The only reason that I could not use schematic that you sent me (perfect as it was) was that I am at like soldering mastery of like level -2 and that is like level 10.

The closeness of everything made it impossible for me to not have solder running over to other things. I was simply trying to spread things out.

Also I need the the pots on one side and the LED out put on the other.

I do thank you.

The PDF was simply to look at an idead of what i was doing because I am going to try the program you have next.

 

Take the time (an hour) to raise you soldering skill level. Also, you can help yourself by reading up on soldering technique. The solder you are using may also be causing problems. If you are using very large plumbing solder, you will have problems.

 

I've never done anything with ExpressPCB, so I'm not going to be much help with it.

One thing you did in your layout that makes things a LOT harder for beginners, is that you ran traces right through pads. This makes it harder to solder due to the trace sucking up heat, and more likely that you'll overheat a whole section of a trace and "lift" it off the board; the epoxy lets go of the copper. Once you lift a trace, the board is scrap. You can try to repair a "hobby project" trace using bus wire, but that's harder than just soldering component leads to pads.

After you have transferred your laser printed traces to the board and soaked the paper off, you really need to look it over closely. Use a Sharpie pen or similar to "touch up" any areas where the toner didn't stick well.

Not quite sure why you'd need the pots on one side and LED outputs on the other; the board is so small it shouldn't make much of a difference?

 

I believe I bought the good stuff for PCB

Copper Clad FR4 / FR-4 Printed Circuit Board Laminate Material
1/16" (0.062") Thick SS (Single Sided)

The solder I am using is

.050 Diameter (high tech) 63/37 rosin-core solder

I will be trying this all again soon with the new guidance.

Maybe ill make one that works first then play with board arrangements

Thank you again

Branden

 

Okay I built it and nothing happened.

I get no voltage to the led wires unless I turn the pots fully to the right.

I checked voltage and I getting a full 12 volts after I turn the pot all the way over and in any other position I get no volts. All 3 Colors do the same thing.

Also none of the colors light up. I feel like I am not getting enought mA to even turn them on.

I followed everything to the tee, with one change I did not know where the common cathode for the LED went to so I wired into the ground area of the board.

I changed the 2.7k Resistors to 27k Because I went to 100k pots like you said also.

I am using your original design with no modifications.

Thank you

Branden

 

OK, so what are the part numbers on the pots?

Are they linear pots, or audio taper/log taper pots? I'm suspecting one of the latter two.

Can you take photos of both sides of the board and post them?

Take the photos outside on a cloudy-bright day. If no clouds, just drape a white sheet over yourself while bending over to take the photos. Don't use a direct flash, it will make the image "harsh" with too much contrast.

 

POT100K 100K Linear Taper Pot on Futurlec.com

http://www.futurlec.com/cgi-bin/search/search.cgi the one on top. These are the ones you said to get I thought.

Ill try to take pictures real fast

 

That link just took me to a search page. No parts were shown.

 

Click the link and search pot100k and it is the first one.

 

having a pain in the half uploading pictures.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k229/Wild4play/LED/DSC_0085.jpg

 

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k229/Wild4play/DSC_0089.jpg

FINALLY here is a top view.

Thank you again

 

This one:

... has some dubious areas circled in red. I really can't tell, because you used flash photography, and the image is harsh. That's why I asked you to take the photos outside on a cloudy-bright day.

What I think I see is things like lifted pads and bad solder joints.

 

With this:

Looks like the resistors are a bit large. Pay attention to the areas circled in blue; make certain that the resistor's leads are not shorting out against each other.
[eta]
It's OK if the resistors' leads in the two circles are touching each other, as they are connected on the bottom side.
However, are you certain that you used 47k resistors for R11 thru R13? I can't tell if they are yellow-violet-red or yellow-violet-orange. The #3 band LOOKS red (4.7k), which would keep it from oscillating.

You used polarized tantalum caps instead of non-polarized ceramic or metal poly caps for C1 and C3. If you installed them the wrong way around, they are probably destroyed. [eta] The tant (C1) nearest the large electrolytic (C5) is installed with the correct polarity. If the other one is installed the same way (long leg of the upside-down L on the C5 side) then both are installed with the correct polarity.

 

Okay everything checked and still a no go

The resistors in ? are yellow/violet/orange so 47k

I cannot get you a better picture of solder points, but none are lifted and they are not touching. Sadly I have a NIKON d90 do not know how to use it very well. It will not take a picture any closer than that.

I had to substitute a 1/4 watt resistor for the 3.3k resistor.

I also check the values of the resistors prior to putting them in, the 3.3k resistor was not giving me 3.3k resistance for some reason. The whole rack of them was giving the same value of 2.2-2.4k, I am not real amazing at the ohm meter thing though.

 

Have you tried Macro mode? My fathers d90 can focus to around 2 inches. I suppose its the lens that matters.

 

OK then, it's time to start measuring some voltages.

Do you have a multimeter? If you don't, you can pick up an inexpensive digital multimeter at Harbor Freight for under $10. If you don't have a Harbor Freight store near you, you could buy one at Radio Shack.

I know it's a bit awkward, but try very hard to only touch one test point at a time. If you accidentally short multiple pins together during the following tests, you may cause problems.

Set your meter to measure 20V DC.

Check to make sure you are getting roughly 12v across the big 100uF capacitor.

Then I need to know what voltages you are reading when measuring from ground (the large area of copper on the board, or pin 12 of the LM339) to:
1) LM339 pin 10. (this same voltage should be on pins 8, 6, and 4. If you have an O-scope, it will look like a triangle wave that alternates between about 4v and 8v.)
2) LM339 pin 11. (this pin should have a square wave on it that alternates between about 4v and 8v).
3) LM339 pin 13. (this pin should have a square wave on it that alternates from nearly 12v to nearly 0v)

For the above three readings, it will also be very helpful to have AC readings. If you just take DC readings, they will all measure roughly 6v when in normal operation.

4) Measure the voltage at VRX-1. This is the common connection point for all of the pots' #1 terminals. It should be roughly 9v. If it is much higher than that, you have a problem.
5) Measure the voltage at VRX-3. This is the common connection point for all of the pots' #3 terminals. It should be roughly 3v. If it is much lower than that, you have a problem.
6) Measure VR1-2, VR2-2, VR3-2. They should read between the voltages you measured in 4) and 5) above.

Be sure to turn the meter off after taking the measurements.