ITS8 strange problems - PLEASE HELP ME!

[aaron]

For my first build I chose the General Guitar Gadgets ITS8. I put it all together and it all looked good but when i went to test it the led lit for a second then a small poof of smoke came from the diode D5 (which they say is unnecessary and could just be a jumper) I replaced it and that one cooked also so i tried just the jumper and get nothing. The one constant in all of this is that my battery gets hot very quickly. I get sound in bypass and did get a faint signal in the moment before the diode cooked. So i removed D5 and C12 completely, no jumpers or anything and removed the dc jack also. Now my battery doesn't get hot but i've discovered the only way to get any kind of sound is to put a jumper between O and T2 in the top corner but the level pot does nothing and the tone pot is bright all the way right and left and soft in the middle. Does any of this make sense? I want to make more fx myself like this but I'm feeling so discouraged. please help me! -AARON

[ianmgull]

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself can comment further, but D5 should definitely NOT be a jumper. It's purpose is reverse polarity protection. If you replace it with a jumper you'll be shorting Vcc(+) to ground which explains why your battery gets hot.

[aaron]

Thank you, that's what i thought too but they say in the directions that i can be a jumper. What's up with that???

[ianmgull]

I'm wondering if the instructions reference an older version of JD's PCB in which the protection diode was in series with the positive supply instead of across it. That is the only reason I can think of for substituting a jumper for the protection diode. Either way, if your diode is burning out you should check to make sure you're not somehow getting your polarity crossed.

[Skruffyhound]

You've definitely got a short going on there, check all your off-board wiring and look for some place where you have reversed the polarity. Sadly I speak from experience  Depending on where it is you may have fried some of your electrolytic caps. If it doesn't sound too great after you fix the first problem it might be worth changing them out. I'm not familiar with the circuit however, so hopefully someone who has built it will chime in.