Sabertooth Wiring Question?

[Giantsinbloom]

Hey everyone!

Complete noob to the pedal building world here lol. I am almost done with my very first project, the sabertooth. everything has gone very well so far and im loving it!

I have completed the board and all thats left is to wire it to the in/out jacks, Switch,and the DC input.

I am actually really confused however, how to go about doing this. If someone could provide me with some photographs or a diagram of how exactly to wire all this up I would be eternally grateful!

Thanks guys!  

Brian

[irmcdermott]

Hey man, welcome to the forum, and to your new addiction!

The Sabertooth was my first build as well! Do you have the project document? There is a wiring diagram in that that is pretty straight. If you still need help after that, then I will crack mine open and snap some pictures and see if that helps. Please let us know how we can help! That's a fun circuit!

Ian

[Giantsinbloom]

Hey man!

Thanks for the kind welcome, and I know exactly what you mean by new addiction... its a blast!

I didnt see the wiring diagram in the Version 4 document, but after you said that I went back through the older versions, and found it in the version 3 doc so thanks!

I just had one quick question about the diagram, I am only wiring a DC input jack and not the 9v battery adapter. is there anything i need to change about the diagram when wiring it now? or do i just simply omit the 9v adapter and its connections?

Thanks!

Brian

[eniacmike]

yeah you can just omit the 9v snap

if you aren't using a battery you don't need a stereo input jack either because you don't need to switch the battery off.

the input jack will be grounded through the enclosure and the sleeve of the output jack is connected to ground by the black wire on the sleeve.

if you want to be extra cautious you can make run another ground wire from the sleeve of the input jack to the ground connections on the switch.

[Giantsinbloom]

So I just finished up the build today, was super stoked to go plug it in, but as expected I ran into a multitude of problems, and I have NO CLUE how to go about problem solving them lol.

As soon as i plugged in the pedal, i noticed that the LED was always on, and would not turn off when the switch was on or off.

Then, when i put the pedal plugged the pedal into my amp, I got a loud buzzing that was not changed at all by either turning the switch on and off or moving any of the pots.

Any ideas what this might be? or what to look for? I really have no clue where to start at this point.

Thanks guys!

[mjcyates]

Sounds like you definitely have your switch wired incorrectly. Post some pics and I am sure the fine builders on this forum can figure it out.

[Giantsinbloom]

Okay guys here are some pictures of the switch... bear in mind this is my first time soldering (other than practice) so im sure your immediate reaction will be similar to this .gif



Here are the photos

[jkokura]

Good try for your first one! I can appreciate that it's a complicated and difficult thing to work on such a small basis. I'll post a couple pics of examples of my more recent work and also a 3D diagram that will help you learn how it 'should' look...

Check out this link. This is how I wire up all my True Bypass 3PDT switches.

http://gaussmarkov.net/images/1590B_SETUP_GNDIN.bmp

The white wires are your in, bypass, and out connections. In is on the left, out is on the right. The connector wire across the bottom. The Green wire that goes between the upper left lug and the lower middle lug is an important wire - it grounds the input when your switch is switched to bypass. The Green wire on the middle lug of the centre pole is also attached to ground on the right jack. The upper lug in the middle is what attaches to your LED - this would be where on Madbean's board you would attach the wire to 'switch' by the LED. Another alternative is to have the LED, and the LED resistor attach directly to power and to this same lug on the switch. Last but not least, The yellow and blue wires. The blue wire attaches to the input of the board. The yellow to the output.

So if you follow how a switch works - the sound goes into the middle lug of the left pole. When the switch is 'down' or off, the sound goes down to the next lug, uses the white wire to 'bypass' the circuitry, and then goes out the right white wire to the output jack. Moreover, because the middle pole is attached to ground in the common, the circuit drains to ground through that little green wire That's bypass. When active, the switch is 'up' and is engaged. Sound now goes in through the middle lug of the left pole and now goes up to the blue wire. sound then goes into the board through the blue wire, then back out through the yellow wire, and then goes out to the output jack through the right most pole's middle lug. Now the ground is connected to the LED wire instead of the input, and the LED is activated. Simple.

Here is a picture of the beginning of me wiring a pedal up. Notice the Switch in the corner of the enclosure. Those two blue wires are important to do first - actually, the cross one that connects the upper left to the bottom middle is the most important to do first. If you don't do that one, then it gets hard to do later on. Then I do the 'bypass' wire. This is the beginnings of a Pork Barrel (CE-2 Chorus) so you know.



Here's a pedal all wired up. If you look closely, you'll see the input ground wire and the bypass wire are blue. The Input from the jack is Yellow, and the connection to the board is yellow also. The output from the board is purple, and so is the connection to the output jack. The green wire on the middle lug of the middle pole is the ground, and the LED is connected straight to the switch with some blue wire coating that I've put onto the LED. I wire the LED's + end to the board. This is a Cupcake (Orange Compressor) by the way.



Hopefully this helps. You have to be careful when you do all this. Look how little solder I use, and how clean it looks. I say this not to 'condemn' you, cause I fully realize that you did your best, but rather I show and explain all this so that you know what it could (should?) look like. Now if I had to debug that, or replace a wire, it is really, really simple to unsolder a specific connection without ruining the switch or creating a lot of havoc. It's really easy to get an audio probe or DMM in there if I need to, and it looks really good (tooting my own horn - sorry).

Anyway. I think this helps with another post too, so I'll link to it from elsewhere.

Jacob

[Giantsinbloom]

Wow, Thank you so much for all that information Jkokura!

Its really awesome to be on a forum where people care enough to type out a whole bunch of information for a complete noob like me! haha

I followed your advice and went ahead and rewired the switch according to that diagram and it looks way cleaner as you can see here.




I am not sure where the two sleeve ends of the input and output connectors are supposed to go however as is evident in the photo.

Only thing is, that when i plug it in and try to turn it on... the crazy buzz is still there, just only when I turn the switch on. When the switch is off, the only noise is what sounds to be a low grounding hum, but im assuming that this is due to the sleeve ends of the not being wired yet. Any ideas otherwise gang?

heres another shot of the switch up close



Thanks!! you all rock! as soon as I get enough understanding to be helpful, I hope i can help others out on here too!

Brian

[madbean]

Possibly the switch is bad.

[jkokura]

Possibly, but more likely he hasn't grounded his in and out jacks.

The sleeve of the jacks NEEDs to connect to ground. So you can attach it either to the board, or to the switch where the ground from both the board and the power connect. Most of us use the open neutrik or switchcraft jacks that connect ground through the enclosure, but you're using isolated jacks, and that's why you're getting crazy noises. Connect the grounds to start, that should get you going!

Jacob

[zan]

Hi,

I'm a noob at this and I'm also attempting to build a Sabertooth. Problem is I'm not getting any sound passing through when the pedal is on.

I believe I have my switch wired correctly however I have my doubts as the led doesn't come on when the pedal is switched on.

Basically this is what happens:

• When the pedal is on no signal passes through and the led is not lit
• When the pedal is on the led does not come on.

Note that I have been testing with alligator clips joining up the grounds but removed them for the photos. I haven't tried it out in a case yet.

Anyone have any ideas about what I've done wrong? I've checked that all the resistors are correct and buzzed out a few things on a meter, as well as checking polarity on caps.

Thanks
Zan

[zan]

Well, with the help of my dad its now working.

Basically I had the dc power in jack wired incorrectly, but all good now