SOLVED Semi-working Parentheses

Grubb

Well-known member
I've been testing a Parentheses I've nearly completed tonight, but there are a few issues.

Distortion works. Sounds cool.
Octave changes the sound, but seems a bit glitchy. I don't know if it's just supposed to be gnarly like that, there's no clear or obvious octave but it gives a definite character change.
Boost kills the pedal dead, zero output.

No LED footswitches light up, I'm wondering if I've connected them in reverse or something? Or damaged them, or done a crap job of connecting the two leads to the solder pads via wires.

This was my first go at wiring up footswitches without a breakout board, did I get something wrong there?

Cheers brains trust.

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I've seen this board in TS more than any other I believe. Why that would cause me to to want to build one is beyond me.

Doest thou posses yon audio probe?

Boost switch kills...that's the clue.
 
I just remembered. I recall reading something about the LED polarity being especially critical in this circuit. (I have a pedal I know has the LED BW but it doesn't effect the sound so I left it).

I searched but alas. Perhaps a better memory, superior life-form can assist?
 
Anecdotal, but my last ( ) build was my third, and the only one that gave me issues. Boost killed the signal entirely. Through the course of my troubleshooting, it turned out that (1) I had fake PF5102's and (2) done a crappy job with my off-board wiring.

Oh yeah... Dummy check: did you turn up the Boost pot? if it's fully CCW, it will kill the signal once the Boost footswitch is engaged.
 
Back in the day the BS170 was one of those strange one's that had different pinouts depending on manufacturer

I don't know if that's still the case but easy enough to flip it 180 degrees

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Back in the day the BS170 was one of those strange one's that had different pinouts depending on manufacturer
I have the ON Semi from Tayda, I'm thinking from the schematic and PCB layout that it's probably in correctly as is, but it won't hurt to try flipping it.

I'm going to pull the board out, check the FS wiring for Boost and work out why my LED switches aren't lighting up when I get home from work.
 
Fixed. There was a loose connection on the Boost footswitch affecting the output.

The LEDs were wired in reverse, I'd checked and re-checked the polarity of the LED footswitch pins but failed to realise that the diagram was showing the switch in normal orientation when it's actually upside down when wiring into the enclosure 😜

Sounds mean! Not sure I'll use the octave setting much but distortion + boost was giving me some aggressive sounds with my 7 string Chapman guitar. It definitely dooms!
 
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