The Screamer / The Angel - 3PDT problem

  • Hi Guys!

    This is my first post here since I just bought and build my 1st two pedals.

    They are "kind of" not working in the exact same way so I guess I'm doing something bad, and I woul like your input before buying new 3PDTs.

    1. Both PCBs have been tested outisde the enclosure with crocodile clips and they works perfectly without the 3PDT.

    2. When connecting the 3PDT outside the enclosure again, the Bypass works perfectly, BUT...

    3. When activating the switch, Led does not light up and no sound out of the pedals.

    So the PCB is ok, the jacks are ok, I also tested the 9v on the 3PDT pcb awith a multimeter and the numbers are good...

    So I guess there is not much room for what could go wrong there.

    If anyone have an idea it is very much welcome!

    Thank you very much in advance,

    Fab

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von FabNilo (17. September 2021 um 19:58)

  • Hi there and welcome to our community :)

    In order to give you any helpful advice we need to see your build in detail. Moreover, it is always nice to post a link to the schematic. Please provide good photos of your build including all the details as well as the underside of your PCB and the switches etc.

    We will get this thing working, don't worry!

    Cheers, Max <3

    "Perfektion ist nicht dann erreicht, wenn es nichts mehr hinzuzufügen gibt, sondern wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann."
    - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  • Hi there,

    the connections of the switch pins are really weak. Just add some additional solder to make sure the connection is safe. Moreover, I think there might be some shortage at the 9V-Plug. You have to be really on point with your soldering technique and everything should be neatly trimmed. Working slowly and with care helps a lot. The more complex the projekt, the more important the quality of your work becomes. In the end, every single solder joint is a possible cause for a malfunctioning project and debugging is always way more time and nerve consuming than working with precision during the process. :)

    "Perfektion ist nicht dann erreicht, wenn es nichts mehr hinzuzufügen gibt, sondern wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann."
    - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  • Hi, I am almost sure that there is just a wire going to the wrong point. To help, we'd need photos of every wire to see what points they connect.

    I think you can post photos of only one pedal. Most likely the issue with the other one will be the same.

  • I had the same problem. It turned out that I wired the 9v jack wrong. I soldered the anode cable for the pcb onto the pad that's for the anode coming from the battery pad. Which is disconected when a power supply is plugged in. I felt quite dump once I figured it out :D.

    Edit: it should work when you clamp the power directly to the soldering pads of the 9v jack. If that's the case.

    Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Ihno (17. September 2021 um 20:36)

  • The 9V socket is a tricky thing. The biggest L-shaped pad is the pin in the middle.

    Just remember, that the socket for guitar effect has a design/construction problem: the outside is not ground but 9V. That means, that you cannot find simple metal sockets that you can use as they are not isolated...

    Now you know that the pin is ground.

    Now from the pin to the outside, the middle pad is the switched one. You don't want to use that if you are not messing around with batteries. The outer small pad is the correct one that gets 9V.

  • Easiest way to find out is to post some more pics of all of the jacks and the wiring. Otherwise we are just throwing out educated guesses :S

    "Perfektion ist nicht dann erreicht, wenn es nichts mehr hinzuzufügen gibt, sondern wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann."
    - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  • Thanks a lot for all your response!

    I'm not sure I understood everything with the 9v thing...

    I measured the +9v and GND pins on the footswitch PCB with a multimeter and It seems fine.

    Anyways these are more complete pics of the Screamer, I hope its detailed enough.

    Thanks again for your help!

  • Hm, I don't see a wiring mistake. Looks like a soldering massacre!

    Although there might be problems with that too, I'd suggest to clip off the exceeding parts of wires going through soldering holes. For example the ones above the lower right corner of the pcb. Also you really need to resolder all pads of the 3PDT. You need more power for that!

  • I just clipped off the ecxeeding parts of wire and apply a fair amount of solder onto the 3PDT pads.

    Still no sound and no light on the led.

    Here is a recap:

    -The Effects works on its own

    -I have sound in bypass

    -Footswitch PCB gets 9V

    -wiring seems ok

    This is really a mystery... I have another 3PDT + pcb for a future build that I can try, but I'm really afraid to have te same result with it.

    Again Thxs for your help

  • Is the led on when the effect is(should be) active?

    Just because it is hard to track on your images: did you try switching input/output?

  • This is really a mystery... I have another 3PDT + pcb for a future build that I can try, but I'm really afraid to have te same result with it.

    Try to understand how a 3pdt will work and solder it directly without PCB,many Information and Switch Diagrams How a 3pdt works and how to wire it will be found in Net.

    regards,

  • Is the LED installed the correct way around? Maybe you have just swapped plus and minus?

    "Perfektion ist nicht dann erreicht, wenn es nichts mehr hinzuzufügen gibt, sondern wenn man nichts mehr weglassen kann."
    - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  • Thanks a lot to everyone!

    Both pedals work and light up.

    The problems were:

    Not enough solder on the 3PDT. I saw a video where a guy advised to not put to much solder to prevent shorts, but apparently you need a certain amount for this to work...

    Wrong resistance on the screamer Led, 22K instea of 2.2K

    I think there is a problem with the chorus, there is a loud and high backgroud noise that is pulsing more and more as I turn the depth knob.

    I'll investigate more tomorrow...

    Thxs again!

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