[S.B.Nichols]

No...judging by the picture you posted a few days ago, your sleeve is the middle lug. It almost always is. If you connect the battery to the sleeve it will always be on. We'll connect the battery in the last step, don't worry about that right now.

Here is a picture for reference...


For right now, all you need to do is install the jacks, and run one wire from the sleeve lug to the switch (lugs 2 and 5). Your build right now should look something like this...

[Chups01098]

Okey dokey i think i did what i was supposed to. Heres pics. Sorry for the out of focus a little bit, i couldn't figure out macro mode on my mommas camera.

Whats the next step?

[Rainer.]

The pictures will come out better if you put a pretty good strong light straight on whatever you're photographing, FYI.

[Chups01098]

Awesome ill try that next time. Thanks

[S.B.Nichols]

OK, that looks good. You're using a little more solder than you need to, but that's not too shabby. Make sure you're heating the parts directly, and not heating the solder. One tip for you, go ahead and rotate your input jack so that all the lugs are facing up, you'll need to get at them all and it'll be easier if they're facing you. While doing that, insert a cord into each jack and double check that the tab doesn't ground out on the inside of the enclosure. With a plug in it'll push the tab out a bit, if it touches the enclosure you won't get any sound. If you notice that it does touch then it's no problem, just remember to rotate the jack back around when you get done wiring it.

Next step is to wire the path for your signal. This is only slightly more tricky than the last step.

Now we'll be working with the TIP of each jack. On the mono jacks it is easy to find because it's the tab that isn't the sleeve. For example, on the second picture you posted, on the right-most jack, it is the lug that is facing more or less up. On your stereo jack, it appears that it is the lug that is facing up too, but double check it to make sure, it's hard to tell exactly on the picture. So, all of that is to say, the first thing to do here is identify the TIP of each jack.

You've got to run three wires here, like so.

You need to make some cross connections here. Do it in the same way you connected the last two lugs. Note that the cross wires should not touch each other. This is where a small flat head screwdriver will be handy. You can use it as a probe to bend the wires after they've been soldered to the switch so they don't touch.

The purpose of wiring it like this is so that it sends the input of the unused path to ground. This will completely kill the sound on that side. The switch would work without it, but you'd probably get some noise on the unused path.

With this step completed, your A/B switch should work, only without the lights, obviously. Go ahead and test it out. If it works, post some pics and we'll wire up the LEDs.

Lamb Chop?

[Chups01098]

I can't have the jacks the right way up, i have to have them turned, because I drilled the holes to close together, so they touch if they're right side up. Not a problem though. I just turn it when I need to solder something to it.

So I wired it, and it was fairly easy with no problems. I am trying to use less solder.
It works great, and is not noisy at all, like it was before.

Heres some pictures. Now can you teach me how to wire up the leds, and get it where the battery only works when input jack is plugged in?

And yes, that says Lamb Chops. Haha

[S.B.Nichols]

Yeah, I'll put the last step up tomorrow, we'll get the LEDs working in no time....its late now.

I'm glad it's working though. It'll get easier. Every pedal you build will yield you with better results.

[Chups01098]

Originally Posted by S.B.Nichols

Yeah, I'll put the last step up tomorrow, we'll get the LEDs working in no time....its late now.

I'm glad it's working though. It'll get easier. Every pedal you build will yield you with better results.

Awesome. Thanks for the help though dude, you've helped me out so much more than finding little bits of info randomly on the internet, and trying to put it together by myself.

[S.B.Nichols]

Here's your last step....

You want to think about someway to secure the battery and the wires.....hot glue does good. Otherwise you'll be changing your battery and accidentally pull the LEDs out of place or break a wire or something unpleasant like that.

Basically connect the negative wire from your battery snap (the black wire, typically) to the RING of the input jack. This way, when you insert a plug into the jack, you connect ring and ground together, which turns the LEDs on. Remove the plug and ring and ground are no longer connected, LEDs turn off.

With the positive wire (typically red), you want to connect it to your resistor. Without the resistor the LEDs will burn out in seconds. On the other end of your reisistor you want to attach two wires, one for each LED. This is where you might want to use the hot glue....wrap the resistor and all exposed leads in either heat-shrink or electrical tape, then glue the thing down.

Attach the two wires to the longer leads of the LEDs (one each, obviously), and then run a wire from the shorter lead to the switch, as seen below.

And then you should have perfectly working A/B switch.

[Chups01098]

Originally Posted by S.B.Nichols

Here's your last step....

You want to think about someway to secure the battery and the wires.....hot glue does good. Otherwise you'll be changing your battery and accidentally pull the LEDs out of place or break a wire or something unpleasant like that.

Basically connect the negative wire from your battery snap (the black wire, typically) to the RING of the input jack. This way, when you insert a plug into the jack, you connect ring and ground together, which turns the LEDs on. Remove the plug and ring and ground are no longer connected, LEDs turn off.

With the positive wire (typically red), you want to connect it to your resistor. Without the resistor the LEDs will burn out in seconds. On the other end of your reisistor you want to attach two wires, one for each LED. This is where you might want to use the hot glue....wrap the resistor and all exposed leads in either heat-shrink or electrical tape, then glue the thing down.

Attach the two wires to the longer leads of the LEDs (one each, obviously), and then run a wire from the shorter lead to the switch, as seen below.

And then you should have perfectly working A/B switch.

Thats how i wired the leds before, but only one would work, then after a minute, neither worked. i looked at them closely and i think i might have burned them out. what strenght resistor should i use? somewhere said 1k, and and somewhere online i saw that 1k was brown,black,red, then gold at the end.. but i've tried that twice, and after a little, the inside of the led is black

[S.B.Nichols]

Brown, black, red, gold should be 1k.....but the only way to know for sure would be to test it with a multimeter. If the inside of the LED is black, then it sounds like it's getting burnt out. The only way that would happen is if your 1k resistor isn't a 1k resistor, or if there is a short somewhere causing the current to bypass the resistor all together (looking at the pictures from a few days ago, I don't see where this might have happened)

1k should work.. It's blinding though. I used to use 1k and people kept complaining.

4.7k is more standard

[Chups01098]

Awesome! i built it with a 4.7k one, and everything works! got it all packed up in the enclosure, and its great! Thanks

[S.B.Nichols]

Fantastic, I'm glad I could help.