Would anyone find this useful? Suggest changes???

[toneboner]

I hate wiring 3pdt 's . Saw a board on smallbear and thought it was a good idea. And being a champion of all things home-etch... 

Any changes to make? Errors? Your opinions and insight are valued. thanks!

[jimilee]

I like +9 and ground on both sides and a place for +9 for the pcb also.

[Stomptown]

I would be a little concerned with how small the pads are for the 3pdt lugs and also how thin the traces are. When you etch you always want to make your traces nice and thick if you can. Other than that it looks like everything is okay. Look at the layout in this build and you will see what I mean:

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=12703.0

It uses a ground plane instead of traces for ground but the thickness of the pads/traces is what you should go for...

[toneboner]

Wow! thats a sexy lil board. did you make that?

[toneboner]

jimilee, what do you find is the benefit from having 9+ on a 3pdt board? i always just take 9+from the jack right to the main pcb.  please elaborate, im a bit dense with these things

[ddog]

Take a look at this, I haven't created it but I find it pretty useful:

http://oshpark.com/shared_projects/NEyLF35L

[rullywowr]

jimilee, what do you find is the benefit from having 9+ on a 3pdt board? i always just take 9+from the jack right to the main pcb.  please elaborate, im a bit dense with these things

Having 9v pads on the breakout allows you to put the power jack down low as well as light up the led.

[flanagan0718]

Nice Etch. I would make the traces a bit thicker and the pads a bit bigger. I've been kicking around the idea of doing one with the LED and Resistor places.

[toneboner]

Ben, thats it right there! My searches did'nt turn one up so i fired up MS paint... 

thanks for the 9+ explanation. Most of Beans boards have a spot for the LED and resistor so I'm still a little unsure of how to implement that. if someone would like to play with the drawing a bit - please, show me the light! 

here's a version with big pads and traces

[rullywowr]

Many 3PDT breakout board designs will have a spot for a CLR (current limiting resistor) and a LED.  As long as you have 9V, a CLR, a LED, and GND...you can turn the LED off.

While some of madbeans (and others') PCB's have a CLR and LED pad on the board...this isn't the case with every PCB out there.  I like having the option of this on my 3PDTs so I can be flexible.  When the "LED" pad is on the main PCB board, there is 9V going to a CLR and then the pad.  You hook up your LED anode to this pad and then connect the cathode to a switched ground to turn it on.  If you place the CLR and led pads on your 3PDT, you can just ignore this pad and CLR onboard any PCB which offers it.

Here is a pic of a fabbed design I have been using:


On this 3PDT I designed, I have the board connections on top and extra 9V/GND pads on the sides in case you want to put the power jack down low.    The resistor "R" can be used to tame LED brightness...or you can use a 10k trimpot instead to tweak on the fly.   The order of connections is the same as the PCBs I design, so you can use a flat cable with 2.54 (.100") spacing to connect them easily.

Just giving you some ideas...it may be very hard to implement all these features esp on a single sided etch...this fabbed board is double sided which makes things a lot easier.

[toneboner]

wow. that's really nice work! if i could have found a nice board like that i wouldnt have bothered making em myself.  the small bear one is nice and cheap ($1), but wasn't sure it would work with these projects.

thanks for all your responses!