How to Troubleshoot Pedal Pi

Hello!

I'm a newbie to electronics and was wondering if somebody could help me troubleshoot my Pedal-Pi. I built it recently and have since installed Debian Jessie onto the Pi Zero W and also compiled the libraries as per the instructions found on the pedal pi product page.

What I'm unsure of is my electronic workmanship as it was actually my first soldering job! Here's a link: photos.app.goo.gl/HqfnrGlhOIFF6dZ03

I've also used a multimeter where I put the black pin on ground and tested the other connections as you can see in the photos. The first connections I tested were all showing 0.04 as the Pi was off. When I then turned it on, the multimeter shows a minus value.

I've also shown photos of the bottom so as people can see my soldering work..

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Best,
Alex

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me. I built the pi and installed the latest version of Raspbian Stretch. I got BCM2835 and have compiled a couple effects. ...But they sound terrible - like distorted and clipped (not in a good way).

So I went back to check the voltages as others here have suggested. At the 1.6V, I'm getting nothing and on both the 3.3Vs I'm getting 2.8V. I know something is wrong and maybe shorted, but I've gone back over things double checking with a soldering iron a couple times. Any chance, based on the voltages I'm seeing someone could point me in the right direction on the circuit?

Thanks!

Do you have WiFi enabled ? If so , try it without.

Hi, I'm using your diagram to develop a prototype. I also use the libraries and the code supplied but when compiling I have error collect2: error ld returned l exit status

BruceR, I did have wifi enabled, but even with it off, I'm still having the issue. I should also mention that besides the 1.6V and 3.3V spots, the 5V ones are reading about 5.5V. Also, I'm not getting an LED light.

I'm no electronics expert but I do know from my experience that the blue LED is only lit by running one of the effects programs. It is controlled from GPIO 16 to indicate whether you have stomped on the foot switch.

I only mentioned WiFi because my experience was very poor until I turned WiFi off.

I got the pedal working! Like a lot of other people, I was a soldering issue. Everything looked great from inspecting the board, but I must have had a cold solder somewhere around R12/R0/R1. Now that the circuit is fixed, I am running into some of the same issues you had, BruceR. I have some noise because of the wireless and also having Octaver problems. For now, I'm plenty fine with the static. I didn't expect this to be a replacement for the Line 6 Helix or anything - just something to play with. Cheers!

I think the WiFi is more than noise. It's actually eating up too much processing power. I've switched my Pi to run as a serial gadget and the difference is dramatic.

Can you elaborate on what "serial gadget" means? I have mine set to launch a program at boot, but everything else still loads. And I can't change the program without wifi and SSH. I messed around with trying to use my phone as a controller (when there's no wifi) and kept hitting a dead end. Basically I'm trying to figure out the best way to use pedal pi live, with the ability to change a program if needed. And using the least amount of system resources.