My new pedal isn’t working and I’m not flexible enough to kick my own face.

D

Dan M

Well-known member
Internal monologue: “Solder looks ok. Wiring is correct. I darkened the enclosure so the LDRs will work. It passes sound in bypass and when engaged, but the sound is weak and the controls don’t do much. Man this sucks. Time to break out the DMM and sound probe and pull it apart…Oh. Nice job dumbass.”

This is not the first time I’ve been stumped by this issue:

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Recently attempted this daunting monster (Erica Synths DIY BBD Flanger), with a full add-on board out of sight beneath it. Fired it up, not a sausage, no sound, nada, zilch. Undeterred, I whipped out the audio probe, consulted the schematic, and solemnly tested the first IC. Still no sound.

Looked at the installation, first opamp was incorrectly seated in its socket with half the pins floating free in space. Reseated the socket after committing a number of palm slaps to the forehead. Miraculously, the flanger sound emerged.

Still some not quite resolved issues, but you'd think that I'd have checked this elementary principle first. Never mind, pedals and modules build themselves while we're not looking, as I understand it.
 
The step portion of my recently finished Quantum Defrakluator was stuck on the second step and the oscillator sounded wonky. Opened it up and one of the chips was super hot. Realized that in my haste I had put it in the socket backwards, using the dot and not the notch to identify proper orientation. Works like a beaut now. Side note, this was a CMOS chip so I’m not sure how they can be “super sensitive” to static discharge and yet survive what happened here.
 
mybud said:
"Empty sockets don't ever make the grade" (with due apologies to Billie Holiday).
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That's very good! I often listen to that when building. I have quite a few Billie Holiday CDs (don't believe in streaming, ie don't know how) and they make for excellent building music.

As a fan of both Billie and top-drawer puns I am impressed.
 
No matter how much double and triple checking I do as I assemble, I’m often plagued by just this sort of error. You’d think, or at least I think, that as soon as something doesn’t fire up right away, I’d look for the obvious. But no.

Just earlier in the week, it was a completely DOA Transcendence Boost. But, everything looked fine, solder joints solid, etc. Chip pins all tucked in (this was an issue last month). Aha! Reversed power leads to the board, a 3 minute fix, and all was well.

I also think it’s easier to get careless, working on low voltage DC like we do. I’m much more repetitive in my pre-test checkover of things that get plugged into the wall.
 
Alan W said:
No matter how much double and triple checking I do as I assemble, I’m often plagued by just this sort of error. You’d think, or at least I think, that as soon as something doesn’t fire up right away, I’d look for the obvious. But no.

Just earlier in the week, it was a completely DOA Transcendence Boost. But, everything looked fine, solder joints solid, etc. Chip pins all tucked in (this was an issue last month). Aha! Reversed power leads to the board, a 3 minute fix, and all was well.

I also think it’s easier to get careless, working on low voltage DC like we do. I’m much more repetitive in my pre-test checkover of things that get plugged into the wall.
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I always use Red hook up wire for + & Black hook up wire for -!!!
 
Chuck D. Bones said:
If you want to make it real challenging use all the same color hookup wire. ;)
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They make different color hookup wire? :unsure: :ROFLMAO:

I have black and blue.... Black is stranded, blue is solid.

And I only do this because I'm tired of grabbing the wrong spool of wire and having to get back up.
 
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Robert said:
They make different color hookup wire? :unsure: :ROFLMAO:

I have black and blue.... Black is stranded, blue is solid.

And I only do this because I'm tired of grabbing the wrong spool of wire and having to get back up.
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I don’t even have spools. Just bundles of tangled up 12 colored wires even though I only use 3 of them
 
Mine are spools in a technical sense... Maybe I should say rolls ... There's no actual "spool" involved.
 
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