Glory Hole just makes static when engaged

[noahjbauch]

Hey, guys! Pretty new to this. This is my 4th or 5th project, so there are a lot of things about my wiring that I KNOW are janky (for instance, the switch is wired instead of soldered right into the PCB because I didn't drill the hole in the right spot on my enclosure), so please bear with me.

The bypass signal works fine, but when the effect is engaged, it just creates a lot of fuzzy noise. No signal from my guitar gets through at all. However, the volume and gain pots do turn the noise up and down and the tone pot affects the tone of the noise exactly how I'd expect it too.

I read through some older posts about this circuit and tested a few of the IC and transistor pins with my DMM, and I haven't found a value that doesn't pretty closely match what it seems like it should based on people have said in the past. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love some help! Thanks!

 

[noahjbauch]

I just remembered one other thing! The LED does not turn on when the effect is engaged.

 

[carlinb17]

Does this occur out of the enclosure or just inside it?

 

[noahjbauch]

Both!

 

[Dan M]

I would figure out the led first. That should be easy.
I would look at the schematic and check resistance between the + jack and the LED anode. Does it match the led resistor value? Then check continuity from the cathode to the - jack with the foot switch on and off.

 

[noahjbauch]

The LED was in backwards. I discovered by grabbing a new LED and touching its leads to the leads of the one in the circuit, and the new one actually turned on when I touched the - to the + and the + to the -. So I took out the old LED and put it back in backwards and now it works.

So the LED is fixed!! But the audio still works the same as before.

 

[carlinb17]

Where did you get your 5457 from?

 

[noahjbauch]

It was a while ago, but I'm about 90% sure it was from BYOC.

 

[carlinb17]

If it was from Keith then it’s good. I would then reflow and consider making an audio probe to walk your signal through the circuit

 

[noahjbauch]

This is probably a stupid question, but what does reflow mean?

Maybe another stupid question, how does an audio probe work?

 

[carlinb17]

You are totally fine, reflowing is just reheating each point and if needed adding a little more solder to ensure you have the proper joint and to ensure there are no cold joints.

And audio probe allows you to work through the circuit following the audio signal a to identify where it’s good and where it goes bad or stops.

 

[BuddytheReow]

TUTORIAL - Troubleshooting 101

There comes a time for every builder to spend multiple hours soldering, wiring, and breadboarding a certain circuit just to have it work incorrectly, if at all. This could happen on your first build or any build after that. This write up is to help you in your quest to figure out why it isn't...

forum.pedalpcb.com

 

[noahjbauch]

You are totally fine, reflowing is just reheating each point and if needed adding a little more solder to ensure you have the proper joint and to ensure there are no cold joints.

And audio probe allows you to work through the circuit following the audio signal a to identify where it’s good and where it goes bad or stops.

View attachment 24408

Okay, sounds easy enough. Should I just try that for the whole circuit?

Okay, gotcha. So it's like a direct line to the amp, and then you touch it to different points in the circuit starting at the beginning to see how far the sound continues through the circuit? So do you have a cable plugged into the input jack of the circuit with some sort of audio going through it then?

 

[noahjbauch]

TUTORIAL - Troubleshooting 101

There comes a time for every builder to spend multiple hours soldering, wiring, and breadboarding a certain circuit just to have it work incorrectly, if at all. This could happen on your first build or any build after that. This write up is to help you in your quest to figure out why it isn't...

forum.pedalpcb.com

Thank you so much! This page will be really helpful!

 

[noahjbauch]

You are totally fine, reflowing is just reheating each point and if needed adding a little more solder to ensure you have the proper joint and to ensure there are no cold joints.

And audio probe allows you to work through the circuit following the audio signal a to identify where it’s good and where it goes bad or stops.

View attachment 24408

Okay, I made the probe, and I get how it works. I'm just not sure what I'm listening for... I have music playing off my phone going into the pedal, and when I touch the probe to the input jack, it sounds super great. Then I start moving forward in the circuit, and it's pretty hard to find a good sound coming off of really anything.

One thing I noticed is that when the effect is not engaged, I can hear the music coming from lugs 3 and 9 on the footswitch which I think makes sense because that's where it's bypassing the effect. But when the effect IS engaged, I can NOT hear it coming off of lug 1 which I think is supposed to be sending the signal into the circuit. Should I be able to hear the music from lug 1 when the effect is engaged? Does this mean I should change out the footswitch?

 

[carlinb17]

so in bypass the sound travels through the jack to lug 2 on the switch, lug 2 is connected lug 3 inside the switch. 3 is connected to 9 and 9 to 8 inside the switch. Lug 8 sends the signal to your output jack by bypassing your entire circuit.

If have no sound on lug 1 when it is engaged it may be a bad switch , connection or grounding issue. I would start with first ensuring you have continuity between lug 1and 2 and 1 and 6 when the pedal is engaged.

Have you reflowed your board?

 

[noahjbauch]

so in bypass the sound travels through the jack to lug 2 on the switch, lug 2 is connected lug 3 inside the switch. 3 is connected to 9 and 9 to 8 inside the switch. Lug 8 sends the signal to your output jack by bypassing your entire circuit.

If have no sound on lug 1 when it is engaged it may be a bad switch , connection or grounding issue. I would start with first ensuring you have continuity between lug 1and 2 and 1 and 6 when the pedal is engaged.

Have you reflowed your board?

It was the switch! I put in a new one, and it works! The audio probe is the only reason I found it, so thank you so much for telling me about that and explaining how to make/use one. So much appreciated!

 

[carlinb17]

It was the switch! I put in a new one, and it works! The audio probe is the only reason I found it, so thank you so much for telling me about that and explaining how to make/use one. So much appreciated!

enjoy and keep the audio probe handy! Good job working through steps to get it up and running!