Wishing I rocked it before I boxed it...

[Wirehead]

Hey now!

My name is Steve and I am new to this forum.  Just a little about me:  i play bass, drums and the Chapman Stick and have only recently taken an interest in pedal building, but I have every intension to learn everything I can.  I have built a few pedals and have a good grasp on soldering and reading schematics. 

I have two questions, one regarding the test board mentioned in the post about rules for getting help and the other about effective troubleshooting and a guide to establish a framework for those times when you plug in and nothing happens. 

First, is there somewhere on this forum that I can find what I need to build a test station?  I don't totally understand what to do to there.

Next, beyond checking for solder bridges, correct component values, reflowing joints etc are there any other staples of troubleshooting that I am missing?

Thanks and pardon my noobness.....

Steve

[CRBMoA]

Beavis Board

You can build one of your own, too. The advantage of Dano's kit is, you get everything you need to start building circuits.

I DIY'd my own breakout box, and have collected bits for a couple of years, so I can build those circuits in the Manual for the Breakout Box, for which you kind find a link on the page I linked for you.

Welcome to your new addiction, and don't stop asking questions!

[jkokura]

As Chris  mentioned, you can get a description of Dano's breakout box here: http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/

http://www.beavisaudio.com/bboard/images/io_diy.jpg - This is a diagram of how you can build one for yourself.

I highly recommend building SOME sort of test rig. It can be as simple as a pair of jacks wired to your board using alligator clip wires along with a battery. For those that build more than one pedal, it's worth the time and effort to make something a little more permenant, but don't spend a lot of money - a simple box with in and out, power in, and four aligator clip wires coming out of a hole in the box for in, out, ground and power that you can attach to a board will suffice. This is the bare minimum, and I will be doing a tutorial on how to build one of those very soon, including some video on Youtube for how to use one. I'll also be doing a video/graphic tutorial on some basic pedal building techniques, and how to build a Diode testing rig also, but that's beside the point. In anycase, I think all of those will help you.

For those looking to build a LOT of pedals, and who are interested in learning how circuits work, the breadboard and breakout box rig found at Beavis Audio (link above) is the way to go. It allows you to totally test and make all sorts of adjustments to a circuit BEFORE you commit it to a PCB. I have done this with Tubescreamers, Silicon fuzzes, and some of my own hairbrained ideas just to try stuff out. When you're trying to build a circuit with a lot of variations, like the Boss CE, DS or OD lines, or the Big Muff as examples, it's really neat to try breadboarding (building the circuit on a breadboard with NO soldering) them and experimenting with changing the values. There are so many different variations on the fuzz circuit that you could spend months playing with values and come up with new and unique sounds very easily. That's essentially how the boutique pedal market is birthed!

Anyway, as to the OP's other questions:

1. The test rig/breadboard with breakout box is not now available here. It's going to become available here eventually, and info is available for your perusal now at Beavis Audio's website (see link above).

2. I always advise people to start their debugging like this (with some variation, but usually it's like this):

Double check you wiring
Double check you part values
Double check your part orientation
Double check your soldering job (Bad joints and bridges)
Triple check your wiring
Take a break (for hours or days)
Do it all again.

Everytime you find something - start over again.

If after all that you still don't have it working, there are two steps you can take. The first is, take DC measurements on all the IC and Transistor pins and post them here. Attach the black lead of your Digital Mulitmeter to ground, reliable power to the circuit and measure these things:

Red lead at jack/battery.
9V in at board
Ground in at board
Each pin of ICs (1, 2, 3, etc)
Each pin of Transistors

Write them down, post them here along with some VERY specific details about what your problem is. If you can, make an effort to take high quality pictures of your solder side on the PCB, your wiring (if it applies, and the part side of the PCB. Don't post really big pictures to the forum, but take them and if you need to, link them for us at a site like imageshack.

After that, look up how to build an audio probe. That is the number one tool for debugging circuits. It is simple, cheap to build, and easy to use. It WILL help you find the problem.

Also, you can skip some of the earlier stuff if you have an audio probe.

Hope that helps.

Jacob

[gtr2]

Here's mine I built about a month ago!  It was worth 100x every minute it took to build the testing box.  Plus I can take a circuit to test out at practice to check it out in a band setting!  I think Dano's builder for the beavis box is no longer making them so they are currently unavailable.  But why would we buy something we can make 

Post is here:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=784.0

[Wirehead]

Hey guys,

I can't thank you guys enough, you have given me not only ideas but hope as well that I will get my Dig Dug build going.  I am pretty tenacious;I won't give up until it works.  You guys have given me a lot to go on so I appreciate it. I will build a test rig for sure and begin debugging.  If after a week or two i cant get anywhere, i know where i will coming for help.  Thanks for making me feel so welcome...

Steve