Help me make sense of PNP layouts

[Harry Klippton]

Edit: hang on dropped my phone

Sometimes when I'm flipping polarity, I get all twisted around and forget what's what so maybe y'all can help me stay the right way around.

Here's where I get mixed up. I've set up a PNP fuzz face on my breadboard several times and get it mixed up half the time so I'm trying to get it straight for once. Getting an NPN circuit set up is no problem. I should be able to take my same layout, reverse my power source and flip the polarity of my electros, yeah? Minding the pinout when I swap in the transistors and rebiasing Q2 of course.

Conversely, I think I should be able to swap all my circuit connections to the power and ground rails on my breadboard and get the same result with the power supply hooked the normal way. Is one of these methods better than the other?

Depending on where this goes, I might have some follow up questions too

 

[fig]

So you're posting telepathically then....groovy

I'll just think the answer to your question...tune to 1Hz...yeah...Fig is pretty lo-fi...

 

[Harry Klippton]

Don't forum and baby at the same time I guess. I dropped my phone, and somehow hit the post button mid-rambling. Then dishes, make lunch, feed a baby, feed a baby again, then put baby down for a nap and I was able to come back and edit

 

[Harry Klippton]

Ok I solved my own problem here. My PNP layout is fine- battery hooked up backwards, electro polarity as per the schematic. The problem was I was patching the breadboard in through my Madbean protoboard, so the in and out jacks were probably grounded wrong, killing my signal

 

[Harry Klippton]

@fig boy these ZIF sockets sure are handy. I'm finding uses for them for everything!

 

[Big Monk]

Breadboarding a Fuzz Face?

Are you trying to get me hot and bothered?

 

[Harry Klippton]

In case anyone is following along or cares, here's my layout. I've been making records of everything in DIYLC recently

 

[fig]

Won't the EC polarity be reversed?

 

[Harry Klippton]

Won't the EC polarity be reversed?

See this is exactly where i get all turned upside down. So I'm thinking about it this way: PNP is positive ground so I've got the + side of my battery going to all the ground connections on the schematic (which I'll post in a little bit). What I can say is this: I made the layout on my breadboard, and once it was working as intended, I made the above diagram in DIYLC, so I know it DOES work. Definitely open to correction here though

 

[Harry Klippton]

Okie dokie here's the schematic I'm using

 

[Big Monk]

See this is exactly where i get all turned upside down. So I'm thinking about it this way: PNP is positive ground so I've got the + side of my battery going to all the ground connections on the schematic (which I'll post in a little bit). What I can say is this: I made the layout on my breadboard, and once it was working as intended, I made the above diagram in DIYLC, so I know it DOES work. Definitely open to correction here though

To switch to NPN, you just flip polarity on the source and any electros.

 

[Harry Klippton]

To switch to NPN, you just flip polarity on the source and any electros.

Thanks but I got it sorted. I wasn't trying to make it NPN. I was using external routing and the signal wasn't getting through because the jacks were grounded wrong for positive ground. Just sharing my layout and schematics in case it's helpful to someone else. As I was trying to figure this out, all my web searches kept yielding results about trying to switch to NPN, which isn't what I was trying to do

 

[Big Monk]

Thanks but I got it sorted. I wasn't trying to make it NPN. I was using external routing and the signal wasn't getting through because the jacks were grounded wrong for positive ground. Just sharing my layout and schematics in case it's helpful to someone else. As I was trying to figure this out, all my web searches kept yielding results about trying to switch to NPN, which isn't what I was trying to do

Sorry! I misread.

The way I always think of it is jacks don’t change, only polarized components.

Have you tried a 1kC pot for Fuzz?

 

[Harry Klippton]

I have, but not on this build cuz the linear taper is what was in the bin

 

[Big Monk]

I have, but not on this build cuz the linear taper is what was in the bin

That checks out!

I’ve always had a love/hate with the Fuzz control anyway. It doesn’t seem to do much except kill some noise when you turn it down a touch. The Attack control in the MK II topology seems to benefit from the 1kC in a more positive way.

 

[Harry Klippton]

That checks out!

I’ve always had a love/hate with the Fuzz control anyway. It doesn’t seem to do much except kill some noise when you turn it down a touch. The Attack control in the MK II topology seems to benefit from the 1kC in a more positive way.

I need to go back and check out the c taper fuzz pot and like 10 other things I wanna do with this

 

[Big Monk]

I need to go back and check out the c taper fuzz pot and like 10 other things I wanna do with this

Well, I’m balls deep on the Fuzz Face right now if you need a sounding board.

Also, someday I’ll be sending you a Fuzz pedal so there’s that too!