My stupid mistake of the day... (when the fix is to just open your eyes)

[Snicksound]

A few years back I built a DOD 280 optical compressor clone on perfboard. Love the simplicity of this circuit and it makes my bass sound so much bigger without being too intrusive.
Unlike the original, it's running on a bipolar power supply with an LT1054 charge pump. I wanted more headroom so I could play 5-string bass into it and not worry about it.

Anyway, recently received my protoboard and needed the 1054 so I could so some 12V projects (1054 is rated for 15VDC, so you can do -12/+24 easily). Took the 1054 out of the comp, put a 1044 instead. Now the 1044 was no longer working... Bah, I'll look into it later.

Today I finally opened it back up only to realize... I had installed a TL072 in lieu of the charge pump.

Put a 1044 in... problem fixed, pedal still sounds glorious!

 

[Alan W]

I always get such a mixed feeling when I “solve” problems like that—I mean, it’s great that it’s no longer a problem, (even though I do enjoy some aspects of troubleshooting, it’s not like I look forward to it…), but then, being reminded yet again, that I do make dumb mistakes, repeatedly. At least some of them are very easy fixes.

I just had the insight that maybe what I DON’T like about troubleshooting is the frequency of the trouble being my error. I mean, parts do die, etc., but the vast majority of my “troubles” with projects are the result of me doing something wrong.

 

[KR Sound]

I always get such a mixed feeling when I “solve” problems like that—I mean, it’s great that it’s no longer a problem, (even though I do enjoy some aspects of troubleshooting, it’s not like I look forward to it…), but then, being reminded yet again, that I do make dumb mistakes, repeatedly. At least some of them are very easy fixes.

I just had the insight that maybe what I DON’T like about troubleshooting is the frequency of the trouble being my error. I mean, parts do die, etc., but the vast majority of my “troubles” with projects are the result of me doing something wrong.

It's just like bug fixing while programming. A lot of times it's something obvious that either a fresh pair of eyes find, or stepping away for a day and re-evaluate it. Can't tell you how many times I left out a damn semicolon or called a function that I forgot a return or used the wrong return. If you could only step debug through a pcb, that would be cool.

 

[Snicksound]

I always get such a mixed feeling when I “solve” problems like that—I mean, it’s great that it’s no longer a problem, (even though I do enjoy some aspects of troubleshooting, it’s not like I look forward to it…), but then, being reminded yet again, that I do make dumb mistakes, repeatedly. At least some of them are very easy fixes.

I just had the insight that maybe what I DON’T like about troubleshooting is the frequency of the trouble being my error. I mean, parts do die, etc., but the vast majority of my “troubles” with projects are the result of me doing something wrong.

It's okay to make mistakes, being able to fix them is the real talent!

 

[Alan W]

It's okay to make mistakes, being able to fix them is the real talent!

I’m firmly in that camp. A main theme of a class I taught for a number of years (to “budding” industrial designers) was “embrace failure.” Mistakes are where all the learning happens.

And, as a “master” of my trade, when asked what the main difference years of experience gives one, the answer was always “you just start to recognize the same errors, and can approach fixing them much faster,” or something along that line.

 

[vigilante398]

I’m firmly in that camp. A main theme of a class I taught for a number of years (to “budding” industrial designers) was “embrace failure.” Mistakes are where all the learning happens.

My boss at my last job liked to say "Failure is an option, but make sure it's well-documented failure." Nothing wrong with making mistakes, but recognizing them and ensuring you don't make them again is important.

On this same note, I build a lot of tube pedals which use a NE555-based SMPS. Unfortunately one night I was working when I was really tired and a dozen or so PCBs were assembled with NE5532 instead of NE555 because the bins are right next to each other. Took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out why nothing was working. Now I organize my bins by function rather than by name

 

[giovanni]

It's just like bug fixing while programming. A lot of times it's something obvious that either a fresh pair of eyes find, or stepping away for a day and re-evaluate it. Can't tell you how many times I left out a damn semicolon or called a function that I forgot a return or used the wrong return. If you could only step debug through a pcb, that would be cool.

Funny you say that, I have a coworker who wishes he could “measure the voltage” in his code