Cry Baby Wah Wah Troubleshoot Please Help!

[pinkjimiphoton]

your wiring is definitely screwy, you have the pot wired wrong...the output of the pot (center) should be going to the switch, and it looks like you have the input wired to the input it would have IF you had built the input buffer. you have to go to where the end of the buffer was, so you get signal into the circuit.

re-wire the shell like i showed you, and we can begin to unravel all the other stuff.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Just to Clarify, the tip connections would be either of the two leads farthest away from the front of the jack. The terminal where the tip of the cable would be making contact? I don't know what the thread of the jack is.

[twabelljr]

Yes, the tip is where the tip of the cable will make contact. Signal will flow through the tip. The threaded part is the sleeve. The sleeve is almost always grounded. Stereo jacks will have a ring contact also. Use your meter set on ohms or continuity to verify what lug connects to each part of the jack. Here is a nice color coded explanation of plugs and jacks. Check it out:
http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/parts/connectors/14-phone-jacks-and-plugs/

[pinkjimiphoton]

yah, i noticed RFTC was using them insulated plastic jacks, i use them all the time... they aren't really TRS jacks, but if you wire the middle connector to b-, it does the same thing.

you MAY need to connect the outside of the pot to a circuit ground, too...

i'm looking at the pics, it's really hard to see what's what.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Ok, I wired the DPDT switch to your diagram. For the board inputs and outputs, I wired the purple wire coming from the top line of wires (the second one from the last) to the output. For input I soldered the wire going into the transistor in the buffer. If you look at the stinkfoot wiring diagram I wired the "circuit in" wire to input and the "main out" to the output. Correct me if I soldered the wrong wires.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Awesome! she works in bypass. Although, the battery is heating up.

[pinkjimiphoton]

you have a dead short in your power supply...check for solder bridges, or a reversed electrolytic, or diodes in backwards.

you're getting closer bro.



don't give up...you'll get there. now you know the signal will flow right once ya get the pcb wired up right and whatever problem you're having fixed.

a heating battery is ALWAYS a sign of a dead short in the power supply...either a reversed diode, or a bad or backwards cap, or more likely a solder bridge.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

I'm very sure I have the electrolytic capacitors in the right way and if they were bad I'm pretty sure they'd be bulging. Then, the zener diode I know is in the right way. So, that just leaves the .1, ,01 and ,22 capacitors and I don't see any reason they would be bad. Can the transistors affect this too? Also, there're no solder bridges either.

[pinkjimiphoton]

the non electros are not polarized. so they're not the problem.

the electro being reversed won't bulge or explode necessarily.if it's backwards, it will be a short  and block the audio.

the diode, remember the striped end is the cathode...sometimes folks get that confused, too.

you're sure there's no solder bridges? did ya go over it with a magnifying glass? something is shorted across the power supply. absolutely, or the battery wouldn't be getting hot..and probably somewhere close to where the b+ connects to the circuit, cuz you're not getting any audio to flow, cuz your power supply is shorted.

step away from it for a day and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.

are you getting any voltage readings on the transistors?

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

sounds good man, I'll take a day off it to rest. I'll look it over with a magnifying glass to make sure there's no bridges and if that doesn't solve it, I'll buy some new elec. caps and see how they do.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Alright, I think I fixed it. The battery isn't gaining heat rapidly anymore, the hottest it gets now is about the temp. of your palm, nowhere near where it was before. So I'm assuming that's done with. btw it was a solder bridge. Although, I noticed when it's in bypass mode you can hear a slight humming when I'm not playing. It's nothing like a loud buzzing. You don't hear it when I'm playing but, you can hear a slight buzz/hum when the guitar's quiet. Also, it reacts when my fingers touch the string. What would be causing that?  Now, that the DPDT switch is filled, how would i wire the remaining wires?

[pinkjimiphoton]

if you used the wiring diagram for the switch i suggested, take the top left pole to the input of the circuit, and the top right one from the output of the circuit.
done deal!

it's normal to hear a little noise when it's plugged in, does it stop when you touch the strings?

solder bridge makes sense.

if you boosted the gain of the wah, it can make it a little noisier, too.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Actually, it's being quieter now than last night. It's silent when I'm not playing but, buzzes when I push on the strings. Maybe switch to less noisy components? Yeah, I soldered the wires you showed me but, what about the wires for the wah stage? Like the ones going to the 100k pot and the ones that come from that top line of wires on the pcb. I don't know where to solder them because the diagrams I've followed show them wired to the DPDT switch and the pedal didn't work when they were wired that way. Should I just wire them over the already soldered wires on the DPDT?

[pinkjimiphoton]

on this particular board:

http://www.use.com/3248c0fefaff6ff65f86?p=2

where it says jack out would go where i said board out, or upper right terminal of the switch (board out)

where it says jack in would go to the upper left terminal of the switch. (board in)




looking at this schematic you posted

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=351

if you followed the proper wiring, the output would come from the junction of the .22u cap and pin 1 of the wah pot. the wiper of the wah pot  (pin 2, the middle one) will connect to the other .22u cap.

the bottom of the wah pot, pin one, should go to ground.

the input to the board, if skipping the input buffer, should go to  the .01 input cap before the base of the mpsa18.

with me?

unfortunately, the layout you've got posted is confusing as hell, and the labeling makes it worse.

here's what i reccomend ... in the future, don't mod until you have a functioning circuit to start with...right now, we're like a dragon chasing it's own tail. .....

leave the jacks and switch wired together. we know those are right (but i'm wondering if you wired the jacks backwards, as touching the strings should make any buzz diminish, not get louder...ground pin on those kind of jacks are closest to the threaded part, and hot furthest.

next, undo your present wiring. make sure the pot is wired correctly.

it's 3 wires.... make sure they're right.

when that's done, find your circuit input point. wire the top left pin of the switch to that.

when that's done, find the output of the wah... should be from pin one of the wah pot. wire that directly to the upper right pin of the switch.

if everything else is right, you should have a functioning pedal at this point.

hollah back br'ah

let us know how ya make out.

[pinkjimiphoton]

the ouput from the pcb to wah pin one....ummm...

bro, i think your layout doesn't match your schematic.

and i see a couple mistakes on the labeled layout here:

http://www.use.com/showorig.pl?set=3248c0fefaff6ff65f86&p=2

like, the top .22 as shown is an open cct... you need to move the right leg of that cap one more pad to the right so you complete the circuit.

if you do that, it looks like the third pad down all the way to your right should connect to pin 1 of the wah pot, and the 4th pad down should connect to the center of the pot.

i may have it backwards....hard to say looking at all the traces and lines. ground the third lug of the pot, and try those two wires... if they;r backwards, reverse 'em. for now, ground the pot anywhere that's convenient just to see if it will work.

keep at it... you'll suss it out!

[R O Tiree]

You've probably got your wires crossed. Literally. Check and re-check the input tip connector goes to circuit input and the input sleeve connector is connected to ground. Do the same for the output - circuit output connects to tip connector and check that output sleeve terminal connects to ground.

Just like jimi says, any buzz should go away when you touch the strings. The fact that it gets louder means you have one pair of those wires the wring way around.

[pinkjimiphoton]

+1

most likely both, as if only one side was reversed, i'd imagine it would be a short completely.

but i gotta say bro,

next time, start with the stock circuit, and get it working before doing mods. mods are best if applied one at a time, and tested each time...before adding another one.
some mods can render the circuit useless or unstable.

baby steps bro...gotta crawl before ya can walk.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Oh man, actually I don't think I have any ground wires going to the sleeve pins of the jacks. I connected the the tip of each jack to the input and output of the DPDT and then wired the circuit input/output and jumpered the other DPDT pins (just like jimi's diagram) but, I never connected the the sleeve jack pins to ground. Although, I'd imagine it wouldn't work without those going to ground.

[pinkjimiphoton]

lol...no ground, no circuit!

i think ya just found your problem.

wire the black wire from your battery to the RING (center) terminal of your input jack. make sure the grounds of both jacks are connected, and run the one from the input jack to the board ground.

that way, when you plug your input jack in, it will complete the circuit by connecting ground.

YOU were the ground connection. be careful man...a battery has enough current that it could kill you. even cheezy 9 volt effects can probably be damaging.

let us know how ya make out.

[The Rocket From The Tombs]

Hahaha, that explains why! Anyway, the current functionality of it is: not working in wah wah or bypass, loud pops n crackles when I touch the battery or connector a certain way and probably one note sneaked through while I was touching the battery. Here's a diagram of how it's currently wired up. http://www.use.com/5446642cbb36007a181d
Sorry , the diagram is somewhat cluttered due to all the wires.
Also, this was what I was originally following to wire it up, before I realized it didn't work.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/Erock503/GCB-95/Wahpedalbolts.jpg