Problem building power supply

[supahflyretard]

Greetings,

I was hoping I wouldn't have to post here but unfortunately I ran into trouble almost straight away. I'm a beginner at electronics so please forgive my stupidity.

After soldering the jack an measuring, I get a reading of 10.5. I then soldered the iN4001 diodes in place and next the 220uF capacitors.

Here is where things start to go wrong. Measuring C3 doesn't give me a reading and c5 gives me something around 32 instead of 26 which the guide says.

Regardless, I carried on to solder the 7805 5V regulator and the C4/C6 capacitors.

Now, when I measure from the metal back and the left most pin, I get a reading of 10.5 instead of 5.25.

Is it my capacitor that I'm not getting a reading from that needs replacing? At one point when trying to get a reading from the capacitor I could see some small sparks around the solder points. Other reading stayed the same after this incident though.

ANy help would be geratly appreciated, I attached 2 screenshots of my progress. Note that the solder joints do not connect, it just looks like it in the picture.

photo1.jpg (667.36 KiB) Viewed 793 times

photo2.jpg (248.42 KiB) Viewed 793 times

[SubStyler]

did you set your multimeter to read AC or DC?

[supahflyretard]

Thanks for your reply

I had to read my multimeter manual for that

I was apparently measuring AC, when I switch to DC I'm getting a solid 5.02 VDC. Can I safely assume that everything is in working order so far?

[SubStyler]

Can I safely assume that everything is in working order so far?

oh yes, I think so.

take your time, always triple check the orientation of transistors, electrolytic and tantal caps... and hold your desk clean to prevent shorts
good luck on your project!

[john444]

Hi SubStyler,

Good catch

did you set your multimeter to read AC or DC?

John

[supahflyretard]

Thanks so much for your help! I'll take things slow and hopefully I can just post in the completed x0xb0x thread later

[orange_hand]

Hi,

as you've got issues already in this early stage of the building process, you should try to improve your soldering skills. There are various great tutorials on youtube available that will help you. I would also recommend to cut the leads short after a component has been soldered onto the PCB.

Cheers
orange