repairing broken boss DD-3

[netwerkingyuppie]

so i just posted this on the BYOC forum to see if i could get help there but figure there is bound to be someone around here that knows just as much.

background...
so have completed my first BYOC build (phaser) and now have another task at hand. found what i thought was a great deal on craiglists. this guy was selling a boss dd-3, ge-7 equalizer & a 40w peavey amp and asking only 120 for all 3. too good to be true obviously.
wasnt interested in the amp really, but even 120 for those 2 pedals is a steal.
i bit tho, and met him at a coffee shop, talked to him and everything seemed legit. looked at the gear in his car, i had brought a 9v and a patch cable to test the pedals. the equalizer worked fine, light on.

the dd-3 didnt, and i noticed the battary snap had what looked like leaked acid on it from when a battery is in there too long or blows or something. i figured that was the only problem, and that i could just use the 9v in or swap the battery cables easy enough.
so i just opened the case up and its a mess. orange rust / looks like powdered something or other, looks like battery acid, all along the circuit board and coating the 9v in.
my cameras batteries are charging right now but will respond w/ pictures sometime tonight.
in the mean time, anyone know what this might be caused by / if this is at all salvageable?
seriously looks like the entire circuit was underwater or something

[OffYourFace]

I had an old Boss RV-2 that looked like it was underwater.  I was able to save it though.  You need to take it completely apart and brush all the rust off the ckt. board.  I used a toothbrush and some deoxit spray.  Replace the battery lead and clean all the jacks (incl. AC jack)

good luck!

[netwerkingyuppie]

cool good news...do you remember which type of deoxit you used?

[OffYourFace]

i'll have to get back to you tomorrow.  It's a bit stinky and the fluid is very RED 

[netwerkingyuppie]

so i got bored today and bought the deoxit kit from radioshack. sprayed & brushed & cleaned & sprayed & brushed & cleaned and no luck, so i guess this is a bump for any other suggestions.
board does look MUCH cleaner tho. i cant understand how to work a digital camera i guess cuz i took 40 pictures and all of them are blurry and out of focus

[OffYourFace]

does the pedal power up at all?  does any signal pass thru?  it might be something simple and it might not.

[netwerkingyuppie]

pedal does not power up at all, LED does not turn on and no signal passes through.
all connections look fine, it seems like the case was never opened up...not sure how the pedal could have been damaged / in the condition it was in.

[vancouverois]

Just a thought, it would be a good thing to verify the wiring continuity with a tester.
Sometimes a wire can be broken internally, I mean within the isolation plastic, and still looking in good/acceptable condition.

Here is a link describing the different versions of the DD-3:
http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/articles/DD3.htm

[danoisefactory]

or if you're handy and you sound like it)
build an audio probe to check continuity.


http://www.geofex.com/FX_images/audioprb.gif

[netwerkingyuppie]

thanks for all the suggestions guys. i dont own a multimeter or anything, and honestly there is so much wiring in here in harder to reach places, if it was the wiring i'd probably just as soon junk it and buy a new one  i have the earliest version of the DD_3 by the way.

the audio probe looks genius, will give that a go next. can't imagine how useful this will be further down the road, thanks danoise.

[danoisefactory]

Good luck with the audio probe, and it will be a very usefull item for you. It enables you to follow the path of the signal, no multimeter needed.

i use it all the time to check my wiring.

You can also use it to 'shoot' sound through a part of your wiring or a pcb, by building two of them.

you can either connect the output of the effect the usall way and use the audio probe as input device, or, the other way around.

in your case, just connect the input of the effect to a cd-speler or ipod or something and with the auioprobe connected to an amp, folow the sound.

When the sound stops, you found the problem part(s) of the effect.
From then on, it's measuring with a mulitimeter (buy a cheap one, it will do, it will tell you if a resistor is broke or not, it will tell you wether a trace is broke or not).

And then just replace the broken (or suppposed broken) parts untill it works again.

and don't toss something away that fast. you can always use the housing, pots, jacks 'n stuff to build other stuff like a-b switchers, feedbackloops and so on.
and if you'll junk it, i'd like you to junk it in my direction.

good luck!