Screamer + Buffer in series

[Karl96]

Hi Guys,

this is my first post in the forum as it is my first project as diyer and I hope someone can help me 
I tried to add into the same box a TS-9 and a germanium buffer, but probably I made some mistakes with series/parallel circuit because it doesn't work at all when it is switched off (and it should have true bypass) and when it is switched on i have to crank up all the knobs to listen a very low fuzzy sound...
Here you can see the circuit http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2061700/Screamer_Buffer.jpg , I tried to put the two effects in parallel to use one single 9V battery, hoping I did it well

Thanks to all in advance for the help!!!

[CurtisWCole]

It could be that the battery doesn't supply enough current to power both. I'd really have to see it.

Curtis

[CurtisWCole]

Also I'd really double and triple check the wiring if it's not working when it's off. There's an amazing amount of info out there about correct wiring. Tonepad has some great diagrams.

Curtis

[Karl96]

Hi Curtis,

thanks for the replies! I checked many sites and pcb wiring layouts, the problem is that it is difficult to find a stompbox with two pcb in one...
To be more exaustive this is what happened when I tried for the first time the stompbox:

- Connect with 9V standard battery, clean channel on amp: bypass worked, buffer worked but it seemed to be dependent to volume pot (it should bypass it with OD switched off), OD working
- Connect with 9V standard battery, crunch channel on amp: bypass worked, buffer and OD working but sound decreased after few seconds to mute
- Connect with 9V 500 mA adapter, clean/crunch channel: bypass worked, buffer and OD working but sound decreased after few seconds to mute

After that, with every combination i have the following situation:
- Bypass not working (no sound at all), buffer on = just background noise, OD on (with buffer on/off) = really low sound which decreases in few seconds

basically it worked for a bit and I think to a power issue due to the bypass not working....If I don't find a solution I try to completely bypass the buffer and going from first switch directly to the output...

[CurtisWCole]

ok.

Here's a few possible things to try.

Check the boards themselves. Look for "cold joints". Any soldering spots that might look dull or not shiny. Check the direction of the electrolytic capacitors and diodes. Make sure that the positive and negative ends are connecting to the proper components. Hopefully you have the schematic for these boards. This would cause no sound. BTW, at geofex.com there is a debugging section that could, more than likely, give you some more options.
Check the wiring and soldering of the pots to the board. If that buffer is acting weird when you mess with pot, it could be a bad connection.
Another option could be to take the boards out and try each one separately. I mean, connect the jack straight into the fx-in and output jack to the fx-out. That should tell you whether its the board or not. No switches used that way. Then you could possibly isolate the issue that way. Make sure it's still grounded.
THEN, there are several ways to wire two pcbs in one box. If you have two 3pdt switches then try this.

FX IN 1               LED 1                 FX OUT 1                                  FX IN 2                          LED 2                    FX OUT 2

INPUT JACK       GROUND         TO NEXT SWITCH ---------->FROM PREVIOUS SWITCH         GROUND               OUTPUT JACK

CONNECT           FX IN 1               CONNECT                                CONNECT                       FX IN 2                  CONNECT
    l                                                    l                                             l                                                                 l
    L_____________________________l                                             L_____________________________________l

If they're the blue switches, make sure that the contacts on the bottom are aligned horizontally when you're looking at it and wiring it. I've made the mistake by connecting with them vertical. So, check the boards first and see if you can make them work alone. If that doesn't work, we'll try to figure something else out. Hopefully this helps, though.

Best of luck,
'
Curtis