I think you have the strips shorting together most pins of the IC because the strips are 90 degrees in the wrong direction. I think you don't understand that the bottom is a mirror image of the top.
Yeah, on my first attempt I rather dumbly had the IC going
along the copper.
I had split the copper (using a knife, not my teeth btw
) beforehand though, and I can confirm that they're not shorting out, as I've tested thoroughly with a multimetre. My surety is backed up by my second attempt with the IC socket in the correct orientation still reacting in the same way and not working.
Although you're right, I don't understand that the bottom is a mirror image of the top.
Do you mean the bottom/top of the IC?
Why did you post two completely different circuit boards?
I'm making a stereo preamp, so I decided to make two circuits of your design on the same board. When I found that my first attempt (the left picture in the first post) didn't work, I decided to have a go at building the second one. I learned from my mistakes, and used the copper strips to my advantage, requiring only five cut tracks (three of which are under the IC).
When I found that this second layout didn't work, I decided that I must be doing something wrong elsewhere, or had selected the wrong components or something. I've tested over and over for shorts, and checked my layout over and over as well; I can't see anything wrong.
How high did you drip the solder from? Solder is not supposed to be dripped on.
The copper trace and wire are both supposed to be heated with the clean tip of a temperature-regulated soldering iron (not a soldering gun) then rosin-core solder is touched to the hot trace and wire. Solder will melt and flow and join the two together. It takes one second.
Do you literally mean dripping the solder from a height? I'm new to this, but I'm not a buffoon, haha.
I pretty much did the steps that you just outlined. Although, I'm not sure what you mean by "temperature-regulated soldering iron". I just used a 25w one with a small tip.
I've tested all of the joints, and none of them are dry.
So, as you can probably see I'm rather confused at what's wrong, as there's nothing very obvious (to me anyway). Heat damage perhaps? I did try and minimise heat on the components, but I didn't think that capacitors or resistors were particularly heat sensitive.
Building a circuit mirrored may be hard for the first few times.
Here is audiuguru's mic preamp unmirrorred which should work like a charm right from the start.
I was originally going to build it using your layout there, but my dad told me to do it from the diagram to work with this copper track stuff so that I wouldn't have to get a print. I think I'll probably have to try yours now though. But, do tell me, what's the difference between mirrored and unmirrored?