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Ah fair enough, probably for the best, wanna get those sorta things first time or else it ends up expensive, but looks sweeet. A fan of muse i see.

and jack white! if you look at my design, and then jack white's airline, matt bellamy's m1d1, and a peavey rotor ex, you can pretty much see where my design exactly came from. lol

hmmm.... just thinking about the finish on the box. how about putting the text in irish? lol


láine = Volume
Geata = Gate
comhbhrú = Compression
fuinneamh = Drive
cobhsaíocht = Stability
ionchur = input
aschur = Output
an lasc spraoi = the fun switch

mega grr!!!

i just (somehow) managed to fit it all in the box and i've lost output somewhere along the way. I've checked all my wiring, but i've no output at all, whether i have the pedal off (ie, true bypass) or on. What should i be looking for to fix this?

I usually start off checking nothings grounded on the case itself a stray wire or something, then i know this may sound stupid but i somehow always manage to put the input and output the wrong way round and usually look for ages when its something simple like that. Also check that none of the wires have pulled out slightly but appear to still be in the hole so just push them in a bit to check, also check those jacks and that there connected across the 2 poles on either side for each one.... other than that, can't really think and just have to keep checkin' and fiddling.

Scruffie.

k i'll go check all that. ill take a photo of the mess too lol, cos it's actually funny...

right, so i'm getting closer...

i took a few bits out of the box (the two jacks, and the battery) so it'd be easier to work with and noticed a few things. Firstly, volume 1 was being grounded to the case, and then one of the stab poles, cant remember which, was being grounded to the case. So at those parts, i have tape between the poles and the case.

then i checked all the wiring again, and i now have a strange result....

When in true bypass:
everything is spot on. sounds like true bypass should.

when switched on:
It's as if in true bypass... Volume does control volume, but no matter what way you turn the knobs, you get no change to the signal. at one stage, turning up one of them (cant remember which) eventually led to a kill-switch type scenario.

I know i'm close, and i have a feeling this could be a simple problem to solve. Considering it was working this morning, i think the circuit board is right, but the pots may be wrong...

I'm SO CLOSE!!!!

Well if it was working fine this morning, i don't see whyyy the pots would be wrong but the world of electronics is a world of ish... So nothings left grounding anymore, normally when it gets to this stage i just start putting my finger across connections (not good practice i know but i get impatient) to see if connecting somethings gets the right sound (this has actually solved 2 of my builds issues, but as i said i still don't suggest it) did you try pushing all the pot wires in, just incase you budged something while taking it out to tape the case grounds, also i dunno what tape you used but make sure it hasnt split and regrounded something. The kill switch scenario sounds like its almost working, just without the fuzz sound just the break up, those photos would be useful to help try and spot it otherwise i'm just trying to think of issues i've had that could be completely different to yours.

Scruffie.

Btw the i think i got exactly the same sounding issue when i put the in and out jacks the wrong way round, so check your jacks for wiring problems (not saying you made that exact mistake)

ok i'll go check those now scruffie. back soon...

sigh.....

one pretty vicious burn from a soldering iron later, and i think i've found something. When turned on, when i touch my finger off the hot input, i get a slight hum.

also, bein very much in an determined frame of mind, i'm off to get some toast, and now that i know what way to fit everything into the box, i'm going to completely rewire everything that isn't the circuit when i'm done.......


...... maybe....

Well have you tested it just taken out the box again ? I mean it could still just be something simple, have you checked for any accidently bridged connections i.e. somehow 2 tracks have connected that weren't before cause that would be bad... Rewiring the whole thing would be a pain.. Take it out, look it alll over, get a piece of spare wire if you think a connection might be bad and try and reconnect it with the spare piece, check the switch wiring, tape over everything that might touch the case so on, so on.

Keep trying ! You'll get there in the end,
Scruffie.

yeah i've taken it all out and still nothing... sham.

i don't mind rewiring the pots. it won't take me too long, and i'm going to be up late anyway.

Well somethings either loose, connected to the wrong place or worst case scenario, shorted, which is certainly the worst case as it means you'll spend ages looking for a fault when there is no visible one, but i don't see why it would happen, unless you put the battery on backwards by mistake or something and there'd probably be some sign of this, but fair enough, just have to try rewiring the pots, and jacks etc.

Thanks and keep at it,
Scruffie.

ok seriously, this is wierd.

I've re-wired all the pots, and the jacks, and EVERYTHING's out of the box now. and still no fuzz. That's the wierdest part, not a hint of fuzz...

any ideas? or will i just keep rewiring stuff? (moving onto the switch next...)

Without Pictures i'm stumped, either its somehow shorted out (I don't see why it would) or something strange is going on, or something horribly obvious is going on that you just haven't picked up on, i hate the builds were it just won't work...

Try the switch i suppose but i really dunno.

Sorry and keep goin, don't let it bring you down.
Scruffie.

i tried to take photos, but my camera battery died. Still no luck though. The only clue as to what's going wrong is that when i turn it on, and touch the hot input wire, i get that soft hum.

It's seriously pissing me off, and my soldering iron tip is really botched at the moment, so i'll try again tomorrow with a new soldering tip. I'll take photos first thing in the morning. but if i don't get anywhere after some photos, like if it's nothing obvious, then i'll rewire the switch.

I am actually so fed up, and it's so irritating that i had it working before, desoldered a few wires to fit it in the box, and now, my fuzz is gone. i miss the days of wiring a simple kill switch...

Till i get photos, this is how the pots, switch, jacks and DC is wired (Each part says what they go to, eg, under volume, 1 - ground means pole 1 on volume goes to ground), and anything marked like C1 or C2 is based on the vero layout. incase you get any divine inspirations into my mess up:
VOLUME:
1 - ground
2 - + on C1
3 - 5.1k resistor

GATE:
1 - Gate 2
2 - Ground
3 - 470 resistor

COMP:
1 - Comp 2 AND Drive 3
2 - Comp 1 AND 47k resistor
3 - Drive 1

DRIVE:
1 - Comp 3 AND 10k resistor
2 - -ve on C2
3 - Comp 1

STAB:
1 - Stab 2
2 - Stab 1 AND LED (See Matsumin's layout)
3 - + on C2

INPUT:
GRO - Ground on Output
SWI - DC 3 AND -ve on battery clip
HOT - Switch 3

OUTPUT:
GRO - Ground on Input AND Ground (On Stripboard, which also grounds on switch)
HOT - Switch 6

DC:
1 - LED
2 - + on battery clip
3 - Switched on Input

SWITCH (Order goes, 1 2 3 across top, 4 5 6 across middle, 7 8 9 across bottom)
1 - Swi 2
2 - Swi 1
3 - Swi 8 AND Hot Input
4 - MASTER GROUND (Note, all the grounds from the pots and stripboard come from 1 line on the stripboard to here)
5 - -ve on C3
6 - Hot Output
7 - 2.2k Resistor for LED
8 - Swi 3
9 - -ve on C1

apologies for the long post, till tomorrow, if you get any bright ideas, that'd be great.

Ok i know this is very messy but it's just to reitterate the switch wiring etc to make sure everythings good, i've labelled pretty much everything to try and make it clear so you can check against your layout, hope it helps.

Scruffie.

Just looked over your pot wiring and yes it is wrong im afraid, although i recall you wired yours in reverse, but i still think its wrong (but can't think of it in reverse wiring atm you'll have to reverse what i say i guess)

From the back of the pot going 3,2,1

Gate 2 Goes to the 220k or A6 Line A Hole 6
Gate 3 Goes to Ground

Comp 2&1 Are joined And go to the 10k Resistor A17 & Q2 Emitter
Comp 3 Goes to Drive 1 & then to 47k A11

Drive 3 to Comp 1
Drive 2 to Negative Cap
Drive 1 to Stab 3

Stab 3 To A25 + Cap
Stab 2 & 1 Joined and out to 9V

Think thats all right & the rest i shall check over tommorow.

Scruffie.

well i'm just up now anyway. I'm off to have breakfast and some easter egg

It looks like you went through a lot of trouble there scruffie. I'll try out the second post first, about the pot wiring. Now that i think about it, i have a vague recollection of changing around some of the pot wirings.

I should have all that done in an hour or so and i'll post how i get on.

thanks for the help
tm

ok, so i have good news!

i followed your wiring in the first post (with the image) and double checked it against a schematical layout (cos us architects love those!) and i got the fuzz back. To make doubly sure i get this right, anything that looks like it might ground against the case is now shielded by heavy cotton tape. (or at least i think it's cotton tape. i used to put it on my hockey sticks, and as far as i can remember it was called cotton tape)

anyway, i'm also doubly checking it as i put it in the box. Because i know what order to put everything in to make it all fit, each time i put in something like a knob or a jack, i'm connecting it all up, and making sure i have bypass etc. At one stage, after putting in drive, comp and gate, i got a CRAZY result where no matter what way the dials were, it would ALWAYS be in self oscillation. I made a few funny noises, then realised that something on drive was touching off something on comp i think.....

anyway, i just burnt myself AGAIN, so i'm off to make some tea and have more egg. When i get back, all that's left is the stab pot, the battery, and the stripboard itself, which will be copper side facing the box, so i assume that's going to need a big chunk of cotton tape over it... Still, cotton tape comes off a lot easier than the gloop.

RESULT!