# BYOC Mighty Mouse



## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

After that Rat thread I got a little wistful thinking about my old Rat pedal. So, I bought a Mighty Mouse kit from Axe and you Shall Receive and am going to attempt building it tonight. I'm a bit of an amateur solderer, so wish me luck.

Any last minute tips you guys can offer?


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## The Tourist (Feb 18, 2007)

Be patient, read instructions carefully. I just screwed up my BYOC Trem because I put the transistors in wrong and am currently trying to find a store that sells desoldering braids...but good luck!


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## elcabong (Mar 6, 2006)

Yep, as said before, take your time, do not rush it. If you are tired, take a break and come back to it later. It is just going to be better when you first hear something you built!:banana:


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Well, that was a gigantic waste of my ****ing money.

After double, triple, quadruple checking everything, soldering and re-soldering joints...................it doesn't work. Things finally culminated in me stabbing the pedal many times with my soldering iron.

Good times! :banana:


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I got one last christmas, wife picked it up for me. I did the build without problems, actually added a mod to it. But I have a lot expierence with soldering and assembly. If it is still salvageable after the soldering iron attack I would offer to put it together for you. It would only cost you shipping. But then again you could give it one more look over. I find in this case it usually is a bad solder joint, sometimes it is the orientation of a component. Anyway the one that my wife picked up for me turned out pretty good. If you'd like my offer stands just drop me a pm.


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Yeah, it's still salvageable. The only thing I managed to really break was the footswitch. The pcb was out of the casing at the time of me finally losing my patience. I woke up this morning still really frustrated about it. I've never worked on something so carefully and for so long and not had it work.

Maybe I was being a little too modest about my soldering skills. I've built a few things here and there and they've always worked. I'm a pretty decent solderer. After thinking about it a bit, I'm coming to the conclusion it was some sort of faulty component, because when I plugged it in, it worked fine when the pedal was off. I got clean signal. But when I turned it on, nothing. 

I was pretty meticulous about everything, but especially the orientation of the items that were sensitive to polarization. And I quadruple checked all of my solders to make sure there weren't any bad ones.

So, I guess I'll go out and buy a bunch of new components and start swapping things out until it works. The one thing I wish I knew a LOT better was how to read a schematic so that I could go through the pedal component by component with my multimeter and find exactly where the problem is.

The funniest thing about it all is while I was building it, I just knew it wasn't going to work, despite how carefully I did everything. I guess I've just had too much luck in building things before and my luck ran out. Haha. Ah well. I'll get it working eventually. Thanks so much for the offer, Paul- that's very generous of you. I may take you up on it if I ultimately don't get it working.


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## The Tourist (Feb 18, 2007)

Perhaps you can post pictures on the BYOC forum and see if they notice any problems?


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

The Tourist said:


> Perhaps you can post pictures on the BYOC forum and see if they notice any problems?


I was checking pictures of problem builds that people have with the MM and my board looks set up exactly the same as theirs. After checking for the millionth time, all of my components are in the right place and oriented correctly if they're polarized. This guy seems to be having the exact same problem as me and confirms my suspicion that I got a bum component:

http://board.buildyourownclone.com/viewtopic.php?t=2526&highlight=mighty+mouse

Do any of you know where I can get a replacement footswitch? It doesn't seem like a thing that you can just walk into an electronic parts store and buy, but maybe I can.


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## Baconator (Feb 25, 2006)

Building your own pedals is cool, but VERY frustrating when they don't work. You really have to have a lot of patience when going through the troubleshooting process. I had a hell of a time getting my digital delay working and was pretty certain some component was faulty. The only way I was able to solve the problem was to go over all of the solder joints again and then check the picture of the board, grab my multimeter and check every resistor to see if they measured correctly. Check along the traces and see if you can find spots where the signal is interrupted. Yeah, it sucks, but it IS a new thing for you and I had to learn the hard way too (as has everyone that has built any electronic component of any complexity).

As for the footswitch, there must be a number of places in TO that would carry a DPTP switch (I believe that's what that kit uses IIRC). The places I would look first would be the better quality electronics stores and guitar shops. I wouldn't be surprised if Songbird had some and if they didn't they would probably know where to find them. 

Good luck:food-smiley-004:


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Oh yeah- good call on the Songbird. I'm gonna turn this frown upside down and use the this as an excuse to learn more about how to use my multimeter properly.


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## kat_ (Jan 11, 2007)

The Tourist said:


> Be patient, read instructions carefully. I just screwed up my BYOC Trem because I put the transistors in wrong and am currently trying to find a store that sells desoldering braids...but good luck!


The Source CC (formerly radio shack) should have desoldering braids and the little vacuum suction thingys.


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

I have one of those suction thingys. It's quite handy.


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

Check your diodes too. If they got overheated during the soldering they can potentially go. Good luck on finding the problem.


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## Baconator (Feb 25, 2006)

nine said:


> Oh yeah- good call on the Songbird. I'm gonna turn this frown upside down and use the this as an excuse to learn more about how to use my multimeter properly.


That's exactly what I did about 3 months ago :tongue:.

Since then I've learned more and my last build (Octavia clone) went way faster and worked the first time I plugged it in. After having a nightmare build with my slow gear clone I swore I'd never try anything like that again, but I got over it and am going to try fixing my Mesa Boogie with a friend's dad who's a retired electronics repairman.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I find an audio probe the handiest thing when troubleshooting a problem. You can follow your signal until it stops and there will be your problem. They are really easy to make, here's a link showing how and discussing there use.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/debug.html


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Ripper said:


> Check your diodes too. If they got overheated during the soldering they can potentially go. Good luck on finding the problem.


That's definitely possible, although I was doing a pretty good job soldering yesterday and didn't have to cook stuff to get the solder to take. Although it's far from professional looking, I'd have to say that the soldering I did last night was the best I've ever done. And then after looking at some of the pictures on the BYOC forum of work other people have done I felt even better about it.

Thanks for that link, Paul. I'll give it a good read tomorrow.


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## The Tourist (Feb 18, 2007)

kat_ said:


> The Source CC (formerly radio shack) should have desoldering braids and the little vacuum suction thingys.


I actually just went to The Source yesterday and only found the pump thing. I'm not sure if I'm using it incorrectly, but I'm having a hard time getting all the solder out from the pads...do braids work better at all?


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

The pumps work ok it is a timing thing, when the solder is hot get as close as you can before pulling the trigger. Braid works well, will clean up the eyelets on the boards better than a pump. I use the pump to take away the bulk then clean it up with the braid. Saves on using so much of the braid.


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

now what you need is a vacuum desoldering station...:banana:


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Had one at the last place I worked, great but pricey.....


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

PaulS said:


> The pumps work ok it is a timing thing, when the solder is hot get as close as you can before pulling the trigger. Braid works well, will clean up the eyelets on the boards better than a pump. I use the pump to take away the bulk then clean it up with the braid. Saves on using so much of the braid.


I've done a lot soldering/de-soldering in my day and I've never had much luck with braid. The pump is the way to go. You have to get really close with the end of the pump to the joint you are heating up with the iron: to the point where you're _almost_ touching the joint . Then, as soon as you remove the iron, you push the button. You also have to pump the handle frequently to remove any solder which has built up in there. You might want to practise a few times on some dummy components to perfect your technique.


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## Yerffej (Feb 7, 2006)

nine said:


> I'm coming to the conclusion it was some sort of faulty component, because when I plugged it in, it worked fine when the pedal was off. I got clean signal. But when I turned it on, nothing.
> 
> 
> 
> > that only proves that you wired the switch correctly. you could easily be right about the dead part though. you could just troubleshoot each bit and start again


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Well, at least I got that right! Haha.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

The Tourist said:


> Be patient, read instructions carefully. I just screwed up my BYOC Trem because I put the transistors in wrong and am currently trying to find a store that sells desoldering braids...but good luck!


I got some from Radioshack... I mean "The Source". Check them out to find desolder braid.


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

I.
Found.
The.
Problem!

Yes. Y.E.S- yes! So, this afternoon I sat down to take the whole shebang apart and find out what the problem was. But first I took some time to re-read some threads on the BYOC forums about the Mighty Mouse. The one that I posted earlier was the answer. It was right there under my nose.

http://board.buildyourownclone.com/viewtopic.php?t=2526&highlight=mighty+mouse

I have the same yellow-purple-black-red-brown resistors that he does. They're 47k and not 47ohm. Bugger. So it turns out that I got the wrong parts in the first place.

Hopefully the place that I bought the pedal from will send me the proper resistors. Kind of frustrating that I got the wrong ones in the first place, but whatev. Mistakes happen.


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## The Tourist (Feb 18, 2007)

Awesome! I'm sure they'll send you the right part.. And I got my Trem working too :banana:


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Yeah, it looks like he's going to send the resistors. 

And he should fire whatever nephew or kid he had sorting out the resistors for 6 bucks an hour. Haha. Just kidding. :tongue:


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Impatiently, I decided to call my local "The Source" (formerly Radio Shack, but now even worse, if that's possible) store to see if they had any resistors in stock. Here's the phone call:

Me- Hi, I was wondering if you have any resistors in stock
TheSourceMonkey- Yep, we do.
Me- Oh, cool! I'm looking for a couple of 47 ohm....
TheSourceMonkey- They're all in a box.
Me- What- you mean it's just a bunch of resistors, loose in a box?
TheSourceMonkey- Yeah.
Me- Alright, nevermind. Thanks.


Hahaha. That would be like finding a needle in a haystack! Not to mention the damage it would do to my vision, trying to read those stupid colour stripes. Is that black or brown? Orange or Yellow? 

Good old The Source. Like I was going to take an hour out of my day to rummage through a box of resistors, only to find out it wasn't in there.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I remember the days when you could get just about anything for electronics at Radio Shack. Those days are long gone now. It has basically turned into a second rate computer and toy store.


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

*Mastervox*

There a store just a couple of streets from my house who's really helpful when you need some electronics components. The guys at Mastervox are really open to all your questions and they got a lot of things in the store. You can almost build an amp and all your stompbox with what they get in a row. Just have a look on their website, there's a lot of things. And for the disco's fans there's a couple of mirrors bowls (sorry i don't know the correct term) !

Mastervox
(it's the english version of the site, just for you guys !)

Nine : for a first try with BYOC how was it ? I know you hadn't the good components, but for the rest of the construction. 'cause I expect to try a ultimate fuzz and I wanna know how it was ! Thanks !


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## nine (Apr 23, 2006)

Ti-Ron said:


> Nine : for a first try with BYOC how was it ? I know you hadn't the good components, but for the rest of the construction. 'cause I expect to try a ultimate fuzz and I wanna know how it was ! Thanks !


Really, it wasn't that bad. If I were to do another I'd certainly do a few things a different way but other than that it went pretty much according to plan. I'd mainly change the way I did the wiring to make it a little easier on myself. The box is so tiny and hard to work in that I'd do a lot more of the wire soldering out of the box and then place the stuff in afterwards.

The nice thing about the kit is that they give you enough wire to almost do it twice, so mistakes aren't going to leave you high and dry with no wire left to fix anything.


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