Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Main issue: No dry signal, no LED, no wet signal

Hello, relative newbie here. I believe to have taken the initial mitigations recommended on this board for troubleshooting errors (reflowing all joints/checking for cold solders/shorts), and have been tracing the circuit and checking for continuity along the circuit. I'm currently just trying to get the dry signal figured out. So here's the thing: I've confirmed continuity between the terminals labeled IN and OUT on the PCB, and when I pull the cable going to the INPUT in/out, I hear crackling, but no guitar sound! The output (dry) also has a signal. Can anyone tell me what's going on here?

Thank you in advance.
edit: pics https://imgur.com/a/tbqgerh

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If practice makes perfect, and nobody is perfect, then why practice?

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Is that your way of telling me I should have gone ahead and posted pictures anyway?
I am using a 9v power supply.

Photos can be very useful for troubleshooting for a variety of reasons, so please post them. They need to be LARGE, well-lit, well-focused shots of BOTH sides of the PCB and all of the switch and jack wiring.

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

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

pic link added to original post.

Looks to me like you have the tip and ring wire connections on the input jack switched. Fix that and see where you're at. Some of your soldering looks pretty suspect, particularly the footswitch, but fixing the input jack wiring may get you rolling.

For future builds, here's some advice on wiring up the stomp switch: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=33293

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

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

That did it- thank goodness. Much appreciated. Still no wet signal but I'll keep working.

Unfortunately that's about as best I could get the switch after quite some time. I think it's functional atm but may revisit it later. Thanks for the link.

Just noticed that your op amp is in backwards, too. Switch it around, but don't be too surprised if it still doesn't work--running them backwards very often burns them out.

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

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

My bad, wasn't trying to be a smart ass with the short post, too busy to sit down to type, but wanted to move your thread forward. Photos are awesome, details are great. cotton or wool socks, let us know. more info=faster resolution.

If your op-amp is toast, they are super cheap and fairly easy to get. Let us know if you have trouble getting one. I don't want to give false hope, but I've recovered a backwards one before.

_________________
If practice makes perfect, and nobody is perfect, then why practice?

It hurts me to say this.. but.. follow me on facebook and.. instagram

Did I insert it backward? I'm not sure if I knew there was a correct orientation for the chip. I actually re-ordered this kit after giving up on my first try, so I took the op amp from that one and now I get hiss when the pedal is engaged.

Update: Pedal is now working. There is still some hiss at when the volume is turned up on the pedal but I'm not sure how much is to be expected.

Hard to say if it's a normal amount of noise or not. The BD-2 is actually very high gain for being an "overdrive", so it's normally pretty noisy when you dime everything.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

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

It's also pretty common to pick up noise from a DC power supply, if it's one of the cheaper ones. Try running the pedal from a battery and see if the noise goes away.

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

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

Will do. I broke both of my 9V connectors (whoops) so I'll have to get some when I order another kit. Yeah I figured the noise was due to it having a lot of gain and it's only when gain/vol is at the upper end.

I think my main problem with the wet signal was that I didn't reflow the solders under the gain pot out of laziness (only later did I remember that I didn't reflow those). I used a 25 watt Weller iron that came with a wide tip and that was my main problem the first time I tried this kit. The second time I used a sharper tip which helped, but I've since purchased a nicer iron with variable heat and a sponge, also ordered that gold stuff for tip cleaning as I realized the importance of keeping the tip clean.

Again thanks for all the help! Cheers