Pedal draining batteries

[Cardboard Tube Samurai]

I made a pedal for a friend and he refuses to use power supplies so I put a 9v battery in it for him (it's the first pedal I have made that doesn't use an external power supply). When it's not in use (no input/output jacks), it drains the battery. What would cause something like this? Could it be fixed by something as simple as putting an on/off switch on say the negative wire to the battery?

[dano12]

Sounds like incorrect wiring on the input jack (which is used as a switch for the battery). This page should help explain how to wire it all up:

http://beavisaudio.com/techpages/StompboxWiring/index.htm

[MikeH]

Does it have a DC jack too, or is it just the battery?

[captntasty]

Is anything else (aside from battery neg lead and lead to ground) grounded to the input jack?  If so, there may be a continuous path to ground, thus nullifying the power switch.  If it's not that, something else is doing the same thing - the power switch does not break the path to ground.

[MartyMart]

As stated, check your stereo jack socket, I'll bet that it or the board
is shorting to ground .... battery probably gets V- hot too !

MM

[MetalGod]

one easy way to check is to use a DMM and see if you measure any voltage in your circuit.

[Cardboard Tube Samurai]

Stop looking!!! I found the problem... I think I should explain things a bit further before everyone jumps to the conclusion that I am a little crazy! I originally made the pedal for the guy... it worked, but wasn't the sound he was after. I took it home and modded it (changed a couple of caps etc.)... took it back to him and it didn't work... turns out the battery was flat... changed the battery and all was well, he loved the sound. I took it home again though so that I could add an on/off indicating LED which I didn't include originally but he wanted. When I took it back to him again, it didn't work. It was at this point, I assumed it was chewing batteries and made this thread. So I pulled it apart to check the grounding as you guys suggested. When I looked inside, I found that I had broken a wire off the output jack when I put the LED in. I am guessing that when I modded it for him with the new caps, I accidentally put a flat battery back in instead of the good one I had taken out.

What can I say!? I'm only human!