Effect Pedal building

[Cliff Schecht]

I just finished the PCB for a neat little 9-18V boost converter intended for use in pedals and such. It's a single sided 0.675"x0.675" board (about the size of a nickel!) with low parts count and meant to squeeze into very tight quarters. This will be perfect for those flangers and boosts that want 18V and up (the output voltage is programmable up to like 35-40V). Switching frequency is high enough to not be of any concern with noise and such (linear regulators are noisier!).

I think the DIY pedal community will dig this even though it's pure surface mount (I haven't seen a similar solution yet, maybe I missed something). It annoys me that the only solution I've seen (as far as a single 9-18V solution) is the Godlyke adapter which is $30-40! This board will cost pennies considering the controller IC can be sampled for free. More details once I get this thing built and tested!

[davent]

On the weber pedal, maybe it should have been called the one cow cattle drive... (as in couldn't lead a one cow cattle drive)....

I like building pedals, I always have problems with trying to get my big fingers in the way and never seem to have enough space.

I've tried making my own PCB's a few times and they worked, sure weren't pretty. I think next time I'll try the iron on a laser printed circuit onto the copper clad. I really want to try one of those uni-vibe clones next time I get into pedals. I've heard a few that sound quite good despite the funky light bulb/light varistor in a sealed film canister/folded aluminum box whatever it is.. Runoffgroove used to have that uni-vib listed, don't know if they still do I think the uni-vibe when its right is one of the coolest effects there is (Hendrix appreciation coming out here)..

I did find that if you laser print a circuit using the darkest setting so it lays down lots of toner, you can use plain white paper and just iron it on and then soak off the paper. I had prepared a board to do the univibe that way but never got around to etching it. It looked quite good though, I also didn't have the scale right so the board was much larger than it needed to be, but I'll use that method again in the future, I'm pretty confident it'll work just fine without the need for special paper.

Regards,

Don

Ps: Those YY enclosures are awesome, maybe even make my pedals look like something good instead of some jr high electronics project looking...

The easy way to deal with the cramped pedal quarters when assembling is to do most of the wiring while outside of the box on a flat jig that matches your enclosure layout.

[IMG:651:491]http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc30 ... 2844-1.jpg[/img]

If the 16mm pots are still too big you can get 9mm pots from a number of vendors.

Geofex, great pedal building resource, now has univibe-clone pcb art and info for retrofitting an old wah shell, the UVICS-3.

http://www.geofex.com/FX_images/UVICS-3 ... 20File.pdf

dave

[martin manning]

I like those 9mm Alpha pots too. They can be used to support the PCB like in my Fuzztone pic above, and I have used them with pigtails attached as well. They free up a lot of space!

[SoundPerf]

I just finished the PCB for a neat little 9-18V boost converter intended for use in pedals and such. It's a single sided 0.675"x0.675" board (about the size of a nickel!) with low parts count and meant to squeeze into very tight quarters. This will be perfect for those flangers and boosts that want 18V and up (the output voltage is programmable up to like 35-40V). Switching frequency is high enough to not be of any concern with noise and such (linear regulators are noisier!).

I think the DIY pedal community will dig this even though it's pure surface mount (I haven't seen a similar solution yet, maybe I missed something). It annoys me that the only solution I've seen (as far as a single 9-18V solution) is the Godlyke adapter which is $30-40! This board will cost pennies considering the controller IC can be sampled for free. More details once I get this thing built and tested!

This is cool. Most the DIY pedal guys tend to stray away from surface mount, so I doubt there's anything out there like this. (could be wrong) I've done lots of rework of SMD stuff at my old job, so it's not a big deal to me. Although my eyesight has degraded considerably since then, I just modded a mostly smd Boss Delay for someone with some '0603' smt's. They were a bear to work with.

What converter are you using? Keep us updated for sure.

P.S.
Really nice work on all the circuits & pedals shown so far!

[SoundPerf]

The easy way to deal with the cramped pedal quarters when assembling is to do most of the wiring while outside of the box on a flat jig that matches your enclosure layout.

Geofex, great pedal building resource, now has univibe-clone pcb art and info for retrofitting an old wah shell, the UVICS-3.

++1 on using a jig outside the enclosure.

Yes, R.G. Keen is the coolest. There's other guys out there that have contributed to the DIY pedal community, but I don't think any like R.G. Keen. IMHO.

My Univibe is based mostly on his layout. (which is a very close version of the original) I threw a few ideas of the "ForumVibe" design into it as well. (like the darlington pair and biasing trimmers for the light driver circuit) I may go for the wah enclosure version next.

[LeftyStrat]

Yes, R.G. Keen is the coolest. There's other guys out there that have contributed to the DIY pedal community, but I don't think any like R.G. Keen. IMHO.

If he wrote a book, I'd be the first in line to buy it. His "Technology of..." series is awesome. I love that he can correlate science and engineering with "mojo."

[martin manning]

There is one: "PCB Layout for Musical Effects"
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=679

[LeftyStrat]

There is one: "PCB Layout for Musical Effects"
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=679

Thanks Martin, I didn't realize he had done that.

[SoundPerf]

There is one: "PCB Layout for Musical Effects"
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=679

Does anyone own this book? I thought about buying this already, but I have a feeling he's already written, posted on forums & his website, etc. (for free) most everything that buying this book isn't necassary. I have everything I've ever come across that he's written digitally archived.

I suppose buying it would be a nice jesture of thanks.

[M Fowler]

Well I tried to get the Weber Cattle Whacker pedal going but I must have misunderstood the instructions

Oh wait there isn't any instructions. Oh, well probably got the transistor in wrong, no marking to show the EBC and my transistor checker wasn't working. There is always tomorrow!

I have been reviewing Mr. Keen's stuff for years too.

Mark

[surfsup]

There should be a separate forum area for pedal building...that would be nice. After all, this is TAG, but amps usually go hand in hand with pedals.

[Gibsonman63]

There should be a separate forum area for pedal building...that would be nice. After all, this is TAG, but amps usually go hand in hand with pedals.

More so than you would think.

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/I ... eview.aspx

[Structo]

It's cool you guys are getting into pedals.
I used to build quite a few for friends and relatives and give them to them for Christmas, birthdays.

As far as a noob building some of these, I found BYOC to consistently have better parts and instructions than most everybody else but that is just my opinion.

General Guitar Gadgets is a close second however a few years back I wasn't impressed with the components in the kit and the instructions were kind of vague.

Tonepad has a lot of cool PCB's but you have to supply the parts.

Of course you can always use a perf board to build the circuits, much cheaper and just about as good.

[surfsup]

I used perfboard on this one, and it was kinda difficult to say the least, especially when you wanted to solder more than two leads into one hole or a thick lead with a thin one. You then had to start spanning holes and jumpering on the back side. Good luck when you want to make a change! I got burned on one, but thankfully was able to sort it out quickly.

Not saying perfboard can't be used, but I will plan and rethink/triplecheck before pulling out the iron on the next perf build.

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... a88b45130b

[img2592]http://chicagocadcam.com/ChrisHahn/sgfinal.jpg[/img]

[Structo]

Yeah, if you don't have a lay out that can be a challenge if you haven't done much of it before.

When I used to use perfboard I would create buss runs that I could tap into for ground and positive.