So life happened and now… Five years later…

[Elysiumfx]

Just thought I would make a post on here asking a question as a newbie... and it turns out back in 2016, I was already here! Brief outline; I started making pedals, purchased pcbs and started learning. Then went away. Gigging abroad. Life happened. I stored my DIY pedals, taking my tour board and that was that. Life really happened. Priorities changed. Then I retired from music. Got a desk job. And that was that, until I cleared out my shed...

I've just found my electronics box! Including my pcbs. So I thought to myself, let's see if these work!

Once I had found my old guitar and dusted her off, found an appropriate number of jack leads, slowly brought the amp up to full power and found the space to set everything up, I tried the pedals.

Nothing.

Firstly a Screaming Tube ultra pcb? But I don't think it ever worked. There is something in my aged brain that suggests I didn't complete it...

So I'll shelve that for now.

So I popped to a supplier website and purchased (an easy one or so I thought) a 2 knob 2399 chorus? Took care to solder correctly... but nope nothing. Turns out from further research no one ever gets that right straight away, and it may need high different regulator despite the instructions.

Finally my ( now I know this one works!) Classic (green) OD. New off board wiring needed... and....  NOTHING!! Ha. Maybe this isn't my thing anymore! Volts all read perfect so board has power. LED only works if I reverse it!?! And I get no bypass sound and no effect although I can hear the pots are doing as they should from the hum!! Oh dear lord! What have I begun!

I assumed it was like riding a bike! Maybe retirement was a good choice after all... but I have too many 125b's to just quit!

Any suggestions would be fantastic. I'm making a new audio probe as we speak! Thanks guys. And despite the awful start... it's good to be back!

[vigilante397]

Welcome back

Voltages are always useful for troubleshooting, but if you're looking at old things that used to work, start with simple things like double-checking solder joints on offboard wires, looking for shorts, etc. If everything looks perfect on that end then it's time to measure voltages and start getting into real debugging.

[fowl]

Any suggestions would be fantastic.

Try different cables.

Fantastic.

[PRR]

.............. LED only works if I reverse it!?! ..........

Polarity?? Supply or battery?

[Elysiumfx]

Hmm.. thank you for the replies. I've tried a group of different leads. No change. I've gone through the debug in the instructions and confirm that the voltages are as they should be... basically it looks like the pedal works - just no sound from the input. So there has to be a short there somewhere. So frustrating. With the polarity would the IC continue to work if it was reversed?

[duck_arse]

there is probably not an IC yet designed that will function correctly when the supply polarity is reversed. as PRR sez, yer backwards led suggests either a backwards led or a backwards supply, and if the same supply for each test, it would follow that they all don't werk.

start a thread, call  it something like help me fix my green overdrive, post the circuit, the board layout, and photos of wot you bilt. then do the voltage measures, and away we go.


[edit :] oops - and welcome back.

[Elysiumfx]

Thanks all. Changed the input and output lead. Swapped over to a battery. Reflowed EVERY connection on the board! And she's alive!!!!! We are back in the game!! Onto the next pedal after a little soldering practice on some old vero. To be continued...