# No LED and no bypassed sound but Captain Bit working



## Dali (Oct 22, 2019)

Hello,

I have a strange case of a Bit Commander pedal producing no sound (no bypassed clean sound when off) but if I change the switch to "on" the LED stays off but pedal seems 100% working.

I wrote "seems" because those noise makers aren't that predictable but frankly, when I watch EQD demo (



) I got the same.

I tried a different LED but same result. I didn't change the 9 pin switch yet...

Any hint/idea?


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 22, 2019)

Take a picture of your switch and in/out wiring, something is definitely funky


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## Dali (Oct 22, 2019)

Thanks for having a look !


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 23, 2019)

Is there a bridge between your SW and GND pads?


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## Dali (Oct 23, 2019)

Nostradoomus said:


> Is there a bridge between your SW and GND pads?



It looks like that from my picture... Will test and report tonight!

I'm learning... I'm learning...


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## tdukes (Oct 23, 2019)

Nostradoomus said:


> Is there a bridge between your SW and GND pads?



Wouldn't that make the LED on all the time?


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## zgrav (Oct 23, 2019)

Is the LED in backwards?  Have you tested to see if you have voltage going to the LED?


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 23, 2019)

tdukes said:


> Wouldn't that make the LED on all the time?



Not if it’s in backwards 

Looks like (in the first pic, kinda hard to see) the flat side is in the anode pad, flip it around. Flat side = Cathode (K pad)


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## Dali (Oct 23, 2019)

The longest branch of the LED is on the K as you can see on the pictures. So backwards !

Will fix and report tonight !


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 23, 2019)

Anything bridged or shorted to ground is gonna give you trouble. Good news is the board works, but something is just off with your offboard wiring. Get that bridge outta there and the led flipped and we’ll take it from there. An led backwards shouldn’t affect your bypass signal.


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## tdukes (Oct 23, 2019)

Nostradoomus said:


> Not if it’s in backwards
> 
> Looks like (in the first pic, kinda hard to see) the flat side is in the anode pad, flip it around. Flat side = Cathode (K pad)



Usually when I get the LED in backwards (it has happened more than once), it's time for a new LED, it never works again.


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## Dali (Oct 23, 2019)

tdukes said:


> Usually when I get the LED in backwards (it has happened more than once), it's time for a new LED, it never works again.


I will not be the cheap guy and work with a new one. I also put an IC backward and once I saw my error throw it away in my "probably dead" bin...


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 23, 2019)

Flat side K
Flat side K
Flat side K
Flat side K
Flat side K



but yeah do replace it. Could you post some more pictures? I’m interested to see the whole wiring scheme you’ve got going, in/out jacks etc.


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## tdukes (Oct 23, 2019)

Your switch looks like the sharp edged ones I have had trouble with before. The ones I have used the most from Tayda haven't given me trouble yet. They have rounded corners.

I took a picture of these side by side. The one wired in the circuit with sharp edges I have had 3 of 5 go bad. I have used 31 of the rounded ones like I am holding and haven't had a problem (yet). I have used one of the super-premiums from love my switches. It is nice, but $16 is a lot for a switch.


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## Dali (Oct 23, 2019)

Nostradoomus said:


> Anything bridged or shorted to ground is gonna give you trouble. Good news is the board works, but something is just off with your offboard wiring. Get that bridge outta there and the led flipped and we’ll take it from there. An led backwards shouldn’t affect your bypass signal.



I also just bought 12 "3PDT Breakout Board" from PedalPCB this morning to stop doing the weird 8-to-1 pin bridge (green wire on my picture).

*@ Everybody here: *Guys I'm just starting and every time I don't succeed at first I get almost depressed and want to sell my soldering station, parts and PCBs but by helping me here, I just want to show some perseverance! 

Big warm thanks you to you all (and also thanks not pointing my lack of English as a problem)

Dali


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## Dali (Oct 23, 2019)

tdukes said:


> Your switch looks like the sharp edged ones I have had trouble with before. The ones I have used the most from Tayda haven't given me trouble yet. They have rounded corners.
> 
> I took a picture of these side by side. The one wired in the circuit with sharp edges I have had 3 of 5 go bad. I have used 31 of the rounded ones like I am holding and haven't had a problem (yet). I have used one of the super-premiums from love my switches. It is nice, but $16 is a lot for a switch.



Rookie mistake to buy cheap parts from Aliexpress 2 years ago before I knew if I would be able to do it with no "local help". Now I refuse to buy from Aliexpress or eBay...

Life lesson learned: It's not a good deal to save on quality.


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## Nostradoomus (Oct 23, 2019)

Oh yeah don’t give up, everybody here has been there! Push through, it is so worthwhile.


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## Dali (Oct 23, 2019)

Half a good news: The LED was in fact backward. At least now it's going on and off.

The other mystery still stand as for the dry/bypassed signal but I will wait for the "3PDT Breakout Board" that shipped few hours ago to replace the switch itself. There's no bridge of lead touching each other as far as I can see.

So I'm now assembling parts for the next ones.

Thanks to all, for your time. This place and its members rocks!


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## moonlightpedalbuilds (Oct 25, 2019)

3$ 3pdts from tayda looks like the 16$ switch from lovemyswitches


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## Robert (Oct 25, 2019)

Dali said:


> *@ Everybody here: *Guys I'm just starting and every time I don't succeed at first I get almost depressed and want to sell my soldering station, parts and PCBs but by helping me here, I just want to show some perseverance!



I've been building for years and I _still_ feel this way after an unsuccessful build.


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## Dali (Oct 22, 2019)

Hello,

I have a strange case of a Bit Commander pedal producing no sound (no bypassed clean sound when off) but if I change the switch to "on" the LED stays off but pedal seems 100% working.

I wrote "seems" because those noise makers aren't that predictable but frankly, when I watch EQD demo (



) I got the same.

I tried a different LED but same result. I didn't change the 9 pin switch yet...

Any hint/idea?


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## tdukes (Oct 25, 2019)

pedjok said:


> 3$ 3pdts from tayda looks like the 16$ switch from lovemyswitches


The $16 switch does feel different and weights different than the $3 switch. I bought one because I was curious. I wasn't curious to tear it apart to see if the insides were different. I am happy with the $2.49 A-331 from tayda for most builds. They are also at LMS for $2.48 in a couple of different colors.

I have posted a few pictures I took when I got the super premium switch to compare with the Tayda A-331. I think this is not a necessary upgrade, and I don't normally use or recommend these; but they are not the same switch. 

Some people may also prefer the hard click of the A-331 over the soft click of the Super premium. These super premiums may be available somewhere else as well. I haven't looked. 

Fulltone used to sell a premium switch for about $15 or so too. I have never tried one of these.

Last switches I bought were a batch of 50 from LMS to get the $2.35 price.


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## Dali (Nov 11, 2019)

Mystery solved !

I'm happy to report that once I change all the pots and switch from Aliexpress/China to those from Tayda and use the PedalPCB 3PDT Breakout Boardb, everything works as expected !


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## Dali (Nov 11, 2019)

Guts of the Captain Bit here: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/chela-od-talons-captain-bit-bit-commander.1664/#post-12350


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