# Percolation Station Help!



## ryan z (Sep 16, 2020)

Hi,
Rookie builder here. Just put together a Percolation Station, but having some trouble. When I have the circuit wired up outside the enclosure, it works fine. When I put it in the enclosure I get nothing when the pedal is engaged. I have it wired exactly to the specs in the doc, and I am guessing it is a grounding thing I don't know what to do next. Any insight would be welcome.

Thanks,
Ryan


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## Cucurbitam0schata (Sep 16, 2020)

Photos will help us, try to get some and post them. I know a handful of folks (me included) have built/tinkered/modded this one - so we'll be able to assist with some shots. Couple questions off the top: LED working when boxed? Absolutely nothing when the pedal is engaged? No fuzz or noise? Do you have an audio probe? Multimeter?


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## zgrav (Sep 16, 2020)

if it works out of the box, look carefully to see what may be touching your enclosure to short out a part of the circuit when it is in the enclosure --- take a good look at the power jack, check the input and output jacks (especially the tabs where the input and output wires connect).

do you have the plastic insulators on your pots?  make sure the pots are not being pushed against something else on the board when everything is in place.  as noted above, post some photos if you don't find the cause and want some more suggestions.


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## Nostradoomus (Sep 16, 2020)

Did you use a metal dc jack?


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## ryan z (Sep 19, 2020)

Got busy with work. here are some pics.Trying to use a EHX 9volt adapter. Right now as is pictured below, it passes a clean signal when off, but seems to work fine when the guts are completely out of the enclosure. could I hook up a 9volt battery snap in place of the DC jack?


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## Elktronics (Sep 20, 2020)

What’s the board mounted to? It looks like it’s shorting to the back of the pots/enclosure


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## ryan z (Sep 20, 2020)

Elktronics said:


> What’s the board mounted to? It looks like it’s shorting to the back of the pots/enclosure


board is mounted to one of the pots (PCB mount) directly, the other pot is wired to the board. I think I may have fried something as nothing works now. LED won't light up in any situation. Only a clean signal when switched off. I have a multimeter on the way so i can hunt down the problem.


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## zgrav (Sep 20, 2020)

do you have anything to insulate the back of the pots from the board?  most of the pots used in these builds have a plastic shell on the back of them


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## Jbanks (Sep 20, 2020)

I know sometimes the ground issue is as simple as having the pots tightened too much against the enclosure. I’ve had that happen several times and is a really simple fix. Once you get it working again, rebox and tighten to finger strength. If still not working, try loosening the screws a bit so the pots don’t ground out.  

other likely culprit is the DC Jack not being plastic or shorts on your 3pdt wiring caused by the wires getting shoved and bent when you box the pedal.

Good luck


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