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PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 11:14 pm 
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Hey everyone. So First off, Ive never built a pedal before and I didnt build this one. I have some knowledge of electronics, but mainly just circuit bending, basic HAM radio and automotive stuff. SO my bandmate let me hold onto His faulty Germanium boost pedal that He got here. Its not working and Id like to figure out why. Heres what I know:

-I can play my guitar through it bypassed, but it has some hissing when I do so
-Switch the pedal on and the hissing goes away and theres no sound AT ALL
-As you can see from the pictures it looks like the cables arent seating exactly how they should when plugged into both the input and output
-The LED He installed still had some long leads sticking out of the circuit board but I trimmed those
-Theres a silver capacitor or something with 3 leads going into the board, its sitting very close to the aluminum panel on the bottom of the pedal
-It doesnt seem to matter if I running it off a fresh 9v or a Boss 9v power supply, Ive been told its important to only use a Boss 9v.

So I really dont know where to start here. The ends of some of the wires where theyve been soldered look very thin and a bit..."crispy". Any help would be great. Maybe some troubleshooting procedures I could try? Thank you in advance. On to the pics!

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PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 11:21 pm 
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Also I apologize for beating a dead horse on this one. I found a couple other threads with the same pedal but didnt really get a clear answer or solution. Thanks!


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:27 am 
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From one of the pictures, it looks like there is a wire touching the center lug on the foots witch that might be shorting something out.

Also, from looking at the solder joints, it looks like your solder iron is too hot, and causing the wire insulation to melt. If the solder iron has no temperature control, you could get a variac for it to turn down the voltage it runs on, or get a soldering sponge, keep it nice and wet with water, and cool the tip with it each time before you heat a solder joint. When you do heat a joint, get in and out fast enough the iron doesn't heat up too much again. A little experimentation should show how much wetting with the sponge will give you the right temperature.

In other cases, it looks like you didn't heat the joints enough to get the solder to flow properly. It would probably help to do some practice soldering before taking chances with something that costs money if there are solder problems. Also, it can help to plan out how to attack soldering something. Like looking for a good angle to place the tip so it heats the joint without touching any wire insulation or anything else that might be good to avoid overheating.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:30 am 
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Again, I did not build this pedal. Its my bandmates. He let me hold onto it knowing that it doesnt work for me to use if I am able to repair it. I had nothing to do with the soldering, what iron He used etc but I know He has a pretty nice soldering station with a variable temp iron because Hes been letting me borrow that for a while also lol. So back to my original question, are you saying you think its the soldering that is causing this pedal to not work? r are you saying because of how its been soldered that itll need to be all done over again before I can start looking for other possible causes for it not to work? Im not showing this thing off or trying to get opinions on how well people think I did building it, because I never touched a single soldering tip to it. I had nothing to do with this pedal until now. Ive never built a pedal before and I have to try and troubleshoot and diagnose this one. Thanks for responding.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:59 am 
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Okay, understood. It still looks like there is a wire touching where it shouldn't be on the foot switch, from the way it looks in the picture. Maybe not though.

Regarding soldering, it is a very common source of problems with home built pedals. Definitely worth to examine all the connections visually and resolder any that look suspicious. Also, often a good idea to visually check all the parts have been installed correctly. Many problems are found that way.

Once that's done, if still problems, then using other techniques would be the next step.

A simple check of the transistor could be done with a multi-meter, for example, if one is available.

Test signals can be injected while the circuit is observed. BYOC makes a little signal tracer probe for cheap that can be helpful. Also, a computer sound card can be used like a limited function oscilloscope to see what's going on.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:27 pm 
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+1 on suspecting a solder joint problem, because the quality of the soldering on that build is very poor. Solder issues are BY FAR the biggest cause of build problems that we see here.

It would be helpful to see the back side of the PCB, since that is where the components are soldered. If you remove the mounting nuts for the pots, I/O jacks and footswitch, you should be able to lift out the board without needing to unsolder the DC adapter jack--at least far enough to get photos of the back of the board.

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


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:39 pm 
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Yeah sorry about that guys. After my post I read that I should have taken pics of that too. BUt I DID GET IT WORKING! It ended up being that the silver transistor was plugged in the wrong way. It at some point had fallen out during a move. So I tried it in different positions and the last one got it working again. I marked it with an ultra fine point sharpie marker for the orientation. Im sure the soldering needs to be redone and the volume pot is super scratchy also. Ill try to score a bottle of computer dust off and blow it out, see if that helps.

Thank you all for your input. Thi shas definitely been an easy learning experience for me. Especially since this pedal was the one I was looking at buying as my first pedal. So even though it was the transistor do yall think I should do anything in particular anywhere else? Check continuity or resolder some stuff? I also didnt trim the transistor leads or bend the transistor down. Its not my pedal and I would feel like crap if I broke something on something that wasnt mine. I cant even afford replacement parts for it right now. Like, I dont have $2 to order a new transistor if it breaks so I dont wanna it. Thank you all again though. When my bandmate saw my first thread He told me yall were like the Jedi Knights of this stuff so I really appreciate yall taking the time and getting schooled by the experts here.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 1:07 pm 
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Jackstand Johnny wrote:
So even though it was the transistor do yall think I should do anything in particular anywhere else? Check continuity or resolder some stuff? I also didnt trim the transistor leads or bend the transistor down. Its not my pedal and I would feel like crap if I broke something on something that wasnt mine.

I'd recommend just running the pedal for awhile and see how it performs. If it doesn't cut out or otherwise act up, I'd leave well enough alone. Even crappy solder jobs will often work fine in spite of how they look.

Is the transistor now firmly in place and will the back cover fit on the pedal without interfering with the tranny? If so, I'd leave that as is, as well.

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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


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 1:33 pm 
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Yeah it looks like the trans will just clear the cover. Thanks Ill keep an eye on it.


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