Grounding Issue With Enclosure

[evanh41]

Hey folks, new to the forum, but no stranger to diy synths and circuit bending, but I’ve got a couple issues with my first batch of pedals.

- bare, separated from their enclosures, all the pedals work as they should; powering up, bypassing, signal processing.
Though when I put em in their enclosures, I get none of that. And the daisy chain I power the rest of my non-diy pedals refuses to power up.
Realize it’s probably simple grounding, but never seen this issue in any other project.

- the dream fuzz is only a clean boost, no gnarly fuzz. Worried I may have flipped the chips, but pin 1 does lineup the square, like that of other projects made.

might anyone have photos of their working boards? Or solutions to remedy these?

Thanks!

 

[Nostradoomus]

Take some pictures! Clear shots of the jacks you’ve used, your enclosure etc

 

[phi1]

If your others effects aren’t powering up, Sounds like you’re snorting out the power somehow. Maybe you used a metal dc jack? Guitar pedal supplies are center pin negative, so sleeve is positive, so metal jacks are no good).

Based on your symptoms maybe you wired the in/out jacks on the wrong lugs, but pics would help a lot as stated above.

the build reports section here is full of working builds, maybe even if the pedals your doing.

 

[Robert]

Definitely sounds like a metal DC jack to me.

 

[evanh41]

think it might be these jacks, they hardly hold solder, and once i inserted them into the enclosure, the pedals wont turn on. suggestions for instrument jacks?

 

[Nostradoomus]

Definitely sounds like a metal DC jack to me.

Bingo.

 

[Nostradoomus]

You’re going to want to insulate the metal parts of your dc jack that are touching the enclosure, or swap it out for an insulated (plastic) jack.

 

[bengarland]

Your audio jacks are fine, they look like Switchcraft #11. That's what I use. Never had a problem except when I drilled the holes a little bit off and the hot tip ring (the circular part, not the springy part) just barely touched the inside corner of the enclosure (the screw post part) causing a short. If your jacks aren't taking solder well, then your iron is probably not transferring heat efficiently. Might help to add some flux. Also, clean off all the flux residue on that PCB

 

[GenoBluzGtr]

Since you've drilled for top-jacks, those open jacks are likely making contact with the Round Scew support posts in the corner of the enclosure. Couple of things you can do, short of replacing the jacks. Try rotating them so that the only thing that COULD make contact is the sleeve tab.. You could also physically bend the tabs to be less "sprung out" but you have to be very careful not to over bend them so the plug makes contact when inserted. Finally, you could also figure out a way to insulate either the jack or the part of the enclosure where they're touching. If it's the exposed metal of the circular part that is touching, it's easier to insulate that with some tape. ALL of these should be temporary fixes, while you wait on some insulated (plastic enclosed jacks) to replace them with.

I know this doesn't help you now, but when I am using open jacks in a Top-Jack configuration, I usually drill the holes a little closer to center than the template calls for. I keep plenty of the thinline Lumberg DC jacks on hand for those situations... allows me to use a much smaller hole for the DC jack so I can get my audio jacks a little closer together and away from those screw posts.