Issue with DOD 250

[Plaidesaurus]

I've built a number of pedals at this point and I'm a bit surprised to have an issue with such a simple pedal. I did box it and it works both clean and engaged but the engaged volume is weak, pretty much unity with the unengaged volume. The distortion acts like an old Tonebender: nada till you get to 9 and then it explodes with fuzz. My suspicion is with the 1N270 Diodes I bought from Newwark. They were cheap. They also came in a Schottky type casing, don't know if that makes a difference. But in the past I'd paid $2-3 each and they came in the glass bottle. I'm thinking one of the diodes looks blown.??? Any thoughts here?

 

[Erik S]

Is one of your electros in backwards?

 

[thomasbe86]

C7 is reversed, positive lug should be at the top.
Check the polarity of the diodes as well, D1 is backwards. Diodes should be fine, type is ok.

Check as well that you have contact between the third lug of the gain potentiometer, looks like a cold one :

 

[Erik S]

D1 is backwards.

I'm just a paint by the numbers guy, but both the square pads are on the same side, no?

 

[thomasbe86]

I'm just a paint by the numbers guy, but both the square pads are on the same side, no?

Oh that is definitely possible, I just compared to the board on the build docs, which seems a bit different (C4 and C5 arrangement for example)

 

[Erik S]

I just compared to the board on the build docs

Yup - I did the same thing at first, but it looks like the board has some changes since that doc.

 

[jimilee]

It’s always the simplest boards that don’t fire right up.