Greatest (S)hits

[nickbungus]

For those of you that have helped me and advised me on here, you know I can be a bit of an idiot.  I've just made myself laugh again at how stupid I can be.  Last night I built the Tonepad Rat.  A simple circuit that I've built before, should be no problems here.  Alas, it didn't work, I wasn't getting anything.  So, after an hour of scratching my head, changing IC's, looking for bridges, bad solder joints, checking values, etc., I thought I'd leave it until tonight and give it a probe.   I've always used green wire for output and white for in. And that's all it was, I had them the wrong way round.

That's not my best one though, the best one that had me scratching my head for ten minutes was when I hadn't populated the sockets with any IC's or transistors.

Others on the list are:

• No power supply whatsoever
• Two big massive obvious holes on my board where I'd missed a resistor.
• Input Jack and Output Jack mixed up on my test rig
• Power and ground the wrong way round
• Pots not wired

There's probably a few more that I cant remember right now.

Am I the only one or is anyone else prone to the odd senior moment?  Please share your mistakes.

[bloxstompboxes]

I have forgotten to install components and mixed input and output on the test rig multiple times. It just seems natural since our pedals in and out are right to left that while testing the board component side up it should be the same way, lol; but it isn't. I think I soldered power backwards but caught it before hooking it up.

[thermionix]

I neber make mistakes.

[dschwartz]

I made a big pcb, double sided, aligning the graphics was a PITA, not to mention ironing both sides..etched, cleaned up, drilled the board, cut the outline, some resin for protection...whole day on it.
And realized that the design was inverted..

[GibsonGM]

I've spent a long time wondering why my new "thing" doesn't work...bad patch cord.

Amp not turned on, or turned way down

Battery not connected

Guitar not connected, still connected to a test oscillator

Guitar volume all the way down

...plus all the above!

[Jdansti]

All of the above. The stupidest is no sound because the guitar volume was turned down.

[Beo]

Circuit works inside the box, but not outside... wasted hours trying to figure it out. Of course, no ground on the output jack (uses the enclosure to complete ground connection).

[Dasher]

The first stompbox I built was actually the first guitar pedal I ever used and I didn't realize that stomp switches were so difficult to switch. I spent far too much time investigating why my effect wasn't turning on when the only problem was that I wasn't pressing the switch hard enough.

[EBRAddict]

I made a big pcb, double sided, aligning the graphics was a PITA, not to mention ironing both sides..etched, cleaned up, drilled the board, cut the outline, some resin for protection...whole day on it.
And realized that the design was inverted..

Oh man that sucks. At least with a 1-sided board you can use it if the components are all symmetric and wire the controls in.

I bet you never make that mistake again.

[aron]

We had an entire thread on this. Mine was forgetting the IC!

[bluebunny]

Mine was forgetting the IC!

+1   

I did some recording for a mate once, using all my own DIY kit.  So I was sat on the floor connecting up a string of pedals, but nothing.  Took quite a while to realise I had it all completely back-to-front, since I was sitting behind the pedals.  Sheesh...   

[nickbungus]

Good to know I'm not the only one.  I spend so much time making sure I'm putting the right component in the right place, all my solder joints look right and I have no bridges that when I come to the simple stuff I just let my guard down.

[italianguy63]

Probably my biggest, was the 1st manufactured PCB I did.  It ended up the diagram for the 2 transistors were on the wrong side of the Silk Screen stencil-- so the images were reversed.  It caused me to build MANY pedals with the transistors reversed... and of course they did not work.  Months of wasted time, and piles of wasted components.  If I remember, it was Paul (PRR) that finally got me to trace the circuit board from the schematic, and that was what revealed the issue.  Big learning experience!

And, I have done plenty of what my late father would have called "Novice Tricks."  Like, forgetting to put an IC in a socket.  Swapping the input and output cables, no battery on the "Batter Snap" (Ha!  Remember that one?).

Etc.  We all have our blond moments.

MC

[antonis]

I can't result in which is the ALL TIME CLASSIC...

Empty sockets vs Empty IN jack 

[feddozz]

I have done all the above. No battery connected to the breadboard, in/out jacks inverted, no IC in sockets. But these were all resolved in a matter of seconds and reversible. Also I still have a battery PP3 into male dc jack which has positive background, I have a thread on that. I spotted that early enough but the lead is still wired that way. I need to find the will to swap the cables.

The worse irreversible are:

• Look at inside of my ROG Britannia enclosure, find a nice spot for the LED. Turn the enclosure and drill from the outside. Can you guess what happened? I did not figured out that turning the enclosure upside down I had to drill the hole on the other side of the foot switch. Result the LED Bezel is too close to the out jack socket. Now they live jammed against each other. They'll bend the enclosure over time!!


• The other one is about drilling too. I am plannign my offboard component layout in the enclosure and find a nice spot for the  DC jack. I drill the enclosure and start assembing. Problem? I did not consider the screw boss in the corner so I have no room to screw the nut at the back of the jack socket. I am planning on putting some proper glue to keep it there.

[Jamdog]

I destroyed half my germaniums with a badly connected test rig.  I still don't know the gain on the remaining germaniums.

[duck_arse]

reverse etching the pcb - I'd probably still be doing that if I was etching.
everything plugged to everything, power on, nothing on the cro - twiddle knobs, power off/on - still nothing. sig gen not switched on.
most common - switch on the load switch on the bench supply, no response anywhere, switch off. plug supply wires into BB ....

[anotherjim]

Ah, Desert Island F'ups.

Done/do all of the above.

The bad ones are those you don't spot. Example - There are many mistakes you could make with a complex filter like Sallen-Key  and it won't necessarily be obvious.
How many working pedals out there with electro caps the wrong way around?

[blackieNYC]

First day with my Irwin Uni-bit. A 1590BB.
Drill the small holes first.
Then the large holes.
Then, remove the bottom plate. No, wait, that should be first.

[Kipper4]

Testing an envelope detector with the guitar volume turned down wondering why it won't trigger the LED. What a waste of an afternoon.
Then it is Friday 13th.
And oh so many more.