Battery always on?

[mindwave_21]

Hi all.  Great help so far, but still having problems with my TS build from GGG.  I just want to know if the led is supposed to work regardless of the fact that a cable is present in the input jack.  I'm using the 3pdt (no particular orientation right?) and a stereo jack that connects to the battery as shown on the GGG website.  What might be some problems?  My bypass works perfectly, but my circuit is gating when engaged.  I know this is probably a separate problem, but I need somewhere to start.  Thanks all!

PS, are any of you using the metal style dc jacks from small bear?  Is that diagram correct?  How do you know what's positive or negative?

[zener]

First, make sure that you connected the negative wire of the batt to the RING of the stereo jack.

An audio probe can help you debug your TS to check why it is gating.

[danelectro]

whenever i use those metal jacks i have to insulated the jack from the metal housing or itll short out..  i wired it up like how boss power supplies are.. inside out so to speak.

is that how it should be?

[Samuel]

2nd on the ring of the jack reply. I think I've noticed (but I could be wrong) that some of the GGG wiring diagrams show the negative battery terminal connected to the sleeve connector of the input jack, which won't work since the sleeve of theoutput jack is grounded, thus grounding the enclosure, so the battery always completes a circuit. Is this an error in GGG diagrams or am I misremembering?

[mindwave_21]

Thanks guys!  I think I'm going to have to insulate the input, output, and dc jacks because they're all metal...  That could be my problem, but I can't work on my pedal until this weekend, so I'm going to have to wait to find out.  Would this affect the sound of the effect engaged at all? (ie, if I fix this, do I have more problems in the circuit itself?  What I mean is, is it possible that if the jacks are shorting, they would cause the pedal to gate?).  Finally, if I were to test the transistors with a multimeter, how would I go about doing that?  Where do the positive and negative probe go on the pcb?  I'm fairly new to electronics, so sorry if these questions are redundant and newbie-esque.
Thanks again!  

[Samuel]

Actually I think the case grounding is not a bad thing, necessarily. I wouldn't bother insulating the jacks, just make sure that the battery attaches to the ring connector of the (stereo) input jack instead of the sleeve, so it doesn't grounded unless a mono jack is inserted. Since the sleeve of your instrument cable doesn't carry signal (unless something's really screwed up!) it should have zero effect on the sound of either the pedal or the bypassed straight guitar sound. The gating is probably an unrelated issue of transistor bias, but I'm obviously guessing on that bigtime.

Testing a transistor: get power to the circuit, clamp the negative lead from the meter to ground (any ground point on the circuit should work - even the negative battery terminal I think), and use the positive lead to probe the transistor legs. Check the FAQs and Debugging Page for guidance on expected and acceptable values...