Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I built the Color Boost for my first pedal last year. I played around with it for a little bit then went on to build several other pedals. I just got it out of the closet and plugged it in and I hear a fizzy crackle sound along with the signal. It's harder to notice at the higher gain settings which is probably one of the reasons why I didn't notice it when I finished it (I think I was pretty much cranking it!). That or can over time something "drift" that would cause this? Anyway, does anyone know what can cause this? What can be done about it?

A pedal that functions correctly at first and then changes later is often the result of subpar soldering. It looks like there might be a few spots where you applied too little solder, but it's really hard to tell from the component side. Could you please upload a photo of the solder side of the board?

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

That wouldn't be surprising, being my first build. Photo coming soon.

Would that include the wires soldered to the output jack? After unscrewing the jack both the connecting wires came off.

However, I am trying to re-solder them and the soldier is having trouble sticking to the sleeve and tip.

Here are some photos of the solder side

Clean as much of the old solder off of the jack solder tabs as you can (desoldering braid does a great job of this), then use a piece of fine sandpaper to scuff up the surface of the tab. The solder should then adhere well.

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

So, does anyone have any comments on the soldering on the underside of this board?

Thanks for the nudge, because yes, I do:

Like many first builds, the soldering quality looks pretty rough. I would work through this process: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=52188 And when it says to reflow every solder joint, it means EVERY solder joint, wire connections included. Only takes one bad one to cause such problems.

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Thank you. I will do it

Be sure to check for stray wire strands, solder bridging between adjacent eyelets (unless they're already connected with a trace), and clip off component leads and wire ends right down to the top of their respective solder joints.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I started the process of reflowing the solder points. On a few of them, when I touch the iron to the spot, there is something I have never come across. There is a "boiling" of a brownish liquid.

The attached photo is the solder I used on the pedal originally, and this is what I am using now:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BG ... UTF8&psc=1

Yeah, that's not that unusual--just residual flux or solder mask that bubbles from the heat.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Happy new year!

I have reflowed all (I think) the solder spots. It still makes the crackle sound. But now I'm hearing that it seems dependent on the gain knob setting. When the gain knob is very low, there is no issue. As I turn up the gain it becomes more of an issue. In the middle-ish area if I play lightly there is no crackle. If I dig in its there. With the gain up high, it's there always. Don't know if this is how it was exactly before.

How exactly are you powering the pedal? If you are using a power supply with a "daisy-chain" connector, how many other pedals are connected to it, and what kind are they?

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I was using a daisy chain with some other pedals connected to it but the guitar signal only going through the pedal. I just tried using a stand alone power supply and it sounds the same as the daisy chain.

Please try with a battery.

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*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Using a battery sounds the same.

Very hard to say. If you're certain that your soldering is good and your power supply isn't making any noise, I would probably look at the transistors. It's very uncommon for semi-conductors to go bad or degrade once safely in-circuit, but I suppose it's possible. You can contact sales@buildyourownclone.com and request a new set.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

If you're saying that it's rare to have a transistor go bad, it might be more likely that the crackle was there from the beginning. It was my first build. I was so excited that it powered up and worked that I might not have noticed. I then quickly moved on to making more.

Oh, another thought. Could the paint inside the enclosure be causing this? At some point I learned that it is a good idea to have unpainted contact with the enclosure and pots. This one was before that.

Bumping my late addition inquiry about the paint.

Shouldn't be a factor here because you are grounding the output jack through the PCB and not relying on contact between the enclosure and jack itself. This was really only an issue in some of the older BYOC kits where there wasn't a ground eyelet on the PCB for the output jack's sleeve and the connection had to be made through the enclosure. And even then, it was very difficult to get so much paint on the enclosure, inside and out, that there was no metal-to-metal contact.

The old OD2 kit was one of those without an output jack ground connection to the PCB (see "gut shot" below). I used to sell a lot of these in a modified version I called the "Zonkin' Yellow Screamer". I built a total of almost 70 of them, all spray-painted by me. Never had a single instance where the output jack failed to ground through the enclosure.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

The wire connections to the two I/O jacks look pretty iffy in your first photo--blobby looking, which often means poor solder contact with the substrate. Did you do anything to improve those connections as part of your solder reflow process?

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

I did. reflowed all of the connections and I replaced 3 of the wires that looked frayed in the connection points.

I received a new batch of transistors (Thank you!) and am looking for tips to remove the current ones. I used a solder sucker over the 3 spots for one of them and it doesn't seem to be able to remove enough to free the part.