Pro-10 Green/Blue, no effect output

[laxu]

Build a Pro-10 blue and green using Musikding kits.

So I guess this is some issue with the switch but I can't verify until I can get a better soldering iron because my current cheapo does not seem to fare well with lead free solder so that might lead to cold solder joints or some other issues.

I built the Blue with leaded solder and it worked just fine but I received a momentary instead of latching switch so it would only work when the switch was held. I tried swapping the Blue's switch for an Alpha 3PDT latching switch and I just can't seem to get it working with or without the PedalPCB breakout board. I had the exact same issue with the Green but cannot verify if that works in the first place. On the Green I had it in a state where all I got was noise but the pots all affected the noise so it works at least on some level. Tried reflowing the solder and then ended up in the current state I have for both pedals:

I can get the LED to light up on both and in bypass state it passes signal through just fine but if I try to activate the effect it dies. No audio at all.

So my questions as I wait for a proper soldering station and a kit for an audio signal tester to ship:

1. Can I hook up the wires on the pedal together to make the effect activate so I can test that the circuit works but won't have the ability to turn it off? I assume yes, but which wires do I need to connect together?
2. How do I go about testing if I am getting any signal within the circuit? I have a basic multimeter with DC and continuity measuring capabilities. I just don't know how to use it much and could use pointers on where to connect the red and black wires on the circuit to measure different things and what sort of voltages should I expect?

 

[Feral Feline]

Yes, you probably have an error in the switching.

Wire the jacks directly to one board, see if the effect works. Then do the same for the other board.
The tip of the in jack to the in-pad of the board (where your 3PDT would wire to), the sleeve goes to ground. Output, repeat the process and wire the tip of the out jack to the board's out, sleeve of jack to ground.

There are plenty of online tutorials and guidelines for testing a circuit with a DMM and for building a very simple audio probe (very easy!) and how to probe the audio path, so I needn't repeat what others have better described and/or illustrated.

Also, it's always helpful for others to help you if they can see what's going on — ie: post pictures of both sides of your build, the component side and the solder side.

 

[laxu]

I got the Pro-10 Blue working. I hooked up the black cable on my multimeter to the power jack ground and then used the red to see if there is voltage through the pedal when it's on, measuring at the 20V DC setting. Found some resistors that were not correctly soldered and after going through them I got it working as expected. Also the output wire to the switch was badly soldered, just couldn't see because I had crammed it inside a box already.

I figured out that on the Musikding kits, the blue cables in the kit are actually slightly thicker than the other colors so they were a bad option for the tiny holes of the switch connections and breakout board.

Now working on the Pro-10 Green. That one I had to solder completely using lead free solder so it's harder to tell the difference between bad solder joints and I feel like my cheapo soldering iron might be a bit underpowered to consistently melt it. I reflowed every joint and am wiring the switch as I type this. Hopefully the same process will result in a working pedal!

Will post pics if it still does not work!

 

[Feral Feline]

What helps is if you've got a breakout box as in this post: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/what-is-a-breadboard-and-why-do-i-need-one.8052/post-72430

Same thread in the post above it, Sylv9st9r links to a thread on how to build your own break out box:

Test box 2.0

Collection of vero (stripboard) & tagboard layouts for 100s of popular guitar effects, with over 1000 verified designs. DIY your own boutique effects!

tagboardeffects.blogspot.com

With the breakout box, you can connect your freshly built PCBs to it and check if your circuit works before boxing it. If it doesn't work, you can more easily troubleshoot out of the box. If it works, you box it up and enjoy your creation OR... if it worked outside the box but doesn't work in the box, you've saved yourself considerable time and energy by narrowing down the problem to the in/out and bypass connections.


I still tend to box things up before I test them, too. So I just make sure the entire build can come out of the box (ie the power jack's nut threads from the outside like the jacks, etc) because there's a good ol' saying that rings true:

"Rock it BEFORE you box it."

Good luck with your Pro-10 Green!

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

I still tend to box things up before I test them

Yeah, I tend to do that 50% of the time even with my test box next to me… But using a connector on the DC power makes taking out the circuit easy.

 

[laxu]

Yeah I just boxed mine because I wanted to trim the cables right but it's a bit of a chore taking them in and out. I think I need to grab some screw in connector for hooking up the DC power so the whole circuit can be taken out since the power connector goes in the other way.

Still struggling to get the Pro-10 green working. I wired up the switch but there is definitely something going on. I think R3 resistor might be dead as it receives no voltage and can't read its resistance and something wrong with the switch. If I again hook up my black DMM cable to the ground on the DC jack and use red to probe things, I can see the LED light up dimly if I touch it to the switch or some of the 3PDT switch legs.

What voltages should I expect to see on the JRC4558 chip legs? I only had power hooked up and nothing to input and output jacks just to test things out and I think pin 1 which seems to be output had zero reading on it, which might be explained if no signal goes thru the pedal. I think on the other chip pin 4 might have had zero voltage as well which might point to an issue powering it.

With no schematic to go on and a lack of experience debugging this stuff it's hard to figure out what does what. I need to wait to get that proper soldering station and then just redo all the joints once again.

 

[fig]

With no schematic to go on and a lack of experience debugging this stuff it's hard to figure out what does what. I need to wait to get that proper soldering station and then just redo all the joints once again.

Alternatively, you might consider posting those pictures. I've witnessed a lot of issues resolved through visual inspection -CDB.

 

[Feral Feline]

+1 to pics.




The assembling and disassembling process is often less time consuming than fault finding, generally.

Building hotrods is a lot of that process. Gotta make sure things fit and work and are safe before "slapping on" the final coat of paint... Assembling and disassembling is more of a required sub-process of the overall process.

This post is more of a reminder to myself ... practice what I preach and all that...

 

[laxu]

Sorry for not providing pics before, I wanted to see if I could get it running reflowing all solder joints with a proper soldering station. I ended up redoing a lot of them as I was not happy with my previous work at all.

Now both my pedals work! No noise issues, switches and pots all work and I think they sound how I expect (never tried the real deal).

The only issue I am now having is that the Pro-10 Green LED does not light up at all. Before when I was testing the pedal I did manage to get it to dimly light up so either it's another dead solder joint, I have somehow managed to install it the wrong way around or it's faulty. If I look at it with a magnifier the LED soldering itself looks fine but can't tell of any others. I can tell I have some resistors that have too much solder so those I will clean up.

I guess the obvious places to check would be the cable joints marked "SW" from 3PDT breakout board to the main PCB as well as the LED solder joints? Which resistors should I check to see if they are the issue if there is one controlling LED brightness?

Pic attached, will add pic of the backside when I get this disassembled tomorrow.

 

[laxu]

I cleaned up some of my joints and tried to resolder some of the legs on the switch but alas no luck. Pro-10 Green works great but LED does not light up.

I can get it to light up if I hook up the 9V then use my DMM to probe from 3PDT central leg to SW connection. So the LED itself works, just the connection when the pedal is on does not. My guess would be that it's something to do with the switch but not quite sure what.

I tried reflowing R100 as on the Nobleman overdrive (Nobels ODR-1) that this pedal is based on, the schematic shows that is part of the LED circuit but that did not help either. Correct 4.7K value resistor in there too.

Any advice on what I should try to do next?

 

[laxu]

Ok so I finally had time again to work on this and I got the Pro-10 Green finally working. I had to swap the whole damn switch to do it because no matter what, the tab for the LED would not get connected correctly.

I am also so done with the PedalPCB 3PDT breakout boards. They are way more hassle than just wiring a switch manually if it doesn't go according to plan on the first try. The holes for the wires to the board are just annoyingly small and getting the 3PDT switch soldered so it works is another problem where it's hard to tell if it makes good contact or not.

In case someone finds this, some tips:

• Get a proper soldering station. It just makes things a lot easier, especially with lead-free solder.
• Have a desoldering pump and braid on hand. You will most likely need them.
• Get a magnifier. It helps a lot for checking your solder joints.
• The 3PDT breakout board is wired like the pedal instructions show but other than checking for continuity there is no way to ascertain this because there's no schematic or diagram for this on the site.
• If you have sockets for the JFET/BJT transistors, be careful you don't let too much solder flow through holes. I had a helluva time removing one of those and had to install the transistor directly to the PCB instead.
• Doublecheck the soldering of every resistor before you proceed to larger components. Then doublecheck the soldering on those. Saves you a lot of time before you have pots in place that block some of them.
• Digital multimeter's continuity and whatever above 9V setting you have are your friends. Continuity for testing the switch, voltage setting for checking that your components are getting voltage thru.
• For the Pro-10 Green if you need to you can follow the schematic for the Nobels ODR-1 for the most part. I hope they add the Pro-10 schematics to the build docs...
• Install every wire that goes to the PCB on that side first. It's way easier to connect them to jacks and switch than the other way around. Twist and tin them first to make them easy to instert, the holes for them are pretty tiny.
• Switch wires can be quite short except for the ones that go to the input and output jack.
• The PCB is very sturdy. I probably really abused it trying to get this all working but in the end it works just fine.