SOLVED Mach 1 not working

[taita87]

Hello can someone tell me if this build is OK or there's something obviously wrong in the build?
The led is working but when I plug in the cables I ear nothing from the cabinet, no signal at all.

I have to admit that in the first place I plugged a 9v battery with wrong polarity, maybe I broke something with that first attempt, or maybe there something macroscopically wrong in the soldering

 

[BuddytheReow]

Does bypass work? I haven’t taken a deep dive in the pics yet.

 

[taita87]

Nope, if I plug the cables into this pedal it's like there's no signal at all

 

[carlinb17]

your output wire is on the wrong lug, also I think you might have issues with a lot of joints but see what happens when you change the lug.

 

[Laundryroom David]

Are you tinning your hookup wire before soldering it to components/the pcb?

 

[taita87]

It's my first time soldering i know it's a mess. Yes I tinned them but I had no much space to do some soldering so something was really bad cause I had no space.
The jack tips are soldered to the orange wire on both side

 

[taita87]

Can you explain what I did wrong? Like too much tin, tin going through the other side of the board or not going at all etc? It's my first time

 

[Nic]

I think output jack is wired to the ring... would need to be on the tip. An easy test is to pull it out just a clic, if you have bypass then you will know that is one problem.

Check that center lug on the bottom pot, the solder should be shiny, those not shiny may be cold joint and make bad connection.

Again, that same pot has no protection and could short any component on the board. Put some thin guitar pick there if you have nothing else.

 

[PJS]

The jack tips are soldered to the orange wire on both side

Nope. carlinb17 is right. The orange wire on the output jack is soldered to the ring, not the tip. You are correct that the lug on the slant is for the shield/ground. If you look, one orange wire is on the clockwise lug from there, the other is on the anti-clockwise lug from there. from the datasheet the output one looks wrong

 

[Laundryroom David]

Watch some videos on YouTube. Really, there are so many good soldering tutorials online!

re stranded hookup wire, if you use it, you must tin the stripped ends so you have an “solid” end to solder to the pcb or component. Tinning also eases the process of solder flowing evenly when soldering wire to the pcb or components. If you don’t tin stranded wire, you will likely end up with stray wires and a troubleshooting headache.

Other options would using topcoat wire (stranded but bathed in tin the full length of the wire) or solid core wire.

 

[szukalski]

If you’re in the US, buy pre tinned wire. It’ll make your life easier.

FWIW I prefer stranded wire because it’s more flexible, but stopped running because I run my pad holes small (0.9mm) and if you self tin then it may not fit. It does make your life harder with stranded which isn’t tinned, but it’s not impossible.

But yeah, soldering needs improvement. It’s all good, we’ve been there at the start. Watch a couple of YT videos on soldering (you heat the components and have the solder melt on them, not the iron. Sometimes it takes a little pressure to transfer the heat to the components). Buy some stuff to practice soldering on. A perf board and a bunch of wire would suffice. Once you get your solder game down, then everything else gets so much easier.

 

[taita87]

I had problems finding the right soldering tip. I thought that soldering these tiny boards required a really small tip, but the one that I have doesn't melt on the very tip. I have to melt at middle height, and it's the same with thicker tips (no melting on the very tip, just some millimeters above). I don't know if it's cause I don't press too much or cause they're low quality. I tried 350 degrees then 400 degrees

 

[taita87]

Anyway, the pedal is now working on bypass, but I get no signal when it's on

 

[carlinb17]

What did you change to get bypass?

 

[taita87]

What Everyone said, I switched the outpot jack wire to the tip, It was soldered to the ring

 

[PJS]

OK. 2 questions

1. Do you have anything insulating the backs of the pots, especially the pot that hovers over the PCB? If not that is common failure point - the back of the pot shorts out something on the board. Electrical tape by itself doesn't work either. I know from experience that the cut wire leads are sharp enough to just pierce it. You need something pretty solid or nice and thick like the pot covers that are sold for this purpose.

2. Do you have a multimeter? With power to the pedal and the multimeter on the 20V DC setting place the black lead on a known ground point (the DC socket ground or a inoput/output jack ground and use the red lead to measure the voltages on the IC pins and post them here. Use the standard pin numbering:

 

[taita87]

I'll try the point 2 in some hours.
About point 1.. the pots are not touching the circuit board cause I used some round thick plastic adhesive they sent me with rest of the material, I don't know what was the purpose of them and I used to isolate them from the circuit board.. but I want to ask something : why they have a lateral pin?

I'm talking about this lateral pin that touches the case. If you tighten the pot to the case, that lateral pin make the pot inclined on the surface and your knob on the other side is not perpendicular but inclined too

 

[PJS]

What you have used on the back of the pots is perfect.

That pin you are talking about is a locator pin. Some people will drill a small hole where the pin goes (often it does not need to go all the way through the case). The pin sits in the hole and means that the pot cannot rotate even if the nut holding it loosens a bit. Most people just snap those pins off. Grab them with pliers and a quick snap will break it off cleanly.

 

[taita87]

Thank you sir!
DC reading in the pins:
1. 4.35
2. 4.38
3. 2.57
4. 0
5. 4.31
6. 4.35
7. 4.43
8. 7.80

 

[taita87]

I also removed the bottom pot to show you the circuit