Of course as soon as I get it in the box it stops working

[MrPedal]

Ok so this is something I haven't run into before.

The pedal works perfectly fine, until I put it in the enclosure and secure the jacks. Unscrew the jacks and let them hang out, and it works again. Im guessing this has something to do with the jacks grounding out? Idk, this is my first from scratch build, so I'm a little puzzled. I know that the jacks will be grounded when they're screwed in, but I've just never seen this before

[thermionix]

What are you building?

[MrPedal]

What are you building?

Fuzz factory- compact build from tag board

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/10/zvex-fuzz-factory-compact-layout.html?m=1

I'm guessing little plastic washers would fix the issue? Not easy to find where I live. Or could I just disconnect the ground wires and let the chassis be the ground for the jack? Not sure if that would fix the problem

[Jdansti]

Does the LED go off when you connect the jacks, or does the sound just stop?

Are any other pedals connected to the same power supply?

You probably have it wired for negative-center power on the DC jack which is standard. Is the jack body metal or plastic? A metal body will connect the positive pole of your power supply to your grounds.

Check the wiring to the input and output jacks to make sure you haven't accidentally swapped the tip and sleeve connections on one or both jacks.

Make sure the in/out jack lugs are not touching anything. Sometimes the tip lug will touch the closure. Look for strands of wire on the lugs sticking out and touching the enclosure.

[Mark Hammer]

Hmmm.  This year's it-worked-before-I-boxed-it-up came early!

jdansti has most of the possibilities covered.  The only one I'll add to that list is that unsuccessful desk-to-box conversions result from things touching that shouldn't have been touching, but also things that should be touching not touching.  When a person builds something from scratch the first time (and I mean the first time you've made THAT pedal), the length of any connecting wires to pots, switches, and jacks, is usually a wild guess.  Sometimes the wires are too short for where the controls are to be installed.  Sometimes there is too much wire and it gets bunched up inside the box.  The result is that sometimes a solder joint you thought was properly made gets fractured, or a piece of wire is stressed and torn.  It happens.

Your methods may be very different, but I often fail to remake ground connections during the desk-to-box transfer.  I may have a wire connecting ground lugs on jacks, when there is no chassis to assist in linking the jacks, and then remove it for installation. But there may be other ground connections that are temporarily placed, then removed and not reinstated during installation.

Finally, folks will build up a board, test it out, and then connect it to a stompswitch only when they go to box it up.  As I've posted about far too many times, it can happen that attaching the connecting wires to the stompswitch lugs has ended up applying too much heat, and liquefied the dab of grease inside the switch, used to damp the "chatter" that can occur with rocker contacts like those switches use.  The grease now flows over the contact and acts as an insulator.  Depending on where you get your switches from, sometimes they can arrive a little tarnished.  That in itself is not terrible, but someone may be tempted to simply apply more heat to the lug to get the solder to flow, and that results in either cold joints, grease-insulated contacts, or both.

Again, the checklist is:
"Are there things making contact that should not be doing so?", and
"Are there things that ought to be making contact that aren't?"

[duck_arse]

my particular favourite seems to be too much heat on the x-wing switches, causing lug moove, which results in yes/no/yes/maybe/some/no switching.
can we see photos of your build and box, please?

[deadastronaut]

like john said..

metal dc socket?....

or plastic?...

if its metal, theres your problem...swap for a plastic one.

[MrPedal]

No dc jack. Battery only. Nothing touching jack tip, I always make sure to keep it turned well away from anything

I suppose the ground and hot could be flipped, but then it wouldn't work at all would it? It does work in bypass when the jacks are secured. But the effect only works when the jacks are removed from the box.

[Hatredman]

If that's the case, pictures are NEEDED for further help.

[MrPedal]

Well it's a mess that's for sure. I will never do another pedal with this many pots lol.

But as messy as it looks, and as sloppy as the soldering is. it works great and sounds like it should. I know I've isolated the problem to the jacks. I can play it with jacks hanging loose, and then just touch one of the jacks to the enclosure and then the sound cuts out.

I know some are going to cringe looking at this mess but it is what it is lol. Not sure if anybody will be able to get anything out of it. It will be downright impossible to tell where the leads are going to and coming from

[slacker]

Nice looking table

Try bending the loop of wire on the Sag pot away from the body of the pot. If that's touching the pot it could cause the problem you're having.
The bodies of the pot touch the case, the jacks connect the case to ground so if that loop is touching the pot and you connect the jack to the case you're shorting out the the power to the circuit. It will work fine if the jacks aren't touching the case and will still work in bypass if they are.
Check the other pots for similar problems.

[MrPedal]

Nice looking table

Try bending the loop of wire on the Sag pot away from the body of the pot. If that's touching the pot it could cause the problem you're having.
The bodies of the pot touch the case, the jacks connect the case to ground so if that loop is touching the pot and you connect the jack to the case you're shorting out the the power to the circuit. It will work fine if the jacks aren't touching the case and will still work in bypass if they are.
Check the other pots for similar problems.

Thank you so much! Genius! It wasn't that jumper but a lead right next to it was touching the pot. That's why I asked here, smart people on this board. Awesome!

And thanks for being non judgmental about my rats nest!

[duck_arse]

awwwww, now I want to see the table!

[Hatredman]

Me too

[deadastronaut]

just in case you dont get to see it again..

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=table&client=opera&hs=wUi&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ6bK54v7KAhVDSBQKHaEJBEYQ_AUIBygB&biw=1422&bih=727

[Hatredman]

This one's cool:

[duck_arse]

you wouldn't want to get your balls caught in the tilt, though.




they'd spill all over the floor, obviously.