5th time starting over on my 1st stompbox.. I'm losing my sanity (DOD OD-250)

[garybee]

No matter what I do, I cannot get this circuit to work. I've started completely over five times now with brand new components every time..
I'll be up front with my weak areas right away, this is my first post: I don't really comprehend grounding fundamentals, I am new to circuits altogether and I absolutely am in love with the concept of envisioning a sound, and building a stompbox that represents it accurately. I'm starting small with a DOD OD 250 circuit and I just can't make it work! I get the bypass signal but just fuzz (bad kind) and scratchy shitbird noises when I activate the @#$%in thing. The LED is mounted and works normally when I hit the 3pdt switch but no function whatsoever from the actual distortion. I'll include pics and a reference to the layout I tried to follow. I really tried hard to just Google my troubles away but I'm really really discouraged and I just don't have another one in me at this rate. Thanks in advance, I'm ready to start my journey!

[Jarno]

Pictures really do help...

[GibsonGM]

Hi, welcome!  Yes, pics, and the schematic and any build info you are working from.   Is it a PCB you bought, are you using Vero or perf  board, that kind of info is required!

We can get you running, and you will learn some of the fundamentals too so that in the future you don't run into this again! 

*  Grounding provides a return path for the power that flows from say the battery into a circuit. It must flow in a 'circle' back to its source.  It can go thru each part in order (series), or flow thru many connected across the + and -  (parallel).     An electrical circuit will not work if the grounds are not correct.  One symptom of a ground not connected that should be is FUZZ (buzz) and crappy noise issues.   If you're lucky that may be your problem.

[garybee]

It kept bugging out but I got some pictures posted so you can check it out. Thanks guys I am chomping at the bit to just have a functioning pedal that I actually made lol

[Govmnt_Lacky]

WOW! Quite a bit to unpack here.

1) When the circuit is ON (effect mode) it looks like you are sending 9VDC directly to the ground plane of the PCB. Not good at all. The Blue wire coming from your 3PDT stomp should be going >Limiting resistor > LED > Power jack. From your pictures, it looks to be going directly from the 3PDT to the power jack.
2) Remove White wire from PCB and resolder it to the Sleeve of the Input jack
3) Run another wire from PCB Ground to same lug on Input jack (from #2)
4) Run another wire from Input jack sleeve to DC jack GND point
5) If you are not going to use an LED (to indicate On/Off) then remove the 3PDT Blue wire entirely (also remove where it is spliced to the Red wire going to the DC power jack)

[garybee]

Omg I suck. Thanks so much that's way more detailed and definitive than I thought it'd be. I'll give that all a try right now and I'll update when I'm done, shouldn't be long. Also I am using an LED it's just on one of those little riser thingies in the top left of the inside of the case.
I've got a lot to learn but I can tell I'm gonna really run with this once I'm a bit more educated on it.

[duck_arse]

scratchy shitbird noises are sometimes the best. and welcome to the forum.

I don't see a wire on either of your jack sleeve lugs. you should follow as Govmnt_Lacky says, but you should also have a grounding wire on the out jack sleeve lug as well.

[garybee]

Update: it now just makes zero noise at all. I guess an improvement to the dead cat noises from before. I did have kind of a hard time understanding your directions but I did as best I could I'll include a picture of what it looks like now. The green LED lights up and the front looks really nice and the bypass position is working fine. It's just the effects portion that is now completely silent..

[GibsonGM]

Do you know what an audio probe is, and how to use it?   

https://www.diypedalgearparts.com/en/novita/26_Audio-probe-how-to-build

Hint:  In the future, always test your PCB with alligator clips to jacks without adding the switching, so that you know it works!  Then any problem later is due to the jack wiring and stomp switch (unless you fried it putting it in, ha ha).

[garybee]

I just built a probe but still a little confused. It's now working technically as intended with really good saturated distortion but insanely quiet. Like ridiculously quiet so that you have to crank the amp to heaven

[GibsonGM]

Is this quiet signal when it's connected 'the right way', jack > cable >amp? Or at some point with the probe?

Using your audio probe, compare signal loudness at input pin 2, and output pin 6, see if 6 is markedly louder than the input (it should be).  Then check the yellow wire at the volume pot, left terminal.  Report back.

[bluelagoon]

Could be wrong but on looking at the right side pot, it appears you may have all 3 lugs to Ground? might want to test there and check if you have a multi meter with continuity tester.
Looks like it is your Gain pot, but that 3rd leg appears it could be solder bridged to the rest.
Check the schematic

[garybee]

Oh I don't think the volume pot is on the ground, it'd get dirty there.

Jk I'm on it thank you guys so much! I'm feeling much more optimistic now. There sure are a lot of ways to make your signal just not work lol

[Ben N]

Welcome, Gary.

Omg I suck.

Nah. You're fine. This stuff can be hard when you don't know which way is up. I can't tell you how many perf boards I wasted before I started to get things going.

I've got a lot to learn but I can tell I'm gonna really run with this once I'm a bit more educated on it.

That's it! If you approach it as not just a way to build some cool stuff, but as a learning experience, you'll get a lot of pleasure (and pain! I won't lie, LOL), you'll get better at it, and you'll appreciate it more as you come to understand more.

BTW, the 250 is a pretty good choice to start with because it's fairly simple and sounds good, but maybe look at something even simpler: https://www.diystompboxes.com/beginner/build/npnboostbuild.htm - my first successful circuit, and I'm guessing a lot of people's, and you get a really clear build guide. Alternatively, another 1-transistor project with some dirt that a lot of folks get their feet wet with is the Electra Distortion (really an overdrive). As simple and nearly foolproof as it is, a lot of commercial pedals are just slight variations on it, including a whole bunch of things from Lovetone (Tchula, COT50, etc.)

One last piece of unsolicited advice: Get yourself a solderless breadboard, so you can put your project together and, if necessary, troubleshoot it, BEFORE you solder stuff together.

Have fun!

[mozz]

If you want a pcb for this, i have a few hundred.

[andy-h-h]

Apart from what has been mentioned above, might be worth reflowing some solder solder, as I'm sure you know a lot of those joins don't look great. 

You MUST do this with flux, or you will probably make things worse.  Buy a flux pen, give it a good go on the offending parts, and then watch some bad solder joins turn good.   

+1 for learning for to use an audio probe - helped me a lot when I was starting out (I'm sure that was mentioned)

[m_charles]

honestly, bail the tagboard, get the schem, and hand wire on perf. Will make things much clearer and you'll learn more that way. you'll be glad you did!

[MrStab]

You've done so many things right, Gary. I think you should at least keep trying this for a while.

Are these shorting?

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Also I am using an LED it's just on one of those little riser thingies in the top left of the inside of the case.

If this is the case (I now see the LED in one of your pictures) then you will need to also run a new wire from the Input jack Sleeve to the middle lug of the 3PDT stomp switch.

Should be something like this:


                       GND for all the pots
DC jack GND >                                                         
                       GND to Input jack > GND to enclosure > GND to Output jack (via metal enclosure)
                                                      GND to PCB
                                                      GND to 3PDT middle lug

[Andrekp]

I don't know if you've either figured this out or given up yet but, my advice:

1). Don't try to get fancy right away.  You don't need to round off the corners of the strip board etc.  It looks like that stripboard has just been over-screwed with.  Its full of scratches, etc. Just cut off the dimensions you need and leave beautifying it for when you get better at it.

2). take some extra strip board and practice soldering.  Try to make nice smooth and shiny short hills over the hole that do not glob up, spill over to other holes/strips, and use more solder than is necessary.  There is a lot of extra solder on that board that might be causing problems.  You need a lot of practice (no insult intended, we all did at some point).

Once you have that soldering down,

3). Prepare another stripboard for your circuit.  The number one problem people have is putting the breaks in the wrong place.  Either because they have the board oriented incorrectly, counted wrong, or missed a hole.  Use a pen/sharpie/whatever, mark both sides in the appropriate spot, then double check each one.  Make sure the marks you put on one side line up with the ones on the other.  If they do not, investigate why.  COUNT the number of holes and match it to the layout.

4). After you make your breaks with a dremel or whatever, Take a box cutter and run it between each strip line to make sure you have no hairs of copper crossing strips.  Examine each break, make sure you have no copper that is still there crossing the break.  Use a magnifying glass if necessary.  Remove anything that is standing up off the stripboard, shards of copper, etc.

5). Take a multi-meter and verify using your continuity/resistance setting that there is no continuity across the breaks or strips.

Failing to properly accomplish the critical task of making a clean starting stripboard will cause 90 percent of your problems.

6) Now add the bridging wires that connect strips.  Count the coordinate holes very carefully.  Triple check them.  These should be added before any component, not in the middle of adding components.  Don't use wires.  Use cut off leads from componants.  As you do this more, you will accumulate extra cut-off from components soldered on to previous board builds.  Save those and use them for this instead of wire.  If you haven't saved any and need them now, sacrifice something cheap to get them.  They will lie nice and flat across the top of the stripboard, they are sized to fit the holes,  and you can put other componants around them easily. 

All of the above will be the vast majority of the pitfalls you will encounter.  Most of the rest (other than being careful about the off-board wiring) is easy.

What I also do to the unpopulated board is draw on the non-strip side with colored lines denoting things like a green line across ground row.  red for the 9v row.  Orange for the half power row.
Yellow for the input point.  purple on the output point.  etc.  whatever makes sense to you.  It serves to give your mind a visual reference point.  for example, if you know you are putting a resister to ground, you can SEE it's connected to the ground row, and not one row off.  You can see that the proper power row is going to the IC's power leg. etc. 

Stripboard is easy to work with if you do the prep properly and think about ways to make it stupid proof when you are adding components.  Most of the problems you will encounter (based on my experience) is in muffing up the prep.  Once I do all of the above correctly, according to my routine, I never have an issue (knock wood).  Don't get fuzz-fever and rush things just to hear it quickly.  you will inevitably spend two days wondering why it doesn't work.

7). My last piece of advice for you is to maybe forget the switch for now.  Just wire everything up like its always on and pretend like the switch doesn't exist.  get it working without the switch, then add in the switch - so if it stops working, you know it's your switch wiring.  Once you do one or two, it is helpful to make a generic layout for how you want to wire your switches, etc. so you ALWAYS do it the same way.   

It is also helpful to think about using one of the breaks as a hole for standoffs.  If you don't have a component running over them, they are perfect for that.  If you can't find two or three that are easy to use for that, you can get creative about altering the layout to add space.

FWIW.