Help me debug please- simple mistake here somehere

[youngstownguitar]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Some info listed according to the debugging FAQ...

1.  The situation:  The pedal bypasses the signal fine.  When I engage either side of the pedal the signal is muted and there is a clicking sound every half second or so.  Neither LED lights up.  When I use a one spot as soon as I hook the pedal up all the other pedals on the one spot turn off.

2.  The pedal is 2 different circuits on one enclosure.  Both PCBs are from madbean- a zombii V.4 and a slambox V.3.  It is my third pedal build, the first two worked fine.

3. The info from madbean is in his archives section on the left of this page:
http://madbeanpedals.com/projects/index.html
check out zombii V.4 and slabox V.3- I cant post a direct link because the info is a downloadable PDF.
I made my own layout:


4.  I used all suggested parts.  The only thing I did different to the the layout is that I left the 2 wires for the battery off as I dont like batteries.

5.  Both circuits are NPN

6.  Voltages:
Battery: N/A
I hooked up the one spot to the DC jack and tried measuring some voltages but nothing moved the meter at all.

Pics: 
(I need to add here that my soldering work leaves a lot to be desired)

[Jhouse]

Voltages:
Battery: N/A
I hooked up the one spot to the DC jack and tried measuring some voltages but nothing moved the meter at all.

No voltage at all? I think you have a wiring problem or something is up with your jack. Wire a battery clip up to it and see if it will run on that.

[youngstownguitar]

Yea no voltage at all.

Unfortunately I do not have a battery clip at all to wire up and test

[darron]

whoa. what happened with the big chunk missing from the side of the box?


hmm.. well you don't NEED a battery, and you can put one in later.

if you're not measuring any voltage in any position and your other pedals are turning off then there's something causing a short between +/-

the resistance on your voltage meter is high and the short will be nearly zero resistance, so that zero resistance 'consumes' all of the voltage not leaving your meter anything left to read.


i can't see any problems with your bypass switching (like you said) and you've used the correct two pins on the DC socket to get the correct polarity.

you haven't used the 'ring' trick to turn the unit off like in your diagram, but that's okay as long as you join the two sleeves on the jacks (yes), negative from the DC socket (yes) and negative to all grounds on the PCBs and switches (? yeah?)




start using process of elimination to track down where the short is. is there a protection diode in backwards on a pcb? i'd try to disconnect both of the PCBs from the earth (negative) and see if it is still shorting your power supply out. if it's not then work out which one it is and fix it.. the signal bypass should all still work with the PCBs disconnected. if you still have a short then it will be something fundamental, it's a shame with shorts that it's not like a water leak where you can just see it...

hopefully the one-spots are rugged enough not to care about being shorted out too? i wouldn't want to push them like that for too long.

[youngstownguitar]

Thanks for the suggestions!  I will have to try exactly that tomorrow.

as far as the cracked enclosure:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=89213.0

I like pedals a lot.  I have built a few kits with great success.  This is my first pedal that I planned and sourced the parts myself.  My lack of skill is really showing through.  Is there anyone out there that would enjoy talking a look at this thing and trying to make it run for me? (for $ of course)  I think I'm in over my head.

[darron]

don't let it bring you down too much.... it's just a short, all the fundamentals look right and it looks like you've put your thought into it..

on PCB 2, that's not a zener diode that you used i for D1 is it? probably not, but just checking....

take a look for that short before you jump ahead... it'll be something stupid. i think i spent an hour once (or more) debugging because i plugged the ins/outs the wrong way with the enclosure upside down.... *cough*

[youngstownguitar]

on PCB 2, that's not a zener diode that you used i for D1 is it? probably not, but just checking....

No the zener is for D2.  I can see why you would think that tho because I have the board turned to the side in the pic.

I will have to check for that ground out tomorrow- thanks