While I was pondering space-saving tactics for multiple fx pedals and for my pedaltrain nano, it occurred to me that I could use 1/8" jacks and make 1/8" patch cables. I'd have more space in the enclosure for pots and circuit boards, and I could fit everything closer together on the nano.
Would this be so bad? I'm just wondering about the types of cable and wire which the audio will be transferred through..
I suspect it's more that 3.5mm jacks and sockets tend to be a lot shonkier than 6.5mm jacks.
You may have more space inside, but you'll have to deal with adapters (which will make you lose space outside) if you ever want to add a "normal" pedal to your setup.
I have thought about it too, but despite finding the size of most 1/4" jacks and plugs absurdly bulky, I thought that it was safer to use small 1/4" jacks in the pedal, and use/make cables with small connectors (Lava CX, George L, or any ready-made cheap patch cables with reasonably sized connectors, see Pickdropper's thread about his pedaltrain nano for instance).
If you are building just for your own use, go for it. It'll be much more compact. You may want to have 1/4" jacks mounted to the pedalboard for external connections, however.
If you run into issues, you could always get a few 3.5mm to 6.5mm adapters..... or vice versa ;)
Put it this way.
If your foot slams into a 6.5mm jack plugged into a Kingslayer, not much happens (other than maybe less than a mil of twisted metal.)
If your foot slams into a 3.5mm jack plugged into a Kingslayer, it's hugely more likely to need time under a soldering iron. (Not a soddering iron.)
We need small magsafe connectors (with $30 adapters to 1/4" for compatibility).
Top end mount the 1/4" jacks. The 1/8" jacks i've been able to get (headphone amps) have extremely short threaded bushings which makes it a bit of a challenge to get good mounting on the usual Hammond enclosures.
With Dave's (Pickdropper) Nano board it looks that for the "a's" he's using there that the side mount jacks/plugs act as spacers to keep the individual switches far enough apart that you don't accidentally hit more then one switch at a time. There's only so close you can group the pedals before it becomes impractical/difficult to access the switches.
dave
Quote from: davent on December 08, 2013, 02:13:10 AM
Top end mount the 1/4" jacks. The 1/8" jacks i've been able to get (headphone amps) have extremely short threaded bushings which makes it a bit of a challenge to get good mounting on the usual Hammond enclosures.
With Dave's (Pickdropper) Nano board it looks that for the "a's" he's using there that the side mount jacks/plugs act as spacers to keep the individual switches far enough apart that you don't accidentally hit more then one switch at a time. There's only so close you can group the pedals before it becomes impractical/difficult to access the switches.
dave
Yeah, there's a lot of truth to that. I was assuming he wanted more space on the inside of the enclosures. After your post, I re-read the OP. If it is referring to fitting more 1590a pedals on a nano, I am not sure it would be worth it; the spacing would be too tight (at least for me and my size 13 shoes).
If you really wanted the pedals closer together, you could use those 1/4" connector bars that don't have any cable. You'd have to take those into account when building the pedals, however.
Do the connector bars take into account that on the diecast enclosures (eg. Hammond) opposite sides = side-by-side enclosures, the sides are nonparallel?
Quote from: davent on December 08, 2013, 02:33:22 AM
Do the connector bars take into account that on the diecast enclosures (eg. Hammond) opposite sides = side-by-side enclosures, the sides are nonparallel?
Some are straight through, some have an offset, but the offset doesn't match my layouts. I could probably account for it if I planned ahead, but I don't use those.
Let's not kill his dream, of course it will work. If it's just for a whole nano pedal collection and board, I don't see any issues.
Quote from: jimilee on December 08, 2013, 04:50:32 AM
Let's not kill his dream, of course it will work. If it's just for a whole nano pedal collection and board, I don't see any issues.
Oh, we're not killing the dream. As we figured out early on, it's totally viable. We've just digressed into what the relative merits are of it (we tend to stray a bit here at times).
Quote from: pickdropper on December 08, 2013, 05:06:35 AM
Quote from: jimilee on December 08, 2013, 04:50:32 AM
Let's not kill his dream, of course it will work. If it's just for a whole nano pedal collection and board, I don't see any issues.
Oh, we're not killing the dream. As we figured out early on, it's totally viable. We've just digressed into what the relative merits are of it (we tend to stray a bit here at times).
None as far as I can see, it's just a cool thing to try. No way I need the 5 or so phasers I built No way I'd personally take that thing in to a bar, a church gig maybe though. :-)
Quote from: jimilee on December 08, 2013, 05:13:29 AM
Quote from: pickdropper on December 08, 2013, 05:06:35 AM
Quote from: jimilee on December 08, 2013, 04:50:32 AM
Let's not kill his dream, of course it will work. If it's just for a whole nano pedal collection and board, I don't see any issues.
If you wanted to get really funky, you could just use a single stereo jack, In on the tip, Out on the ring, Gnd on the sleeve. If you wanted to get super funky, you could use a 4-conductor 1/8" jack and put power on the second ring. Of course, that would only work if you went to a central looper type pedal as you'd have to split it out if you were daisy chaining the pedals directly.
Oh, we're not killing the dream. As we figured out early on, it's totally viable. We've just digressed into what the relative merits are of it (we tend to stray a bit here at times).
None as far as I can see, it's just a cool thing to try. No way I need the 5 or so phasers I built No way I'd personally take that thing in to a bar, a church gig maybe though. :-)
The idea is good, but in my experience 1/8" (3.5mm) jacks are unreliable and short-lived.
Edit: Alternative idea: Put the jack(s) on the bottom plate (no kidding). No wires visible on the pedal board.
I've been considering using XLR plugs and jacks to make a daisy chain, or alternatively 5 pin midi so you could also include power. MIDI might be too wimpy, but one connector is really appealing!
There might be some locking mil spec connectors that would work too, but they aren't cheap.
I haven't pursued it simply because I think the wiring at the outside connector can get bulky this way.
Really, I think the best/most reliable way to save space is to put multiple builds in a single box. You lose some immediate flexibility, but maybe there's a way to use internal headers or molex styles to make it easier to swap things around.
I've used stereo jacks for the send/return of fx loops in a few pedals, use a 'y' cord or a loop pedal that has an input stereo jack wired to functiion in that capacity or as a mono input.
I guess we need to know whether using 1/8" connectors is the goal here or... is it to make the most efficient use of the total space available and if that's the case wouldn't a single multi-circuit enclosure be the way to go, would only need two jacks. There's been some great examples of those posted here, the October contest thread contains some beauties!
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=11945.0
dave
edit. hadn't seen this page or posts when i entered this so ditto wgc on a single enclosure idea. You could also add in jacks for inserting more pedals into the chain and switched jacks if you want to be able to access individual circuits.
Quote from: kothoma on December 08, 2013, 07:46:05 AM
The idea is good, but in my experience 1/8" (3.5mm) jacks are unreliable and short-lived.
Edit: Alternative idea: Put the jack(s) on the bottom plate (no kidding). No wires visible on the pedal board.
I've thought of this, too. You could really have a neat setup that way 8)
Quote from: pickdropper on December 08, 2013, 02:25:30 AM
Yeah, there's a lot of truth to that. I was assuming he wanted more space on the inside of the enclosures. After your post, I re-read the OP. If it is referring to fitting more 1590a pedals on a nano, I am not sure it would be worth it; the spacing would be too tight (at least for me and my size 13 shoes).
I'm actually planning a dual drive inside a 125B, like the BYOC dual drive, except with terminal blocks so I can switch stuff out. I'm even toying with the idea of building an amp simulator from ROG for my base tone, leaving it on all the time, so that would make it 3 effects in a 125b. So you're right, more space inside!
Quote from: kothoma on December 08, 2013, 07:46:05 AM
Edit: Alternative idea: Put the jack(s) on the bottom plate (no kidding). No wires visible on the pedal board.
That's actually not a bad idea! My only problem would be switches being too close together, and maybe the cables on the bottom getting in the way of a power supply or the jacks don't fit the space on a PT style board.
Plus it doesn't save me any internal space.
Thanks for the input guys! This is really great! I'll keep y'all updated with what I decide to do!
+1 on having 3.5mm to 6.5mm adapters handy