It's been a while......

[stevie1556]

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've done any building. Hope everyone is well!

A while ago I started building for friends of friends again and it took the enjoyment out of building. Again. Long story short, my last day at work was the 20th March and it's looking like I maybe furloughed until October, so I've picked up the guitar again and I've really been enjoying it. Decided I needed some new pedals (I've been using the HX Effects recently and it's amazing!), so I've been designing a few new boards.

They are all designed for a 125B and have pads for top mounted jacks, which allows for 6 wires to go from the effect board to the foot switch board. Ive got foot switch boards for optical bypass and I'm about to send the files off to get the 3PDT footswitch boards made.

They are:
AM Radio - Lofo Mofo
Hog Roast - MB Bacon Bits (my Blackstar HT5 loves that pedal!)
Don't Eat Yellow Snow (Snowjob - I miss that pedal)
Dirty Ego - Clarke Gainster
Fuzzy Wuzzy - Maestro MFZ-1

I've also got the boards designed for 2 ABY pedals. They both have switchable buffers, one has a Klon buffer and the other has the Cornish buffer. The components are on the top of the board along with the foot switches, and I've got a SMD DIP switch on the back so the buffer is switchable. Had to design the Eagle part for it as I think a TH one would sit too high for the back plate to fit. Last night I finished up a silicon fuzz face. Never managed to get into fuzz, but I'm hoping that it may help me close to ZZ Top tones.

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[diablochris6]

Solid SMD design work. Great job! I've been playing with SMD a little bit and really enjoy the extra challenge of designing PCB layouts with it.

[stevie1556]

When you get a few design rules in your head, the boards are quite easy to design, especially when the layout starts clicking together well. I would love to see some of your designs!

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[stevie1556]

I've managed to get a few more designs done. I've got 2 ABY switchers, one has a Klon buffer and the other has a Cornish buffer, and both buffers are switchable. The components are mounted on the same side as the switches, and I had to create a Eagle part for the SMD DIP switch on the back. It would have been easier to use a TH one but after working out the measurements, I'm pretty sure it would have been slightly too high.

I've also done the layouts for a DAM Meathead, a silicone fuzz face (I used TH transistors so i can experiment with which ones I prefer), and the Platinum Alpaca which is a modified Alcapulco Gold. Most of the layouts I've seen put the gain pot at the input, which only has the same effect as as rolling the guitar volume off, so I've placed the gain pot onto IC1 to change the amount of the gain in the IC produces, and I've also included a tone know to try and increase the amount of treble the pedal produces.



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[diablochris6]

Here's a small sampling. This one is based off the Smallsound/Bigsound Mini.

This is based off of a standard optical tremolo, but I also included an envelope control for odd swells.

This is basically a development board for a Belton-less reverb. It also has an add-on board for the "in between" delay times of the main board and fits into the feedback loop.

I had a bout of creativity to take the segments of the Moog Werkstatt synth and create modular boards for a more immersive synth experience. This board is for the VCO. I had layouts for the other modules (plus a few others), but I ended up buying a Behringer Model D!


I actually don't have any idea if these will work. I basically just used them to get the feel for SMD design.

[alanp]

Do the newer versions of Eagle still have file-export-image ?

[diablochris6]

Do the newer versions of Eagle still have file-export-image ?

It's still there. I definitely use it when providing build documentation, but I didn't want to go through the process of "saving as" for a version of the pic I probably wouldn't keep anyway. Just a quick snap of the phone, put it in a collage app for the twofers, upload, and then delete works for me.

[stevie1556]

Diablochris - those board layours are crazy! I love how you have got all the passive components horizontal, can't even imagine how long that must have taken! Have you built any of them up yet?

AlanP - I had absolutely no idea you could do that! I'll give it a go tomorrow

Good news and bad news. Bad news, I've just been told that my airline is closing it's base at my airport as part of the wider redundancies that they are making, which means that after 15 years, I'm out of a job. On the plus side, there is a career that I've always liked the look of, so I'm in the process of updating my CV and applying for it as they are currently recruiting. Every cloud, silver lining and all that.

Good news, my new boards have arrived today! I changed the pads from a wired SPDT switch to board mounted ones on 2 boards from the previous batch. Luckily I didn't need to move any components around so I can still use the original solder paste stencils. Managed to get the 2 ABY designs built up, they need 1 capacitor each (as i forgot to order them), the switches, LEDs and the SMD DIP switch on the back soldered. For one of the LEDs I've gone for a bi-coloured one to make it look neater. I'll get the DAM Meathead, the silicone fuzz face and the 2 reworked boards built up tomorrow evening.

30 of the enclosures will be marked up and drilled tomorrow as well, so I'm slowly getting there.

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[jimilee]

Damn, that looks like a full time job right there.


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[matmosphere]

Sorry to hear about the job loss man, that's rough. Hope the new career works out well.

Looks like you've got some good stuff to keep you busy while you figure it out

[stevie1556]

Damn, that looks like a full time job right there.


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With the amount of time it's taking to get everything done, this is like a full time job with 20 hours overtime on top

Sorry to hear about the job loss man, that's rough. Hope the new career works out well.

Looks like you've got some good stuff to keep you busy while you figure it out

Fingers crossed it does. At the moment we have just entered consultation for my base. In the UK, because there is more than 100 employees we need a minimum of 45 days for that. Although yesterday they just put a lot of flights in all through winter, so I'm hoping that they decide to keep the base open. The last thing that I want is to get a job where i actually have to work for a living!

Managed to build 5 of each ABY switcher (each board is currently missing 1 capacitor), the Hog Roast and Don't Eat Yellow Snow. Still need to do the Beefcake and Silly Face. I'll get one of them done tonight, possibly both.

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[jimilee]

What are you gonna do with all of those? Also you build and sale?


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[stevie1556]

What are you gonna do with all of those? Also you build and sale?


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I'm going to be selling most of these hopefully. I've designed them for a 125B and the top mounted jacks connect to the top of the boards, then there is 6 cables going from the board to the foot switch board. Ive also got 3PDT boards and optical bypass boards so I'm make a mixture of them.

Finished up some more this evening. I've done 5 of each.



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