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-door creaks- H-hey guys.

I'm attempting to replace a circuit in my custom pedal from devi. I bought a punch love kit so I could flop a Karaoke Party in there. But I messed up in placing the transistor SO NOW IM MAKING A DARK BOOST...cool. Anywho, I very messily soldered the parts on to the pcb and wired it into my God Machine and it isn't making any sound when turned on. This is my first time with all this and I just looked at the directions on devi's etsy and I was like "fuck it! lets just dive right in."

I have images attached of the mess I've created. I wired the input wire to the R1 pad, but it wasn't working so I took it out and wired it to the input... IDK IM NEW, JUST TRYING STUFF. I don't know if its swell to leave solder in the pads... ARE THEY CALLED PADS? Thats what I've come up with by looking at stuff. I need to put a capacitor into C2 for a dark boost, but I left it out for now just to see what happens.

Again... freshly born diy baby noob guy here. What did I do wrong?

I can definitely see some solder bridges but sometimes that won't make a difference. I'd try and get rid of all the solder bridges (where two different blobs of solder melt into each other) first and see if that fixes it.

Nice pictures man I'm sure you'll get it working.

How do I separate those? I tried when I was working on it earlier but I couldn't seem to get them to separate.

You can usually tin the iron and run it between the two blobs to make the solder go back to the pads. If there's way too much solder it might be easier to get rid of some with a desoldering pump.

^ what he said.

Also what gauge solder are you using? You might be able to control the amount you use better with a thinner gauge.

Officer Bukowski wrote:^ what he said.

Also what gauge solder are you using? You might be able to control the amount you use better with a thinner gauge.

I'm currently using 0.050 diameter 60/40 solder. I'm sure once I get a third hand it'll also be a lot easier. Currently using a chip clip nailed to a block of wood. Not too stable.

Ahh. I've never used any kind of clip/third hand

I hold the board in place and solder with one hand, iron in the other. It's probably a lot easier than fucking around with a chip clip haha. I have to hand it to you though, that's clever.

Yeah just try not to use so much solder in the future. You just need enough to make a connection and hold the component in place a fat blob doesn't do you any good.

Yeah I learned that within the first two components! I tried using my hands but the pcb for the PL is so small my fat thumb kept getting in the way.

Panavise Jr > Third hand!

But the 3rd hand is probably cheaper. I've never had much luck without something to hold stuff into place. Especially with smaller boards. I don't really get how some people do it. In the mean time, sticky tack would probably work to hold the board to the table/desk/etc.

Anyways, yeah, those solder bridges are probably causing problems. By "probably" I mean "definitely." Except that I'm not actually 100% sure, so probably. Either way, they're bad, and you should fix them.

The best way is with a solder wick or desoldering pump (Google it, there's lots of good info on Youtube and such), but, in the absence of that... add a little fresh solder to the bridged joints, and right after it flows, try to scoop the excess solder up with the iron. Fresh solder adds some flux to the joint which... does something that makes the joints come apart easier.

.05" solder might be a bit larger than you wanna use. I use .025", but I think a little thicker than that is more standard. Thin solder is neater, and easier to control, and thicker gets more on the joint faster. Pros/cons/etc.

If you're totally new to soldering, make sure you know how to take care of the soldering iron tip. That makes a huge difference.