SOLVED Boogie Monster

sivartdod

New member
Finished the build, turn it on and the light comes on. At first, zero signal. So I adjusted the 100k pots that are built into the board and now I get SOME signal but only when I hit the strings super hard, it comes through but its really distorted with lots of static and then cuts out very quickly almost like there is a gate on it. LOTS of static.. signal comes through fine with the pedal is not on. Looked for bridged connections, zero.. triple checked all my caps and resistors to make sure everything is correct and it is.... Could it be bad pots? I bought them from Small Bear so they should be legit. Not sure what or how to test to figure out the issue. Cant post pictures right now because im at work. Any suggestions on what I should look at first?
 
I got them from Small Bear as well.. no I did not bias them.. THANKS for the video. ill watch tonight after work. Maybe this will solve my problem! Is that what the pots on the PCB are for? Havnt been able to figure out what they're actually for. Im still a newb in this is only my 3rd pedal that ive built.
 
Ok, I just discovered an issue. After following the video you gave me. I was able to bias the J201 on the top left, top right and bottom right. The center J201 only reads .24v and the bottom left will only read 9v. It says in the video that the bottom two J201's are controlled by the same pot, but the voltage is only moving on the bottom right J201... any idea?
 
Q5 voltage is ok (9V on a drain). As for the Q2 - check value of the source resistor. Maybe it's 180R instead of 1k8?

ps. use transistor numbers from the schematic, not their positions on a pcb :)
 
Get a piece of vero or stripboard and practice your soldering. Read the Basic Workflow tips thread carefully.

It looks like your SW and OUT pads may be linked by those solder blobs. Try to clean that up and get those wires snugged up in the pads.
 
Q5 voltage is ok (9V on a drain). As for the Q2 - check value of the source resistor. Maybe it's 180R instead of 1k8?

ps. use transistor numbers from the schematic, not their positions on a pcb :)
Thanks for the clairification, Ill check out the resistor you mentioned tonight. Also, yeah I really do need to use the numbers from the schematic.. still pretty new to pedal building and didnt even think about it. Thanks.


Get a piece of vero or stripboard and practice your soldering. Read the Basic Workflow tips thread carefully.

It looks like your SW and OUT pads may be linked by those solder blobs. Try to clean that up and get those wires snugged up in the pads.
Thanks for your response. Ill give the workflow tips a read and see if I missed anything. Ive been soldering for over 20 years, so im pretty confident in my soldering. The SW and OUT pads look linked but they're not, its the film on top of the PCB that bubbled up a little. Shortly after I took the picture I scraped that fim off. They're not bridged. I DO however need to get them more inside of the pads. Thanks for your suggestion.

After I followed your suggestion for the video I was able to get it working better, I got signal, it was still a little choppy and sounded terrible but I assume thats just because that one J201 wasn't working correctly.

Thanks a lot for all your help and quick responses.. I'll follow your suggestions tonight and get back to you. Thanks!
 
I suggest checking all of your solder connections. Reflow any that are not nice and shiny to see if that improves your connections through the audio path.
 
It works! I swapped out the J201 for another one I had.. looks like the first one was bunk. Got it from small bear but I guess they all cant be winners. Thanks for your help everyone! Learned a lot with this experience.
 
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