burning smell on dynacomp circuit

[bsmcc2010]

so i made a dynacomp compressor and everything was working perfectly. Before i've had problems with them which i posted about i.e.: over compressing when i hit the strings hard and stuff. I socketed all the transistors this time and it worked perfectly. Infact i really liked the sound.

My wiring is pretty messy so i found it hard to fit it into the box. When i tried to close the lid and screw in the screws i smelled burning so quickly took the lid off again. Now the circuit doesn't work! I tried replacing all the transistors and the IC but none of that fixes it.

What have I done?! and how do i fix it?!

[R.G.]

What have I done?!

Messy wiring => broken or shorted wire in the box.

and how do i fix it?!

Read and follow "Debugging: what to do when it doesn't work".

[bsmcc2010]

thanks R.G.

I don't think it is the wires because it's not so messy i can't tell what they're touching. I can see that all the wires are connected to the right places and not shorting.

Is there anything its likely to be? I think something may have touched the 9v+ part of the power jack-would that have fried something?

[R.G.]

I don't think it is the wires because it's not so messy i can't tell what they're touching. I can see that all the wires are connected to the right places and not shorting.

OK.

Is there anything its likely to be? I think something may have touched the 9v+ part of the power jack-would that have fried something?

All kinds of things, including touching the power jack to something. The answer here is the same. Knowing what caused it doesn't tell you all the things that may be dead after a burning incident. There may be more than one problem which resulted, and you have to fix them all to get it back to working.

You have to go dig through things to find out what is shorted/open. We could spend a long time easter-egging "maybe it's this, maybe it's that", but that would probably take longer and be less likely to get all the problems fixed than if we follow the procedure I wrote up in "what to do when it doesn't work".

Having things stop working when the board is put into the box is a classical problem. Figuring out what touched what is something you'll have to do by sheer observation. But getting the circuit to working again is a problem in using meters and thinking. We can't help you with the box and using the meter except as cheerleaders. But we can help you figure out what the meter readings show about what might be damaged.

[bsmcc2010]

OK thanks R.G.

I guess this will lead me to my next purchase- a multi metre.

This is only my 3rd build and i've not needed one before. Damn small enclosures :')

[wavley]

We have recently come up with a solution for that burning smell.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=95464.msg827526#msg827526

[bsmcc2010]

haha i saw that the other day.

It would solve the smell-but not sure that a good smell will make it work again :L

[R.G.]

I guess this will lead me to my next purchase- a multi metre.
This is only my 3rd build and i've not needed one before. Damn small enclosures :')

If it's any consolation, you were going to reach this point sooner or later if you kept messing with electronics.

You did need one. You just didn't know it yet. 

[bsmcc2010]

I posted a debug for the circuit now i have a multi metre if you wouldn't mind looking at it

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=95635.0