is it possible i damaged the MOSFET doing this? I think i've tried pretty much every pin config now.

I bought 2 of every part cause I anticipated having to build this guy twice..

After some research i realized that i DID have the diode backwards, but fixing it made no difference.

And you're saying i should trust the datasheet, not the layout?

[petemoore]

I started with a brand new battery, it's at 8.99v now

The MOSFET is a Fairchild BS170, i read the pinout off the Fairchild Datasheet, which was backwards from the way i originally wired it up, with the gate in the middle like the first way i tried, just opposite source and drain. Is it possible i damaged the MOSFET doing this? I think i've tried pretty much every pin config now.
I bought 2 of every part cause I anticipated having to build this guy twice..
 Resistors break like never and can be measured for value and verification near-certain goodness.
 We [present company] can't measure the capacitors except whether they DC Block [DMM...but they're probably fine unless they are polarized capacitors:
 Reverse polarized polarized capacitors hit the can with 1 lead pulled out [just bent back marks it damaged?, any cap that gets RP'd gets 'disposed. Close attention at where the - mark [negative designator print on cap] is to or toward the most negative side in the circuit, never reversed.
 The diodes can be measured for threshold and directionality [useful tests for small circuit use].
 After some research i realized that i DID have the diode backwards, but fixing it made no difference.
 Anything above 20v at the gate of a mosfet breaks the 20v thick sheet of glass, the carpet voltage can exceed this break down voltage, how damp was it when they were handled ?
And you're saying i should trust the datasheet, not the layout?
 More like the pinout, verified re-checked and double ok'd may be different than what the transistor S/G/D sees [or was is GSD?]. Sounds like you got a Fairchild Data Sheet applicable to your transistor purchase, try to use that.
 Only reason I say 'try' is because the way the pinouts are pictured helps make it more confusing than possible...hence the song 'twisted transistor' I suspect.