where do all the ground wires go to again? after reading the faq im still unsure. do you connect them to the enclosure at any point ie just solder them on or something? sorry for the stupid question.
They all go together. It doesn't matter where. Make sure that the rings of your input/output are also connected. If you're using metal jacks, this will ground your enclosure.
Layouts almost always account for grounding. The connections are all made to a trace on the PCB, or a bus on perfboard.
Take a look at some of the runoffgroove perf projects and the tonepad or GGG PCB layouts to get a decent idea of how these things fit together.
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/
http://www.runoffgroove.com/articles.html
http://www.tonepad.com/
Compare the schematics to the layouats, and it should all come together.
I also have a problem with grounding. I have a box and I've put all ground cables together and then I connected them to the ground-points of the jacks. But it still hums...when I touch the ground connections with my finger the hum goes away?!
I also can't connect it to the box because it's wooden
Set DMM to Beep mode.
Clip one DMM lead to the ground of the battery clip. Make sure it doesn't beep when you touch the + battery clip connection...or you have a direct short in the circuit that should be found before anything else.
Using the schematic, touch all points ground with the other DMM lead.
The jacks, and anything that has a ground symbol need to be At ground, and you should hear a steady beep.
If you catch a 'misnomer ground' at a non grounded wiper of a pot, turn the pot to near the center of it's range.
so if i follow a layout correctly like on generalguitargadgets.com, its fine? like i don't have to wire something to the enclosure, i.e. take a wire from the jack and solder it to the metal enclosure. and one more question, on the jacks and things, do they have to be insulated from the enclosure via nylond washers? thanks a bunch.
If it's humming you know it's on. :wink:
Regards
RDV
ok, for clarity. the ground that comes off the board goes to the sleve of the jacks basically? at no point do I have to like solder a ground wire to the enclosure? please help me! i'm so confused!
To avoid ground loops that will make humming noises ground only the input jack to the board and run just the signal wire to the output jack (if you are using a metal box).
If you are using a plastic box ground both jacks to the board.
That's it
Aharon