Snowflake kit thread!

Do-it-yourself pedal building

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TweedBassman
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by TweedBassman »

veteransdaypoppy wrote:
Jero wrote:So it's still not working for you? Does the led turn on, but no sound...or just nothing turns on?

The LED turns on. the LED on the PCB even varies in brightness when I turn one of the knobs. When the pedal is off, I get sound. Once I turn it on, though, I get nothing. There's a piece of electrical tape underneath the PCB to keep it from grounding out and none of the pegs from the jacks are touching pots or anything, so I don't think it's grounding out.. I can't figure it out :(


-check to see if it works with the cover off; if so, the in or out is grounding on the lid.

-plug it all in with the cover off, turn the volume up about half way, texture down all the way, gain about 1/2. hit a chord; it should make the LED inside bright then sputter and flicker out. If it doesn't, something is probably wrong with the input wiring, or the output section is grounded somehow. If it DOES flicker and you get no sound, something went wrong after the inside clipping LED; either a solder joint or possibly a wonky footswitch.

-If there's no other obvious issues but you get no flickering LED and no sound, pull the whole thing out of the case and use alligator clips to ground everything that should be grounded by the enclosure and try it outside the enclosure, to eliminate any shorts there.

-other than that, you MAY have fried the IC with too much heat; unlikely as the 386 is pretty stout but you never know. Unless you have a lot of experience soldering IC's I would suggest a socket just to be sure. if you already have the kit and are unsure about soldering IC's you can get a socket at radio shack.
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by hazelwould »

TweedBassman wrote:
veteransdaypoppy wrote:
Jero wrote:So it's still not working for you? Does the led turn on, but no sound...or just nothing turns on?

The LED turns on. the LED on the PCB even varies in brightness when I turn one of the knobs. When the pedal is off, I get sound. Once I turn it on, though, I get nothing. There's a piece of electrical tape underneath the PCB to keep it from grounding out and none of the pegs from the jacks are touching pots or anything, so I don't think it's grounding out.. I can't figure it out :(


-check to see if it works with the cover off; if so, the in or out is grounding on the lid.

-plug it all in with the cover off, turn the volume up about half way, texture down all the way, gain about 1/2. hit a chord; it should make the LED inside bright then sputter and flicker out. If it doesn't, something is probably wrong with the input wiring, or the output section is grounded somehow. If it DOES flicker and you get no sound, something went wrong after the inside clipping LED; either a solder joint or possibly a wonky footswitch.

-If there's no other obvious issues but you get no flickering LED and no sound, pull the whole thing out of the case and use alligator clips to ground everything that should be grounded by the enclosure and try it outside the enclosure, to eliminate any shorts there.

-other than that, you MAY have fried the IC with too much heat; unlikely as the 386 is pretty stout but you never know. Unless you have a lot of experience soldering IC's I would suggest a socket just to be sure. if you already have the kit and are unsure about soldering IC's you can get a socket at radio shack.


Always a welcome poster! :hello: :hug: :love:
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by TweedBassman »

:hello: :hug:


-also, check the polarity of the 3 large caps and the 3 diodes.
Got my A machines on the table, got my B machines in a drawer.
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by Jero »

TweedBassman wrote:-check to see if it works with the cover off; if so, the in or out is grounding on the lid.

-plug it all in with the cover off, turn the volume up about half way, texture down all the way, gain about 1/2. hit a chord; it should make the LED inside bright then sputter and flicker out. If it doesn't, something is probably wrong with the input wiring, or the output section is grounded somehow. If it DOES flicker and you get no sound, something went wrong after the inside clipping LED; either a solder joint or possibly a wonky footswitch.

-If there's no other obvious issues but you get no flickering LED and no sound, pull the whole thing out of the case and use alligator clips to ground everything that should be grounded by the enclosure and try it outside the enclosure, to eliminate any shorts there.

-other than that, you MAY have fried the IC with too much heat; unlikely as the 386 is pretty stout but you never know. Unless you have a lot of experience soldering IC's I would suggest a socket just to be sure. if you already have the kit and are unsure about soldering IC's you can get a socket at radio shack.

:thumb:
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by FuzzHugger »

randel_07 wrote:
So please, release the complete kit already! :thumb:


Soon! I'm doing my best to keep up over here. :)
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by randel_07 »

Tom Dalton wrote:
Soon! I'm doing my best to keep up over here. :)



Yay! :)
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by Lemmings »

Has anyone finished their snowflake yet? I'd love to see a demo. I'll probably be starting mine next week.
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by ifeellikeatourist »

Just ordered my PCB today! Sooooo pumped! I can finally stop regretting not having bought a FP when they were available!
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by pothole »

Lemmings wrote:Has anyone finished their snowflake yet? I'd love to see a demo. I'll probably be starting mine next week.


I'm waiting to hear back from Tom about whether everything will fit in a smaller enclosure (like the originals, including the side mounted pots). I really like that form factor.
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by hclapp219 »

pothole wrote:
Lemmings wrote:Has anyone finished their snowflake yet? I'd love to see a demo. I'll probably be starting mine next week.


I'm waiting to hear back from Tom about whether everything will fit in a smaller enclosure (like the originals, including the side mounted pots). I really like that form factor.


He said that it would all fit in the other thread, as this PCB is actually smaller than the original. you can also look at the first page of this thread to see someone who fit it all in the small enclosure
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by transients »

alright i was piecing together the kit and realized there's a little discrepancy between the drawing on the instructions and the PCB and was wondering which one is right. it has to do with the IN4148 on the left side of the board, the positive side (square hole) is on a different side, so I'm wondering if that's a mistake on the diagram or a mistake on the PCB?

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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by Lemmings »

Damn, just started populating the PCB and noticed that too :(
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by Lemmings »

Just had a look at the gutshots in the fingerprint thread, I think i'm going to follow the diagram.
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by FuzzHugger »

Place all parts as oriented on the diagram. :) The pad differences are just from an error in Photoshop.
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Re: Snowflake kit thread!

Post by HereticPride »

any kits w/ drilled enclosures available yet? :drool:
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