Share something you wish you would have known

[thesmokingman]

unfortunately I couldn't distill this down to a singular thing so I will share the whole of what I wish I would have known.

I wish I would have known that it would ultimately be more important that I know WHY instead of HOW. It is much easier to know how to buy parts and solder them together than it is to know why things are done a certain way or work a certain way. I guess if I were to expound on that, I would have spent more time reading and less time doing.

I wish I started out spending more money on tools than toys. I'm not a gigging musician so this is all a hobby, the fruits of which are toys for me to play with and enjoy and of course the satisfaction of doing it myself. I'd much rather have started with a better set of tools to build better toys with rather than struggling in the doing it myself phase. the shame is that I knew I needed better but couldn't (at the time) justify the investment vs the gratification of having the next pedal or amp or guitar.

I wish I walked away more. I've broken the marathon build/troubleshoot habit and I don't miss it. so what if you circle back to it in a day/week/month/year? it would probably be better than powering through and making mistakes, reworking, getting frustrated, stressed out, or abjectly angry. I've solved more problems in the shower or on the drive in to work than I have at the workbench.

I wish I hadn't tried to turn a hobby into a business, even a limited one. I'm just not able to enjoy work. I've always considered work that thing I do for money and a hobby that thing I do for fun. It took me over a year to pick up a soldering iron again for any reason and I didn't even have one of those sad failed business stories. It just literally killed my enjoyment of the hobby.

[sjaustin]

Buy some prebond wire. Twisting and tinning is for chumps. I always have four colors, and always use them the same way: black is negative, red positive, green is in, yellow is out.

Huh, when I do colourcode wires, it's usually -- black ground, red 9V, yellow for dry signal (In), blue for wet signal (Out).

I used white wire for clean signal (in) and brown wire for dirty signal (out).

Interesting! In my case, I was only able to source those four colors from my preferred wire vendor (and it's the best stuff in the world!!!), so I just stuck with black and red in their standard uses and figured greeN and iN both have Ns, while yellOw and Out both have Os. Ha.

[dan.schumaker]

Buy some prebond wire. Twisting and tinning is for chumps. I always have four colors, and always use them the same way: black is negative, red positive, green is in, yellow is out.

Huh, when I do colourcode wires, it's usually -- black ground, red 9V, yellow for dry signal (In), blue for wet signal (Out).

I used white wire for clean signal (in) and brown wire for dirty signal (out).

I do white for in, black for out, green for ground and red for power (I've done it other ways, but the tone is wayyyyy better this way  )

[jubal81]

Buy some prebond wire. Twisting and tinning is for chumps. I always have four colors, and always use them the same way: black is negative, red positive, green is in, yellow is out.

Huh, when I do colourcode wires, it's usually -- black ground, red 9V, yellow for dry signal (In), blue for wet signal (Out).

I used white wire for clean signal (in) and brown wire for dirty signal (out).

I do white for in, black for out, green for ground and red for power (I've done it other ways, but the tone is wayyyyy better this way  )

QFT. Red is powwa. Green is earthy. White is clean and black is the dirty signal.
All the advice so far is stellar.

Mine is SLOW DOWN. Enjoy the process and don't rush just to hear what it sounds like. Clean. Double check. Triple check. Measure components. Quadruple check. Buy quality components from reliable suppliers and don't waste your time trying to save a few pennies - not remotely worth it.

[TNblueshawk]

Get some of the Barry's Best wire from guitarpcb.

Try out some 63/37 solder unless you really have to use lead free.  Always wash your hands after you use it.

If your iron ever slips out of your hand while soldering, ignore that innate reflex that tells you you're quick enough to catch it before it hits the floor.

On the other hand, if the iron is heading towards your crotch while wearing thin shorts by all means burn those fingers and catch it.

[TNblueshawk]

When your pedal doesn't work, your first debugging steps should be: 1) make sure your power source is plugged in, 2) make sure your guitar is actually plugged into the pedal input, and 3) make sure the amp is actually plugged into the pedal output.

I've seen lots of combinations/variations of those simple things going wrong and wasting time.

4) when done with first 3 make sure the volume knob on the guitar is rolled open 

[Haberdasher]

Get some of the Barry's Best wire from guitarpcb.

Try out some 63/37 solder unless you really have to use lead free.  Always wash your hands after you use it.

If your iron ever slips out of your hand while soldering, ignore that innate reflex that tells you you're quick enough to catch it before it hits the floor.

On the other hand, if the iron is heading towards your crotch while wearing thin shorts by all means burn those fingers and catch it.

Right!  That's why I always wear jeans or at least sweats when I solder now 

Never solder naked.  There's a good tip.

[TNblueshawk]

Get some of the Barry's Best wire from guitarpcb.

Try out some 63/37 solder unless you really have to use lead free.  Always wash your hands after you use it.

If your iron ever slips out of your hand while soldering, ignore that innate reflex that tells you you're quick enough to catch it before it hits the floor.

On the other hand, if the iron is heading towards your crotch while wearing thin shorts by all means burn those fingers and catch it.

Right!  That's why I always wear jeans or at least sweats when I solder now 

Never solder naked.  There's a good tip.

Never shall the two tips meet 

[drog_trog]

Hmmm...

 
BUY A WIRE STRIPPER.

Stop trying to half-ass it, stripping the ends of wires with your side-cutters. Uncrack your wallet, Alan, let the moths out, and buy some goddamn strippers.

Can't stress this one enough, i use electrician ones as they're the only kind i have. Stripping wires with side cutters can be a pain as you may score into the wire accidentally which makes it break easily when your routing the wires

[ahiddentableau]

When you add SIP sockets, break off the amount you need and then stick them back on the remaining stick of sockets to space them out and make it easier to solder them in place. Once you get a couple of sockets in place, continue putting the individual sockets on the strip and then steady that strip by inserting part of it into the sockets you previously soldered to the board in order to steady it. This is a confusing thing to put in words, but there's a picture showing it in the build process article on my blog. http://prentisseffects.blogspot.com/2017/06/getting-started-build-procedure.html

That's a clever little hack.  Kudos.  Thanks for sharing it--I'm definitely going to try that one out.  Maybe I won't have to howl profanities while trying to seat a single SIL socket in place again.

[gordo]

Was cool to see the Barry's wire tip come up a few times.  I LOVE the stuff.  I suppose we could (or likely have) figured out where he gets it but it's nice to give back to the food chain whenever possible.

The cheap little parts tester is a front line to my work flow.  Every part gets tested before it gets stuffed into the board.  My build accuracy has improved to near perfection and hinges pretty much on my own dumb mistakes, which I'm pretty much at ninja level of goof ups.  One of my recents was trying to get the effect working with a non working cable.

A rock-it board is next up.  Just a terminal strip on a piece of wood with an aluminum "L" bracket to hold a pair of jacks, a power connector, an LED and a bypass switch.  It's easy and has lots of space.  If it fails here it goes to my fancy-schmancy test rig with tone generator etc...

Luckily my soldering iron mishaps have been rare.  I once grabbed the wrong end (I ALWAYS use a stand now), and once dipped the iron in a glass of beer instead of the cleaning sponge.  Still drank it...

[reddesert]

For me, the most difficult / trying part of building is holding things in place. I mean holding components when you flip the board over to solder, holding pots, jacks, switches and wires while you try to solder one thing to another, oh and holding enclosure and drill when you drill. So the more thought you put into making simple jigs to hold your PCB, pots, wires, etc - the less frustration you will have, the more your parts will hold in place, and therefore the less your parts will move around and cause cold solder joints. Which are a major cause of build failures and problems in the field.

Take your time when building and use a schematic and thought process ("follow the signal and the current") when debugging. Most of my simple builds that don't fire up right away are something like a missed joint: a short pin that barely sticks through the board that I forgot to solder, etc.

If you can, read a book (I recommend Horowitz and Hill's "The Art of Electronics" - a cheap older edition will be fine) or websites on how basic passive, transistor, and op-amp circuits work. Understanding and troubleshooting will become much easier.

[blearyeyes]

Don't push down on a conductor to move it with your finger while holding a soldering iron on the other side of the PCB.
Don't use metal DC sockets.
You're not as good at soldering as you think you are.
Don't spend 10 hours straight stuffing and soldering a PCB and expect it to work.
Don't put a movie on with subtitles while your working on a pedal

[TNblueshawk]

With respect to sockets for transistors I'm all over the place. I first used sockets for all of them thinking I might come back and change them out to change the sound. About 20 pedals in, who am I kidding. I'm not opening up the pedal to do that. Never have actually. So I began to solder them all in. The upside is they never come loose or I get a bad connection on a leg. Then I decided why not solder just the middle leg. This is enough to hold the other 2 in, yet if for some oddball reason I did decide to change one out it would be super easy to just desolder the one leg and replace. I've pretty much just stayed with that last philosophy.

I know this, if I gigged there is no way I wouldn't at least have one leg soldered for fear of one coming loose.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Invaluable tools for the trade:
1) GOOD soldering station (I recommend the Weller WESD51)
2) Unibit!!
3) SOLDER SUCKER (Didn't see this one mentioned)

Tips from my years:
1) ALWAYS.. ALWAYS double check component values, orientation, and voltages just before installing. I do this religiously and I haven't had a build issue (due to parts) in years!
2) You MUST do a few PnP layouts. Although fabbed PCBs are much easier, in my opinion... you are not a true DIY'er unless you have done a few PnP transfers.
3) Sharpen your soldering skills. It WILL save you money! A lot of people like to push 3PDT boards. If you can solder properly, it is actually LESS work to just solder directly to the switch. This also applies to stopping cold solder joints, loose connections, etc.
4) DO NOT TURN IT INTO A BUSINESS! Unless you are willing to eat money and take losses constantly, just do what most everyone else does. Sell the occasional build to fund your habit.
5) Ebay is the LAST place to get what you need. Cough up the extra few pennies and buy from a reputable distributor/manufacturer. Ebay should be the last resort!

6) Lastly.... CHALLENGE YOURSELF. Don't get stuck in the rut of building your 355th Fuzz pedal. Expand out. Look for new projects. Don't be afraid to try different projects. Do some BBD-based projects. Explore the bigger circuits. Doing this will keep things fresh and interesting. If you run into problems... SOMEONE has done it already. Post up the required info and ask questions. THAT'S WHAT WE ARE HERE FOR!! 

Oh yeah.... Definitely try Brian's projects as well as some of the others on here. If not for Brian.. we all wouldn't be here! Support the cause