A quick tube (valve) fuzz box

[WeirdBits]

(tube socket pins)

[JohnH]

(tube socket pins)

Excellent! In that case I've just wired the socket backwards, so hopefully that'll be an easy fix tomorrow.

Thanks heaps

[JohnH]

Got this wired up today, plugged it in, and poof! Magic smoke from the IC.

After a closer inspection there's a bit of stray solder joining two tracks so I imagine that had something to do with it. Will try again tomorrow with fresh eyes

[jugglindan]

Good luck. I have liberated a lot of magic smoke in my time. There's no getting it back in either
I hope you have spare chips.

[JohnH]

Luckily past John was kind to present John, and ordered many chips lol.

[JohnH]

I forgot how gross the smell is when you release the magic smoke. Found two other half built pedals in a drawer while looking for the 12v power supply, so will look more closely tomorrow and see what they need to be finished

[DrNomis_44]

Oh the dreaded magic-smoke locked-up inside those components, fortunately I haven't had that happen to me very often....touchwood, although one time I did experience what happens when an electrolytic capacitor explodes, first you hear it go bang, and then you smell the aftermath.

[jugglindan]

Fortunately I wasn't around when this happened:


It's on a 30w Kustom acoustic amp chassis I picked for $5. I will try to fix it one day. Or raid it for parts. If I could ID the spring reverb unit on it that might make it into my valve amp build if I ever get around to that.

[DrNomis_44]

Fortunately I wasn't around when this happened:


It's on a 30w Kustom acoustic amp chassis I picked for $5. I will try to fix it one day. Or raid it for parts. If I could ID the spring reverb unit on it that might make it into my valve amp build if I ever get around to that.

Yeah, that looks like a classic example of an exploded electrolytic cap, if you're lucky all you'll need to do is replace that cap and the amp should work again, I've seen an exploded electrolytic cap where the aluminum casing had literally been blown-off, and you could clearly see the insides of the cap that had exploded, it was in a DC regulated variable power supply I had built from a kit I bought from Jaycar Electronics.


If I were you, I'd replace both of those caps with new ones of equal or greater capacitance and working voltage.

[JohnH]

Fortunately I wasn't around when this happened:


It's on a 30w Kustom acoustic amp chassis I picked for $5. I will try to fix it one day. Or raid it for parts. If I could ID the spring reverb unit on it that might make it into my valve amp build if I ever get around to that.

It'd be fun to see if you can get it going again, but then sometimes those projects are such huge time-sucks