Problems with Madbean Thunderpuss Boost

[hubb]

Hey folks!  I'm fairly new to pedal building.  I built an OSQ and a BluesBreaker from GGG and they both (thankfully) worked correctly on the first try. (yay)  I decided to build a thunderpuss for my buddy, and I can't seem to figure out what's wrong.


1. Project Name: ThunderPuss from Madbeans

2. Project Links: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/Thunderpuss/ThunderPuss.pdf2


3. Adherence to suggested layout: I purchased the Madbean PCB and followed the suggested layout (i think) per the instructions.  The only thing that I substituted was I'm using a mono jack for the input, and I eliminated the battery altogether.  Here's a couple of pics of my work:



4. Parts Substitutions: The bill of materials called for a 9.1v Zerner diode, which I had to research a bit.  After some googling, I was able to find the 1N4739A from Mammoth Electronics.  http://www.mammothelectronics.com/1N4007-1-0-Amp-Silicon-Rectifier-p/120-1013.htm   In terms of substitutions, I did use a mono jack for the input instead of the suggested stereo jack.  I did this because I also eliminated the battery from the circuit, as this thing is going to go inside a 1590a enclosure.

5.This pedal is negative ground.  I haven't made any adjustments.

6.The pedal works properly when not engaged, IE: the bypass works just fine.  When I step on the pedal, I hear a "pop" sound but then there's no audio passing through.  The LED does not light up.
   

What I've done to troubleshoot so-far:
At first I thought I may have wired the LED backwards, so I pulled it out and tested it with a 9v battery and confirmed that it was working well.
I checked polarity of the diodes, and i *think* i got them in the proper way.  I've built a few other pedals, and generally speaking I've always simply lined up the stripe on the diode with the stripe on the PCB.  I guess it's possible they're backwards.   The other thing that I haven't done is validate orientation of the transistor.  I simply lined up the shape of the transistor with the shape printed on the PCB.  It's possible I jacked that up.  There is one other thing I did on this build that i've never done before, on the madbean layout, they have the Middle Left, Bottom Left, and Bottom Center leads of the foot switch all bridged.  Instead of using wire for that, I bridged them with a solid piece of metal that I cut from the LED.  Could this cause problems?


Meter readings:

Positive lead of the power supply --> negative lead of power supply = 9.5v


Q1
Transistor (BS170):
D = 5.97v
G = 2.51v
S = 3.51v



D1
9.1v Zerner Diode (1n4739a)
K = 2.51v
A = 3.51v

D2
1N4001 Diode
K = 9.5v
A = 0.00v


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Chris

[wesman26]

Can we get a better picture of your 3PDT?

Also, and this may just be the angle, but I don't see a resistor in series with your LED, which would blow it out.

[AnalogPackrat]

Are you testing it outside of a box like you've shown?  If so, you need a ground wire connection on the bottom left jack.  If it still doesn't work, try eliminating the switch and just wiring the jacks straight to the board to ensure that the core circuit works.

[bean]

Are you testing it outside of a box like you've shown?  If so, you need a ground wire connection on the bottom left jack.  If it still doesn't work, try eliminating the switch and just wiring the jacks straight to the board to ensure that the core circuit works.

That right there.

[hubb]

Are you testing it outside of a box like you've shown?  If so, you need a ground wire connection on the bottom left jack.  If it still doesn't work, try eliminating the switch and just wiring the jacks straight to the board to ensure that the core circuit works.

Initially i was trying it in the box.  I'm not sure if the box was grounded however, is there something special you need to do to ground the box?  The only thing I can figure is that because the sleeve of the input jack is grounded, by virtue of it being bolted into the box it "bridges" whatever else is touching the box, in this case the output jack.  Good guess?

So given that assumption above, i'll just wire up the sleeve of the output to the sleeve of the input for ground.  .  . . . off to the basement.

Here are some closeups of the switch and the LED (with a 4k7 resistor hidden in the shrink tubing)

[hubb]

That seemed to fix the problem!

Added that lead from output jack to input jack (sleeves) and everything started working.  The boost was nice, clean, plentiful.

I boxed it up and now it doesn't work at all.  *sigh*  I guess i have a problem making quality connections using this 24ga wire.  2 connections snapped during troubleshooting.

Try again tomorrow.

Thanks for the help!  Here's what it's going to look like when it's done.

[garcho]

Miller Lite?! 

Did you use stranded wire? - I believe it's made specifically for activities like cramming crap into little boxes.
Nice lookin' pedal by the way.

[bean]

Yeah nice color choice with the knob/box. Just needs a fat 12mm LED right there in the middle!

[hubb]

Yeah nice color choice with the knob/box. Just needs a fat 12mm LED right there in the middle!

Thanks man!  This one is a prototype just to work out all of the kinks before I build the one for my buddy.  He wanted brushed translucent copper.  The box itself is stunning, almost looks like a stained hardwood.



I think i'm going to move the jacks up a bit from the location on the drilling template, there's plenty of room between the PCB and the jacks, but it's WAY crowded between the switch and the jacks.

Thanks a bunch for the help.  Looking forward to trying a few of the new "Baby Boards".

[hubb]

Miller Lite?! 

Did you use stranded wire? - I believe it's made specifically for activities like cramming crap into little boxes.
Nice lookin' pedal by the way.

Haha, yeah!  I guess I could have cropped that pic a little bit.  Nothing like and ice-cold macrobrew.

I do use stranded wire, and in all honesty things were looking really nice.  The last 2 pedals I made I would just mount all of the components into the box, and then sodler everything up.  After I yanked everything out on this one it turned into a rats nest.

Here's an OSQ i built a while back, I was pretty happy with the way the "guts" turned out. 



I'm sure I'll get this thing working pretty soon.

[hubb]

alright folks, this one is solved.

The tip of the plug from the input was pushing on the sleeve lead of the output jack.  I guess it's to be expected with these 1590a's.




Thanks a bunch for your help!

-Chris

[garcho]

bravo

[bean]

You done good.

[gtangas]

hi

I´m building this box but i cant find (in several shops in Lisbon) the 62k resistor.

can i use another value?

Thx

[amz-fx]

I´m building this box but i cant find (in several shops in Lisbon) the 62k resistor.

can i use another value?

You can use a 68k resistor.

regards, Jack