Perf/Vero Builds Impossible!

[blackieNYC]

Perf is good cos you can lay out the build just like the schematic.

At least once, build on perf from the schematic, exactly laying it out as drawn, using as many jumpers as you must, for Vbias, ground, 9v. 
This will be a little larger than your builds soon will be. As you build from the schematic, you'll start to think up shortcuts and begin to reduce the jumpers. 

Following someone's layout instead of a schematic is like watching The Holy Grail in Japanese translated back to English. Also, riding in the back seat while someone else drives the Maserati - you're sure the driver is very skilled, but you have no control and no fun. And I believe you must be in the trunk.

[EBK]

I'll take another look and see what went amiss. Of my perf/vero builds that haven't worked, about 75% of them worked fine before I put them in an enclosure. So I'm doing something wrong when putting it inside the enclosure!

I'll say it one more time, then I'll give it a rest and let you continue debugging in your own chosen style:
A picture or two of what you've done would probably be useful here.

[Mark Hammer]

The problem with both perf and vero is that one has to be conscious of both sides of the board. In the case of PCBs, as long as the board is verified and etched properly, all you need to be concerned with is the parts layout.  The copper side takes care of itself.  When I work with either perf or vero, I constantly have to flip the board over, deal with mirror images, and verify that what I intended to connect to what else actually IS connected to it.

Most persistent problem and source of non-functionality is missing ground connections.  I tend to defer those until "later", and then when I wire it up, I've neglected to complete all the connections I thought I would get to.

Myself, I prefer perf to vero or pad-per-hole, simply because I know darn well I'm going to be modding after the fact, and the copperless perf lends itself to post-hoc mods better; especially if you have some cap values in larger sizes.  (I've been accumulating parts for 40 years, so my bins/drawers have stuff in sizes that are a lot bigger than they are in current-production components).

[duck_arse]

works outta the box, fails in the box - seeing as we don't yet have fotos - any chance you're using metal DC jacks?

[natron_mn]

Na, not metal DC jacks. I ran into that issue once, and after the sparks, once was all I needed!

I swear, I'll post some photos when I finish one 

And, is perfboard different than pad-per-hole?

[Mark Hammer]

Whenever we have an it-worked-before-I-boxed-it-up thread here, it often turns out to be one or more of the following:

• One or more of the pots gets twisted around while tightening the nut, and the solder lugs short out against something nearby...like the case.
• One or more lugs on a switch short out against metal parts of something on a board or a jack.
• One or more wires fractured while wiggling stuff into place in the enclosure.

One challenge I sometimes have, as a re-cycler of parts, that can be variable from part to part, is that I misjudge how much clearance the contacts on a jack require and drill the holes in the wrong place. The tip of the plug ends up pushing the contact on the jack against the chassis, shorting out the signal in BOTH bypass and effect mode.

[PRR]

> perfboard different than pad-per-hole?

I may be wrong, but: perfboard is board with holes in it. Pad-Per is a holy board but with a ring of copper around each hole.

After Mark has re-re-soldered every hole on Pad-Per, and all the copper pads peeled off, it is equivalent to perfboard. (Which may be why he prefers to just start with perf.)

Some people like to solder parts to on-board copper. Some people like to just bend leads touching and solder, letting leads be un-attached to board.

Copper tacks in a wooden board also works, at least for large parts.

Dead-bug is useful since every connection is right there on one side.

[thermionix]

I may be wrong, but: perfboard is board with holes in it. Pad-Per is a holy board but with a ring of copper around each hole.

I've been using the terms interchangeably, but I'm still fairly new to this stuff so I don't know.  I didn't realize people use boards without the copper rings, seems like that would leave components a little loose.  Well, any time I've claimed to build something on perf I meant pad-per-hole.  I'll probably keep calling it perf because it's easier to say and type.

[Mark Hammer]

> perfboard different than pad-per-hole?

I may be wrong, but: perfboard is board with holes in it. Pad-Per is a holy board but with a ring of copper around each hole.

After Mark has re-re-soldered every hole on Pad-Per, and all the copper pads peeled off, it is equivalent to perfboard. (Which may be why he prefers to just start with perf.)  

Some people like to solder parts to on-board copper. Some people like to just bend leads touching and solder, letting leads be un-attached to board.

Copper tacks in a wooden board also works, at least for large parts.

Dead-bug is useful since every connection is right there on one side.

[ElectricDruid]

Copper tacks in a wooden board also works, at least for large parts.

..which is supposed to be the derivation of "breadboard", since you took a basic wooden breadboard and banged a few nails into it and ran up a quick circuit - bingo!!

T.

[duck_arse]

[ you really need balls to try one of those bingo builds ....]

[ElectricDruid]

[ you really need balls to try one of those bingo builds ....]

Lol! Thanks Duck!