My friend Bret (aka "Echobret") asked me a while back if I'd be willing to put on a maker clinic at his coffee/donut shop teaching pedal building basics. I thought that sounded like fun, so I put together a simple LPB1 project and walked a few interested souls through the process of building it.
As it turned out, Jon (aka "stomptown") was able to show up and get involved too. I think I speak for both of us in saying it was a blast. Neither of us feel like we've arrived when it comes to electronics knowledge, but it was really satisfying to teach some beginners the basics according to what we know. It was kind of "everything I wish someone would have shown me when I was starting out" kind of a thing. It was a lot of prep work on my part in doing a simple PCB layout (should have had Jon handle that. He is an Eagle layout rockstar), putting parts kits together, drilling cases etc. But it was all worth it and I hope we're able to do something like this again.
We taught the basics of reading schematics and how they relate to the physical parts & PCBs, using layout diagrams, how to solder, how 3PDT switches work and why we wire them the way we do, parts sourcing advice, test rigs, etc. and then we kind of shared some of our methods for doing stuff. We also gave them a handout with a bunch of links. Of course MB was at the top of the list. I'm hoping we'll see these guys introducing themselves here soon.
The project was super dumbed down in an effort to guarantee success. It worked! Everyone's builds fired right up and you won't believe the gut shots are all from noobs.
I highly recommend doing something like this if you ever get the chance. It was really, really fun.
Here are our Padawan learners. Notice Jon's pedalboard in the background. It's like an art gallery :D That's also his test rig sitting on the "bench"
(http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx105/leevibe1/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zpsd50jm9nu.jpg) (http://s746.photobucket.com/user/leevibe1/media/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zpsd50jm9nu.jpg.html)
Here are all three beginners' gut shots. I don't know why I didn't have the presence of mind to take any exterior shots. They are plain white with an LED, stomp, and knob. I'm super proud of these guys and super thankful for Jon's partnering with me in making this happen. And Thanks Bret for coming up with the idea, purchasing all the parts, and allowing us to use your rad coffee/donut/record/music gear shop as a venue.
(http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx105/leevibe1/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zpsks1chcgj.jpg) (http://s746.photobucket.com/user/leevibe1/media/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zpsks1chcgj.jpg.html)
(http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx105/leevibe1/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zps4l6revzo.jpg) (http://s746.photobucket.com/user/leevibe1/media/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zps4l6revzo.jpg.html)
(http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx105/leevibe1/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zpsdjmgughc.jpg) (http://s746.photobucket.com/user/leevibe1/media/maker%20clinic%202015/image_zpsdjmgughc.jpg.html)
How cool is this! Well done.
Awesome! My salvaged first build looks so much worse than this it isn't funny. Also I would have killed to have someone show me how to do some stuff when I started
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Very cool!
If you plan on doing any more of these, shoot me an email and I will donate a few pedal kits!
That's outstanding. Good on you guys!
That's really great!
Obviously, you guys gave them some good pointers. That's very neat work for start builds.
Very very neat! Whhat a blast I'm sure! 8)
Wow that is so cool. What a great idea. I want to look into doing something like this locally now.
Must have been thrilling to see their reaction when they fired up.
Awesome stuff fellas.
I put on a 1-day pedal workshops also (have done 4 so far) teaching 3 newbies at a time. They get to build a either a boost, simple OD, or silicon fuzz and we cover pretty much the same stuff you guys did.
I also offer ongoing support to those who continue to build on their own after the workshop. Very satisfying. I tell you it knocks a solid year of the learning curve if not more for new folks.
I am so proud to be a part of this community. This is way better than any build report I've ever seen. You guys are truly inspirational and after seeing those gut shots, I'm a little peeved I wasn't there learning as well. :) Great stuff.
Steve.
Man, those guts are all better than most of my builds now. Nice work, all of you!
This was definitely an awesome experience and I give Lee mad props for all the work he put into it. He put together an awesome noob power point that explains all the basics and more in great detail. It was really cool to see these guys understand how a 3pdt works on day 1! It only took me 2 years to bother to figure it out! I'm really hoping he will make that presentation available in the beginners paradise forum (poke. Prod.). Likewise, Brett was a great host and very generously keeping our Tummies full of sandwiches, doughnuts and beer!
Seriously though, if anyone else has the opportunity do do something like this I woukd definitely recommend it!
Congrats to both of you guys! I can imagine the work it was to put this together, looks like it was done very well by seeing the builts resulting of that clinic.
I bow in respect to you guys! 8)
Rej
Quote from: pickdropper on March 23, 2015, 01:28:16 AMThat's very neat work for start builds.
Absolutely! What a great thing to do. 8)
Lee, Bret, and Jon, that looks amazing. How long did the initial lecture take?
Super impressed by the gutshots. Tidy as hell.
Also... it seems to be that a broad streak of OCD is useful in this hobby, and I'm curious as to how much of it the students have in their day to day life. I know that I'm horrible for that (I've inherited a particularly awful (to other people) habit of telling people the same thing when instructing ("You've told me that BEFORE."), since I've worked with too many people who have to be told something ten times, and it only sinks in on the tenth...)
Ramble over.
Wonderful idea
That's a great initiative! There are some guys here in Spain doing similar workshops, but they charge a lot and don't really teach much things. However, anything that get's some people close to this awesome hobby it's a good thing.
:)
Cheers and congrats!
A compliment for the guy who soldered the 3PDT in the last photo. If that's his first 3PDT I'm really stocked - that's really, really neat!
You have done well. Remember, when you can return with the coffee without spilling it, then you can leave ;)
Good job. It's always good to get people started on this stuff. I did a workshop with some of my guitar students, but there was no lectures involved (besides me having to constantly tell one kid "TIN YOUR WIRE!!") or anything about how it worked. I just drilled and supplied the kit/enclosures and led them through the process.
Good fun, and everyone left with a working pedal.
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=10577.msg94366#msg94366
This is so cool that you guys did this. Cool to know that someone with the same name as me owns an awesome shop/maker space as well!
This looked really fun. I've been building for a year and a half now, and I feel it would be fun to actually know someone else who was into it also. I am an absolute pedal building hermit.
Thanks guys. It's good to know others are doing this as well. It's a fun way to bring people on board and I hope we can do another one. Next one will be even better.
Quote from: alanp on March 23, 2015, 04:08:23 AM
Lee, Bret, and Jon, that looks amazing. How long did the initial lecture take?
Super impressed by the gutshots. Tidy as hell.
Also... it seems to be that a broad streak of OCD is useful in this hobby, and I'm curious as to how much of it the students have in their day to day life. I know that I'm horrible for that (I've inherited a particularly awful (to other people) habit of telling people the same thing when instructing ("You've told me that BEFORE."), since I've worked with too many people who have to be told something ten times, and it only sinks in on the tenth...)
Ramble over.
We actually spent quite a bit of time with them. We did 7:00 - 10:00pm on Friday in which there was no hands-on. It was all about introducing schematic symbols and relating them to physical components and how all that relates to a PCB. There was definitely an over saturation the first night. Next time, we will probably break somewhere in the components lecture to let them learn soldering.
Saturday was 10:00 to 3:00. We started with a quick soldering tutorial and then let them practice by soldering resistors into scraps of through hole plated pad-per-hole. Then they populated the boards, including soldering all wires to the board. These boards are honestly as fool proof as is possible. The resistors are actually in order on the board R1-R6. There is almost no opportunity for a solder bridge here with how far everything is spaced. The only possibility would be the transistor. Maybe the LED.
It was easy to wire because I pre-cut & stripped all the wires to just 2 lengths. There were 6 wires at 3", and 6 wires at 2". Then we fired them up on the test rig. We stopped there and explained the 3PDT concept, then we mounted the power jack, pot and stomp. I designed it with room for a battery, but they all three opted out of that. Next we mounted the board & LED and wired the stomp. Then we wired the in/out jacks and mounted them.
We really had to start pulling back on the reigns with a couple of them when it got to mounting and wiring stuff. They were ready to race ahead and would have started getting things out of order and probably would have made wiring mistakes. It honestly wasn't too hard to keep them on track though. These guys were all three pretty smart so there wasn't a lot of repeating ourselves. There were just a couple moments of "you don't want to do that yet or you'll be fighting yourself" and "OK, remember to keep tinning that tip." We used pre-bonded wire, so no worries about tinning wire.
Quote from: juansolo on March 23, 2015, 10:11:00 AM
You have done well. Remember, when you can return with the coffee without spilling it, then you can leave ;)
lol. And if it's cold, take it back and brew another pot.
Thanks for sharing your "syllabus" Leevibe. I do mine in one day (about 6 total hours). They just get a pretty basic walk through of a booster schematic more to understand signal direction, power, and ground, etc. Then as they are building their circuit they have the schematic infront of them and they follow/highlight as they solder stuff in to "connect the dots" so to speak.
Like you I prep a lot ahead of time like drilling, wires, etc. to keep them focused on soldering and learning parts.
At the end I give a nice packet of written materials, resources (including Madbean projects of course) and diagrams to get them on their way.
The best part is when they fire up their circuit for the first time. :)
Awesome idea! That is super cool of you guys to do that, and what a boost in confidence that must be for those who attended.
Very nice guys!
What a cool idea. I've been stumbling through building pedals and this idea is amazing. I would be so into a class like this if it was in my area. Until then the support from the crew in the forum is like finding a bowl of gold. Amazing results on the builds you guys did too. Super clean and neat. Something to aim for on my next build.
Both Lee and Jon offered invaluable instruction and guidance. It really couldn't have gone better. Thanks so much, you guys!