Cookies and Cream Punyvibe (Harbinger)

[midwayfair]

Built this board and put it in a case:


The case had this "cookies and cream vein" finish from Pedal Parts Plus.

So then had to do some "research" for inspiration on the art:


And this is what I ended up with:


Almost stock. I used BC549C for every BJT in the pedal because I have a bunch of them and few 5088s. I've been trying to resist the temptation to mod for the sake of modding lately, but after playing with it a while, I decided to drop the speed limiting resistors to 2.2K. This sacrifices a minimal amount of slow speeds for slightly faster fastest speeds. I also decided to run the LED through the footswitch. There's a 2.2K from the LED's anode to ground, and the cathode connects to ground when switched on. This keeps the LFO running all the time (otherwise it would take a second to go back to oscillating) and also keeps the white LED from being blinding (and saves me from having to use a colored LED in a monochrome pedal ... I won't lie, this was the main reason).

I also socketed R7 thinking I could maybe get a tiny bit more volume, but no dice. Ah well, it's only very slightly below unity on both chorus and vintage, and the chances of me using it in vintage mode or in any situation where I care about the volume drop are pretty small.

No light shield. It's dark in there anyway.

I did have one problem when boxing it up ... I'm not used to board mounted pots, and I had them a little too shallow for the dual gang. The first time I stuck it in there, I ended up with some components compressing and poking through the 3M tape on the back of the pot and shorting out on the dual gang; then I fixed that and ended up with the same thing happening on the volume pot (though this did solve the volume issue ... apparently it was shorting Q2's emitter to ground and nothing else)! Bugger. I finally fixed it by loosening the volume pot's nut by a 1/4 turn. Meh.

EDIT: Oh, one last thing: how is it that no one else has called theirs a punyvibe? It seems like such an obvious pun, but there are no hits in google except a single mention on Circuit Workshop regarding Forrest's puny phase!

[Vice/President]

I love all your enclosures, the handpainted vibe is awesome.  What kind of paint do you use?

[rullywowr]

Nicely done. Thanks as always for the detailed explanation of your trial and errors with your modifications.

[selfdestroyer]

Nicely done. Thanks as always for the detailed explanation of your trial and errors with your modifications.

Agreed, I always look forward to reading one of your builds or rants on threads. Even if I don't agree with something you say, its still fun to read. lol

[bcalla]

Very nice!  I also appreciate that you recap your build process.  This is one of the 3 pedals I have in some state of partial assembly on my bench.

Regarding board mounted pots shorting, I have 2 solutions.  The obvious one is to use what Barry at GPCB calls pot condoms (they are called dust seals at Mammoth).  Their drawback is that they have a sort of bump or peak on the bottom that pushes the pot away at an angle - making the shafts no longer perpendicular to the board.  I found that they are thick enough that I can shave the bump off with my X-acto knife and they will then fit fine.

The second solution is to cut pieces from a thin rubber jar opener and glue them to the backs of the pots.  I get these as freebies from businesses, but you can probably buy them pretty cheaply.

[Cortexturizer]

I love the way that pedal looks, you always make em count. But nothing beats the joshua tree. Man! That thing will haunt me forever.

[midwayfair]

What kind of paint do you use?

Mostly Tamiya water-based acrylic paints these days. Also model masters and some other brand that's slipping my mind at the moment. It depends on what colors I feel like picking up. This was done with just black, white, light gray, and sea grey (which has a tiny bit of blue in it, for a kind of "cold light" on the shadow).

Regarding board mounted pots shorting, I have 2 solutions.  The obvious one is to use what Barry at GPCB calls pot condoms (they are called dust seals at Mammoth).  Their drawback is that they have a sort of bump or peak on the bottom that pushes the pot away at an angle - making the shafts no longer perpendicular to the board.  I found that they are thick enough that I can shave the bump off with my X-acto knife and they will then fit fine.

The second solution is to cut pieces from a thin rubber jar opener and glue them to the backs of the pots.  I get these as freebies from businesses, but you can probably buy them pretty cheaply.

The 3M tape I use is already a decent insulator (it's thick foam tape). I also have plenty of pot condoms and (much better) dust covers. The pot condoms have other issues - they add height, and they don't have a flat surface, so you can't adhere the PCB to the back of them to keep it from moving around, and as you said with board-mounted pots they force the board up at an angle.

The problem here was specifically that the components overcompressed the tape and then punched through it when I fully tightened the bolts. It was purely my fault on construction -- I simply soldered the board-mounted pots and switches too close to the board, which put stress on things it shouldn't have because the dual gang is taller. I'll know better for next time.

[pickdropper]

Very nice build, Jon.  This might be the inspiration for me to finish up my build.

As far as pot condoms go, I've never understood why people like them.  They are significant more expensive than the dust covers from Small Bear and the added height and lack of flatness really seems unnecessary.

[Bret608]

+1 on the pot condoms--I've only been able to use them on one build I did without board-mounted pots, and even then the "receptacle tip" caused the board not to sit entirely flat. Thus the board doesn't look seated nice and straight, which drives me nuts. I think in the future I could only see using them on a build with three or more non-board mounted pots to that there will be more of a "table" for the board to sit on.

I absolutely love the colors and theme here! I can't wait until these boards are back in stock.

[pickdropper]

+1 on the pot condoms--I've only been able to use them on one build I did without board-mounted pots, and even then the "receptacle tip" caused the board not to sit entirely flat. Thus the board doesn't look seated nice and straight, which drives me nuts. I think in the future I could only see using them on a build with three or more non-board mounted pots to that there will be more of a "table" for the board to sit on.

I absolutely love the colors and theme here! I can't wait until these boards are back in stock.

Just order the dust covers from Small Bear.  They a less than $0.10 each.  I think they are 7 cents each if you buy 100.  You can also use double sided foam tape and skip them entirely.

[alanp]

If you're especially cheap, you can just use singlesided electrical tape and call it a day (to be fair, this is a lot more low profile, especially sideways, than the dust covers. Some of Thomas_H's stuff doesn't space out right with dust covers on the pots.)

[davent]

I've used  recycled transparent plastic packaging between the pots and board, slightly thicker then what's sold at office supply stores as transparencies and free.

Looks real nice Jon, gotta be in the food thread too.

dave

[stevewire]

midwayfair,
Where did you source those white knobs from?  I like them.

[midwayfair]

midwayfair,
Where did you source those white knobs from?  I like them.

Smallbear -- the boss small I think.

[stevewire]

Thank you midwayfair.  For some reason I had never noticed those.  I suppose it helps to see them in context.