First Build, No sound

[Crash102]

This is my first build and things started smoothly, but went south as i began soldering potentiometers and outboard wiring. This is the corduroy fuzz. Currently My led works, and i can get a clean signal from my guitar to my amp. However, when I turn it on, and the led comes on, the sound immediately cuts out. Additionally, i noticed, I melted some plastic on a capacitor as a soldered my potentiometers in. Not sure if I need to just take those off, but thought I would check here before I started disassembling. I've got the build docs open, a trouble shooting guide, and am about to learn how to use my multimeter to go though and check every connection one my one. Let me know if you see I'm missing anything obvious.

Thanks

 

[ADAOCE]

That cap is toast and is a good bet that it’s not going to function properly. Not sure if that explains the lack of sound though. Can you take some better photos? Particularly around the power wiring at the top the board. It looks like some suspect solder jobs there but it’s hard to tell.

 

[CMW]

Guess I have a different account name set up on my phone. Thanks for the reply. Think I’m just going to take the switch, potentiometers, and out board wiring out. Then to replace the capacitor and that one trim pot. Give the board a good scrub and go from there.

 

[ADAOCE]

That’s a lot of desoldering. I would be pretty careful as you might damage the board unless you really know what you’re doing. I always dread desoldering. Use some flux and copper braid solder wick. You can also bend the pots up carefully and use a finer brush to try and clean up the board.

another thing you can do it build or buy an audio probe and you can follow the signal through the circuit and see exactly where your signal cuts out. There are threads on here about it and YouTube probably has some videos too.

see the image I posted. With the breakout board I like to bend the leads over slightly to ensure proper tip access to the pad and for the power wiring at the top I come in from the bottom side and keep the lead sticking straight up. Don’t be afraid to use painters tape or blue tac putty to keep things in place while you solder. One thing I try to do is contact the pad first and then lean the tip against the lead (very quickly I might add). Joints get messy quick when the lead gets hot but you haven’t hit the pad enough and solder starts to build up.

the biggest thing I did to take my game to a higher level was get a better iron and really dial in my iron temp and solder. I run 375C with 60/40 solder and I like to apply top then solder then remove solder then remove tip. It’s hard to describe soldering technique because I think honestly so much of it is feel once you get the equipment and the temps right but trust me it gets easier. I look back on my earliest builds and cringe sometimes but now I’m getting much better results

 

[fig]

Hi Crash...err CMW...both of you.

Please do NOT get frustrated to the point of giving up on building the pedal you want.

@ADAOCE has some great advice above. Solder from the shortest components to the tallest. That way you wont have to solder around the taller components and possibly bump them with the hot iron.

 

[chongmagic]

This is my first build and things started smoothly, but went south as i began soldering potentiometers and outboard wiring. This is the corduroy fuzz. Currently My led works, and i can get a clean signal from my guitar to my amp. However, when I turn it on, and the led comes on, the sound immediately cuts out. Additionally, i noticed, I melted some plastic on a capacitor as a soldered my potentiometers in. Not sure if I need to just take those off, but thought I would check here before I started disassembling. I've got the build docs open, a trouble shooting guide, and am about to learn how to use my multimeter to go though and check every connection one my one. Let me know if you see I'm missing anything obvious.

Thanks

Another thing you may want to starting doing in the future is socketing your transistors. They are very sensitive to heat and if you are new to soldering then you can easily damage them. That box cap might be toast, but I have seen quite a few take a beating like that and still work.

Like @ADAOCE says, an audio probe is a great tool to have at this point.

Lastly, we have all built our first pedal and we have all run into issues at some point. The most important thing is if you enjoy it don't give up!

 

[uranium_jones]

That melted cap is C10. Looks like you also melted a bit of C1, near that left trim pot... which also seems melted. For C10, it looks it wouldn't kill the signal if it were removed, but it would if it were shorted. I don't really what it looks like on the schematic if film caps fail via melting. But anyway, I've done a number of boards now and even I surprise myself at how often I nearly melt or burn things. And this is after nearly 20 years of soldering here and there since middle school.

In general, I solder kinda-sorta in this order: Resistors & diodes, Sockets (chips and transistors), trim pots, transistors (those I choose to keep unsocketed), 16mm pots, and caps. The 16mm pots are always a wild card since they go in "backwards." You have to see what the pot may obscure on the soldering side, and what might get in the way of soldering them on the component side.

 

[Crash102]

thanks for the replies everyone. It was one of those scenarios where I felt good going in with my preparedness and then slid to me fumbling by the end. I bought a higher end soldering iron, watched dozens of videos about soldering and had all the knowledge. but as you guys know, there's no real substitute for doing it in real life. I'm going to shelve this one til my desoldering braid gets here and finish my other build in progress and then come back to this one.

 

[ADAOCE]

thanks for the replies everyone. It was one of those scenarios where I felt good going in with my preparedness and then slid to me fumbling by the end. I bought a higher end soldering iron, watched dozens of videos about soldering and had all the knowledge. but as you guys know, there's no real substitute for doing it in real life. I'm going to shelve this one til my desoldering braid gets here and finish my other build in progress and then come back to this one.

Good idea. Try out a fuzz build or something that is nice and spread out with low parts count to get some more experience and boost your confidence.

also something I learned the hard way is if you’re looking at a build search it in the forums thoroughly and you can see things like issues people run into or hard to find parts or just mods that people have done the the BOM will not specify.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

The failure mode for most capacitors is shorted. Unless you pull one of the leads out.