Weird grounding problem with diy pedal build

[jrluke]

I'm sure if duhvoodooman sees this he'll set me straight. Weird thing building a GGG TOCT. Got it done, put it together and nothing except the led on and off so I knew not all was lost. So I'm messing around with it and find that when I took the jacks out of the enclosure it worked splendedly. So I thought everything was peachie and reassemble it and have the same-nada-result. So I take the jacks out and find that when I touch and of the metal of the input jack to the enclosure I get nada. So I've narrowed it down to a ground issue of sorts. It's wired up according to the layout so I'd like to get a solutuion before I resort to insulating the input jack with rubber gaskets or some other unprofessional tecnique. Thanks for your help ahead of time.

 

[Ch0jin]

Are you using the DC jack supplied with the kit, or a metal one?

It's a negative ground pedal, so it'll play nice with others (unlike a Fuzz Face) so that's not the problem, Standard "boss" style jacks though are center negative which means the outside of the plug is positive, and when you use a metal jack, they tend to short the outside of the plug to the case. Your case, as soon as you plug cables in, will be at ground.

So with a metal jack, your case is at 9VDC and as soon as you connect the jacks you are effectively shorting out the power.

Sorry for the super quick explanation (i'm supposed to be working )

 

[mapka]

Are you having the problem with the bottom of the case off. It could be that when you install the bottom the input jack is contacting it. Are you sure you have all your wires going to the correct lugs on the jack? final thought, I came across some input jacks from Neutriks that were constructed incorrectly. You may want to check that the lugs are what they are suppose to be.

 

[jrluke]

Bottom was on

Are you having the problem with the bottom of the case off. It could be that when you install the bottom the input jack is contacting it. Are you sure you have all your wires going to the correct lugs on the jack? final thought, I came across some input jacks from Neutriks that were constructed incorrectly. You may want to check that the lugs are what they are suppose to be.

I've checked and rechecked all the soldering and ground joints and it's all right and the thing is that it works as long as no metal of the input jack touches the metal box. The DC is the typical plastic with negative to ground. The layout is ground to output sleeve, output sleeve to input sleeve, ground to 1 lug of volume, jump to 1 lug of intensity, 1 to 2 of intensity, 2 to 1 of pregain. So clarify this for me please. The input jack is a stereo jack with a ring for the - 9v, sleeve in the middle for the ground and tip for 3PDT switch. Then the output with the sleeve for the ground and tip back to the switch. It seems like either there's an excess of ground connections or a lack thereof. What's driving me nuts is that it works great until that stereo jack touches the enclosure dammit! Gotta be something simple but I'm fairly new at the pedal building thing. Thanks and maybe the ring-tip-sleeve are mixed up on the input jack but then why does it work?

 

[jrluke]

Thanks for the effort to resolve what turned out to be a really simple human error which I fixed as soon as the iron got hot enough. The diagram/layout misled into some erroneous wiring which I figured out by looking on their website of all things. Anyway the pedal is for real Foxy Lady territory. The TOCT. Background story behind that pedal. Tycobrahe was a company doing sound for Jimi and he was using a Roger Mayer Octavia and Tycobrahe cloned his pedal. I don't know about the Tycobrahe Parapedal but that's what I heard from some guy on YouTube who had an original Tycobrahe. Good luck to all.