So, I've built this guy. Sounds great. However, I've run into a problem that I've never had before with other pedal builds.
I can't seem to get the DC Jack or LED to work. I've only been able to power it with a battery. When I add the DC, the I get no power, AND the battery gets really hot. And, no luck with the LED at all.
Any thoughts? I've build a good 10-15 pedals so far, and never had this problem. Thanks!
If your battery gets hot it's a clear indication your power is connecting to ground. That needs to be fixed. I don't know about te LED except that it's either burnt out or improperly connected.
Jacob
Hi, sorry for the delay. I was never notified that there was a response to my question.
Thanks for helping. Okay, so...a little help then. What lug should the 9v wire coming off the board go to on the DC jack...and which lug on the DC should be connected to which wire off the battery connector?
Thanks so much for this help. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Never had this before. But, I do notice that this PCB says -9v. While most of the others say +9v. I'm guessing that has something to do with it.
Thanks again!
Okay, let me re-ask that.
How do I add a DC Power Jack and an LED to the current MadBean Buzzaround Bumblebee wiring layout?
Thanks so much for your help.
http://madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/StandardWiring_MBP.pdf
You can find this at the Projects page at the top right for future reference ;)
-Kaleb
Right, i've done this many times over. I've used this wiring on a ton of pedals. I just can't get it to work on this one. No idea why. I just did it again, nothing. If i use the standard bumblebee layout, it works fine and sounds beautiful But when I add the DC, nothing happens, and the battery gets hot. And i've had no luck with an LED either. I have no clue.
>:(
The only thing I can think of is that...with the Bumblebee PCB, the 9v is marked -. Most other layouts seems to have a + 9v.
Would this change how I wire it up?
is it possible that you have the polarity reversed? if I remember correctly the buzzaround is a positive ground effect. that could explain your problem. I used a road rage board to power mine with no issues.
Caps are in the correct direction, as are the transistors.
It seems Madbean talks about this issue in another circuit. You can make this one positive or negative. One can use and DC and the other cant, so it seems. Perhaps its the same with the Bumblebee?
Check it out, just scroll down a bit:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/Zygote/docs/Zygote.pdf
Recently somewhere along the line I decided that I've built enough pedals to KNOW how they are wired. Well yes and no. That showed me that it really does matter what way you orient the DC power jack. If you oriente it different you gotta wire it accordingly. For instance the 2 power lugs are right next to each other and it really matters which one you connect battery to and power too. I've had a couple builds not work right away, DMM tells me no power, switch them and what do you know. You may be dealing with something else since you want 9V- into your pedal.
Not that this is your problem, but more something to watch for. :)
Wire it like the "PNP positve ground with LED" diagram in the Zygote document if the circuit is asking for -9v. If you use a dc jack wired for positive ground, you won't be able to daisy chain it with any other "regular" negative ground pedals. You'll need to add the Road Rage to run it from a power supply you share with other pedals.
Hey thanks...yeah, thats how i currently have it wired.
So, what you are saying is...if I want to add a DC Jack...i have to add a roadrage supply? I power all of my effect with either batteries or a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power.
I'm not sure about the VL power supply, but with my One Spot you can do either/or, not both. You definitely won't be able to daisy chain negative and positive ground pedals. You may damage other pedals if you try. The Road Rage would solve that problem.
Scroll down this Analogman page to "power supply problems" for a better explanation.
http://www.analogman.com/fuzzface.htm
Cool. Okay, idiotic question here...how do I add a DC Jack to this then? I will just use a battery or Voo Labs.
I've never done it, but I'm guessing you would just reverse the way it's wired compared to normal. Switch the positive with the negative. I'm not sure, though, so maybe someone else will chime in on it.
This link doesn't describe positive ground, but it might help you sort out how to wire it in reverse:
http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/PedalPower/
Quote from: slimtriggers on May 29, 2011, 11:03:12 PM
Wire it like the "PNP positve ground with LED" diagram in the Zygote document if the circuit is asking for -9v. If you use a dc jack wired for positive ground, you won't be able to daisy chain it with any other "regular" negative ground pedals. You'll need to add the Road Rage to run it from a power supply you share with other pedals.
you can daisy chain it, but you ABSOLUTELY MUST use an isolated supply like the voodoo lab pp2+ or iso 5. the road rage will allow you to use whatever type of supply you like as it isolates the ground internally.
The VLPP jacks are isolated, so you can use both positive and negative ground effects at the same time. The Bumblee is positive ground. If you are only going to use the VLPP and battery, then wire the -9v from the PCB to ground on the DC jack and ground from the PCB to +9v on the DC jack. For the battery, connect the red wire to the ring of your stereo input jack and black wire to the unused tab on the DC jack.
Make sure you never plug in a non-isolated power supply.
Man, this one is giving me trouble!
Thanks for your advice madbean. I wired it up like you said. Now the DC works, but NOT the battery? No clue. I checked and rechecked everything. Not sure what to do. I tried using aligator clips to resolve the problem and could not find anything that worked. ???
I'll be sticking to -ground pedal from here on out!
oh, don't give up. I know it's a pain but once you've got it licked, you got it licked and there is so many awesome fuzz projects to build. it's much easier to find decent pnp ge trannies than npn. give it a day or two and have another crack at it.
Hey thanks. I did not mean to say that I was giving up. Just pissed that it wont work. Ha! I've build about 15 pedals so far and never had this problem. Will try again more tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for the help everyone.
Ha! Got it!
Man, that was a pain. I had to try a bunch of stuff out, but finally found a way to make it work. Thanks again for all the help. I'll remember this now for any future +ground pedals! ;D
I'll post a pic soon.
awesome. way to go!
Quote from: kinski on May 31, 2011, 02:22:25 AM
Ha! Got it!
Man, that was a pain. I had to try a bunch of stuff out, but finally found a way to make it work. Thanks again for all the help. I'll remember this now for any future +ground pedals! ;D
I'll post a pic soon.
What ended up being the problem?
Ya know, to be honest. I'm not quite sure. The initial problem what that I was trying to wire it like a -ground pedal. So, thanks to you guys, I wired the DC correctly. But i had to run another ground wire from the DC to the input jack to stop some major hum. And then added the battery clip. Strange, but it works perfectly.
Sounds really great as well. The only thing I notice, and it was happening before all of this new wiring, is that the balance pot works fine, except it gets quieter around 8 or 9 o' clock and then continues as it should to get louder past there. So, 7 o' clock is actually louder than 9 o 'clock.
This really does not bother me, since anywhere around there would be way to quiet, so I will never use that range of the balance pot, but I'm still curious if this is supposed to be like that.
Thanks again for everyones help!