I've just finished building the MOSFET Booster from Jack Orman's site, and it's not working. I've gone over all the connections, and they're fine. My soldering is'nt exactly the best, but it's sufficient to do the job. I'm getting a very weak signal through it, but it's not doing what it should. I have to turn my 30 watt valve amp up to almost half way to be able to hear anything, and if i play hard, i get some loud crackles and pops. The only thing I can think of is maybe I blew the BS 170 MOSFET through over-heating??? I don't have a multimeter (well, I do, somewhere. Maybe I could pop another battery clip on it tommorow, and see if it works...) Any ideas at all? I've been through the de-bugging links listed at the top, yet no joy. Any help is greatly appreciated, as I just spent $40 on parts to make this! Thanks!
It's easy to blow MOSFETs with static electricity. Some of them you can blow with the field emitted by your soldering iron (sensitive buggers they are!). If you're getting something at least that's a good sign.
If you measure the voltages on the source, gate, and drain, I'm sure the answer can be found.
Good luck!
Take care,
-Peter
Desolder that badboy and replace it with a socket of some kind. Then try a new MOSFET. The bias may be way off on the MOSFET too.
Check the Small Bear (http://www.smallbearelec.com) site and look for "Mill-Max Single-In-Line Socket" These are very good to create transistor sockets.
Bye,
Joep
Just me but almost always socket my Actives...but when I dont...[I would defifnitely the Q for the Mosfet Boost though] I use alligator on each transistors lead as heat sink while soldering that lead.