Although messy and tough to see, you should be able to make out the green LED on the right side of the breadboard. Just trust me when I say that it was blinking. I connected everything up but when I plugged a guitar in and tried to play I just got an unpleasant constant buzz. My first thought was a grounding problem. I checked my connections on each grounded component and nothing seemed to be wrong. I then brought out a very simple tool a made about a year ago called an audio probe. For anyone building/repairing/dabbling in audio circuitry I will highly recommend he/she to take the small amount of time needed to make one of these. It sounds cool but is insanely easy. All an audio probe is a standard 1/4" guitar cable but snip off one end, strip the ground and lead wire, and then attach either wire or probes to each and following the signal path of your guitar within a circuit. Some people like to put a capacitor in their audio probe but I haven't seen the need for one yet. I clipped the ground wire of the probe to ground and started probing around at my guitar's input to see how far in the circuit I had to go before the circuit disappeared. Luckily for me, it wasn't long at all. I didn't even reach a component. I tested on the the guitar's input cable itself and everything worked fine which was relieving. I then tested the alligator clip that was attached to the tip pin of the input jack. As I expected, the alligator clip wasn't at fault. I then tested the contact point where the input wire is soldered into the PCB. This is where I got no sound. The wire I use is often salvaged from old electronics and varies in gauge and age. I probably should have used a different wire when i first wired this connection because I remember thinking that it seemed kind of thin and weak. I was excited though there was no time for intelligence. The problem with the wire was that the insulation had melted at the solder joint. I had already known this before I tested the PCB. I thought I was doing some pro soldering shit though because the insulation had melted down onto the PCB and covered the pad. I thought I was a baller and had accidentally insulated a pad while soldering a connection. Turns out I was still a massive noob and that the insulation had also melted down the wire through the pad's hole preventing the wire from contacting the PCB. I replaced the wire with a better and thicker one and then everything worked just fine. This meant all the hard parts were done. All that was left was to prepare my enclosure, wire the offboard components, and assemble!
No comments:
Post a Comment