Restocks/Free Shipping Yes! New Projects...FML

[madbean]

As promised the Free Shipping starts today and will now go until Nov. 4th. Restocks are available for the following: Pork Barrel, Stutr, Karate Shop, Harbinger One, Green Bean, Glam.

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Unfortunately, the Softie and Wumpus will not be releasing today. Both have issues that popped up in the verification builds.
Softie: there is relay noise propagating through the switching when it absolutely shouldn't. All attempts to solve this have failed and I'm left with it being a layout problem. Why it wasn't such a problem in my prototype I don't know.
Wumpus: there is an issue with the proximity plate control and how I chose to implement it. It cannot be solved as I have designed it and will require a re-design to work the way it should. The circuit works...it's the overall design that was stupidity on my part.

Both of these projects were thoroughly prototyped and the issues came up only at the last minute (the Wumpus is majorly my fault...wouldn't have happened if I had been just a bit more thorough) . My apologies to anyone who was looking forward to these releases. Frankly, I'd rather lose my time and investment in these projects than release something substandard. I'll make a decision later on whether or not to work on re-designs or go forward with some of the other projects that are close to ready.

[BrianS]

Well that's a bummer.  Was really looking forward to both especially the Wampus.  I feel really bad for you because I know you spent an extraordinary amount of time getting them to the stage they are.  Perhaps it's one of those things where you put it away for a while  then everything comes together when you re-engage.  Hope so because the video I saw on what the Wampus was based on was just righteously good. 

[zombie_rock123]

Looking forward to both definitely but feel infinitely worse that youre bummed out about it, give yourself a break!

[madbean]

Looking forward to both definitely but feel infinitely worse that youre bummed out about it, give yourself a break!

Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm definitely hard on myself when it comes to failure but only to the point where it motivates me to move past it and do better. I had a couple of stressed out days but I'm over it. It's a learning experience.

More description of the Wumpus failure: the problem was in my process, not the circuit design itself. For most of these projects boxing up the final "product" is a no-brainer. It's something that can be done in-between manufacturing and release. 99/100 times this is fine, but not in this case. If I had boxed mine up before going forward I would have realized that a frakkin' proximity sensor can be whacked by its "proximity" to a grounded enclosure. It's a failure of thinking through on my part. The design can work (if you disengage the sensor from the enclosure) but it makes no sense the release it in its current format (1590BB) that way. The ideal design would be a 1590B with a micro-jack to connect a remote sensor.

[peAk]

Ah well, I found some stuff to buy anyway.

[gordo]

You're too hard on yourself.  Everyone will still be around when the product is released and if it doesn't get released then at least it doesn't become a tech support nightmare.

We're all (mostly) grown ups here and if I can speak for the group...amazed at what comes out of this place.

All in due time...

[stringsthings]

No probs with the later release dates.   It's good to know that the projects have been well tested before
we get our hands on them.  And although I'm looking forward to some of the new things, I've got an over-flowing
backlog of projects.  ( and I ordered an VFE board anyway    ... just because )

[WormBoy]

Shit happens ... I hope you get these projects back on track at a later time.

[madbean]

Thanks to everyone who ordered during the sale. I made more than enough to get the next batch of VFE switching boards + micro controllers plus at least 2-3 or more projects completed for 2017. The loss of profit on the Wumpus and Softie sets back the release of the FFS kit for a while, but that's not a huge deal. Just stuff you have to contend with when running a business.

I went back and compared the Softie with some other switching solutions and it looks like I might have jumped the gun a bit on the switching noise. After comparing the Softie to the VFE switching board, my redesign VFE board, the Coda bypass and the FFX bypass it turns out they were all pretty comparable...none stood out as being more noisey or "poppy" than any other (the Coda and FFX bypass are perhaps slightly more muted during the switch-over but not by much). So, the Softie may still see the light of day at some point.

It just goes to show that no switching solution is perfect. There are pluses and minuses to both mechanical and relay bypass.

[junkemail86]

Has anybody built a successful proximity sensor-based pedal in the style of zvex with a plate as the antenna?
I remember building one a long time ago, when I was first starting maybe ~10 years ago.  Obviously a lot has changed since then in terms of my skills, knowledge, component sourcing.  But, I remember the antenna not working very well.  The wah worked but you had to get very close to the plate so there was minimal range.  Have people worked out ways to improve this?

[madbean]

Has anybody built a successful proximity sensor-based pedal in the style of zvex with a plate as the antenna?
I remember building one a long time ago, when I was first starting maybe ~10 years ago.  Obviously a lot has changed since then in terms of my skills, knowledge, component sourcing.  But, I remember the antenna not working very well.  The wah worked but you had to get very close to the plate so there was minimal range.  Have people worked out ways to improve this?

This is exactly what the Wumpus was supposed to do...it's a modified version of the proximity control zVex uses. And yeah, the range is quite small...usually your foot has to be within an inch or two for the sensor to start working. As far as improving the range, I don't know. Not even sure that would be a good idea since you have to hold your foot up with no support to control it. Obviously it's not as expressive as a true wah, though. Couple mods I did on mine did help...one was a small voltage divider that seemed to smooth out the LED response some and the other was a trimmer for more control over the LED brightness itself.

[peAk]

Damn

I already received my order.

That was some fast friggin shipping

Hell to the yeah.