How do you "Rock it before you Box it"?

[frooshontay]

What is your process for "rocking it" before "boxing it"? This is my first time working with PCB's, one being a madbean, a few others from another PCB place. So last night I finished up my first build (since 2013) and plugged it in and while it get some sounds out of it, it doesn't quite sound how it should. I still have a bunch of troubleshooting to do, but instead of going down that rabbithole, I wanted to ask how people test their boards before boxing them.

So assume I have all of the components and pots soldered onto the board. What's the best way to hook it up to my breadboard for testing? Do I estimate the offboard wiring and solder that onto the board, then hook up alligator clips to those wires? At first I thought about clipping the alligator clips directly to the pads on the board, but the pads are too small, and the clips are too big.

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

[Willybomb]

I solder long wires on (like a foot or so) to the i/o/v/g and hook all that up to my testing box.  I can trim later, adding length is possible but a pain.

[WormBoy]

Depends on the circuit ... if it is a profesionally made PCB (like those of MB), I would finish the board, including all wires and pots, and hook it up to a testing circuit; I use this one myself: https://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/Ultra_Tester/p847124_15700704.aspx, which also has a signal generator, audio probe and power pump on board. Before that, I used something home-brewn and a lot simpler; basically alligator clips to input/output jacks and a 9V input. Clipping those clips to wires works fine as long as you keep them away frome each other and from grounded thingies.

If it is something that is less professional (vero board or something where I want to do a lot of mods), I would select components where I leave one leg long so I can clip an alligator clip onto it. E.g., if you leave the leg on the input cap (leg that is connected to the input pad) long, you can easily clip something onto it; no need to try to clip to a solder pad or solder in a wire. In some cases, that requires a bit of testing to select the right leg to keep long (and sometimes I forget and snip it off after soldering ... D'oh!).

[WormBoy]

I solder long wires on (like a foot or so) to the i/o/v/g and hook all that up to my testing box.  I can trim later, adding length is possible but a pain.

I also do that. And what I trim off, I save for places where I know for sure that I can use a shorter wire (save the planet: recycle  ).

[jimilee]

Somewhere in this sub forum is a thread on just that. I built a 1590a with alligator clips for power, on, out and ground. It has regular audio jack and a power jack. I plug the guitar in one side and the amp just like a regular pedal. I didn't use a stomp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk