Fuzzface Diy Circuit board wiring

[Iffy Jiffy]

Hi everyone,
I bought two Fuzz face DIY circuit boards on Ebay and after installing the onboard components, I am confused with where to attach the wires for the 3pdt footswitch. One is NPN and the other PNP. I decided to try wiring the NPN first. I tried contacting the seller asking if he had any photos of these boards with the wires attached. He was not very helpful and told me what I already knew, i.e the information provided in the description with the board connections. I followed it as best as I  could but could not get it to work . A simple sketch or a photo was all I wanted. It seems as if there more wires than places on the board to connect them to especially coming from the 3pdt switch. I tried looking on youtube and for images online hoping to find a completed board without any luck. I will attach photos and hopefully someone can recognize where I went wrong. Some of the components were removed from the board to check that no damage had been done and the photos will show the missing components. I did get effect temporarily when randomly touching wires to different places but it was not continuous and then stopped completely. As can be seen in the photos, I am unsure where some unattached wires from the footswitch go. Places where I am unsure are, board ground wire from 3pdt switch, 3 on board input ( mentions Dc 9V) and Batt 9v - +( should the + and - from the battery snap go there.
Any useful information would be appreciated .
Thanks in advance.

[GGBB]

Typically the input and output jack tips never connect directly to the board - only the switch. So I think what's meant is:



Connect power in to "In 3" as instructed. Connect power ground to one of the grounds and jack sleeves also.

Forget the battery connections for now. Normally the battery positive connects to the power jack battery lug and battery negative should go to the ring of the stereo input jack so that it is only connected to the sleeve ground when the cable is plugged in to the jack. But you are using a mono jack so you can't use a battery since it would always be on even when your cables are disconnected and the pedal is not being used - thus draining the battery.

Also - the switch wiring works but is less than ideal. Fix this:

[Iffy Jiffy]

Thanks for your response. I thought that I had installed a stereo jack on the input side since it had three soldering tabs but I replaced it with the correct type and the LED works as it should now. I am only getting a clean tone  when effect is off. When it is on no sound passes through. What I have realized and it has me a bit confused is when I connect the + (red) wire from the DC jack to tab 3 on the input side, nothing works  and the LED does not illuminate. When I did a continuity test, input tab 3 is connected to the - (NEG) side of the BAT 9V tab on the lower part of the  board. The center pin of the dc jack - (NEG)  is  connected to the sleeve of the output jack which I am sure is the correct location. So it appears that both the (POS) and (NEG) from the DC jack would be connected to the same polarity  when input tab 3 is used for the DC jack. For the clean sound to pass I have put the + wire from the DC jack to the + tab of the BAT 9V so now input tab 3 and BAT  9V  -  tabs  have no wires at those locations. The + of the battery clip is attached to the other  + tab on the DC jack and the - is on the ring of the input stereo jack.
What I have observed is on the other circuit board (PNP) type, input tab 3 is connected to the + side of the BAT 9V part of the circuit board. Is there any difference between the two circuit boards besides  using different polarities and transistors , i.e NPN vs PNP. I have highlighted  the areas of concern on the circuit board. Could it be possible that the information provided by the seller could be incorrect. I have successfully assembled a few DIY kits that were more complex than this one but the instructions were crystal clear.
Once again I really appreciate your assistance.

[GGBB]

This is a bit strange but starting to make sense. The problem is in the instructions for certain. Based on your report - the connections should be:



But this is meant for battery only - connected to the pads marked "BAT".

To use a DC power jack with a battery, connect the DC +ve to "BAT+", DC ground to either jack sleeve, battery +ve to DC jack battery connection, battery -ve to "BAT-".

[Iffy Jiffy]

Hi
I seem to be making some progress but not completely there yet. I wired as you recommended and do get effect  but there is a screeching high pitch sound that is present and increases with volume. At a lower volume the screeching sound is not as bad but can still be heard. This sound happens at the same time  as the effect is sounded while playing the guitar. It does not drown out the sound of the fuzz effect, but it is present.  When the effect is turned off no sound is heard, should be clean signal. The LED was coming on when the effect was off and on when  switch was off so I switched the location on the 3pdt switch and it works as it should now. Since there was a lack of grounding tabs on the circuit board, I attached the wire from the center of the switch i.e "board ground" to the  sleeve of the output jack. The components have been checked and tested and I carefully looked for excess solder that may have attached to nearby components.  In the parts list  the seller provided, it was suggested to substitute C2 Electrolytic Cap 20 UF with a 22 UF cap  which I did due to lack of availability of that part. Don't think that is related to my problem but mentioned it anyway. I took some photos of the wires from the switch going to the "input and "output" jacks. Also I removed the DC jack and just used the 9 volt Battery for now.  The DC external power supply can always be included at a later date. Thanks for being so helpful.

[GGBB]

Some clarifications in green:



And also:



You appear to have connected the board input and output directly to the jack tips - as I mentioned before they need to pass through the switch.

[Iffy Jiffy]

Hi, I have everything working now and connected and tested the DC Jack as well. What changes if any would I have to make when I decide to complete the other i.e PNP board, specifically where the battery and DC jack are wired. Also would you recommend this footswitch wiring that you provided for future projects ?
Hopefully this information can be useful to someone in the future. Once again thanks for taking the time to provide me with the information needed to complete this Fuzz effect. Take care.

[GGBB]

I'm glad you got it working!

For PNP, the only thing that changes other than the transistors is the battery and capacitor polarity - so negative and positive are reversed. See https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=111539.msg1026854#msg1026854.

Also be sure to remember that when using a power supply, you need to provide -9V instead of +9V. Usually that just means reversing positive and negative, but because the center pin is still ground, this power supply needs to be isolated from other power supplies for other pedals otherwise the power supply will be shorted to ground (and possibly burn out). So it is not simply a matter of reversing positive and negative from a shared power supply. (Note that many modern pedalboard power supplies with multiple outputs have isolated outputs - these can be used by reversing.)

You could also opt for battery-power-only to avoid problems.