Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Update: I suspect I had some weak solder joints that broke loose due to the pressure of putting on the back of the enclosure. I reflowed solder and made the wiring as short as I could so I can have plenty of room for the PCB to rest nicely in the enclosure without any resistance from the wiring. Seems to work fine now. If it craps out again, I'll assume the same thing happened and likely fix it again by reflowing new solder.

I had this little guy working and jammed with it for an hour. The next day, the signal was choppy for a minute before cutting out completely and now it seems totally dead. I reflowed solder, redid the wiring, tested continuity with a multimeter (everything seemed to check out), cleaned the board with 99% IPA, and it still won't work. You can find pictures of my build from various angles here: https://imgur.com/a/yv4fzkL (PCB looks a little grimy in some photos - same results after cleaning that grime)

It works in bypass, the LED comes on when engaged, and adjusting the trim pot does nothing. On a rare occasion, I'll get a brief signal while testing, but I can't replicate anything. I've been testing it out of the enclosure so I can be sure that none of the wires are shorting.

I also tested voltages on the IC with a multimeter and got the following values:

1: 1.3 mV
2: 4.27 V
3: 4.27 V
4: 0
5: 150 mV
6: 2.76 V
7: 9.43 V
8: 3-6 mV (started around 6 mV, then slowly trickled to around 3 mV before my shaky hands couldn't keep it on the pin)

What else can I test?

I would take this to mean you've got a cold solder joint somewhere. Maybe one of the caps are broken internally. Sometimes the guts can get squished too hard when you screw the lid down.

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Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

I'll be damned... I really didn't want you to be right because I thought I had already done a good enough job the first time I reflowed solder. Then I did another once over and it seems to be okay now. I still want to test it some more before I call this resolved because it seemed to be working consistently before it crapped out on me last time. Thanks for the help!

And it happened again. I had it working, put it in the enclosure, then it worked for a bit before cutting out. I reflowed solder and it still won't come up. Next, I'm going to remove solder before resoldering.

This is the smallest pedal and the biggest hassle I've had across the five pedals I've built.

A solder joint problem remains the most likely cause of the behavior that you are experiencing. I wouldn't expect a bad component to show this come & go behavior.

Try removing the rear cover and re-testing the pedal; if the output returns, the cover plate may be shorting against something on the PCB. In that case, insulate the inside of the cover with electrical tape.

If the problem isn't affected by that, I'd suggest removing the "guts" from the enclosure and testing it that way. While running signal into the pedal, try wiggling each wire connection between the PCB and the pots and jacks, as these are the most likely culprits.

It may be helpful for you to review this post re: keeping the wire connections short and out of the way in these mini pedals where space is at such a premium: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52513

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Thanks! I thought I had already updated the original post to say it's fixed, though I guess it's also good to update my most recent post, as well. In my case, I never located the weak links, but my last round of reflowing and rewiring helped a great deal. It's kind of funny that I thought this pedal would be the easiest but I have to say that I wasn't prepared to work with such a small enclosure.

Anyway, it's all good now. I appreciate the extra resource on wiring. I ended up at a similar point through trial and error, so this has been another good reminder that there's always more homework to do.