@playsforfun
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Congratulations Barry and family!! What a huge anniversary. It’s been such an honor to be part of the extended GPCB family for more than half of that. I’ve learned a ton from here, and from that have been able to give a little back through support at times. It’s been addicting in a very good way to meet all the great builders past and present and to create through each others ideas. My creating has slowed down but I’m here for support for many more milestones. Congrats all! Grab up some gear while it lasts.
Thanks for the pics. At a very minimum you need a way to check continuity to create diy pedals. You really should have a digital multimeter, an audio probe and a way to use it effectively, and a tone generator so that you can input tone without plucking guitar strings as you troubleshoot. Troubleshooting will happen. Nobody gets it right 100% of the time. Its great to ask questions but you need a way to verify. The schematic provides you all the info you need for an accurate and performing circuit. The bypass switching is not shown and is assumed as with very many schematics. Its unfortunate that the 3 and 4 wire connectors use the same colors. Its confusing because red and black are often reserved for power and ground connections. For the 4 wire connector red and black are +volts and ground. You should be able to verify that with a continuity checker by touching one lead to the + pad and the other lead to the collectors of each of Q1, Q2, D4, C13 or R19 according to the schematic. The GND pad should have continuity with every shown ground on the schematic. V2 spots should all connect and be provable. Very important so far. White is IN and yellow is OUT. IN should have continuity with R1, C1 and C2. Out should have continuity with C12 and R18. These are all clearly shown on the schematic and MUST be correct. Those should go to the 3PDT board as agreed earlier. They do but this is where some things go wrong for you. That switch is NOT the boost switch as you say. That switch and board are for Effect on/off, Bypass and led. Everything brd said above is correct. The 3 wire connector is Boost. Prove it. Easy. Don’t switch wires around. Yellow should have continuity with pad2 of Drive and C5, which means it is the middle position of the switch (whether its a toggle or stomp or whatever). Check me. Check continuity according to the schematic. Lets pick R8 because it touches everything boost. On one side, the pad to R8 should have continuity with pad 2 of the boost control, and an outside position of the SW (boost) switch pads, and on the other R8 the pad should have continuity with position 3 of the FCVA switch, C6, C4 and pin 2 of U1. Easy to see on the schematic. Prove it to yourself. Omit any boost led for now and any other mods to the original until you get a working pedal would be good advice. Then mod and test one thing at a time for best results. Sounds like your pedal mostly works but you are not sure how. For sure the way you labeled the switches is opposite. Every line on the schematic either exists as a trace on the board or it is a wire to be placed by you. Intersection points may only exist on the schematic to make it easier to read. Further troubleshooting may require taking voltage readings. A meter may become necessary. It doesn’t have to be expensive tho.
Easy and fun to add a DPDT board. Don’t populate D1-D4. Populate the DPDT board with your diodes instead. Use sockets for more versatility. For jump off and on points from the main board, think of them as A and B pads, use the left hand pad of D1 and right hand pad of D2 and wire them to the main 2 pads of the DPDT board. Those connections should trace to the center lugs of both sides of the DPDT switch. You can use a on/on type to select one end or the other of the mod board. Another choice could be to use a on/off/on type switch which will offer any available op amp clipping without diodes from the TL072. So three clipping choices. The roto-tone board offers even more.
Do you want to have a volume control on both boards or maybe eliminate the tone and volume, and let the Tone TwEQ do both?
You could wire the in and out of the TT to the pads for lugs 3 and 2 of the tone pot to keep the volume pot.
You could wire the in and out of the TT to the pad for lug 3 of the tone pot and to the pad for lug 2 of the volume pot. So essentially stick it between the input of the eliminated tone and the output of the eliminated volume.
There are several other ways depending on what you want, including leaving a 25K trimmer in place of the tone, set to half way, and lift R11’s leg from the pad going to C10 and wire in the TT between the R11 leg and the open pad. But why bother? Cheers
Ok I checked this out at Tayda. The three wire connection is the boost on/off switch which is a footswitch in your case. The 4 wire connection is labeled on the board, as you said, and goes to the corresponding pad on the FS board. I can’t see where the current limiting resistor is mounted on that FS board but do not forget to use one between 2.2K and 4.7K. The other pads will wire according to their labels for in out and power and ground. Just a note that the power is input at this board and then wired to the main pcb. The footswitches should probably trade sides of the enclosure so that the 4 wires can reach the FS board. I see no reason for a 6 to 7 jumper as the boost switch will use a single column of the switch as a simple yes/no. Choose 1,2,3 or whichever. The second schematic that you attached is for a board you are not using that Tayda offers. Disregard it. A little ingenuity could factor in a led for that boost action if you wanted. Possibly what the 6,7 jumper is about. I’m not used to their methods. I’m all about Barry’s boards and methods.
As long as V2 is created on the main pcb (R19 & R20), and the switches for MOS, SW and FCV physically connect to the main pcb then your circuit is complete and all you need a 3PDT board for effect on or bypass. You don’t mention pcb3 or pcb4 so i don’t know what the fancy switching is for.
Glad you got it working. That should be a relief just in time for the holidays. According to your post details the problem with the led is that it is the wrong type. There are Common Anode led’s and Common Cathode led’s for bi-color of RGB led’s. All of Barry’s boards need a common anode bi-color led. It’s all about polarity of the longest leg. I believe you have installed a common cathode led. Thats why if you reverse the polarity the led works with both colors. You need to replace it with the correct type. Common Anode is what you seek. Have a great holiday.
Welcome to the Forum. I noticed for R11 you used a 33K? instead of a 1K. Your board soldering looks mint. The switch may have a few cold joints. 4, 5 and 7 look great, the other lugs maybe not. Hard to tell. What are you using for transistors and in what order? There is a ton of gain in this circuit. It has been said in the past to use 68K for R4 and R7 for an overall reduction in gain. Your results may vary.
Has it been said which transistors you are using and whether they are situated correctly? My voltages are very similar to Billy’s.
Sometimes the thinner legs of some components can have a fiddly or less than perfect connection with those sockets. That may at times give puzzling results. It’s happened to me several times with transistors, for example, while firing up a build after using cheap sockets. Worth a second look if you haven’t already.
<span class="Y2IQFc" lang="de">Gehen Sie langsam und nehmen Sie sich Zeit (google translation). Just take your time.</span>
Welcome Henri. I can’t blame you wanting to get this working. It’s fantastic. You should go ahead and take it apart and fix any backward or blown leds. You are going to need to take the time to reflow all the switch and pot joints. Many look like cold joints that were soldered in haste. You will likely benefit from reflowing the rest of the board as well. As you do, remove the IC first and be super careful around and at the transistors so as not to cook them. Your soldering should result in a lot of shiny mounds shaped more like a hersheys kiss. Barry has a soldering video here someplace. I couldn’t find it just now. Take a look at the Guides Page, though, and scroll down to the guides below near the bottom. Read them all. Good info in there. How did it turn out matching your components up with the examples Jeff24 gave? All good there?
The voltages you are wondering about are simple actually. The Power and Switching schematic shows the incoming voltage of 9 volts and VC which is that same 9 volts but protected by D5 and filtered by C27 and C28. Actually VC is the voltage of whatever you are providing as the power source, whether a battery or adapter. The Fuzz schematic shows using that same VC and injecting it into the circuit between resistors R16 and R18. The Overdrive schematic shows that same VC and using it create VB1, over to the right side of the page. VB1 is the result of the voltage divider created by R13 and R14. Then VB1 is used throughout the Overdrive and measurable with your DMM at the points shown. That voltage divider having equal value resistors should yield exactly half of VC, presumably near 4.5 volts. The Tremolo introduces us to VD. VD will be a very very slightly reduced VC after passing through R37. So 9 volts and 4.5 volts (half of 9 volts) is what this board works with. Should troubleshooting become necessary because of how something behaves, other measurements according to expectations may then become necessary. Nothing to fret yet and hopefully not at all.