Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi guys,

I've recently made my first kit and it worked well for a short while but was cutting out when I touched the drive pot (without a plastic knob). Opened it up and the drive knob hadn't soldered fully to the PCB and came loose. I resoldered it in my place of work using a much hotter solder iron that singed the PCB. I managed to solder the pot back in despite the burn and carried on using the pedal with success for a few hours. However there was a "pop" sound whenever I touched a metal part of the pedal or guitar etc.

I opened up the pedal to try and resolder the pot and in the process disconnected the pot from the burnt part. Solder just floats in the hole of the PCB now and there is no sound. I'm not entirely sure that this burn is the source of the problem and I've scraped as much burnt flux away as I can but it seems to be the prime suspect. Solder just doesn't stick to any part of the eyelet.

Prior to the resolder the pedal worked fine, after the resolder it worked ever so slightly and very crappy signal before cutting out completely.

Bypass currently works cleanly.
LED comes on.
Using a 9v battery.

When the pedal is on there is currently no sound. But I have realised the grounding hum is present without the pedal in the chain, so all this was unneccesary. Oops.

Any help would be fantastic!


Front of PCB


Back of PCB (Hard to get everything in, I can add more photo's if needed)





Burnt pot lug (Left lug) Component Side

All photo's are here:
https://imgur.com/a/Fy7B8

If anyone knows how to upload pictures successfully that would be a big help, thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I edited your post to get the pics to display. You just needed to add ".jpg" at the end of the photo links.

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

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

Thank you man, that’s kind of you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No problem.

To make sure I understand....are you saying that the left-most leg of the drive pot in your last two photos is not physically connected to its eyelet on the PCB?

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

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

That’s how it seems to me. There is a ball of solder either side of the eyelet holding it in place but I think either I’ve ruined the connection or burnt flux around the eyelet which could be somehow blocking the connection.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

OK, it sounds like you probably lifted the solder pad from the PCB on that eyelet. But it sounds worse than it is, because (assuming this is the only problem) it's an easy fix. Do this:

Solder a short jumper wire between that pot leg and the right-side leg of the 4.7 Kohm resistor immediately beneath it. See marked up image below. That's where the trace on the PCB connected the damaged eyelet. So you're just replacing the trace with an actual wire. And use a proper soldering iron for the job. Sounds to me like the one that you used for your ill-fated repair was probably too high in wattage.

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

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

That’s great, I’ll give that a try when I get home. Thanks for your help.

Yeah the other iron was a variable wattage that I didn’t check until the smoke cleared. I’m a fool.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, just a "noob." And we all start out that way!

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

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

The jumper worked a charm, thanks once again.

Not the neatest work but it’s a start [EYES]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glad to hear that worked for you.

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

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