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Awesome build. I just finished playing for an hour through my first build Macheen and a Zombii built by JakeFuzz (Paul)- the Zombii brings me much joy. Much. Yours looks sick- the red eye- the knobs even have a spider web ghoulish vibe to them.

Great work on the guts- nice and clean- I like it.

I don't see all of these on the projects page- how do you guys know what they are/do?
C

IT WORKS!!  
Thanks guys for so much great information. Seriously- I have plenty to take in and read and learn. I rotated the switch 90 degrees and re-wired it and it worked perfectly straight away. I still have things to do like drill for DC jack and such but am very excited. This thing sounds so nasty and awesome I can't wait to try it along with my other pedals.
I have not thanked everyone properly- but thanks:
add4 for the info and link- will read it soon if not tonight.
slimtriggers for the great diagram- this should get me closer to my goal of actually understanding the circuit and allowing me to mod and experiment a bit if I want.
sam_c for the very helpful post and ASCII skillz-
etc.

I will post up a pic or 2 when it is all really boxed up- and maybe a video to show how sweeping the knobs sounds. The Gain and Trim do some wacky stuff near the upper end of their sweep but I think all is working right.and I also might try to lower the brightness of the LED- wow- clear water ultra bright violet looks great but hurts my eyes!  

Last, I am sorely lacking in wiring soldering skills. I did the board really well and got the knack for switching in and out of 20/40W on my iron but really the wiring is messy where the solder hits the fan.

Oh well- I'm having fun and proud to have done it! Onwards!

Thanks-
Clifford

Heck ya man, I'd love that! I'm off AK myself over by the French Market. You know JakeFuzz is the guy who got me into this- is incredibly helpful and supportive- and lives in LA too. I bought an expertly built Zombii from him and it got my gears turning. You guys are awesome. Will pm you for contact info.


As for the switch issue- I guess I am digging for how people learn this sort of thing or "know" it. i mean at some point I guess someone is looking at a diagram of the switch on how it works or something. it is like basically there is a body of tacit-like knowledge in this community and I am curious where it came from originally- like did people learn it in school, from manuals, from jobs/training?

Clifford

Thanks very much. How did you guys learn this? I have seen other build sheets with a + sign in the center of the switch so from what I can tell there is no indication on the switch or build sheet to indicate this. How did you all figure it out the first time?
Also, I assume it does not matter if you wire it 180degrees in reverse? In other words as long as you orient or wire the switch looking at the blades horizontally not vertically you could do it either way?
C

Hello- thanks- how can you tell? I want to learn and there are many spots like this which are not really explained. Only thing I just noticed was at center of diagram there is a line- does that indicate which way the blades on the switch should be oriented? In any event I hope I didn't fry anything if i did wire up the switch with 90 degrees of bad mojo. 

I think your footswitch is all wrong.  It should be turned 90 degrees for that wiring diagram

Ok- first try didn't work which means I will certainly learn some new things very soon.

Some observations:

1- holding the wires/iron/PCB/parts/solder wire in place is a f*****g challenge!!! Please, some advice needed. I have forceps and the like but I am really bad at doing the wiring thus far.
2- First try the LED lit up but also lit/unlit when I pulled the cable from my guitar. Doh! Also, no sound.

Also, I noticed only later the diagram shows the foot switch with some a/b/c and 1/3 markings. I could find no unique identifiers on the switch and somehow had it in my head that it didn't matter. Ignorance is bliss.

I updated the pics above but there is not much to see but my rushed and very poor wiring soldering skills. Also seems you need a lot more heat (40W instead of 20W) to solder the 1/4" jacks.

-Any advice on holding everything and making the soldering of wiring easier appreciated.
-Also info on switch orientation appreciated- at this point after having gone over the wiring is the main culprit I have as to why things are not working.
Thanks-
C

Hey there- sorry you are having troubles- I'm sure the folks here can help you sort them out.
If you could link some pics that would be helpful. You can post them on Flickr or Picasaweb (google) and insert the links or just link to the external pics (easier but pics wont show here in the post)
C

Thanks guys! Yes- the anger will flow- the amps will glow- the gods will cower!!
Will be getting drill bits today- have to have one for the DC jack.
I just updated the pics to show how lucky I have been with placement so far- just eyeballing it and doing a little x/y marking to estimate placement- look at that foot switch- not sure I could get a piece of paper in there between it and the enclosure wall! Need a black washer too white looks funky to me. Also the i/o jacks might have some metal to enclosure contact I will have to sort out- if I had to choose would I want sleeve/housing contact? (assuming sleeve is ground)? Yes I know no contact is desired but I like to live ignorantly, er I mean dangerously!!
C

PS- I got 2 large pots for trim- a 1K and 2K. I think 5k was suggested- will any pot give me full range sweep but diff fine tuning? How do I explain- like are they all covering total range but have diff sized "gears"?

Thanks very much. I was making more out of it than it was. I have heard of probes and testing parts after installation etc. Your setup is much more straight forward. Thanks for the insight!
Clifford

Would you mind expounding a bit on how you use this testing rig? I'm new to pedal building but i do understand the concepts of audio/circuit testing but not really in practical terms. a little bit of insight into how you actually use this to test a build would be most appreciated!
Om

good job- congrats- I like the braided wire bundles
Om

So I have finally started my build after having the parts for many many moons.
My observations thus far:
1- parts id- I have found all the unmarked parts that SmallBear shipped me a bit of a challenge to id. On one hand I think they could just mark the baggies (all were unmarked), on the other hand I love learning new things and have been enjoying figuring things out.
- resistors- ended up just using my DMM and the DMM manual to read the values- I don't get the stripes even after reading and even using online sources.
- diodes- had to use a magnifier and the web to id and guess which were which. Frustrating a bit.
- caps- interesting as the 100uf seemed to give diff readings- like you have to really drain/test them to get accurate result.

Next was the PCB- a real pleasure to solder the parts on and by far the easiest/most fun. I found much good advice on www.guitarpcb.com (crash course and tips sections). I need a bigger magnifier and a better way to hold/manipulate the PCB but I did a good job and setting my iron to 20W not 40W was a great tip as well.

Tonight I began to drill the enclosure and work out the layout.
1- a 1590 enclosure is not a lot of real estate to work with! Planning is important and not my strong point- but so far i am happy with how it is going- although I think getting a battery in there would be near impossible and ok as I don't use em myself.
2- drill bits- I need bigger ones. Will def want the exact drill bit sizes for the diff size parts next time. and a better way to secure the enclosure while drilling- I'm not even going to say what my methods were.
The knobs thus far seem like they will be from left to right: Gain/Limit/Vol/Trim
Anyway- having a great time and just going to keep putting it all together- no testing first- I'm too impatient and impulsive.
Also the original thread I was on before is here: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=5.msg11617#msg11617
Thanks for reading and your comments are appreciated!






Above pic shows switch turned 90 degrees and I wired it that way- wrong way! :0

Working! Cramped and messy but making a joyful racket.


At some point after I added footswitch add on board (above pic) it stopped working- I think it worked fine but after I boxed it it stopped- there was pressure on blue caps from lid also. (Turns out I tightened the jacks and pots and apparently rotated the input jack until it grounded to chassis and caused the problem)

Above pic shows current status as of 2/20/12- no audio passing- see post from today later in this thread for deets. Removed switch board and rewired.

Sounds like a good idea!