Cream Puff Fuzz build issues

D

dontstaylong

New member
Hey all,

I'm working on this and am scratching my head as to what could be going on. I get signal through the pedal when it's not on, but nothing when switched on, nor is the power LED lighting up.

I feel like there's something stupid, like I've wired it incorrectly, but would love to get some suggestions on what might be the issue. I just reflowed everything; the joints all look fine, and I don't see any bridges.

The idea was to make two of these, but I'm leery to start #2 if I can't get this first one going.
 

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your soldering is very cold... I'd also be very suspect about your polarity on the tantulum capacitors... as well as your led polarity for the clippers and status led...
 
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jwin615 said:
I'm guessing you have 100u tant in C2(100p)
Click to expand...
Pretty positive it's a 100p tant, it's marked 101. I'll replace it just to be sure. I measured everything before populating the board and everything read correct values.

swelchy said:
your soldering is very cold... I'd also be very suspect about your polarity on the tantulum capacitors... as well as your led polarity for the clippers and status led...
Click to expand...

I'll reflow everything. Augh, I didn't realize tants have polarity, though. There are no markings - how can you tell which is which?

The status led polarity is correct - longer leg going to A, shorter to K?
 
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dontstaylong said:
Pretty positive it's a 100p tant, it's marked 101. I'll replace it just to be sure. I measured everything before populating the board and everything read correct values.



I'll reflow everything. Augh, I didn't realize tants have polarity, though. There are no markings - how can you tell which is which?

The status led polarity is correct - longer leg going to A, shorter to K?
Click to expand...

One leg is longer like the LED you noted, and there should be a mark on the Tant as well.

Despite what many photos seem to depict online, any Tant I've had always had the LONG LEAD = ➕

For example,

Tantalum Capacitor Polarity Markings

This article explains Tantalum Capacitor Polarity Markings
www.learningaboutelectronics.com
the first pic here is a bit misleading:
tantalum_capacitor_polarity_markings.png

Then the aforementioned webpage shows this pic:
tantalum_capacitor_polarity_markings_longer_lead.jpg


Why not show JUST the pic with the long-lead, it has the Positive Sign on the body of the capacitor!




Don't connect it incorrectly, please
I cannot stand the way that reeeeeks
I love how small, though they tend to blow
Now, I'll check polarity and let the solder flow

Tanted Love woah ohhh oh ohhhhh
Tanted Love woah ohhh oh ohhhhh

 
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If it's not obvious by now, I am fully futzing my way through this stuff and am learning as I go.

My mistake earlier when jwin called them tantalums - yeah, these are ceramic. How does that affect things?
 
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Then it's probably 100pF, not 100uF.
Are they all MLCC?
Stupid bulbous carbons.
At 10u I assumed they were tants.
I didn't even know tayda carried MLCC that large 😂
 
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Yep, those are just regular old ceramic caps. 101 would be a 0.0001uf or 100pf cap. 105 would be a 1uf ceramic.I bought a few to use in some muff builds where I only used ceramic caps.

105 = 1uf
104 = 0.1uf (100nf)
103 = 0.01uf (10nf)
102 = 0.001uf (1nf)
101 = 0.0001uf (100pf)

I don't think you'd notice any difference using a ceramic over a tantalum. Tantalums are polarized, but I don't think it makes a difference as far as functionality in this circuit last time I checked it out (I could be wrong). Lots of people try to avoid using a ceramic cap in the audio path. On a fuzz you're going to have a noisy fuzzy signal anyway, so let 'er rip taterchip.
 
Last edited:
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As promised, it was something stupid.

The LED wasn't lighting up because it was blown. It didn't work at first because the joints must've been cold, or there was a bridge somewhere I just cleared up by reflowing it. Hooboy, is it ever noisy and fuzzy, @cdwillis.

Getting an odd tremolo/breaking up sound when the fuzz is cranked completely up (45 seconds in on the below video). Is that a byproduct of the ceramic caps or just the circuit? It's interesting bc the rate changes when I turn it down.

Also, I'm a terrible guitarist.

photos.app.goo.gl

New video · Tuesday, Jul 22 🎬

Tap to view!
photos.app.goo.gl photos.app.goo.gl
 
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