What do you guys do...

[jkokura]

I got over throwing useless boards away. I had too many, and I realized there was no point in keeping them. Plus, space is limited at my workstation, so keeping useless items is a luxury I can't afford.

It'd be cool to create a thread for 'art created from useless/ruined PCB projects'

Jacob

[juansolo]

Ah the debugging routing.

- My eyesight ain't what it used to be so the first thing I look for are solder bridges with a magnifying glass.
- Then I get annoyed when I can't find them as it means I've f**ked up elsewhere so hand it to Cleggy to stare at. To double check that I've not got a resistor wrong or a diode in backwards. After you've been staring at a board as you're making it, you tend not to be able to see mistakes for looking.
- Take a break. It's a really good idea. Last time I did this I decided to debug it the following day. I got home, looked at the layout on my computer and the jumper I'd missed was staring me in the face.
- Check voltages to make sure everything is getting something like it should.
- Audio probe it to find where the signal stops. This usually finds where the issue is.
- At this point if we've still not found the issue, it'll end up in the box of shame (staging area for the bin).

[rullywowr]

Like Jk said, I think it would be fun to have a thread showing pics of your BOF or dud projects! 

[Tremster]

When I was beginning, I just threw away simple vero builds that weren't working and did them again.
I always tell myself that I will start looking into the BOF once all the unpopulated new boards I have are done.
And then Madbean comes up with a sale or someone on the forum is selling some new projects.
Finally made an audio probe though, so chances are that something might happen someday.

[pryde]

Another thing to do is just smile and realize are pedal building "problems" are just silly and trivial. Things could be far worse friends. 

Just to be helpful if needed, here is a simple diagram (based on jkokura's tutorial) of the basic testing rig with added audio probe:

[juansolo]

Like Jk said, I think it would be fun to have a thread showing pics of your BOF or dud projects! 

Purged ours recently, I don't think there's much in there...