Pedal repair

Grolschevik

LED on one of my pedals won't work, although the effect does. I kind of need the LED as it's quite a subtle compression effect. I took it apart and with some fidgeting it would light up intermittently, so I reckon it's a dry solder joint somewhere on the circuit board. Where's the best place in and around Dublin to have it looked at? I've used Martin Nolan for amps before, and Rigs for Gigs in Finglas for my wah, but have youse any other ideas?

Grolschevik

Nobody here has an answer? Guess I'll give it over to the guy I just met who did electrical engineering in college and owns a (gasp!) multimeter and a soldering iron. Cos that's all that's needed, really...

But seriously lads; do you just buy new ones?

feylya

If it's only a dry solder joint, why not just buy a soldering iron? It really isn't hard to solder.

Owen

I'm with Feyla on this one. OP, normally, we'd all have a crack off repairing the likes of this.

Voodu Child

AYe, unless its a seriously expensive pedal, it wouldnt be worth your while getting someone to look at it.

Grolschevik

The (supposed) dry joint is on a circuit board. If it was a readily identifiable dodgy connection, of course I'd have had a go! But circuit boards are a different matter, n'est pas?

feylya

Not really.

Grolschevik

Ok. Unless it's an identifiably obvious wire coming off a board, I won't do soldering. This pedal has everything -- pots, switches, power -- directly wired to the board. I think there is a dry joint on the board, and since I don't have either a multimeter or a a soldering iron, nor the circuit plan for this two-in-one effect, I'm stuck. If I could have repaired it myself, I would have. After all that, can you suggest somewhere?

As far as I know, there is no current dealer in Ireland for this unit.

Owen

It'd help if you told us what the unit is.

Grolschevik

ned78 wrote:

It'd help if you told us what the unit is.

Sorry, man!

It's a Visual Sound Route 66 (combined) compressor and OD. Two footswitches and a bass boost. The OD section is fine: all working and present and correct. The compressor/clean boost section works fine too, except for the LED. Which is necessarry, for me, anyway...

Owen

Right, a quick google brought up an image. Never worked on one before, but looking at the outer casing, there's 2 LEDs, green and red. It wouldn't suprise me if they're in series with the Footswitches. I doubt very much they're connected using a small solder footprint. Any soldering around the footswitch is going to have to be heavy duty to cope with the abuse from your feet. So I would guess, and it is only that - a guess, that if you open her up, around the switch area, you'll see the LED's on stalks, with the solder footprint below quite visible, and easy to reflow.

Hope it helps!

Grolschevik

ned78 wrote:

Right, a quick google brought up an image. Never worked on one before, but looking at the outer casing, there's 2 LEDs, green and red. It wouldn't suprise me if they're in series with the Footswitches. I doubt very much they're connected using a small solder footprint. Any soldering around the footswitch is going to have to be heavy duty to cope with the abuse from your feet. So I would guess, and it is only that - a guess, that if you open her up, around the switch area, you'll see the LED's on stalks, with the solder footprint below quite visible, and easy to reflow.

Hope it helps!

Thanks! The LEDs are on stalks, but the board pattern scares me. I can do point-to-point wiring , but circuit boards are psychologically difficult for me. I'm the sort of guy who keeps dodgy techs in business...

Owen

Don't be afraid. If you want, take a photo of the pcb and post it here. We'll all talk you through it, and I'm sure a few others can pick it up along the way too.

Grolschevik

Or I could pay someone to do it...

Grolschevik

Ok. The pedal has been checked over with a multimeter and some solder reflowed. Still can't find the cause of the problem... Any ideas, lads?

Voodu Child

Grolschevik wrote:

Ok. The pedal has been checked over with a multimeter and some solder reflowed. Still can't find the cause of the problem... Any ideas, lads?

Sell it on ebay describing the problem, and then buy a working second hand one. Someone who is handy with pedals will buy it. Swallow the difference in money as the repair cost.

Honestly, if you cant fix it yourself, and cant find someone who will do it for a few pints, you'll have to pay someone to have a look, and it will probably cost you more than to do the ebay thing above.

TV/Radio repairmen would probably fix it no problem, but they'd be charging their regular rates.

Have you tried contacting the bredhed guy?

Eoin Madsen

Yeah, Dublin just isn't a great place to get stuff repaired or serviced. I'd try and diagnose and repair it myself first.