My 1st Finished PedalPCB Build—Disarray Distortion—Only SQUEALS!

[Caldo71]

Hi Folks,

So I've built stompboxes from kits before, but they were the kind like the BYOC kits where all the components are included, and the instructions a bit more step-by-step. This is the first time I've done all that on my own: the Disarray "Reloaded" PCB. Just for the record, when you see all the super-long leads on the photos I post below, just know that it's because I'm not mounting this in a normal stompbox housing—it's going into a 1RU rackmount enclosure.

I THOUGHT I was being a total badass—being super tidy with my soldering, component placement, and polarities, but when I finished it up and plugged in, all it does is go SQUEEEEEEEE!!!

Below, I'm attaching many up-close pics of the entire build, with each photo's file name labeled (top-left-of-board, middle-left-of-board, etc) and some things circled in red and labeled (A, B, C etc) where things MIGHT be funky? But I don't really know...just newb guesses, really. I'll spell out my thoughts on those next, and I'm hoping one of you amazing people might be able to look at my build and see something obvious/standout that I f#$%ed up.

My prime suspects:
A.) Resistor position R17—470Ohms
This one they didn't have in stock at Teyda so I bought one separately at Mouser, where I'm not yet super pro at figuring out how the components differ in size etc. But it's still 1/4 watt, 1% tolerance—shouldn't matter, right?

B.) Resistor position R18—6.81k
This one Teyda didn't have at EXACTLY 6.81k so I bought one that was 6.8k even. Now I'm wondering if that's inconsequential or really super important. So is this bad?

C.) Resistor positions R13 and R16—1M
Same story here as "A" above: Teyda didn't have it, Small Bear did, but the length of the resistor is several mm longer. Again...shouldn't matter as long as it's the same resistance, wattage, and tolerance...right?

D.) Diode position D11—1N34A germanium
Only reason I'm pointing this out is that I forgot to drop in the diode before I put in the big fat electrolytic cap above it, so I made the legs a bit longer and kinda stacked it over the zener below it. Not a big deal, right?

E.) This Thing
This is only used if you choose to solder a DPDT directly to the PCB board...right? I have nothing soldered there.

What do you guys think? Is it one of these things, or do you see anything else? Any help is hugely appreciated....

 

[Caldo71]

Only ten attachments allowed per-post, so here's the other five photos relating to my callouts in the original post...

 

[Barry]

Well on Item "E" that switch selects from 3 sets of diodes for your clipping, so you'll need a switch or jumper the pair you want to use

 

[Caldo71]

Oooohhh the little three-way switch! I COMPLETELY forgot about that feature/component! THOUGHT that area seemed fishy!

Thanks Barry I’ll wire that sucker in and see what happens. So the way this pedal achieves different “tightness” settings on the crunch is by selecting between LEDs, zeners, or the germaniums? That’s very cool.

 

[Caldo71]

So @Barry I was excited, but that didn’t work still getting nothing but a crazy solid tone, and as soon as I turn on the circuit, I notice both red LEDs (but not the blue) light up full brightness like they’re seeing massive clipping. Also noticing that if I rotate the B100k pot, it goes from a very low tone, to a super high tone, then disappears completely at full clockwise position.

Would love to include an audio clip but this forum doesn’t seem to support that.

Any further thoughts?

 

[Robert]

A) That's fine, even a 1/8W resistor would be fine.
B) 6.8K is not a problem
C) Tayda definitely has 1M resistors (almost 9 million of them in stock, in fact)
https://www.taydaelectronics.com/10-x-resistor-1m-ohm-1-4w-1-metal-film-pkg-of-10.html
D) The Germanium diode was out of the circuit before you installed the toggle switch, so you can eliminate that as a culprit
E) Unrelated, but where did you get your toggle switch? You're going to need a Type-2 when you DO get this working.

When you turn the pots does the squealing noise change at all?

 

[Dan0h]

I see about a dozen cold solders. Your through holes should be filled with solder to make sure a connection is made. I would reflow a lot of those solder joints. Best guess is you have several of them that aren’t fully connecting.

 

[Caldo71]

A) That's fine, even a 1/8W resistor would be fine.
B) 6.8K is not a problem
C) Tayda definitely has 1M resistors (almost 9 million of them in stock, in fact)
https://www.taydaelectronics.com/10-x-resistor-1m-ohm-1-4w-1-metal-film-pkg-of-10.html
D) The Germanium diode was out of the circuit before you installed the toggle switch, so you can eliminate that as a culprit
E) Unrelated, but where did you get your toggle switch? You're going to need a Type-2 when you DO get this working.

When you turn the pots does the squealing noise change at all?

@PedalPCB thanks for all the help, here's a few comments back atcha, still lettered accordingly:

C.) Hmmm not sure how I missed those at Tayda but I'm a newb so my search/spec'ing skillz are still really questionable.

E.) I got my toggles at Tayda along with the rest of it before Is tarted...I simply forgot to wire it in! This is the one I bought...

Mini Toggle Switch DPDT On-On-On

Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping

www.taydaelectronics.com

...that's the right kind, correct?

And yeah you mighta missed it in my earlier post, but in regards to your question about knob turning, if I rotate the B100k pot, it goes from a very low tone, to a super high tone, then disappears completely at full clockwise position.

 

[Caldo71]

I see about a dozen cold solders. Your through holes should be filled with solder to make sure a connection is made. I would reflow a lot of those solder joints. Best guess is you have several of them that aren’t fully connecting.

Hey @Dan0h I was being a bit tepid about leaving my soldering iron on any component for too long because my Weller soldering station didn't have a temp readout and I was scared of burning up my resistors etc by guessing at temp and getting things too hot. But yeah: before you even mentioned this, I was already a little concerned about all that stuff, so I ordered a more fully-featured iron and it just came in the mail today. So I'll go back over all those thru-holes and make sure everything's looking really healthy. Thanks for you help! Let's see what happens...

 

[Caldo71]

I just went back and made nice tidy little solder cones on every single hole...no luck, same issues.
any other thoughts? This is my first build and I’m about ready to smash it with a hammer.

 

[music6000]

@PedalPCB thanks for all the help, here's a few comments back atcha, still lettered accordingly:

C.) Hmmm not sure how I missed those at Tayda but I'm a newb so my search/spec'ing skillz are still really questionable.

E.) I got my toggles at Tayda along with the rest of it before Is tarted...I simply forgot to wire it in! This is the one I bought...

Mini Toggle Switch DPDT On-On-On

Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping

www.taydaelectronics.com

...that's the right kind, correct?

And yeah you mighta missed it in my earlier post, but in regards to your question about knob turning, if I rotate the B100k pot, it goes from a very low tone, to a super high tone, then disappears completely at full clockwise position.

No, That is type1, You need type 2
Tayda doesn't appear to stock Type 2.

This shoud be direction of LED's
There should be a Flat side at Base of LED:

 

[Caldo71]

No, That is type1, You need type 2
Tayda doesn't appear to stock Type 2.

This shoud be direction of LED's
There should be a Flat side at Base of LED:

View attachment 9316

I think I was careful with my LED polarity but I’ll double check. Regardless, sounds like I need to hunt down those type 2 switches.

 

[music6000]

I think I was careful with my LED polarity but I’ll double check. Regardless, sounds like I need to hunt down those type 2 switches.

The other important thing to note is you used 330r in R12, the value listed on the PedalPCB Board & BOM is 1k1.
Your board has be revised but all the other values match your Build!
Being linked to the Dirt knob, this may well cause an issue?
Can you confirm your board is not R12-1K1.

Your pedal should still work with Toggle switch in UP & DOWN positions, Not MIDDLE position!

 

[Caldo71]

Really I put the wrong value in at R12? Jeez, yep: no question you’re right just by looking at my photo: orange-orange-black-black-brown. 330r! Let’s see what happens when I swap it out!

 

[PoppaAdat]

Really I put the wrong value in at R12? Jeez, yep: no question you’re right just by looking at my photo: orange-orange-black-black-brown. 330r! Let’s see what happens when I swap it out!

Curious if you ever figured this out. I just "finished" a Fuzz Foundry and I am getting the same squealing as you. When I play, I can hear a quiet version of the fuzz but when I stop playing it's just a solid tone/feedback. Turning the knobs has an effect on it. And when I first plugged it in, I could hear a radio signal.

 

[Caldo71]

Curious if you ever figured this out. I just "finished" a Fuzz Foundry and I am getting the same squealing as you. When I play, I can hear a quiet version of the fuzz but when I stop playing it's just a solid tone/feedback. Turning the knobs has an effect on it. And when I first plugged it in, I could hear a radio signal.

You know, I NEVER DID figure this out, even after following all the suggestions above. I'm basically chalking this one up as a total loss at this point.

This Disarray was my very first PedalPCB build, and after this one, given all the stuff I've learned elsewhere on this message board—especially about tidy soldering using the right kind of solder, temperature, etc—I decided to do another build (Dwarven Hammer) and kinda said to myself "well if this one doesn't work I'm gonna pass on this hobby cuz I obviously suck". But it DID work, perfectly, and so did the next build I did, which was a NuTube buffer circuit from pmillet.com.

I've learned so much more at this point not just about soldering stuff but also about sourcing components properly, that I'm basically wondering at this point not only if my soldering on the Disarray was just completely f#$%ed, but if I'd burnt out components, sourced the wrong box caps (since no one can see those values in my photos, etc etc.

So as of this writing I've purchased a NEW Disarray PCB, and I think I'm just gonna build it all the way up from scratch again and I'm betting I'll have different results second time out.

 

[Caldo71]

Just as a follow-up to the above, my second Dissaray build may have one small issue (there’s another thread about it) but it actually sounds amazing and functions perfectly otherwise. Still no clear idea what went wrong on this first one, but I guess there’s hope for me yet.