1590a SMD 4 Knob Engineer's Thumb

[Aristatertotle]

So 3 things spurred the creation of this project: I wanted a compressor, I wanted to try and SMD build, and I wanted to try laying out my own board. So the only sane thing to do was lay out Merlin B's Engineer's Thumb comp as SMD in a 1590a with added attack and release knobs and the treble boost switch. Well, I successfully made a working layout, although with a few boo boo's. The pots all work in reverse if they're board mounted like I was going to try, so in this build I had to wire them off board and flip the legs. Also it's kind of a sloppy layout and some parts were kind of a bitch to get placed/soldered because they were jammed a bit too close. All in all I think it was a good learning experience.

This is actually my second build up of the 3 boards I got from OSHpark, but the first one's kind of hacked up. I couldn't decide where to put the slide switch for the top boost, but I settled on the top of it. Also, that was the only place I could get it to fit  . It's a three month late birthday present for my dad, and it matches the style of the other pedals I've made him. I'm using the first one for myself because I don't care about it being fugly.







I did the swirls with a wire end brush attached to my drill press. I've bought enclosures with the same kind of pattern from PPP before, but I figured I'd try taking a wack at it myself.







The top boost switch. It lets a bit more treble bleed through. Making that little rectangular hole for the slide switch was a bit more work, but I don't think I could have fit a bigger switch in there. Also on this one I may have forgotten to add arrow on the decal, so sharpie it was.






Obligatory guts shot. The electrical tape up top is covering the DC jack because the board's kind of sitting on top of it just a little. I didn't trim the wires as much as I normally would because my side cutters broke  .

Thanks for looking!

[stringsthings]

That's an impressive build.  The swirls looks great on the enclosure.  I think this is the year I start doing some SMT.

[m-Kresol]

Well done and congrats on your first layout. turned out really well. Good thing the pot-mounting didnt work, otherwise you would not be able to put the jacks were you have them now and then it gets really, really tight in the 1590a enclosures.

[jimilee]

That's really cool. Nice going.

[lincolnic]

Great work all around! Lots of accomplishments in one pedal.

[chuckbuick]

Great work, man.  4 knobs and a slider in a 1590A along with your first PCB layout.  Pat yourself on the back.  You killed it.

[Thomas_H]

Well done!

[Aristatertotle]

Thanks everyone! I've been super busy working a ton of overtime at work the past month and a half so it was nice to get a build completed. I forgot to take a picture of how the slider fits, but the mounting flanges fit just perfectly between the corner pillars for the backplate screws. I had to use tweezers to hold the nut on the inside in place while I rotated the screw and try and catch the thread.

I've got a couple other layouts I did and redid the layout for this before workageddon started.

Next builds to finish are the two Nameless builds I'm working on with the sets I bought from alanp. Also got super ambitious with parts fitting with those. I'm building them with the CV control and effects loop added on.

[wgc]

Great job!  Love that top switch and brushed aluminum.