Parentheses Fuzz LEDs turn off when jacks are tight

[zipfool]

I built two of these. One works/sounds awesome, the other sounds amazing, but the LEDs don't work when everything is in the enclosure and tightened up. All other controls and switches operate as they should just no LED.

As soon as I loosen the nuts on the jacks, LEDs come back on again. If I start with all the pots and switches loose and then tighten the jacks first, the LEDs work fine until I tighten the very last pot. As soon as that pot is tight, the LEDs turn off.

I suspect a short somewhere but can't even begin to imagine where. If the sound is working in both bypass and enabled, then maybe it's something simple?



More photos here:

Parentheses Fuzz LEDs

4 new items · Album by Colin Day

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[giovanni]

I can’t tell from the picture but it looks like the LED legs may be shorting with the wires that connect to the foot switch? Have you tried putting some electrical tape around the LED legs? A very closeup picture would help. Good luck!

 

[zipfool]

I can’t tell from the picture but it looks like the LED legs may be shorting with the wires that connect to the foot switch? Have you tried putting some electrical tape around the LED legs? A very closeup picture would help. Good luck!

Good point. I have these black rubber "stoppers" around the part of the leads closest to the foot switch joints. But maybe the LEDs are shorting anyway. Take a look at the high res photos posted in the link in my original post or check out these other angles:

 

[giovanni]

Or maybe it’s shorting on the bezel? Is that a 5 mm bezel with a 3 mm LED? Hard to tell from the pics.

 

[zipfool]

I keep looking at those bezels with the same suspicion. But they're 3mm plastic bezels. The only metal is the nut.

 

[giovanni]

Try the tape or better heat shrink and see if that fixes it?

 

[zipfool]

You were spot-on @giovanni . I did a better job covering the LED legs and that fixed it!

 

[giovanni]

Nice! Glad I could help!