Scott,
Thanks for coming back to me and apologies for the lack of clarity;
1. What do you mean by "popped the dc power"? I inserted a 9v DC negative earth power lead into the DC power input.
2. What do you mean by "connected the negative cables the wrong way around"? I meant the two positive connections from the DC input connector to the board were incorrect. They were wired to the two positive board inputs but the wrong way around as described in this post to common wiring issue -
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=521393. You say you had "no issues" but then also that it makes a lot of noise. What did you mean by no issues? By no issues I meant that the pedal powered up correctly (LED on) when either a battery or cable was use to power the pedal. Audio passed through the pedal and was amplified as the volume knob was increased. This pedal is completely silent with the volume knob fully off and amplifies as it is increased. The audio signal is however accompanied by a significant amount of noise (cracking/popping etc)
4. What do you mean by "stripped it back down to just the board"? I disassembled the pedal back to a populated circuit board (components left in place) and the checked/re-flowed the component joints. I then rebuilt the pedal connecting up the in/out jacks, switch, DC power input socket as per the instructions.
I will try and get some photos up shortly.
Regards,
Simon