An important troubleshooting tip

Started by inverseroom, February 25, 2005, 11:32:50 AM

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inverseroom

When you've spent your day building a Ruby Amp, and you get everything hooked up, and plug in your guitar, and it isn't working, and you spend twenty minutes swearing under your breath and checking and re-checking the schem, I highly recommend checking to see if you remembered to put the IC in the socket.

:oops:

It works great--I'll post pics when the enclosure is done!

R.G.

You're more clever than I am. I once spent a few *hours* debugging a board with no IC's in it. :lol:
R.G.

In response to the questions in the forum - PCB Layout for Musical Effects is available from The Book Patch. Search "PCB Layout" and it ought to appear.

MartyMart

Ha !
I recently spent a good half hour wondering why my silicon FF wasnt working ---- no transistors in te sockets !!   :oops:

Marty.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm"
My Website www.martinlister.com

David

Quote from: inverseroomWhen you've spent your day building a Ruby Amp, and you get everything hooked up, and plug in your guitar, and it isn't working, and you spend twenty minutes swearing under your breath and checking and re-checking the schem, I highly recommend checking to see if you remembered to put the IC in the socket.

Uuhhhh, yeah...  I've done this too...

dv8

Or put the IC in the correct orientation is important too.

Dual Op Amp just did not behave nicely when put in backwards.  Of course this all started by soldering in the DIP8 holder in the wrong orientation.  :oops:

BlackFlag1313

My personal favorite is when you have the volume pot on the guitar turned to 0 and forget to check and keep trying to figure out why can't I get any sound even bypassed when my meter shows continuity ... :oops:

LP Hovercraft

No power, no IC, no patch cord, etc... sometimes I wonder about the effects of solder fumes on my brain, but then I quickly forget about all that and put the solder back in my mouth.

BlackFlag1313

I don't kno. Me think the ferric chloride fumes make me smarter I am.

StephenGiles

A broken battery snap lead is a good one, because no power gets to the board and youthink all ICs are blown - happened to me one day on my ADA Flanger!
Stephen
"I want my meat burned, like St Joan. Bring me pickles and vicious mustards to pierce the tongue like Cardigan's Lancers.".

scottosan

Quote from: inverseroomWhen you've spent your day building a Ruby Amp, and you get everything hooked up, and plug in your guitar, and it isn't working, and you spend twenty minutes swearing under your breath and checking and re-checking the schem, I highly recommend checking to see if you remembered to put the IC in the socket.

:oops:

It works great--I'll post pics when the enclosure is done!
I know its just a matter of time for me until this happens.  I have built 4 so fat and put them in the enclosure without testing and I have been lucky so far

dr

......I was soldering in a bunch of jumper wires I had just cut and bent off a roll of 20 gauge bus wire-I put the solder to the joint and it wouldn't melt.....I kept dropping the solder because it was burning my fingers and woudn't melt.....did it three more times....discovered that 20 gauge tinned bus wire looks just like solder......two bandages later, I discovered that alcohol is a good conductor of dumbass-ness........

aron

I NEVER forgot to put in the IC (I think) but I have so many times, forgotten to ground the IC!

arghhhhh

Hal

hahaha thats one I've never actually done.  But I have done the guitar volume on 0, the no power, and I've even done guitar amp off :-(

squidsquad

This one wasn't as funny:  Decide to mod my Twin.
Remove chassis....remove power tube...turn power & standby on.....ground pin one to chassis...and then the sparks flew....because I forgot to uplug the Mother!
Guardian Angel watchin over me...simply blew the fuse...DUH!

rubberlips

I was debugging a circuit, had a signal going in and checked the power previously but turned it off in between, wondered why the signal went to the opamp and didn't come out, changed opamp still nothing. Slapped self in head after an hour that the power was off!

Pete
play it hard, play it LOUD!

inverseroom

Quote from: squidsquadGuardian Angel watchin over me...simply blew the fuse...DUH!

That was no angel, that was an amp designer who predicted a future in which losers like us would try ripping his work apart...  :lol:

boogielicious

After doing all of the above, I started a practice of walking away after the build is complete and before trying to start it up.  It's really hard to do, but when you get back, you'll be amazed at all the things you'll notice that you missed.

I also use the highlighter technique of going through the schemo and rechecking.  Even this does work all the time.

Scott