Slambox died

[jasonphilly77]

Hey folks

I built a Slambox a couple of weeks ago. Work great for several hours of playing and then when I was unplugging a different pedal earlier in the chain...all of a sudden the LED blinked off, back on, then gradually got really dim until totally dark. Now it (the pedal) doesn't work at all.

I'm gathering that these BS170 transistors are pretty fragile but I thought there was some sort of protection built in to this pcb that was supposed to gaurd against this. Am I missing something?

I also realize that next time I fiddle with unplugging stuff I should have this pedal OFF so it won't happen again.

The real question is now what do I replace first. The BS170 or one/both of the diodes that are supposed to protect it. I guess maybe the LED is dead too?

Anyone else had this problem? Popping Transistors and/or LEDs?

Thanks

[jimilee]

How do you have the LED wired? on most builds it is independent of the circuit entirely. Could it be your ps?

[jasonphilly77]

I'll check that out asap this weekend. I did open it up and there was no broken solder joints or short-outs with the power jack inside.

I worded my original post poorly (since edited). Sorry if I was a bit confusing. The pedal doesn't work at all.

Also, LED is wired straight to pcb.

[jubal81]

If your LED isn't lighting up, then your first problem is in the power supply section (jack, wiring, polarity protection diode and filter capacitor(the big one).

[jasonphilly77]

Great! Thank you for the replies. It's fixed now. Apparently I had a pinched power cable from my Voo Doo PP2+ that was shorting out. Replaced that cable and all is well! Whew.

[jimilee]

Ahahahahaha, great news! We all have stories of rebuilding a pedal many times over before discovering it's the PS! Glad you caught it.