Newbie has Question

[icepot]

hi, i just finished  soldering my first pedal.  i used the http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/beginners.html to  help me get through it.
anyways,  when i plugged it in to test it out, nothing happened. The only thing that did happen was the battery became extremely hot.
now i followed the plans as close as i could, however radioshack told me they discontinued  their 2.2m resistors, so what i did was connect a 1m resis to a 220k resis toa  1m  resis hoping that the numbers would add up to 2.2m and the problem  would be solved. I dont know if that was a bad  idea  or not, but i know my pedal isnt working... also i didnt understand one of the pictures (http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/electra2.gif) i  dont understand what is meant by ground connectitons large circle for screw/nut 2 small  for jacks ground... can  somoeone help me understand whats happening?

right  now, my pedal is not in a container, i dont  know if there are supposse to be screws  in  the circuit to ground out through the pedal case or what. im just really confused plus its 1.30 in the morning... hope thiss made some sense, and sorry bout the double spaces my laptop is screwed... thanks for reading and trying to help me understand.

mychael

[pyrop]

Hi icepot
If your battery is getting hot you most likely have a short somewhere i.e. +9 is directly connected to -9 somewhere in your circuit.
You need to double check your circuit and check for shorts between components & traces on your board.
Also a 1M resistor + a 220K resistor in series (--/\/\/\/\--/\/\/\/\--) will add up to 1.2M.  1.2M maybe ok but if you have 2 x 1M resisitors it would be better to put them in series (2M) as that would be close enough.

hope this helps
pyrop

[icepot]

thank you for your quick response this is driving  me crazy!!! lol...
ok
im looking for  shorts  right now, but  on  the  resistor  issue...

i had it  setup so that a 1m resis was connected  to 220k resistor and then that again was attached to a 1m resistor... so even though the numbers add  up to 2.22  im really only getting 1.2m is that what your saying?

[pyrop]

Yep 1M = 1000K so 1000K+220K = 1220K = 1.2M. That on works when they are in series i.e. one after the other.
Might be worth doing some reading on RG's website Geofex, got some good info over there. Here's a good page to start with
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/How_It_Works/hiw.htm

pyrop

[icepot]

by the way, does it matter if you use mono or  stereojacks? they  both will produce a sound right?

[pyrop]

Well you need a stereo plug for the input as it is used for switching the power on.
Mono or stereo is ok for the output, it doesn't matter.
For wiring up your jacks here is a good place to start http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=970.0
The source off your short could be in your wiring here!

pyrop

[icepot]

lol thanks again, this will be my last question for tonight i promise...
i just checked foro shorts majorly and i came across my transistor....
the emitt and collector were in the wrong spots... could  this be a reason for the battery over heating??? everything else looks  pretty  legit.
and again thank you for all your help.

[pyrop]

Don't think the reversed transistor would be the cause of your battery getting hot although maybe it is, not sure?

Anyone?

pyrop

[fixr1984]

Also when you hook up the switch, the two green wires on the right side in the picture are backwards.
Just hook them up so the top lug of the switch goes to the 100k pot and that the second goes to the
output jack. I had trouble when i made mine and found out that was wrong. Not sure about the overheating
tho.

[twabelljr]

    The series resistors are ok: 1M + 220K + 1M = 2,220,000 (2.2M)
I don't think that is the problem, but is good the way you added.

[icepot]

first off let me say thank you to every one thats  has helped me so far... im finding this really interesting, so interesting that i dug out  my dads old "basic electricity and dc circuits" by sams and started reading that...

ok but my problem now is that i have sound, but just barely any... when i turn the pot left or right of the middle the sound fades out... does anyone know why that could be? also there is noise until i touch a object such a cable input or something metal, is this  due to faulty ground wiring? i have the same problem with a fender acoustic, but i dont need help with that right now...

on the pot i believe i wired the two outside wires reversed comparaed with the picture> but i was wondering if this really matters since they both look like ground wires?


thank you again for all the help.



also here is the schematic:

[deadsnake]

the wiring of the outside wires doesn't matter the only one that you should care about is the one in the middle. The outside wire only matter if you are using a knob that has number on it or you want that when turn the knob right will raise the volume or lower it, etc. You should test to see if what you're getting is what you want, and if you get it wrong you should invert them. I don't really know if a log pot applies to this statement.

[pyrop]

Hi again icepot.
Ok for the wiring on your pot.
Generally in layouts the pot is as viewed from the bottom.
Ok those blue wires aren't both ground wires. The bottom one is a wire to ground & the top one is output wire from the circuit which in this case goes to a pot to control the volume.
As far as your noise it could be a faulty ground.
If you can it might be worth taking some pix as it may help diagnose your problems

pyrop

[icepot]

thanks dead snake,

its nice to o see you again pyrop, thank you so  much  for your help yesterday. sorry about  all the questions, i  know it must get kind of annoying always seeing people like me on the board... but allright ill take some pictures here and have them posted here in a couple minutes.

you were right about the wiring on the jacks being the short... that link was very useful. the battery doesnt  over heat anymore... allright onto those pictures..

[icepot]

i wont  be able to post  pictures  until tomorrow.... one camera didnt have the  driver to and i  was unable to find it on the net, the other the battery is dead... and my phone, im still  trying  to figure it out... haha, ill try to get those pictures up soon though

[icepot]

here is a rough image... sorry about the crappyness, its  off  a old cameera  phone

ill try to draw  it up in paint...

[icepot]

Ok i made another Electra "Distortion" using cardboard instead of pcb, the volume works perfectly and there is no noise whatsoever... the only thing wrong with it is that it doesnt distort... does anyone know why this could be? the schematics are the same as the ones above... i still was unable to use a 2.2m resistor so i put 2 -- 1m resis and 1 -- 220k ohm resis together... i read somewhere that this is how you should do it.... anyways, does anyone have an idea why it would work so perfectly but not distort?

by the way, when you play the pedal (with the battery in) it changes the sound but just barely; its hardly noticeably, you would have to be paying attention real hard. when you take out the battery the sound changes back, like its bypassing the pedal...

thanks mychael