how many projects have you given up on?

[choklitlove]

i'm considering it with my blue box.  still can't get it to work.

[Sir H C]

Don't give up.  Best is to put it aside, try another one, and then when you least think about it, you will get an insight to the problem and fix it. 

[amz-fx]

I've given up on numerous projects that were prototypes that did not work out, but that's how it goes when you are working on new ideas.

I've only abandoned one project that was supposedly a proven circuit...  it was a fuzz by Don Lancaster that was published in Popular Electronics many years ago.... very simple, an opamp driving a transistor.  I built this circuit 3 or 4 times over a period of years and never could get it to do anything useful.  I finally gave up and decided that there was something fundamentally wrong with the circuit design.

regards, Jack

[Mark Hammer]

Enough.  http://ampage.org/hammer/files/unfinished_business.jpg

[nag hammadi]

i am about to give up on a tone bender right now...

it is the first thing i have attameted from gen guit gad, and it just won't work...

arrgh!

[ildar]

Wow, if gurus such as Mr. Orman run up against troublesome builds, now I don't feel quite as bad. 
As I've chronicled in other threads, a simple treble booster had been my white whale. Not one particular TB, mind you, but any one I tried, si or ge. I finally beat it, so my advice-never give up. As I've said before, even if you NEVER make it work, you can still learn from the process. I sure as hell did.

[nag hammadi]

see if you can possibly give me some advice on my tone bender.  i am going insane over this...

here is the link to the thread:
http://www.elixant.com/~stompbox/smfforum/index.php?topic=42223.0

[Mark Hammer]

In many cases, the major obstacle will be something stupid where you thought "Well certainly THAT can't be the problem".

Things that fall into that category?

• cracks in a PC board
• wires where the insulation is in better shape than the metal inside
• pinouts that were different than what you were led to believe
• pots and switches that have poor contact internally
• IC pins that make poor contact with sockets, whether because a pin is bent under, or a pin is corroded, or the chip is not seated properly
• errors to the original schematic or parts listing
• parts whose value you *thought* you read right (I recently mistook a pair of resistors for those with a much higher value by "reading" the colour code erroneously while looking at the resistors in the parts drawer upside down)
• cold solder joints from using cannibalized/re-used parts that had some tarnish on them
• stereo jacks whose lugs were connected to the contacts in an arrangement different than the LAST stereo jacks you bought
• pots, components leads, and PCBs that short out against components or the pedal chassis when you put the chassis together
• ICs you put in backwards because you were looking at the board from a different angle than you remembered the layout diagram

...and this is a SHORT list of dumb stuff that ends up being the source of difficulty.  In a lot of cases, I'm sorry to say, it will often be something that happened because one was hurrying or trying to save money, and not something because one lacked a certain level of skill.  for example, bad PCBs can come about because one hurried in the ironing or removal of a transfer and didn't bother to check that all traces were faithfully transferred, or because one wanted to get "just one more etch" out of that etchant bath before having to buy more etching solution, or because one didn't buff the copper enough before transferring or soldering, and so on.

Trust me, it happens.

[Paul Marossy]

I've had probably 10-12 of them. None of them were anything special, so I gave up on them when they didn't work properly... 

[mojotron]

I don't usually give up on projects, but I do set things aside from time to time - especially my own designs - getting back to them when I feel inspired because a lot of times it's not just a soldering issue. It's also easier to avoid frustration for me if I work on several things at a time - that way I feel as if I'm making progress even if I am completely blocked on something.

A few projects I finished and did not like, or where I determined that things were just going south and I wanted to either start over or more on - I always ended up scavenging all the parts off of these anyway. I have a lot of circuit boards that are completely stripped - or just have a few 2n3904s dangling off of them 

[GonzoFonts]

So far, just one - BSIAB2.

GF

[phaeton]

I never give up on anything completely.  If I can't get anywhere on it using the best of my abilities, i set it aside and move on to something else.

I have yet to build a working Fuzz Face of any sort to date.  I've built all kinds of other things- boosters, chipamps, even a few of my own designs, but every FF i put together doesn't work, squeals madly, is improperly biased, etc...  I see all the other n00bs putting together fuzzfaces with success, but not me.

In fact, I started to get kinda depressed about that.  Something like 4 or 5 failed Si fuzzfaces in a row, plus a one-transistor O.D. circuit, then a 555-induced tremolo that a friend of mine designed.  He's got a lot of stuff that looks good on paper (but doesn't test them, i don't think) that unfortunately may be fundamentally flawed.  I built R.G.'s Quick n Dirty oscillator to try to diagnose the trouble on the tremolo.  Had to have a lot of help with the oscillator because I misread the schematic.  But no matter what, I couldn't debug the tremolo for lack of skill and such.  I was getting real down on myself, and very discouraged because for months straight, NOTHING was working, and I didn't know enough to figure out why and fix it.

Then one day, I slapped together Orman's Muffer circuit.  Not only did it work first try, but it's been a joy to play around with since.  Suddenly, I felt like i was Back In the Saddle 

That was only a few months ago, and I just completed, debugged, and optimized another one of my own designs from the ground up.  Dunno if I'd have the same level of motivation and enjoyment if I hadn't succeeded with something along the line.

Oh, and FWIW, I feel the Muffer should be the defacto Newbie First Circuit, not the FF, but that's me.

[tiges_ tendres]

I always make most of my mistakes when I have important deadlines to meet, like my tea is ready, and if I dont get up from my corner and eat it, then the dog is going to get it.

I had a green ringer set up and ready to go, did the input and output jacks, wouldnt fire.  and faced with fido getting my food, I decided to leave it. 

I came to look at this one a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out I didn't even get one of the transistors legs in the socket.  On the plus side, the food was excellent, far too good for the dog!  on the negative side, I needed the jacks for something else!  Fairly sure it will work now though.

[burnt fingers]

As of yet I have only given up on one thing. My first try was a tweako and I wasn't really at a place where doing the build made sense.  My son was about a year old and there wasn't a lot of time for this stuff.  It never worked and I just tossed it.  About a year later I tried a vox treble booster and it worked.  It was mis biased becaus I got a value mixed up but it worked.   I've scrapped a few things after the fact because they didn't sound like I thought they would and just didn't feel like taking the time to mod them.  Granted I only have about a half dozen builds under my belt but the process of trouble shooting every one of them has taught me a lot.

Scott

[nelson]

I have a non-working Ross phaser I have put to the side, it includes the mods mark hammer suggested in a thread not long back.

I have an orange treble and bass booster on vero I havent bothered to debug yet, it has been sitting there gathering dust. Other than those two I have managed to debug my other builds, most work right off the bat.

[TELEFUNKON]

none.

[powerplayj]

Tonebender MKII from the BYOC site

There were so many components with shared solder sites on the eyelet board that I could never trace my mistake.  The instructions were easy to follow but the troubleshooting was a bitch.  I scrapped it and made a treble booster instead.

...........getting ready to try a Neovibe which will be the pinnacle of all the projects I have tried.  Hopefully, I will not add that one to this thread.

[Herr Masel]

I think the only pedal I couldn't get to work is the BSIAB2, but it is still on the breadboard and though I haven't touched it in a while I will conquer it eventually. There are pedals I couldn't get to work or work the way I wanted, and I'd get frustrated and leave it be, then start something new. But during the past few days I've decided to pick up all kinds of unfinished stuff and keep building, all at once. It sounds like too much work, but the truth is you can put a day's worth of work into one pedal, and if it's still not working and you're about to pull your hair out you can move to a different one, instead of getting burned out for a week before you muster up the courage to tackle it again. It kind of keeps you less tied down and gives the illusion of increased productivity  , which in trun really helps increase productivity.

[mydementia]

My first build - BSIAB2 - never worked right.  I bought JD's board and all the parts per the Mouser partlist.  I put it together and it never sounded right.  It sat, unboxed, for a couple months while I built other effects (learning?).  I spent four or five multi-hour sessions chasing voltages and using the audio probe and absolutely couldn't figure out what was wrong.  Last month, I perf-boarded up my own BSIAB2 (still based on JD's layout) and it worked perfectly when I fired it up the first time.  I'm chalking up the first failure to being a noooooooobie!  I'd say one in about 14 builds isn't too bad...but I've had a lot of trouble getting my Ruby amps working to my satisfaction...possible new thread to follow...

Ooops - I forgot my most frustrating failure - the Geofx 'humfree2' ABY box.  No matter what I try, I can't get the thing to be quiet enough to use with my rig.  I guess my failures are more like 2 in 14... I really tried to put that one out of my mind!

Presently, I have six circuits (Ruby w/bassman mods, Fetzer Ruby, EATrem,Condor,NurseQuackey,Odie) spread across my workbench (dining room table, actually) and am waiting for parts for all of them (effectsconnection and futurlec).  Hopefully, none of these will add to my list of failures!

Happy building!
Mike

[Paul Marossy]

I've scrapped a few things after the fact because they didn't sound like I thought they would and just didn't feel like taking the time to mod them.

That's my story exactly. If they were something that I thought were really worthwhile, I would have taken the time to figure out what was going on.