Wiring advice - help needed!

[carlsim]

Hi... I am modding a Harley benton MM style bass and changing out electronics and pups. The electronics are the Artec SE2:

 

http://artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/se2.html

 

and I have the Warman MM5 pickup installed. The SE2 system is active with volume, blend, treble and bass tone controls. The blend is not normally integrated in this kind of setup I know, but I figure, what the hell! Leave it in... Anyway...

 

The Warman pup wiring is: 

Black = start / negative of coil 1

White = finish / positive of coil 1

Red = start / negative of coil 2

Green = finish / positive of coil 2

The pickup comes pre-wired in series with the red and white wires, that link the two coil banks, ready joined.

 

So... On the Artec blend PCB there is a front pup hot(1), rear pup hot(2) and combined ground. I wired is the White to hot(1) and the green to hot(2) and combined the red, black and shield to the ground connection. It is working but there is a horrible sound which sounds a lot like a grounding issue. Have I ballsed this up?

 

I did a continuity test across all ground connections and all seems fine there and looked around and can't see anything untoward... can someone help? I hate being beaten but I really need some help here...

 

Thanks! Carl.

[itu]

Please start with a picture of the stuff you have created so far. Text is so limited here.

[carlsim]

Thank you will get some pics uploaded today… will sketch a rough diagram as well.

[carlsim]

[itu]

First of all, you seem to have a mono jack in the system. This means continuous drain from the battery. Not good. TRS = tip, ring, sleeve.

 

The main-PCBA has two contacts, where you have green and white wires. The white one seems to be OUT. This is NOT to be connected to the SW (green wire). Green should be in the ring in the output jack. OUT should be tinned to the tip. This SW and GND produce the connection from the battery.

 

According to the pics, the black and red battery wires in the PCBA may be wrong way. Red may be the +. Please check it.

 

I would check the solderings from the blend. The green wire may be a tad cold. From the looks of the pads, I think you are using lead-free, which is more complicated to use than the older 37-63. So go through all contacts you have made. And fix the white-green cable mix in the first phase.

[carlsim]

Thanks for your reply @itu

I was aware that I needed to replace the jack for a TRS jack, I figured I could test it first to make sure all was working, but will get that sorted as a matter of course…

the battery is ok, the box I ordered was wired black positive and red negative for some reason and I double checked this with a multimeter. 
I have re-done the solder contacts on the blend pot, hopefully making better contact. 
can I ask what you meant by “the green wire may be a bit cold”? And are you talking about lead free solder? 
hopefully sorting the jack end will fix things otherwise I am running out of ideas…

to clarify, is it just a standard TRS jack I need? That will short the out and sw connections together when a jack plug is plugged in?

[itu]

10 minutes ago, carlsim said:

...the box I ordered was wired black positive and red negative for some reason and I double checked this with a multimeter.

can I ask what you meant by “the green wire may be a bit cold”? And are you talking about lead free solder? 
 

to clarify, is it just a standard TRS jack I need? That will short the out and sw connections together when a jack plug is plugged in?

If there were ready soldered wires, they should be OK.

 

Cold means that the tin may have not made a decent contact between the two. This occurs often if the materials move while the tin is cooling down.

 

Any TRS is fine. Just make sure you solder all wires accordingly. Put the plug into the jack and you can see right away the right order. The ring (SW) and sleeve (GND) will make the contact. TIP is the output.

[carlsim]

Cool…. Will get that sorted and hopefully, all will be good in the world!

 

thanks for all your help, will report back when I have sorted it hopefully!

[carlsim]

Eureka moment… I think I see the issue - I thought the jack would short to the output, but as you say, it shorts to ground. DOH!! Probably the root of the issues…. Will get it sorted hopefully with a new output jack! 
 

thanks again…

[Chienmortbb]

44 minutes ago, itu said:

If there were ready soldered wires, they should be OK.

 

Cold means that the tin may have not made a decent contact between the two. This occurs often if the materials move while the tin is cooling down.

 

Any TRS is fine. Just make sure you solder all wires accordingly. Put the plug into the jack and you can see right away the right order. The ring (SW) and sleeve (GND) will make the contact. TIP is the output.

Cold is the US terminology, in the UK it is called a dry joint. They can be caused by a number of things, including a soldering iron not having enough power to bring the  solder and the parts to be soldered up to the correct melting point for the solder. However they are also caused by corrosion or grease on one of the parts to be soldered.