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[EgoDriver mod: less bass]

To keep things clean, please title your mods posts similar to this:
Project name: brief description

For example, EgoDriver mod: less bass, and so on.

Please feel free to post any mod you have successfully performed that has improved the tone/quality/usability or functionality of a project you have worked on.

A common complaint about the Darkside is that it is too bassy/dark sounding. Here are a few mods you can do to really open it up.

These changes will reduce the bass:
C1 - replace with 27n
C5 - replace with 47n
C18 - replace with 100n


These changes will retain more high end with the SUS control turned down:
SUS - replace with 500kC (or 500kB) and add a 470pF or 1n cap between lugs 3&2

Reducing C9, C12 and C14 to 470pF and/or C13 and C15 to 100n will also brighten things up if it is still too bassy for you.

I just got a huge shipment of copper clad in from my supplier. Finally, enough to last for a few months. The best part is the backing is a funky spotted lime green. I've never seen anything like it. Get ready for cool green boards!

I've been jonesing for this fella for a couple of years. Finally convinced myself to buy it. I guess they were recently discontinued....harder to find now. I got this brand new from MF for $999, which is pretty marked down.

Sounds terrific! I prefer the Top Boost channel so far, but I also have heard it takes a while to break the Blue Dog speaker in.


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Guys, I'm sorry to have to close the store for a few days. We've suffered another loss in our family. Yesterday, my grandfather passed away. He was absolutely heart-broken by the loss of our grandmother two weeks ago and lost the will to go on. But, he went peacefully, as did she, and we are happy for that. They were married 68 years.

Anyway, I'm leaving town today and closing the store for the time being. Almost all orders will ship out today, but I want to give myself a little time to get caught up on other things when I return. I expect to re-open the store this coming Thursday. I know there are still some outstanding issues with debugging, and I will have internet access while I'm gone. So, I'll try to provide whatever assistance I can that way.

I will most likely be leaving town for a few days very soon. I have a sick relative that is in pretty bad shape. Luckily, most orders are out (up to about 7-8 days ago). I will notify anyone who has an outstanding order that might be affected by my absence.

In the meantime, some of the other things I'm supposed to be doing (some debugging/side projects) will be on hold, too, so please stick with me! It's been a frustrating week battling an awful upper-respiratory infection and now a sick grandma

"Why does it take so long to ship orders?" you might wonder. Just a little peek into what I've been doing the last few days.



Mind you, I'm NOT complaining...I'm lucky to be successful. At the same time, when things get this out of control, I see little pieces of my sanity being etched away with the copper on these guys I swear, I'm never moving again!

Good changes are coming though, and soon.

Any interest in this kind of project? I've been considering one for myself for a while...even have the tubes and enclosure. I've just never gotten around to designing anything.

Folks, the move was a success...we are in our place and I am in the process of setting up shop. Tennessee is great, and the area we live in is very laid back and quiet. Time to make some noise!

I've only gotten internet access just an hour ago...there are a lot of threads and emails for me to respond to, so please be patient. And, there are orders to fill, so I will be busy getting caught up.

I'll have more later....I need to check out all these new threads first

We've managed to make it to TN intact. We'll be in our house tomorrow and I should be back on the job in a couple more days. All orders before 6/12 have shipped, and all orders starting on the 12th will ship on next Monday, most likely. Unfortunately, I will not have internets for a few days, so I won't be able to respond to emails, etc. If you have questions for me please keep in mind I will not be able to get back to you until at least this Saturday, 6.26. We're in a hotel with free WiFi now, but I won't have that after today

The 'Cherrybomb' (Colorsound Overdriver) is now available on the projects page. http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/index.html

Have fun!

Folks, I'm pleased to announce irmcdermott (Ian) has kindly agreed to step in and offer help in moderating the forum for a few days while my family relocates to TN. Please direct forum related issues to him between 6.17 - 6.22. I will access the forum as much as possible in this time, but I don't know yet how much 'internets' will be available to me. Keep in mind that Ian will not be able to answer questions about orders/shipping/build issues. His role will be simply to make things run smoothly as possible in my absence.

Welcome, and thanks, Ian!

As promised, here is fix for ver.1 of the Deadringer. When I constructed the original schematic, I inadvertently reversed the order of some things, and had at least one portion routed incorrectly. Additionally, there were three incorrect values listed. My apologies for these errors. I was too hasty in releasing it, and while I thought I had worked it out correctly (I did prototype the build, of course) it appears I wasn't paying enough attention.

The value corrections are as follows:

C9 = 10n (orig. 1n)
C4 = 51pF (orig. 100pF)
R15  = 150k (orig. 510k)

Of these three value changes, C9 is the most critical. If you have a ver.1 board, you can probably get away with only changing this value. But, you can change all three, too, if you want to take the time.

Following is a diagram that I believe corrects the wiring situation. My test results with the version 1 build seem to confirm this. The Flat Mids mode is subtle, however this is due to having the incorrect value for C9 (it shold be 10n, not 1n) on my build. When placing another higher valued cap along with C9, the change was much more pronounced.

A brief explanation of how all these clipping choices work: the mos/sil switch (SPDT) does exactly as it indicates. It changes between the Mosfet and Silicon diode clipping in the feedback loop of the opamp. The top position of the 3-way DPDT lets you select compression cut, flat mids and vintage mode. In CC mode, the diodes are actually disconnected, meaning that clipping comes directly via the opamp - not the diodes. This is a much harsher type of clipping, although it can sound very open when the gain is dialed back.

In FM mode, C9 and R13 are placed in parallel with the tone control, thereby altering the frequency roll-off point. It essentially serves to counteract the tone control to make it less severe. Finally, in VIN mode, you have the traditional clipping of a gerenic TS: diode clipping, and the regular active first order tone control.

The Boost mode simply puts a 1M variable resistor in series with the drive control, thereby increasing the overall gain and 'scorching' the diodes a bit more. It has the most impact when the drive control is around half-way or less - this is where you will find the biggest difference in the added gain. In this sense, it's not a boost at all, but rather a "more" option.

On the wiring diagram, you will need to connect the S1, S2 and S4 pads to an On-On-On dpdt (available from smallbear) and run one additional wire from the DPDT to the 3PDT used for the 'boost' option. This should correct the previous wiring/routing errors. S3 should not be connected to anything.

One additional note: looking at a few pics of the insides of the latest FD-2 version, I noticed there is a small change with the clipping setup. It looks like Fuller altered the back-to-back 1N4005/1n914 diodes. The newest change appears to be swapping the 1n914 for two 1n4005 in series. So, following the Deadringer schematic, you would leave D1 the same, but in place of D2 you would solder two more 1n4005's in series. This preserves the asymmetrical type clipping of the previous version, but increases the overall forward voltage with the two new diodes in series. Hence, his description of a more 'open' sound. So, this is technically an additional correction to both ver.1 AND ver.2 of the Deadringer.

Sorry for the long winded post - I thought some of this additional info might shed some light on the design of the pedal. Diagram is attached below.

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Releasing today:

Wolfshirt - based on the Foxx Tone Machine - killer fuzz/octave nonsense!
Aristocrat - updated to ver. 3.5 - revised for small footprint, new dip switches
Deadringer - updated to ver. 2 (available this evening) - corrections to switch error in ver 1 and 1.5 - much smaller layout

Store links: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/index.html

Later this week:

Cherrybomb - Colorsound Overdriver - with some interesting mojo parts!
Daytripper (possibly) - Vox Night Train pedal port

Also, announcing the madbeanpedals Summer Build-Off Competition. Fun for all! Prizes, prizes! Check the link for more info and put on your thinking caps.

Possible temporary store closure: We are moving on the 19th. I haven't decided exactly how to handle the 4 or 5 days downtime in terms of doing orders. I'll make an announcement in another day or two once I've decided how best to handle it.

Folks,

I've been getting a few emails from some companies requesting that I remove their name from the website. I've gone ahead and done this for most of the projects, in anticipation of any future requests. While this may lead to some confusion, it is most likely unavoidable to some degree. I've done everything I can to be as descriptive as possible as to what's what. And, for the time being, the project documents themselves still name the actual design it's based upon. Just to re-iterate: these are DIY projects that are in no way affiliated with or serve as a replacement for any existing commercial product by any manufacturer. And, this forum is the only place you can expect to receive (happily) any response to questions regarding my projects or products.

If anyone has specific questions, or needs clarification, please feel free to PM me here in the forum.

Thanks!

Anyone interested in a friendly build-off competition? With prizes, of course. Just gauging interest. Sound off

In the wiring diagrams for the projects I use a certain labeling convention for the DC jacks and battery. It's come to my attention that this is confusing some people, so I will try to clarify.

Standard Boss type plugs deliver a center negative tip. In my diagrams I've labeled the DC jacks as +9v on the "tip". This is probably not the best way to do it. To me, I've always associated the "tip" of the actual jack as delivering +9v, which is probably just a little meme I constructed to avoid confusing myself. However, using this convention could make it appear as though connecting the jacks/battery as I picture it would lead to a short. This is not the case: the diagrams are correct, but the naming is kinda bad.

For example:


In this example, I've labeled the DC Jack as having a 'tip', 'ring' and 'sleeve'. The 'tip' delivers +9v to the board and the sleeve acts as ground. The 'ring' is connected to +9v on the battery, and the negative lead of the battery is connected to the ring on the input jack. This set-up delivers +9v to the board, even though it is confusing on my part to label the jack as the 'tip'. When the 2.1mm plug is inserted, the power supply operates to deliver the necessary voltage to the board. When the plug is removed, the battery delivers the power. If the input jack is unplugged, the battery is then disconnected.

To clarify further, please refer to the diagram of the DC jack listed on the smallbear website.
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=93

In Steve's diagram, he labels the tabs "To battery+", "To board+", and "To board - and battery -". The correspondence is as follows:

Me ----- Steve

"Tip" = "To board+"
"Ring" "To battery+"
"Sleeve" = "To board - and battery -"

Hopefully this resolves the issue!

All current orders will have shipped by Tuesday, June 1st. I will be dropping all domestic orders on Monday, and international ones Tuesday (Monday is a USPS holiday).

The store will re-open on Mon. May 31st. Orders for June may take up to ten calendar days to turn-around, although I will do my best to keep shipping times as reasonable and quick as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me over the past several weeks. I made a pretty big mistake taking on orders when I had so much to accomplish in my personal life regarding our home renovations, getting to market, etc. I've definitely learned a lesson about my personal limitations! In the future, I will plan more carefully for the times when I know this kind of conflict will exist. On a positive note, we accepted an offer on our house within a week of going on the market, and we are waiting for the final details to plan our relocation sometime at the end of June. If necessary, I will give ample warning if the store needs to be closed during that time.

Planned project releases this week: Deadringer update, the 'Wolfshirt' and the 'Tilt'. More on those last two in a couple of days.

The wiring diagram for the FatPants was missing a wire from the GND pad on the board to the switch. This has been corrected.

I'm steadily getting caught up on all the orders. I made/shipped roughly 100 boards last week and I've got a little less than that to get out this week. If you haven't gotten shipping notice yet, you will within the next couple of days. I will re-open the store the day I get the remaining orders in the mail, which likely will be before June 1st if everything goes well.

Aquaboy boards are back in stock and will be available when the store re-opens. I also have a handful of prototypes in for some new manufactured boards. Not saying what they are, but I think people will be excited when the time comes



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