Does this circuit board look OK to you ?

[rstites]

I was about to give up because I wasn't getting any signal but by accident the two ends of my guitar cables came into contact with each other and all of a sudden I had sound . When metal on metal does not make contact I get no sound but when they touch each other it's all good with great sound .

If I wasn't surrounded by people much smarter than myself I would just tape the two connectors together and jam but if at all possible I would like to avoid this , what do I need to do now ?

Thank you kindly

I hate taking up all PLX's time but he's the man and everybody knows it so if anybody else knows what to do please chime in.






View attachment 145180

If that one jack only makes contact to ground from being connected to the chassis, then you don't have a ground when it's out of the chassis, so wouldn't get any sound. That doesn't necessarily indicate a ground issue to me. When you touch the guitar cables together, it completes the circuit so you get the sound. That's assuming I get the connector correctly.

If it's intermittent, then you're most likely looking for bad connection somewhere: wire going bad or cold solder joint that's worked its way loose, or an electro-mechanical part that's worn out.

 

[rstites]

With the jacks out of the enclosure, you have no ground connection to that jack - since it's relying on a physical connection to the metal enclosure.

Try putting that jack back into the enclosure and try testing for the bad connection once again.

The stranded wire used in effects pedals can be bend/moved 15~20 times.. then that 21st time it breaks. Maybe only some strands will break. That's when you get the issue you're describing.

Lifted trace on the board, cold solder joint.. next things to start looking at. But check the wiring first.

Oops. Didn't see that you'd already gotten there!

 

[Ben Waylin]

Oops. Didn't see that you'd already gotten there!

I pm'ed him about it.

He's still sorting it out.

Pedals can be a pain to troubleshoot.

 

[rstites]

I pm'ed him about it.

He's still sorting it out.

Pedals can be a pain to troubleshoot.

Especially remotely! I'm really bad at figuring things out if I can't pick the thing up and look in person.

 

[Ben Waylin]

Especially remotely! I'm really bad at figuring things out if I can't pick the thing up and look in person.

I've seen that go both ways. I've had some real amp gurus help me remotely with amp builds, and they spot something thru a pic in an e-mail that I couldn't see right in front of my face.

 

[psychodave]

If the pedal using the chassis to make the ground contact to the jack? Make sure there is no paint preventing a good ground on the jack.

 

[ZEEGLER]

Stupid question - have you tried it with different cables?

 

[ccn]

Stupid question - have you tried it with different cables?

Yes , it's not the cables . I checked those first . Appreciate your intention to help ZEEGLER.

Weird thing is that right now it seems fixed even though I really didn't do much . I couldn't find any cutting in and out by moving the wires around so I'm not sure what the problem was . I did make sure everything was grounded by attaching the jacks back to the chassis and that seemed to get it working again .

Special thanks to PLX, rstites , psychodave and glpg80 for their great knowledge and troubleshooting it's greatly appreciated .

 

[Ben Waylin]

Yes , it's not the cables . I checked those first . Appreciate your intention to help ZEEGLER.

Weird thing is that right now it seems fixed even though I really didn't do much . I couldn't find any cutting in and out by moving the wires around so I'm not sure what the problem was . I did make sure everything was grounded by attaching the jacks back to the chassis and that seemed to get it working again .

Special thanks to PLX, rstites , psychodave and glpg80 for their great knowledge and troubleshooting it's greatly appreciated .

Intermittent problems are the worst..

Doesn't matter if it's a car, an amp, a cold fusion reactor..

You poke around, put it back together and it starts working.. until it doesn't.