Twill Deluxe LEDs Not Lighting Up And...

[joelorigo]

Just finished the Tweed Twill Deluxe and it is working but neither of the LED lights are lighting up. And I'm not sure if the 2nd switch is doing anything. Looking at a video of the Les Lies the 2nd channel is subtle but with the LED not coming on I'm not convinced stepping on the switch is doing anything.

 

[joelorigo]

Here's a photo of the top & bottom. See anything amiss?

 

[music6000]

Using the numbering below, which I think is correct, do you mean 4 and 6?? The answer is no.
View attachment 4048

remove Wire from Number 1 Footswitch Pad, you should get no Boost but LED WILL remain On
Without touching Footswitch, Put wire from Pad 1 Footswitch to Pad 3, if you get Boost, Your Footswitch is a Dud

 

[joelorigo]

remove Wire from Number 1 Footswitch Pad, you should get no Boost but LED WILL remain On
Without touching Footswitch, Put wire from Pad 1 Footswitch to Pad 3, if you get Boost, Your Footswitch is a Dud

This is exactly what's happening

 

[music6000]

This is exactly what's happening

Put Pad 1 wire on 4 & Pad 2 wire on 5 & see what happens, Seems like middle switching is OK

 

[music6000]

This one you looked at has PCB pins, you don't want that one!

You want this one

CIC Blue 3PDT

New England's source for guitar pedals, pedal parts and electronics.

smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com

 

[bengarland]

I have two points which are not exactly specific to this problem, but may help:

1) To remember LED orientation I came up with a mnemonic: Kathy is short and fat, so she has a negative personality.

Kathy = cathode (K), short = short leg, negative polarity. Fat = when you look at the LED up close, the big piece inside is also the negative side.

2) I once had a problem when the LED stayed on, even though the switch was otherwise working fine and the pedal sounded great. Knowing that it would be extremely odd for just that one particular part of the switch to fail, and not seeing any other possibility for how the LED could stay on, I took the wild guess of looking at my connections on the switch. It turned out that there was a small line of solder on the underside of the switch PCB (the little part about 1" square that helps make wiring easier at the switch) connecting the middle and top-middle posts which control the LED. It must have spattered when I was soldering the board to the switch.

Took me a while to figure that one out. And honestly, it probably happened because it was one of the older style switch PCBs with the huge holes, instead of the new ones that have the tighter slots. I ended up scraping it off with a tiny tweezer that fit between the board and the switch. In the future, I'll be sure to lift to board away from the switch a little bit before I solder it so that I can more easily take a peek at the underside and make sure it looks clean on both sides.

It just goes to show you that sometimes you do everything just right and there's still some weird "once in a million" thing that seems completely implausible that's the actual solution.

 

[joelorigo]

I have two points which are not exactly specific to this problem, but may help:

1) To remember LED orientation I came up with a mnemonic: Kathy is short and fat, so she has a negative personality.

Kathy = cathode (K), short = short leg, negative polarity. Fat = when you look at the LED up close, the big piece inside is also the negative side.

2) I once had a problem when the LED stayed on, even though the switch was otherwise working fine and the pedal sounded great. Knowing that it would be extremely odd for just that one particular part of the switch to fail, and not seeing any other possibility for how the LED could stay on, I took the wild guess of looking at my connections on the switch. It turned out that there was a small line of solder on the underside of the switch PCB (the little part about 1" square that helps make wiring easier at the switch) connecting the middle and top-middle posts which control the LED. It must have spattered when I was soldering the board to the switch.

Took me a while to figure that one out. And honestly, it probably happened because it was one of the older style switch PCBs with the huge holes, instead of the new ones that have the tighter slots. I ended up scraping it off with a tiny tweezer that fit between the board and the switch. In the future, I'll be sure to lift to board away from the switch a little bit before I solder it so that I can more easily take a peek at the underside and make sure it looks clean on both sides.

It just goes to show you that sometimes you do everything just right and there's still some weird "once in a million" thing that seems completely implausible that's the actual solution.

Thanks, that's a good way to remember the A & K

And for the "once in a million" perspective

 

[joelorigo]

Put Pad 1 wire on 4 & Pad 2 wire on 5 & see what happens, Seems like middle switching is OK

Connecting it likes this makes it work like it is supposed to. That's nice!

The one thing is that the LED sometimes stays on. Pressing the foot switch slightly, without getting to the "click," can make it go on or off. So it does seem like a funny switch, no?

 

[music6000]

Connecting it likes this makes it work like it is supposed to. That's nice!

The one thing is that the LED sometimes stays on. Pressing the foot switch slightly, without getting to the "click," can make it go on or off. So it does seem like a funny switch, no?

The Switch Is Dicked!!!

 

[joelorigo]

Ok. I might have another one to replace it. But I put in an order to small bear today that had some of the CIC Blue ones so either way I'll replace it. Hopefully this will be the end of this thread. Thanks everyone!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

1) To remember LED orientation I came up with a mnemonic: Kathy is short and fat, so she has a negative personality.

I can see why Kathy dumped you.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Ok. I might have another one to replace it. But I put in an order to small bear today that had some of the CIC Blue ones so either way I'll replace it. Hopefully this will be the end of this thread. Thanks everyone!

Wait, what? Small Bear's back open! YAY!!!

 

[phi1]

Wait, what? Small Bear's back open! YAY!!!

I didn’t realize either... and they got some slick new translucent enclosure colors!

 

[joelorigo]

They are only open again until tomorrow night.

 

[bengarland]

One more hint, which strangely enough is from yesterday:

I had a switch that wasn't working correctly. It would engage and the LED would turn on, but sometimes I'd get no sound. I noticed if I depressed the switch just a little bit (before the "click" action) and wiggled it, it would often fully activate and I'd get sound. Or if I stomped on it really hard I'd get sound almost every time.

So I decided to pop it open in-place by prying the 4 clips on the side and taking off the top, which was a LOT easier than disconnecting everything and wiring up a new switch. I then removed the 3 thin metal plates at the bottom, and bent each one a tiny bit from the center... maybe just a tad less than 1mm. The idea is that the bend makes the plates sit closer to the contacts on the bottom of the switch and gives a more secure connection when the switch pushes down on them. I put the plates back in, bent side down, and reassembled the switch.

Works perfectly now. Don't be afraid to take that switch apart. If I can do it anybody can There's not much to them and aside from a part actually being broken in half or worn out from years of use, it looks like there's not a lot that can go wrong otherwise.

 

[music6000]

It shouldn't bend in the First place, I've used well over 100 CIC Blue Footswitch's with Solder Lug & ROHS stamp, never had a failure yet!
Small Bear sells them!

 

[joelorigo]

One more hint, which strangely enough is from yesterday:

I had a switch that wasn't working correctly. It would engage and the LED would turn on, but sometimes I'd get no sound. I noticed if I depressed the switch just a little bit (before the "click" action) and wiggled it, it would often fully activate and I'd get sound. Or if I stomped on it really hard I'd get sound almost every time.

So I decided to pop it open in-place by prying the 4 clips on the side and taking off the top, which was a LOT easier than disconnecting everything and wiring up a new switch. I then removed the 3 thin metal plates at the bottom, and bent each one a tiny bit from the center... maybe just a tad less than 1mm. The idea is that the bend makes the plates sit closer to the contacts on the bottom of the switch and gives a more secure connection when the switch pushes down on them. I put the plates back in, bent side down, and reassembled the switch.

Works perfectly now. Don't be afraid to take that switch apart. If I can do it anybody can There's not much to them and aside from a part actually being broken in half or worn out from years of use, it looks like there's not a lot that can go wrong otherwise.

Oh that sounds like fun. I'll try it!

 

[joelorigo]

Update:

Replaced the foot switch with a new one. Pedal works perfectly.

Took apart the buggy foot switch and found that one of the 3 plates was not sitting flat on the bottom, it was on its side against the wall.

Thanks everyone for the help. How do I make it "solved?"