SOLVED Derailer Overdrive noisy when not playing

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

So I finished this build last night and have only had a little time to play with it. Overall I'm happy with how it looks and sounds, but it is very noisy while I'm not playing. I'm fairly new to high gain pedals, so excuse me if this is to be expected. Is there anything I can change to reduce the noise, or is that just to be expected with a high gain pedal like this. I did try pointing a noise gate on my HX FX and that did help a lot, but I would prefer not to use it if possible. TIA

 

[Aquaticwombat]

I don't think you're grounded on your input and output jacks. Run a small wire from the power ground just to see.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

I don't think you're grounded on your input and output jacks. Run a small wire from the power ground just to see.

Forgive my ignorance, but which one is the power ground?

 

[Aquaticwombat]

Run a wire from your in/out ground to the ground on your power jack. Should look like metal L.

 

[Aquaticwombat]

I could have explained that better. Your shielded cable isn't inherently grounded coming from the switch. You're using it as a ground so you need to provide a ground for it. Wiring it to the ground on your power jack will do that.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Sorry but I'm still not sure where to connect. My power jack has two legs, the longer one is on the left and is hooked up to the + on the PCB board and the shorter one on the right is hooked up to the - on the PCB.

 

[MichaelW]

I could have explained that better. Your shielded cable isn't inherently grounded coming from the switch. You're using it as a ground so you need to provide a ground for it. Wiring it to the ground on your power jack will do that.

You could test that with a small alligator clip jumper wire although I don't think that's the problem. The shielded cable should be grounded through the PCB ground pads. You can easily test that with a DMM. Check for continuity between the ground lugs of the jacks to the ground pads of the PCB "and" the power ground pad on the PCB coming from the DC jack. (The one with the little "-" symbol) You should have continuity between these points.

 

[MichaelW]

Sorry but I'm still not sure where to connect. My power jack has two legs, the longer one is on the left and is hooked up to the + on the PCB board and the shorter one on the right is hooked up to the - on the PCB.

Take an alligator clip jumper cable, clip one end to the Ground side of the DC jack. (The shorter of the two lugs on the DC jack). Clip the other side(s) to the ground lug on the input and output jacks.

 

[MichaelW]

You should have continuity (beep) between all the points circled in red below.

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

Take an alligator clip jumper cable, clip one end to the Ground side of the DC jack. (The shorter of the two lugs on the DC jack). Clip the other side(s) to the ground lug on the input and output jacks.

Thank you for clarifying and marking up the pictures, I will give it a try,

 

[Ctrl4Smilerz]

I went through with my multimeter in continuity mode, and found a few of the wires between the main board on the 3PDT board were loose. Once I fixed that everything works perfectly, and now is whisper quiet. Thank you everyone for your help! What a great community.

 

[MichaelW]

@Ctrl4Smilerz you can mark this thread as "Solved" by editing your original post and using the "Prefix" drop down menu and selecting "Solved" status. Help's with the hygiene of this forum.