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Well, it's up and running on the first try. One of the more complicated pedals I have built but if you check and double check everything it should turn out alright. Love the sound and it sounds everybit as good as the original 117. Changed C22 to 51pf (from 47pf) and am getting a little more sweep without any extraneous noise. If I build another one of these I will definitely order the smallest capacitors I can find as I had a couple of issues fitting everything on the board. The Kemet film caps are great due to their size and shape and they fit side by side on the board. Found smaller  NIchicon e-caps at Mouser as well.

Thanks, that's what I thought. I will go ahead and place another order with Mouser for the smaller cap along with a few other things to spread out the shipping costs. Will use the large cap while setting the trim levels etc. and pop the other one in when it comes in. Mouser is usually pretty quick on their orders.

Received most of the parts yesterday and screwed up on the 470uf e-cap. The one I ordered is 25mm L by 16mm Dia. and will not fit on the board. I can get one at the local Fry's electronics that is only 10mm Dia and 20mm Length but only in 16V. Their 25V e-cap is a little larger with a diameter is 13mm. Will the 16V work? If not I will have to order a smaller one from Mouser ($8 to ship!) or should I mount it off board with shrink wrap on the leads?

Aha, figured it out.  Tip (negative) goes to the - pad and the ring/barrel (positive) goes to the + pad. Been almost a year since I built my last pedal so I had to go back and re-learn everything I forgot. Can't wait to get this built as I hope this will replace my Chorus and tremolo pedals, freeing up space on my pedal board.

Thanks for the reply. So I should hook up the tip to the - pad and the sleeve/barrel to the + pad or as shown on the wiring guide? I will be using the LT1054 for the charge pump.

I am getting all of the parts to construct the Collosalus and had a question about the power supply. Am planning on building the 9V version. Can I use a OneSpot or any other positive ground, negative tip power supply? Looking at the schematic and wiring guide, it appears that the tip is positive. The 18V power supply for the MXR 117 shows negative tip and positive sleeve.
Thanks

The One Spot is a positive ground power supply.

When I added the Rangemaster to my pedal board, the LED does not light up and I get a thumping sound.  Also, I get no power to rest of the pedals.  I am using a One Spot with a daisy chain cord.  When the RM is connected by itself it works fine. When I daisy chained both RMs to the One Spot, both pedals worked fine. I also ran a separate 9V positive ground supply to the RM with rest of the pedals connected to the One Spot and it works perfectly.  Read something somewhere about the Rangemaster needing an isolated, positive ground 9V supply.  Am in the process of building a power supply with 8 isolated outputs for my pedal board, using a Weber transformer, so this will not be a problem but am still wondering if this is normal.

Yes, I am using the OC44s that I purchased from Pedal Parts plus.  They are new stock. Used 2 with similar hfe readings.

Both pedals are working fine but I am still getting some static/hiss from the MadBean board when it is turned up past halfway. Same results using a battery or a 9V positive ground power supply. Tried chopsticking inside the pedal with no luck.  Any suggestions on how to get rid of this?  I used identical components for both and am getting virtually no static/hiss with the Vero board.

Yes I de-soldered the diode pad but was very careful when I removed it.  Cleaned the pad up with solder wick, etc. Was still getting the short after that. Maybe the extra heating up of the pads caused the short to the groundplane? I also built an identical Rangemaster using Vero Board since I grabbed up the last MadBean PCB.  The VB Rangemaster worked perfectly.  Still having some issues with hiss on the MadBean one.  Once I get this resolved, I will do a side by side comparison of both Rangemasters.

Purchased the last Rangemaster PCB a couple of weeks ago and could not get it to work initially. Something was grounding out the circuit causing only hum and battery got extremely hot in a few seconds.  I double and tripled checked everything and narrowed the problem to either D1 and R3.  Pulled out both and the board was still grounding out.  I had to scrape around the pads on the bottom of the board (not the grounded side of these components) so that they were not touching the ground plane.  It was not a solder bridge since I had to scrape the copper away from the pads.  Don't know if this was a problem with the board, but after I isolated the 2 pads from the ground, the unit works fine.  Don't know if anyone else has run into this before.

I installed a new IC and 2 transistors (flipped the leads) and the unit is now running just like it did last time I replaced these.  I will bench test for a few days to see if this will do the trick.  Could having the leads switched on the trannies cause them to fail and take out the IC?  I installed dip sockets for the IC and trannies so that I can change out easier next time.

Thanks,

Dan

I am using NTE457 instead of 2N5457 which according to the NTE site, are direct substitutes and are rated at 25V.  The one thing I did notice when looking at both datasheets side by side is that the pinouts look different - DSG for the NTE and SGD for the 2N5457.  I used these same transistors for the other 2 I built and have had no problems with them.  Here are the latest voltages (Expected voltage in parenthesis):  IC1 P1 and 2 - 1.4V (8.3v), P3 and 4 - 0V (0V), P5 - 1.8V (4.7V), P6 - 2.3V (4.8V), P7 - 2.6V (4.8V), and P8 - 9.5V (8.8V).  Q1, Drain - 9.5V (8.V), Source 2.9V - (4.0V), Gate - 2.4V (2.4V).  Q2, Drain - 1.1V (2.1 to 2.6V), Source - 2.3V (2.6V), and Gate - 0V (0.6V).  Here is a link to GCC page for the OSC: http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_osq_instruct.pdf?phpMyAdmin=4a28f86a515b7883e7bc35a68d4e7b6d&phpMyAdmin=78482479fd7e7fc3768044a841b3e85a

I will go back and recheck the PCB and connections in the meantime.

Thanks,

Dan

Hi, I am new to this board and I have built a couple of Orange Squeezer pedals (GCC not MadBean) and am having problems with one of them.  After a few hours, it quit working.  Voltages were off on Q1 an 2 and IC1.  Swapped them out and it would not work until I replaced Q1.  Put it back on my pedal board, and after an hour or so, it quit again.  Went over the board, soldered connections, etc with a fine tooth comb and could not find any problems.  I am using a 1 spot 9V DC adaptor that reads about 9.5 VDC and was wondering if this could be causing the transistors to burn out.  The other 2 I build are not experiencing this problem.  Any suggestions?  GCC does not have a forum like this so that is why I am here asking questions.

Thanks,

Dan