Build Your Own Clone Message Board

So this was the first project I ever worked on and sadly, the compressor did not work :/

The LED light comes on when plugged in and bypass signal works, but when I engage the pedal, I don't get any signal

First thing is I don't know if that top 1N4148 diode's polarity is right. According to the instruction, my diode is installed wrong and is upside down. But according to the PCB that I got, the diode is correct. Can anyone give me insight to weather or not that diode is correct? and would that cause the pedal to not work completely?

Also in the third pic, two of the resistors are accidentally soldered together. (right under the middle leg of the ratio knob) I am wondering if this too could be the cause of my pedal's malfunction. Or is those two resistor already connected in the PCB? I can't tell and those two holes were really close to each other.

I also have to add, right when I finished making the pedal, I got really excited and plugged the pedal in to see if it worked. After turning it on I totally forgot to install that 9 pin BA6110 IC. Would turning on the pedal without the IC cause anything to break? I really hope not :/

Thanks for reading this post. I know it was long but I really need some help/advice ^^

The diode is right. You should have a Rev 2.1 board so the PCB is correct.

It won't hurt anything to not have the IC in when you power it up. A lot of people forget that step but no harm done.

As far as the solder bridge goes, I would clean up that joint and and all of the other joints as well. You have a few joints that look like they might not be making the best connection. I would just reflow the board and see if that corrects the problem. Btw, in case you didn't know, reflowing is just reheating the joints so that they establish a good connection.

Could we see your footswitch wiring?

Do you have a multimeter available to make some continuity checks?

Thanks for the support! I will definitely try that. Also I don't have a multimeter but I'll ask around and see if I can get my hands on one

So I manage to check all the connection from each part to the PCB and resoldered some, but still no results

Here's the picture of the footswitch

I'm in the process of getting a multimeter. So where would I start once I get my hands on one?

From one of your pictures it looks as though you have seated the pots down as close to the board as the stepped notches in the terminal legs will allow. Is it possible the metal backs of pots are making contact with the back of the PCB and shorting things out? As I recall the kit instructions warn not to seat the pots all the way down. Some builders stick spacers onto the back of the pots to stop this happening.

Thanks @Tark I'll look into that. Yeah since it was my first I did kinda set it really low :/

I got a Multimeter! So... Should I start seeing if I have any bad parts?

Ok so apparently, I plugged my guitar into the output part of the comp and plugged the input to the amp. Thus the bypass worked while the pedal didn't.

So, after realizing that, I plugged the right cable and whata know, the pedal works! Nothing was wrong (as far as I can tell because the only thing I did after building the pedal was reheating the solder)

So far nothing is wrong. Every knob does it's thing and yeah, I am so glad it works!


Thanks for your support you guys! I am blessed

haha, nice. sometimes its the simplest things that get overlooked. congrats man.

This is actually not the first time I have seen this exact same problem

Enjoy and good job on the pedal.

You know, I figured I'd be smart enough to know where the cables go. I feel like in the spur of the moment I just plugged the cables randomly and came to a conclusion that it "didn't work" rather than checking my patch. I guess the "guitar in, amp out" in most pedals aren't for show (any maybe I should have drawn that first before I started on that pedal!). In all honesty, I feel like this error is equivalent to forgetting to connect a power cable to a printer and wonder why it's not working