FuzzFace "ocillating" on and off...kind of.....?

[Outlaws]

(NPN negative ground silicon)

I just hooked up the pots and everything to my breadboarded fuzzface and plugged it in.

I am not getting a good signal from it.

Its has a fuzz sound, but its only there ever couple seconds and it isn't very strong.

When I say its only there for a couple seconds, I mean there is not other sound outside of what is there.

Is this a noob problem that I overlooked?



A few other things to mention...
I did wrap a somall piece of masking tape around a few of the resistors and caps so I could write their values on them...if they touch the metal at all that shouldn't cause this should it?

[Alpha579]

Pnp, or npn? standard values? positive or negative ground? which transistors? Transistor voltages?

[Outlaws]

Pnp, or npn? standard values? positive or negative ground? which transistors? Transistor voltages?

I just edited my post lol....



NPN negative ground silcone.

Standard values...330 instead of a 470 (but I understand that is standard for silcone)

Transistors are NTE123A

I don't have their values.  I thought silicone are acuate to what they are supposed to be.  I have the specs from the package though...
Vcbo  75v
Vceo  40v
Vebo  6v
Ic  800mA
Pd  400mW
hfe  200 Typ  (oh shit man...thats it huh?  someone here said these are okay?!?!?!)
fT  300MHz

[Outlaws]

The only real things I did differently...which I can't see a reason why I couldn't have done is this:

Not the yellow areas.  I connected on Resistor over a bit because it fit better on the breadboard...and I connected the midway point for two resistors inbetween each other.

[Outlaws]

OKay...I am still having this issue, but let me first say that for the first time I have just read a schematic and I think I understood everything* about it.

*minus how you would know which is E, B, & C on the Tranny.



Anyways....

I noticed that the harder I strum the guitar the more times I can get the thing to emmit a signal.

Does that help give a better clue as to what is going on?



I am going to go watch some TV and then crash.  Hopefully someone will have figured out I am just making some kind of stupid newb mistake and this will all go away.  lol  maybe in the morning when I go over the circuit for the 10th time I will find it.  But I seriously think it is connected fine.

[Outlaws]

I just tore it apart and completely rewired it.  ANd I rewired it with different placement of everything.  Much more neat this time.

I am getting the same problem.   ?!?!?!?!!?!?

And I tried using a AC adaptor also but then I got absolutly nothing out of it.


Doesn't anyone know what this is?  This has to be a common problem?

[Outlaws]

After reading another post that seemed to be in the same vein (not all the way, but close) I realized I had my transistors with the Emitter and Collector wired backwards.

But now I am getting NO sound at all.  Battery or Adaptor.

This just gets worse every minute.

[bwanasonic]

First off:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=29816

You need to post the voltages you are getting on the *legs* of the transistor.

Kerry M

[Outlaws]

I was just getting to that  

Even got some pics.



Battery = 8.84

Q1   (I am assume when it was hooked up backwards I blew this.)  
C = anywhere from   -0.0   ->   .01   then usually stops on zero
B = anywhere from   -0.0   ->   .01   then usually stops on zero
E = anywhere from   -0.0   ->   .01   then usually stops on zero

Q2
C= 8.84
B= 0.0
E= 0.0

Caps
22uF = nothing
2.2uF = nothing
.01 = SIDE ONE:   0.0  ->  0.32  (this is connected to the 500k volume pot)  .32 it when the volume would be at max  SIDE TWO: 8.84

Resistors
100K = nothing on either side
33k = nothing on one side, 8.84 on the battery side
330 = 8.84 both sides
8.2K = 8.84 both sides

[leonhendrix]

hi

looking at the breadboard and the layout u have posted, where the 33k and 330ohm conected they should go to 9v which i cant see on the breadboard.

leon

[Outlaws]

hi

looking at the breadboard and the layout u have posted, where the 33k and 330ohm conected they should go to 9v which i cant see on the breadboard.

leon

?

I didn't have the battery connected when I took he picture, thats my fault.  But I put an arrow on there though showing which hole the 9v connects to.  (I realize that you might have started looking at this before I added the battery+ onto the pictures.  I didn't have it connected so when I was laying out all the text I forgot to put it there.)  Sorry.

The 33k and the 330 are connected with that RED jumper.  They are connected then to the 9v.  Its a bit hard to see, thats why I drew in BLUE where the resistors are so you can see that they line up with the breadboard row.

[leonhendrix]

its hard to see it properly, so im not sure if this right

the collector of q1 goes to base of q2 which yours does with the purple wire but the purple wire is connected to a green wire that goes to ground

leon

[Pedal love]

I can't see the polarity of the 2.2uf and 22uf caps. pl

[Outlaws]

its hard to see it properly, so im not sure if this right

the collector of q1 goes to base of q2 which yours does with the purple wire but the purple wire is connected to a green wire that goes to ground

leon

Oh you are a smart one.  When the trannies were backwards I forgot to take that one out whne I flipped them.  :oops:

Thank you.


Its not over yet though...   I am getting a high pitched "squeel".  Not a normal high-gain feedback squeel...more of a...."8-bit videogame sound" squeel...if that makes sense

Here are the updated Transistor values:

Q1
C= 1.26
B= 0.58
E= 0.0

Q2
C= 2.44
B= 1.26
E= 0.70

[Outlaws]

I can't see the polarity of the 2.2uf and 22uf caps. pl

2.2uF is negative on the guitar input
22uF is negative on the ground side

[Outlaws]

The squeeling went awa for a few seconds while i was making sure everything was seated properly, but then it came back.  I don't know what it could be.  I tried covering the whole thing with a wok to shield it from RF, but that did nothing.

I searched for FuzzFace and squeeling but didn't find much.  Except on about how his his made a noise when the fuzz level was turned up and it reversed his tone pots on his guitar.  That was an interesting one.  The squeeling seems to stop on mine too when the Fuzz level gets turned down a certain amount.  Close to most of the way down.  But I think its stillt here, just at a very low level.

My guitars tone knob doesn't seem to do much for the Fuzzface, but when I roll off the tone it oes seem to make the squeel brighter...or different

[leonhendrix]

i dont if u have done this

make sure q2 has a higher hfe than q1

if you know the hfe use this calculator(click on custom fuzz face) and it will show the resistors that will go best with your trannies.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/emh/emh.html

leon

[Outlaws]

i dont if u have done this

make sure q2 has a higher hfe than q1

if you know the hfe use this calculator(click on custom fuzz face) and it will show the resistors that will go best with your trannies.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/emh/emh.html

leon

I don't mean to be asking all these noob questions.....I am trying to search, but the search turns up 500 pages of threads.


How do test what my hfe is?  ANd is this going to help with this noise I am getting?  Its a loud noise.  Equal to the volume of my guitar.

[Pedal love]

You should get a dmm with a transistor hfe tester. Do you have any kind of digial multimeter?pl

[Outlaws]

You should get a dmm with a transistor hfe tester. Do you have any kind of digial multimeter?pl

Ya, I am borrowing this one.