Glitterratti problem

[Guillaume]

Hi Guys!
Im new to this community, and glad to be!

So i recently bought 2 PCBs one for Quasar, and one for Glitterratti.

I started building only the Glitterratti for now cause im a total noob, this is my first ever DIY pedal/electronic project.

And of course i encountered a problem, everything seems to be working ok, i soldered as i could all the composants and elements, i pluged the "naked" pedal in my amp (i didnt put it inside the box yet cause i havent made the holes inside.

Well before i continue my story, i have to inform you that i made a small change in the original design, its not much, but i feel it could be the reason of my problem.

I dont need battery, so i decided to use a TS jack for output and a TS dc jack, so it means that i have the tip of the dcjack (the pin) plugged into the 9v on the PCB and the sleeve of dcjack plugged where it should be on the switch. And finally the output jack is a TS, so i have only one cable pluged in the tip to the switch as shown in the PDF. It doesnt change much i think, just the ring part of both dcjack and output jack are gone and no battery socket is plugged.
first time i tried there was a "ground problem" probably cause the pedal is not in its box, so i pluged the sleeve of input jack on the left pin of the middle line on the switch and the ground problem went away, so this is how things are for now (if im being unclear, dont hesitate to ask)

So i get back to my story (sorry, im a chatterbox) i plugged the naked pedal as i said into my amp (egnater amp) but i had quite a surprise to hear this:

http://www.studiolaf.net/glitterratti/glitterratti.mp3 (i know guitar is out of tune, sorry about that, it stings my ears too)
this is clean amp at the beginning and then i change to a more gainy setting on the amp just for the try.
To record this i just threw a SM57 in front of the cab.

As you can hear, the problem is quite loud i have this huge "hummm" all the time, even when nothing is plugged to it, no jack in input (just to say it doesnt come from my guitar)
EDIT2: and even before i connected the sleeve of input jack to the swithc, i had that humm, i pretty much always heard it, even when i didnt have any sound, could it be a composant damaged? if yes, which one (cause i have few spare of some of them)

This was last night, and this morning i made a second sample, a bit more "clear" on what is going on:

http://www.studiolaf.net/glitterratti/glitterratti1.mp3

This is the pedal (still naked) plugged between my guitar and my soundcard with a speaker simulation (for your ears). first the pedal off, then on and playing with the pots, to show that its working somehow, only that hummm sound is bothering me, and i seems to be hearing also the guitar "dry" which i assume is not normal, otherwise it sounds great!

So my question is:

What did i do wrong, and what should i do to solve this humm problem is there is any solution..

Thank you in advance!
Cheers

PS: im french, sorry for my english

EDIT: few typos

[jkokura]

High Gain pedals sometimes have hum because they are high gain pedals. It sounds like your pedal is working fine, and the issue with the lack of battery jack isn't the problem at all.

You need to make sure all your input and output jacks and the DC jack are all grounded. The hum may still be there, but one way to lessen it is to use shielded cable from your input jack to the switch, and from the switch to the output jack. You could also use shielded cable from the switch to the board and back. If you don't have any, wait till you get it into the enclosure to really consider it. Sometimes it will hum simply because it's out in the open.

Jacob

[madbean]

Some of the hum will be due to it being outside of an enclosure/plugged into a breadboard etc. It will most likely go away when boxed. But, I'm also hearing some weird biasing and gating issues in the distortion which is more concerning.

What transistors did you use, and can you take some voltage readings on the pins of the two IC's?

[Guillaume]

@Jacob,
Thanks for your input, i agree that high gain pedal can have some humm, i think the samples speak for themselves on how unplayable this is for now, but as said, i agree on the boxing, ill try to find a way ASAP to box it and be able to try it in normal conditions, and then be able to draw any conclusions on whereas it's working or not.

@Brian,

I used the transistors listed in the documentation (2N5088) from this website http://www.banzaimusic.com/2N5088.html

i followed very precisly every single composant from the documentation, as i absolutly dont know what im doing, it was safer that way  

I can make measurements between pins of the two ICs, but, and sorry for the noob question, between, what pin and what pin?

Thx for taking some time to help!

[oldhousescott]

Measure each pin with respect to ground.

[Guillaume]

Measure each pin with respect to ground.

Thx!!


So i'll drill the holes in the enclosure tomorrow and make all measurments necessary (hopefully ill do this right) once its in the box. It might be better this way, i'll give results by the end of tomorrow
Thx again for the help

[Guillaume]

So, here i am again,

I drilled the enclosure, put everything inside, and i still have that hum, so tomorrow ill check out and see what could be causing this, maybe a bad solder or something (weird thing is that i tried to move every cable i could, tried to touch everything, sometimes it helps with ground issues, but i never seem to be able to get rid of that humm )

And about measurments you asked me to do, here they are:

I dont know the pins numbers, so i'll do it graphicly with same sens its plugged in the PCB



Thank you for letting me know what you think of this!

[jkokura]

So you know for the future, the indent at the one side is the orientation marker. That indicates the side that has pins 1 and 8. 1 will be to the left of the indent, 8 to the right. Pins 1-4 go down the left side, pins 5-8 go up the right.

As for me, it looks like they're fine. I don't know what they're supposed to be, but pin 8 is obviously input, and pin 4 is obviously ground on both, and then all the other pins are 'about' half of input voltage. They might be off slightly, but nothing significant to indicate and issue that I can see.

Jacob

*100th post...

[Guillaume]

alright, thanks..

I think i'll just leave it aside for some time cause im afraid of trying to fix it and make it worse...but right now its unplayable, that 100Hz or so buzz/humm is as loud when not playing than the signal is while playing.

Thank you anyway, it was my first so i was expecting a failure

[madbean]

The voltages look more or less correct on the two IC's. The hum could be introduced in a few ways: unregulated power supply, ground loop, or bad transistors. If you feel you need to set it aside for a while, I understand, but please feel free to continue asking for assistance.

[dellamorte]

im having some issues with my glitteratti ( iron transfer pcb) there is a sort of fizzy buzz quietly behind the overdrive. i checked my voltages and all are the same as above except im getting 9v on pin 7 and ideas why ?