SOLVED Cobalt Drive problems…..SOLVED……..FINALLY!

Jeff C

Jeff C

Active member
New member here and also new to building pedals, as you will shortly see. I previously built a BYOC Reverb pedal kit successfully and it sounds great. I’ve also built from scratch a Strat, a Tele, a 59 LP, and an LP Junior. So, I wanted a blues driver pedal and thought I’d take a whack at the Cobalt Drive from PedalPCB. The directions are not as detailed as in a kit so I’ve had some difficulty. Clearly in over my head. I managed to procure the parts from the list (not without trial and error on my part) from Tayda. I mistakenly bought a switch without solder lugs so after consulting a patient, helpful friend, bought a daughter board and did my best to figure out how to marry the two - having no skills whatsoever in electronics. History major. I have managed to assemble it but I get nothing from it except static pops when I plug it in. Bypass doesn’t work. No idea what I’ve done wrong but I suspect it revolves around needing to do more with the daughter board on the switch. But what do I know? Here’s a couple of pics (the power jack is not there but I did connect it to test). And I haven’t installed the LED yet. Any and all suggestions are eagerly welcomed. You may recomemd I should just start over but I hope not….. Thank you!
855EE297-D464-47F8-880D-F0D8B9C40E15.jpeg 15E06C0D-93DB-4AE9-944D-BA1BED3416FB.jpeg
 
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BuddytheReow said:
The plug for the probe will go into an amp or other speaker, so you'll need to extend the wire on it. Yes, it needs to be grounded and an alligator clip of that lead to something else that's grounded will work. The live wire (tip) should be soldered to one end of a 100nf cap and the other end of that cap is your probe. The caps purpose is to filter out DC (guitar signal is AC).

Your input signal can be anything but will most likely be your guitar. The way the probe works is to check if signal is going through a particular portion of the circuit. You will have to know how to read a schematic. My general advice is to start at the beginning of the circuit, hit a note, and test at each active component (think opamp or transistor). Once you find a place with no signal, that's where a potential problem area is.
Click to expand...
OK, thx! Another challenger for the noob. I guess I can just ground that to a solid piece of separate metal.........
 
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Jeff C said:
OK, thx! Another challenger for the noob. I guess I can just ground that to a solid piece of separate metal.........
Click to expand...
No, it needs to be grounded with something else in the circuit that's grounded. Metal, by itself is not grounded. When you connect the jacks to an enclosure, there is a connection between the jack (sleeve) and the enclosure which makes the box grounded.
 
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Still loathing the idea of de-soldering the switch and wires because of my clumsy skills. So, to procrastinate, I tested the connectivity of the switch lugs to the PCB. Looking at the switch as shown in my pic above, I numbered them 1-3 on the left, 4-6 in the middle and 7-9 on the right. 1, 4, and 7 being at the top. The ’in’, ground, and SW (or V+ on the daughterboard) points on the PCB all show connectivity to lugs 2,3,5, and 6. The ’out’ point only shows connectivity to lug 7. Works the same if I connect just from the daughter board points. Does that make sense or is there something faulty there? Tks for your patience!
 
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Seems like my last post didn’t take. Repeated here. To procrastinate my de-soldering nightmare, I used my multimeter to check the connection from the PCB to the lugs on the switch (instead of the connection points on the daughterboard). Looking at the switch as shown in the pic above, I numbered them 1-3 on the left, 4-6 in the middle and 7-9 on the right. 1,4,7 at the top. I found that the in, ground and SW points on the PCB all connected to lugs 2,3,5,and 6. The out point connected only to lug 7. Repeated the exercise from the connection points on the daughterboard with same result. Is there something faulty there? Tks for your patience!
 
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don't try to remove the daughterboard from the footswtich. remove the wires and use a different footswitch without the board. if it works you can troubleshoot the daughterboard later. if it still does not work, leave the new footswitch where it is and save the one with the daughterboard for another project.
 
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Jeff C said:
Was afraid you’d say that……😆. On to the de-soldering……..
Click to expand...
Here's my trick to desolder wires... first heat up the pad and pull the wire out gently...

Next using your iron, heat up the underside of the pad and with your solder pump, suck the solder from the top... that should give you a clean removal and will not screw up the pad....
 
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Jeff C said:
Was afraid you’d say that……😆. On to the de-soldering……..
Click to expand...
It is much easier to swap out the footswithch & board for a different footswitch that trying to remove the daughter board from your footswitch. Also a significant risk that trying to remove the DB from the switch will put too much heat into the plastic around the switch terminals and ruin the switch. And if there is not problem with the switch + DB you can use if with another project.
 
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EGRENIER said:
Here's my trick to desolder wires... first heat up the pad and pull the wire out gently...

Next using your iron, heat up the underside of the pad and with your solder pump, suck the solder from the top... that should give you a clean removal and will not screw up the pad....
Click to expand...
Well, got ‘em out, discovered your method by trial and error……… not pretty but pads are still in place…..
 
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wired up another switch with lugs, vice daughterboard, but sadly still the same problem - signal goes through with switch off, but nada with it on. I was hoping cuz it’s my birthday today that I would be pleasantly surprised. Dang. On to making an audio probe. A voyage of discovery awaits me……..
 
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Here’s a pic of it in the enclosure. Sorry, when I reduce the size (it’s too big to attach as is to this forum apparently), it gets a little fuzzy. Didn’t mount the power jack so I can take it in and out of the enclosure while I hunt the flaw(s). Gonna resume tomorrow…….
0A03423A-0524-420F-8664-88BF9680B153.jpeg
 
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Looking at the way it was connected in your first picture, it looks like you have the angled lug (lug 1) of you jack connected to you signal (hot)...

In you latest pic we can't tell. Make sure sleeve (lug 1) goes to ground and audio goes to tip.
 
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