Duocast testing help!!

[Svenson007]

Hey guys. I’ve built a handful of the duocast pedals…. Never had trouble.

It had been a while, so my memory is foggy.


You will see in the pics, to test, I would insert a temporary attachment wire on the forth to left pad (some sort of input) This is attached to my input jack. On the right hand side I wound use the furthest right pad in the same way. As the output. Should I be getting any overdrive effects just from this? Don’t think so with the way it’s wired.

This gives me a clean tone but without control over the pots etc.

I guess I’m asking how you guys “rock it before you box it”

Since it’s been a while I can’t remember if I was satisfied that the clean tone was making it through and then go ahead with the complicated wiring (which I don’t totally know how it functions in the circuit. It’s not something I’m used to, but has worked fine for me in the past.

How can I test the circuit before commitimg to the rest of the build? I guess the fact I was getting signal to pass through, in the past was when I would move in to completing the build. No problems in the past.

But it’s been a long time, and I’m not 100% sure this method is sound.

I feel like if I just complete the build the wiring works it’s way out after getting clean signal during test.

I’m not feeling so confident this time.

If anyone can give me some insight that would be epic. I don’t really understand how each switch interacts.

I’ve made some great duocast pedals in the past. And I think it was just testing for the clean tone and move on. But I’m not convinced, and seems shoddy technique. My memory has crapped out on me.

Would love some insight into this! Would love to get this complete tomorrow. This is the first time doubting myself with this one.

P.s the camera angle makes my solder joints look meh…. But they are quite good in real life. I even reflowed them just in case.

Please help my pedal nerd friends!!!

Cheers

 

[MichaelW]

Not only do I not box before I rock, one easy builds I've started even putting the screws on the back plate in at my bench unless there's "ear" biasing that needs to happen. I've only been burned a handful of times

The only way I can see properly testing the circuit in phases during the build is by using an audio probe.

 

[szukalski]

I have a test rig and a breadboard test rig.

Generally I will use these to test vero, breadboard, and PCBs which I don’t have enclosures for.

I can recommend a test rig if you don’t have one. I wire up the 9V, GND, IN, and OUT and connect those up.

 

[Mcknib]

I use a test box with integrated audio probe

Test box 2.0

Collection of vero (stripboard) & tagboard layouts for 100s of popular guitar effects, with over 1000 verified designs. DIY your own boutique effects!

tagboardeffects.blogspot.com

you could also use the auditorium test platform

Auditorium Test Platform - PedalPCB.com

Pedal testing platform

www.pedalpcb.com

With the duocast the left footswitch as you look at the pcb is for high and low gain modes you'd need to connect your in and out to the right footswitch in to 1st pad and out to last pad ( so leave the white wire where it is as output and move the yellow wire over to the 1st pad for input and obviously make sure the jacks are grounded)

It looks to me like your yellow wire connects to the pad your white wire is connected to there's a long trace connecting them so you're not actually putting audio through the circuit just from one jack along the long trace to the other jack