Know when its time to give up

[Clayford]

"We will never give up, never surrender, whatever the cost may be."

Jacob

"By Grabthar's hammer, the box of fail shall be avenged!"

[RobA]

I don't really give up on debugging a build. But, I don't get frustrated doing it either. It's pretty close to the same mindset when debugging a program and I've done years worth of that, so I'm pretty much used to it. I save all my frustration for how awful my paint jobs are on the boxes. I gave up trying to label the knobs and switches after my second attempt because it looked so bad.

The only complete fail I've had is a CE-2. I first did it as an etched board and it was noisy and thunky and I could never figure out why. That's actually the reason I'm here. When I found the Pork Barrel, I ordered it, ripped the BBD of the failed build and built the Pork Barrel and was instantly happy.

I'm close to adding another fail though today. I etched a PNP Fuzz Face with a normal +9V rail as an experiment and the thing motorboats with about 2/3rds of the transistors I put in it and I can't figure out why. I've been fooling with it for two days now and it's getting senseless. 

[chromesphere]

I've been fooling with it for two days now and it's getting senseless.

KILL IT!!

[micromegas]

one things comes to mind: will it blend? 

[RobA]

I've been fooling with it for two days now and it's getting senseless.

KILL IT!!

Yeah, that would be the smart thing to do.

one things comes to mind: will it blend? 

Only after I take out the transistors, but I don't have one of those industrial strength blenders either.

[Cortexturizer]

My personal nemesis has been the Colorsound Overdriver. Tried it 3 times I think, it worked every time but it just won't work well, that's not how it's supposed to sound...once I came close but the tone control wouldn't work no matter what I tried, and it's just a handful of components for crying out loud...

Then, these days I am trying out a DAM Meathead Deluxe, really surprised this doesn't get built more, it's awesome.
Or at least it was uber awesome until yesterday. I was trying some new stuff on the board and suddenly, it has seven times less gain than it had. Tried everything for hours, literally 5 or 6 hours of trying. No change, everything is as it should be, connections, voltages, orientation of the caps, everything. The funny thing is, I love it like it currently is It's really low gain but has very nice sustain and polished sound, kinda like Santana, cleans up incredibly. I might box it like this.
That's another thing - sometimes I accept the build for what it came out to be, and just go with it. Hell I played concerts with bastard builds like that...

Interesting thing with the Overdriver, now the Meathead, and the Axis Wah. I hated the sound of all of those builds, never thought they were correctly built and sounded good, and in all of them I used some old Russian PIO caps JUST FOR THE LOOKS OF THEM. Now I am pretty certain that those caps are non-working caps. Damnit.

[Leevibe]

I have a little "fail bin" but I will probably never resurrect those circuits because I end up picking them over for parts before I get back to them.  In that boneyard is a splitter blend and an optical compressor.

[GermanCdn]

Generally, if it doesn't fire up within five minutes of troubleshooting after a build, I put it in the "fix later box" and move onto another circuit.  Whether it ever makes it out of the box is a question of complexity.  I had a Low Rider that I couldn't get to work for the life of me, bought another board, fired up first time.  Hours of non frustration is worth far more than a new board.

[jimilee]

Generally, if it doesn't fire up within five minutes of troubleshooting after a build, I put it in the "fix later box" and move onto another circuit.

I usually unplug it and then insert the ICs and or trannies. Usually works after that! :-D

[muddyfox]

Hours of non frustration is worth far more than a new board.

A man after my own heart! 
I only do troubleshooting if it's something that I feel like it might be an easy fix if I could only find the problem. If I have a pedal that "sorta works" or works but sounds nothing like what it should, that one goes in the box of fail and most of those never see the light of day again. I have way too many unpopulated boards to worry about as it is! 

[playpunk]

Don't talk to me about this.

I desoldered an entire green bean board and repopulated it because it was the first thing I ever built, and i didn't want it to remain a failure.

[twin1965]

I don't give up easily! I really hate when things don't work first time. I can spend hours or days trying to find the problem. Most of the time it's just very stupid mistakes. I get a form of masochistic pleasure out of troubleshooting! Fail bin has only one circuit: a Pep Box Rush. It sounded good on breadboard but crap on vero


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[billstein]

Generally, if it doesn't fire up within five minutes of troubleshooting after a build, I put it in the "fix later box" and move onto another circuit.

I usually unplug it and then insert the ICs and or trannies. Usually works after that! :-D

Word

[Clayford]

Generally, if it doesn't fire up within five minutes of troubleshooting after a build, I put it in the "fix later box" and move onto another circuit.

I usually unplug it and then insert the ICs and or trannies. Usually works after that! :-D

Word

Yup - did this on a Klone buffer I popped into my board i/o box. Boxed it up and took it to practice sans ic. Rather than drive 25 min home - I went to Radio Shack up the street and paid $2.50 for a TL082. thank god I socket.

[juansolo]

Then, these days I am trying out a DAM Meathead Deluxe, really surprised this doesn't get built more, it's awesome.

I can answer that.

Back in the day there was a big thing with DAM and fans over on their forum going mental about people cloning his pedals and selling them on ebay. Got to add that this wasn't Dave to be fair, just some really overenthusiastic fans. Aaaaanyhow, we found it amusing and all built a shitload of Meatheads just to wind them up. Long story short; everyone built a original one knob Meathead and it was a bit shit in all honesty. So no one really bothered about making the deluxe which adds the control that the Meathead needs to be able to dial it in and sound really good.