help me out here please ?!?!

[waix]

so i finished my easy drive tonight, bypass works but when i turn it on the led burns but there is a huge volume drop and gain and volume control do nothing.
so my guess is i wired the switch the wrong way

i used this schematic for the wiring

all the connections seem right maybe i wired it upside down ?



thanks already for the help  

[formerMember1]

sorry i can't help ya better but when i had wiring problems they were,

1.orient the 3PDT switch correctly

2.check your transistor pinout

3.it sounds like a short, do you have DMM? Use the continuity function and trace the problem. or a audio probe(on arons and geofx site)

4.new battery? is good, not an old one, happens to me all the time.

try posting a link to the pedal you are building, and any modifications you did, anywhere.  Also list anything you think it might be causing the problem but not sure.  (the easier you make it for someone to help, the more people will help you) (i just learned this today) :wink:

Someone here will be able to help ya.  

[BDuguay]

I had a problem similar to this with my very first d.i.y. pedal build. What happened to me was the pedal, when engaged, took a second or 2 to 'ramp up'. During that time I was getting no signal. After some fortunate troublshooting I discovered it was the LED. It turns out the LED I was using as a stus indicator was a higher voltage LED which required more current. I'm guessing here but, try swapping your LED with a lower current draw LED and see what happens.
B.

[waix]

yeah it's definately a short

the led burns brighter when i turn the volume control on my guitar  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

although a cool effect not very usefull  :lol:

oh yeah and turning the volume control on my guitar gives a lot of nasty crackle that isn't there if the effect isn't in line

[formerMember1]

when i built my RM, i followed the same wiring diagram you followed.  Except i reversed the battery and such since i was doing positive grounding.  My problem ended up being i put my pulldown resistors in series instead of sending one end of them to ground.  I also didn't have a wire running from the 3PDT switch to the circuit for power.  My pedal wasn't getting power becuz of that.
hope that helped a little

[petemoore]

I put a lead loop above board thats enough out of the way yet easy to hook a wire to for soldering V+ and V-, that way when I want an LED I can test the led circuit separately [LED with seriesed resistor], Then the switch, if I know all this is working then it's easy to just solder it in, finding of the ground on the LED and most of the debugging chores will have been sought out as individual fragments which are easier for me to figure out before hand.
 The same goes for the circuit and bypass wiring. An inexpensive testboard for circuit boards with a nonconductive place for the circuit and in/out/ground clipwires wired to the jacks makes debugging and modding the circuit separately much easier, with fewer shorts and frayed offboard wiring by the time the circuit is determined as 'wrappable'.
 Having a known working circuit makes it easier to debug switch and jack wiring and to determine if a problem is on the board or off.

[waix]

thanks everybody i just found out what was wrong

i wired 1 2 3 of the pots as 3 2 1  

i feel so stupid now   :oops:

[aron]

Did that fix the problem??

If so, cool!

[formerMember1]

i was gonna tell you about that happened to me.  I think it still might not work though. Cause wiring the pot lugs backwards would only reverse the rotation of the pot.  good luck though. :wink:

[waix]

thanks for the heads up

i'm gonna change them around first thing in the morning
i'm gonna get some sleep it's already half past 11 here  :shock:

[BDuguay]

Ah yes The ole 'wired up the 3PDT switch wrong' problem. Been there, done that, completely didn't cross my mind when considering your problem.
That's probably because I was so embarrased when it happened to me I've stickened it from memory. :wink:
B.

[leonhendrix]

i wired 1 2 3 of the pots as 3 2 1

ive done this a few times, all it means that the pot works in reverse, for example if you wired a fuzz pot the oppisite way round you'll get full fuzz when its rotated fully anti-clockwise, instead of full fuzz when fully clockwise.

leon

[waix]

well it definitely works
if i pull the circuit half out of the box  :lol:

and the gain doesnt really seem to control gain
:evil:

[waix]

eh make that worked

GAARGH where does it short ?!?!!?!??! :evil:

[David]

You've answered your own question.  If it's working "half out of the box" and not when it's in the box, something is touching the box that shouldn't be.

[nelson]

or its a loose wire..........or dodgy solder joint.

[waix]

thanks for everybody's help
i've decided to solder everything again and try to do it a lot neater

cramming everything into the box without thinking didn't really work  :oops:
but my box does look way cool    i just wish i had bought a less bright led  :lol:

[niftydog]

i just wish i had bought a less bright led

jam in a bigger LED current limiting resistor!

[waix]

wired it again and still the same problem  :?
no sound and led reacts to volume control on my guitar
i'm gonna try wire it to grounded imput now

[waix]

i just noticed something i haven't noticed before
in bypass mode there is some serious tone suck

maybe a bad switch is causing this ? :?