Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi all,

First time build and first time posting, might've bitten off more than I can chew. Assembled the kit per instructions and tested.
Passes signal and powers LEDs, but the boost channel kind of works (the pot actually works backwards, not sure how to fix this)
and the drive channel does not work at all. I read the FAQ and reflowed all solder joints.
I know some parts are pretty bad because this is my first build but any tips/ advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Lot of solder joints could be reflowed and solder could be added to some. The solder joints should look like little silver Hershey kisses.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Pedal building is like the opposite of sex. All the fun stuff happens before you get in the box.

Not sure which FAQ you are referring to, but I would suggest working through the process described in THIS ONE--not only the part about re-flowing solder joints, but also inspecting carefully for other potential problems. In particular, you have quite a few long component leads sticking up from the PCB. These can cause signal or power shorts and should be trimmed down to the top of the joint.

Also, could you please post a photo of the top (component side) of the board with better lighting? I think I see some resistor placement errors, but I can't be sure of the code band colors because of the darkness of the photo. I'd also like to confirm that the ICs are in their correct positions.

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

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

Finally getting back to this project due to quarantine.

I reflowed all solder joints, re-did all switch connections, and cut some loose ends.

Good news: boost side works great!

Bad news: Gain side does not. I get noise when on but most of it is just strange oscillation.

I have attached hopefully better pictures for reference.

Any help is appreciated thank you !

I'm still seeing a lot of rough looking soldering. To be blunt, the wire connections from the footswitch at the PCB look awful. I would redo all of those. You need to remove the current wires, do a thorough clean-up of those eyelets and the area around and between them, and then reconnect the wires with proper preparation and soldering. Please refer to the posts below and use the techniques discussed there. Additionally, there are other joints that look rough, blobby or not completely covering the solder pads. Some of the pot lugs connections are among the worst of these. I've also posted the "gut shot" from the SPII instructions (pg. 4) to illustrate what you should be shooting for. Maybe you don't have the skill level/experience to achieve that quality level yet, but I'm sure that you can do better than what I see in the photos.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52211

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6401

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

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

I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here but it also looks like a lot of the components are misplaced I attached what appears to be wrong. *duvoodooman in an above post brought up the misplaced components
I also included one for reference that I completed a couple of months ago. I know from doing it that the 47k and 4k7 can be confusing but you just have to use a strong light or better yet a voltmeter.

It's hard to tell the colors but I did my best to help. I hope it helps you.

Carlinb17 is absolutely right--the build has multiple resistors errors. I count 12 of them. I was so busy looking at the soldering that I didn't run through the resistors, so my bad! The good news (if you can call it that) is that they are all "swaps", i.e. all the right resistors are present, they are just swapped with other resistors. The bad news is that some of the errors are pretty major--the worst being the 1.8K resistor is switched with a 1M, so the two are both off spec by a factor of over 500. I've marked all the resistor placement errors on the PCB diagram below and labeled them with the value of the wrong resistor that's currently in that spot.

That capacitor he marked is also wrong--that's a 47pf ceramic that should be a 47uf electrolytic, off by a factor of a million. That one isn't a swap--there are only 8 electrolytics present and there should be 9--so I'm wondering if that was a wrong component in the kit. In any case, that needs to be fixed, too.

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

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

Thank you both for the suggestions/ corrections. I am totally fine with bluntness and greatly appreciate it

I will fix all these and we will see what happens.

Thanks again !

Just for future reference....we strongly recommend that novice builders individually measure each resistor with a multimeter to avoid problems like these. The color coded banding can be both difficult to see clearly and to interpret when you're new at this. There are some tips for that here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=54455

BTW, assuming that you want to re-use those same resistors, you'll need to remove them from the PCB carefully to avoid damaging them. The good news is that resistors are among the easiest of components to remove. I generally just heat the solder joint on one side of the resistor and use the blade of a very small screwdriver to pry that end up until it pops loose. Just don't force it--that's how PCB eyelets get damaged! As long as you have solder poking through the eyelet on the component side, you can usually melt the joint from that side without needing to heat it from the back of the PCB. Once the first side is free, just grip the resistor body and heat the other joint to pop it free from the board. Once you've removed all the wrong resistors, clean up the stubs of their leads with your iron to remove any blobs of solder still on them, and bend the leads back to shape to fit into the PCB. You'll also need to clean up residual solder in and around the eyelets so that the resistors can be re-inserted. This is best done with the combination of a solder sucker and good quality desoldering braid. These are essential tools if you plan to be doing any further DIY electronics work. Links:

https://www.amazon.com/WEmake-WM-SP4-So ... 0002KRAAG/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008O9VLA2/

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

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

Thanks again for the tips, I have a lot of those tools so I will make use of them, removing all switch leads, and pots and just starting from scratch in that regard. Treating this whole thing as a learning experience.

Making progress slowly but surely, I have the majority of the resistors swapped, with the exception of the 2K. during removal one of the leads broke off too close to allow reconnection. I looked around at my parts and I have a 2.2K resistor. Would this be acceptable to use or should I just order and wait for a 2K (sorry if this is a dumb question).

Thanks again for all your help!

I would try the 2.2K. A 10% difference is very often insignificant in the context of the full circuit. And you can always replace it later if you're not happy with it.

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

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

Alright. more progress! thanks to everyone again who has helped with this.

Right now Id say we are 90 percent there. Redid all the switches and pots and swapped and measured all the resistors.

Its not pretty or good by any stretch of the imagination but I think it's better than it was.

Boost side works great and gain side volume and tone control works great as well. The issue is the gain control. When it's all the way down and you're only hearing clean signal it's fine but the farther you turn it clockwise, the sound becomes muffled and no gain is added, this is regardless of the position of the gain switch. The pot is a new B100K DG that I purchased just to make sure I eliminated that possibility of a bad pot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as always, pictures are attached, please let me know you need any with more light.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

The drive pot is a wet/dry blend. It sounds like the clean side of the circuit is okay, but there is a problem with the "wet" distortion side. It's not likely a problem with the pot as it seems to be tapering the clean signal. You've likely got a bad solder joint somewhere in the wet signal path somewhere between C2 and R48

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

For your reference, here's the schematic for the Silver Pony II:

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

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

I meant the R8/47k resistor.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Thanks for the tips again both of you, I reflowed every point on the board twice and still no joy.

I'm wondering if there could potentially be a broken component somewhere in the circuit (i assume a capacitor as i tested all resistors after they were installed. What would be the most efficient way of narrowing down a problem area/component in your opinions?

Thanks

First let's see your voltages. Readings for both of the op amps please. Here's a video on how to do that if you're not familiar. https://youtu.be/XRFtlUn4eBg

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

That was a very helpful video, great for a guy just getting into this stuff.

The 3 OP Amps from Left to right measured as follows

OP AMP 1
P1: 4.5v
P2: 4.5v
P3: 3.6v
P4: 0
P5: 9.18v
P6: 4.592v
P7: 4.592v
P8: 4.587v

OP AMP 2
P1: 4.594v
P2: 4.593v
P3: 4.587v
P4: -8.21v
P5: 4.587v
P6: 4.593v
P7: 4.592v
P8: 15.94v

OP AMP 3
P1: 4.597v
P2: 4.593v
P3: 4.587v
P4: -8.21v
P5: 4.587v
P6: 4.589v
P7: 4.589v
P8: 15.94v

Those voltages look good. So that would make me think you've got a break in the wet signal path somewhere. A couple questions to make sure I fully understand what your pedal is doing:

1. When you have the drive knob full turn counter clockwise, do you get a nice strong, clean signal?
2. If so, when you turn the drive knob clockwise, does it act more like a volume knob that turns down the volume on the clean signal?
3. Is there any output at all with the drive knob full turn clockwise?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

Well that is good!

1. When you have the drive knob full turn counter clockwise, do you get a nice strong, clean signal?

Yes, working great

2. If so, when you turn the drive knob clockwise, does it act more like a volume knob that turns down the volume on the clean signal?

Yes, more or less, as the knob turns clockwise, the tone becomes muddy and has less output

3. Is there any output at all with the drive knob full turn clockwise?

With two of the three diode switch positions, there is none, with the third, it is very very faint.

Since we're looking at signal path, I noticed that in your old images some of the soldered connections with wire appeared to be only a few of the internal wire strands connected, some appeared to have been cut or frayed. Can you post additional images of them and or check them. I know from my experience that if you don't have enough making a solid connection it can cause issues.

Could we have a fresh set of photos since you made the repairs? Both sides of the PCB and all of the switch and jack wiring connections included, please.

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

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

On quick glance there are still some solder issues most obviously is a jump on one of the chips. Take a look at the picture.

Here are the most up to date pics

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... ORzlrqBUok

Not a problem--that's pin 1 and 2 of the first op amp, and those are already connected with a board trace. Take a look at the schematic and you'll see what I mean.

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

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