# Face Melter not working :(



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

So I finally put my face melter pedal together and I sadly failed hard. Its not making any sound and the only thing that works is the foot switch led and another led at the top of the board next to the grounds for the jacks. The 2 leds on the middle of the board are not soldered on but they are making contact like they would on an arduino when I test stuff before soldering. Besides that all my contacts are in place although not perfect they should be good enough to allow the pedal to work.

 I have clue what i did wrong, does anyone happen to notice something thats not in the right place? I can add some close up pics if needed. Im hoping I didn’t fry the board itself 🤞🏻🤦🏻

(Moved this post from my face melter post to here as mentioned by chuckdbones since this is the trouble shooting section)


----------



## Coda (Mar 26, 2022)

I would start by checking voltage at the pads of the LED’s in question. Are the bent legs of the LED making contact with anything? I would also reflow most of the joints on the top-half of the pcb. Some of the joints look like they could be cold. Also, is there any solder at the center lug of the footswitch? And the connectors you used for the pots; not a horrible idea, but I would double check that the exposed metal tabs on the sides of the plastic housings are not grounding out against any joints…


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Coda said:


> I would start by checking voltage at the pads of the LED’s in question. Are the bent legs of the LED making contact with anything? I would also reflow most of the joints on the top-half of the pcb. Some of the joints look like they could be cold. Also, is there any solder at the center lug of the footswitch? And the connectors you used for the pots; not a horrible idea, but I would double check that the exposed metal tabs on the sides of the plastic housings are not grounding out against any joints…


Thanks for the tips!!  ill look into that stuff, the led legs are not touching anything just looks like that from the angle of the picture. I have a multimeter but I have zero experience with using it. Im more worried that i may have cooked the board. I leave my solder tip (low temp) on the contact and the wire for about 8 seconds and then flow the solder onto it. Thats how I was taught to do it but maybe this is totally the wrong way to do it lol.


----------



## fig (Mar 26, 2022)

Hi Chris,

I'm certainly not an expert, but I doubt the board is fried. I'm curious why you've wired the foot switch and pots in that manner. It seems to add potential nodes that could cause issue.


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

Does sound go thru in bypass mode?


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Thanks for the reply  I had to wire it that way do to the complications of my custom enclosure (the pcb was made for specific drill template that wasn’t the same as the original p melter pedal). That was the only way I could fit it inside although I wish I could have just mounted the pots to the board and used wired for the switch like Ive seen in many build posts.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Does sound go thru in bypass mode?


No sound at all sadly.


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

Is is that important to copy the appearance of the Pu55y Melter exactly?

Since you get nothing in bypass mode, then focus on the wiring to the jacks & switch.  Looks like the yellow & purple wires are on the wrong jack terminals.  Move them both over one terminal.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Heres more images of the board as close as i could get without it getting blurry.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Is is that important to copy the appearance of the Pu55y Melter exactly?
> 
> Since you get nothing in bypass mode, then focus on the wiring to the jacks & switch.  Looks like the yellow & purple wires are on the wrong jack terminals.  Move them both over one terminal.


Thanks! ill try that if i can manage to get the wires back off now lol


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

Take the easy path and just cut the wires off next to the terminals.

If you're not soldering the pots to the board, then it would be a good idea to buy pots with solder lugs instead of PC pins.  I'm getting the impression this is your first build.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Is is that important to copy the appearance of the Pu55y Melter exactly?
> 
> Since you get nothing in bypass mode, then focus on the wiring to the jacks & switch.  Looks like the yellow & purple wires are on the wrong jack terminals.  Move them both over one terminal.


Is this the two wires you were talking about?


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Take the easy path and just cut the wires off next to the terminals.
> 
> If you're not soldering the pots to the board, then it would be a good idea to buy pots with solder lugs instead of PC pins.  I'm getting the impression this is your first build.


Absolutely my first build hehe. Ive done lots of Arduino stuff in the past but never anything like this.


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

You might want to peruse this thread:

https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/basic-workflow-tips-for-building-a-pedalpcb.1165/


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> You might want to peruse this thread:
> 
> https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/basic-workflow-tips-for-building-a-pedalpcb.1165/


Thanks! that was a helpfull thread I noticed one thing I did that doesnt seem to be needed on the foot switch. The way I wired mine was the same as the image below but the part I highlighted in green doesn't seem to be needed.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

I took all the wires off for now and I’ll try again hopefully I will have more luck this time around hehe🤞🏻


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

Do you know how to remove the wire remnants from the board without wrecking the board?


----------



## spi (Mar 26, 2022)

Chris420 said:


> Thanks! that was a helpfull thread I noticed one thing I did that doesnt seem to be needed on the foot switch


That grounds the input to the circuit when the effect is bypassed.  You're right it doesn't _need _to be there but in some circuits it can help prevent noise from impacting the bypass signal.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Do you know how to remove the wire remnants from the board without wrecking the board?


Not really I do have one of those cheap solder suckers but Im not great at using them. Sometimes I can get parts back off the board but theres high potential that i will wreck the board by melting a bunch of stuff. I practiced on a few old mother board and desoldered everything on them but i burnt the board pretty bad in the process.


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

What kind of soldering iron do you have?

I find that solder braid & flux are more effective for clearing plated-thru holes than a solder sucker.


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

So I finally put my face melter pedal together and I sadly failed hard. Its not making any sound and the only thing that works is the foot switch led and another led at the top of the board next to the grounds for the jacks. The 2 leds on the middle of the board are not soldered on but they are making contact like they would on an arduino when I test stuff before soldering. Besides that all my contacts are in place although not perfect they should be good enough to allow the pedal to work.

 I have clue what i did wrong, does anyone happen to notice something thats not in the right place? I can add some close up pics if needed. Im hoping I didn’t fry the board itself 🤞🏻🤦🏻

(Moved this post from my face melter post to here as mentioned by chuckdbones since this is the trouble shooting section)


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> What kind of soldering iron do you have?
> 
> I find that solder braid & flux are more effective for clearing plated-thru holes than a solder sucker.


Just a cheap one no brand name on it.


----------



## spi (Mar 26, 2022)

There's a few places I see potential connection issues with the solder.  You may want to reflow any solder that's not connecting to the pads.


----------



## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 26, 2022)

Chris420 said:


> Is this the two wires you were talking about?


yes


----------



## Chris420 (Mar 26, 2022)

Thank you very very much for all the help so far, its very much appreciated. You all rock!! 🤘🏻😃


----------

