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Messages - fixxe

#1
Open Discussion / Re: Volume-Expression-Pedal-Hybrid
November 30, 2014, 05:25:03 PM
I built it and it works :)
I came back to this because I changed my Volume pedal to a new one that had the jacks on the front and since there was only room for three, it dawned on me. It's a Bespeco VM12, apparently it has a 100k pot in it.
#2
General Questions / Re: Black 65 JFET biasing
November 30, 2014, 05:04:31 PM
Quote from: Muadzin on November 20, 2014, 11:19:21 AM
Quote from: midwayfair on November 19, 2014, 01:53:21 PMIt's not just cost. For one thing, trimpots can be noisy. For another, they take up space on the PCB and sometimes the point of a project is to do it in a certain size enclosure that might be impossible with the trimpots there.

Also, FETs get matched in these pedals for reasons that go beyond "will this bias at the same voltage?" It needs to bias at the same voltage with the same drain/source resistance while producing the same amount of gain the pedal is designed around. You could have a trimpot on the whole drain assembly, but you're still stuck matching the two FETs. (If you pair them up and one draws more current than the other, it won't function the same way.) If you just match two FETs but they bias +/- a quarter volt or so off from the fixed resistor, then you're not going to produce the amount of gain needed to make the pedal sound right. It's the same reason you use J201s instead of 2N5457s or MPF102s, because the J201 is the FET called for in
this design.

Did you miss where the OP said he wanted to use the same drain resistor as the original? Maybe that indicates that he's trying to build an actual clone.

If you don't care about doing the circuit right, then you could just throw any old thing in there, use a single J201 instead of matched pairs (you'll get about 66% the amount of gain, is that close enough?) and put the FETs on a breadboard first to figure out the closest fixed drain resistance.

Besides, you can solder two legs of a trimpot into a PCB for fixed resistors. The reverse is also true.

I got the part of matching FET's, in fact didn't I say boards that require biased matching JFETS? I've build a Pinnacle and Plexi Drive with matched FET's. The FET matcher that comes with the Nonnom board was a god sent in that regard. For the Pinnacle I had to socket resistors until I found the right ones. The Plexy Drive was a Rullywow board and it was designed with trimpots. Man, that made the biasing so much more easy.

I get the point about trimpots maybe being noisy, and that may be a valid point if you're Brian Wampler, but me being me and dirtpedals being noisy anyway that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make. As for enclosure size, a cermet trimpot is not that much bigger then a single resistor in length and 3 of them next to each other . And unless you're going for a 1590A box I doubt having a couple of trimpots will take up that much more space that it won't fit into a 1590B. The Pinnacle PCB required only two drain resistors that had to be biased correctly and the Plexi Drive PCB was even smaller and still fitted 3 trimpots.

And no, I did not miss the part where wanted to use the exact same drain resistor as the original. The point I was trying to make was that its easier to change resistor values to suit a group of matched JFETS then to find a group of JFETS that will suit the resistors. Because resistors cost nothing whereas a giant pile of JFETS will cost a lot. And as long as the JFETS are matched and then correctly biased it should not change the sound one damn bit. Or am I wrong in that regard?

And yes, you can always solder two legs of a trimpot into a PCB. It will be harder though and require some creativity to get them in place if the resistors you are trying to replace are in between rows of tightly packed resistors. The reverse however is always easy. So why skimp on that?

Is the NonNom Jfet matcher better than Chi_boy's, and where can I find it?
#3
Open Discussion / Re: Volume-Expression-Pedal-Hybrid
November 29, 2014, 03:43:03 PM
I just realized I could've used a stereo jack for the expression output, instead of 2 mono jacks.
Correct?
#4
General Questions / Re: Black 65 JFET biasing
November 25, 2014, 08:00:18 PM
So let me get this straight, first priority is to get the jfets/drain resistors to match, then second to get them close to 5.6k?
Though getting close to the 5.6k is the harder part since my pile of jfets is not that big.
#5
General Questions / Re: Black 65 JFET biasing
November 15, 2014, 02:12:30 AM
Yes! That was the build document I was looking for, thanks!
#6
General Questions / Black 65 JFET biasing
November 14, 2014, 07:33:08 PM
I was wondering how I can sort out the right JFETs for this pedal. I want to use the 5.6k drain resistors like the original. Do I just pop them in and then measure? And if so, do the voltages of the JFETs interact with one-another?
Or must I build a vero testing-board and test them there?
#7
General Questions / Scratchy Cables when messed with
November 04, 2014, 12:25:04 AM
I was wondering if anyone else has this issue or knows what it means when some of my patch cables give off a light scratching when I turn the plug a little (while it's in the jack of course)
#8
Thanks for the detailed reply. I used the normal values for the bb. I'll try the 220n cap. If that doesn't work, do you have the schematic of a good gain stage?
#9
General Questions / bluesbreaker with drivemaster eq
October 12, 2014, 09:50:58 PM
Alright, I finally got around to build this. I marked the cutting point for both circuits at the 1k resistor, taking the BBs overdrive and the Drivemasters tonestack.
Problem now is, that the engaged pedal is very quiet and I don't get any distortion. Could it maybe be, that the tonestack now needs VRef instead of going to ground? Or what could be the problem?
#10
General Questions / Re: Schematic question
October 03, 2014, 08:57:36 PM
Quote from: rullywowr on October 03, 2014, 08:48:22 PM
That schematic is a bit tough to read...I would suggest looking at other schematics of the same circuit to verify the connections and the pinouts.

Why do I say that?

-There are no connection dots where wires should connect to each other.  This is especially confusing at the junction between R1 and C3.  They should be connected there with a dot

-The pot orientation (pins 1/2/3) are not labeled ...this is just pure lazy-ness and you have a 50/50 shot of getting it correct unless you have some experience here

Yes I did use two schematics, but I didn't want to post two schematics so things don't get too messy.
Here's the BYOC schematic which values I used.
#11
General Questions / Re: Schematic question
October 03, 2014, 08:51:47 PM
Thanks guys!  :)
I got it done up to the tonesection. Maybe someone could take a look if I did it right? At "M" there is my input, lower rail is ground and upper rail is 9v.
#12
General Questions / Schematic question
October 03, 2014, 07:49:35 PM
Sorry, dumb question here...how is the upper right part connected to the rest of the schematic? Is it simply connected to terminals 5 and 8 of the IC?

#13
Cool, thanks!
#14
Quote from: fixxe on September 14, 2014, 11:26:09 AM
This:
http://pitchfork.com/advance/533-heigh-ho/

Been waiting for it for a while, and boy does it pay off!!!

Well that link expired. It was Blake Mills' new album. Anyone a fan here?
#15
No worries!
What's the paste you are talking about, though?