Pocket DI

[Gearomatic]

More of a project for "Fun" than for any real use.
Spoiler, It was certainly "Fun."
I think I rigged it so you can click on the images to see the full sized versions.
Or check out the Imgur Album of highlights,
or the Google Drive of all the pictures.
^{Including the failed first attempt that I had to rip the guts out of}



Pocket DI. Theme sort of inspired by the Gameboy Pocket.
I used a Laser and Marking compound to mark the surface. I wish i had done that First, since the head of the laser did not clear the pot when at the correct focal legnth.
Had to keep rotating and realigning to do all the marks on the face.
I really like the look that the unfinished aluminum and the halftone lines give on the back, I wish it was darker, and all over.


It has both an In, and an Out, and a Balanced TRS out. The output is tied to the Tip of the TRS and I haven't been able to test to see if theirs any issue with that yet.
Like I mentioned this was more of a "Fun" project than anything. Hell, I'm actually a Tuba player, not a bass guitar player, I'm still learning to play.





And of course, the Interior.
Fair warning, its a mess. All done point to point, and Its sloppy.
It looks like the output and the Balanced Out would touch, but they actually have a lot of clearance, Just a bad camera angle



At one point it was in there all nice and "neat," Siliconed in, and of course I forgot to tie pin 4 of the IC to ground. You know, the Pin thats deepest into the case:

There are also 5 Caps hidden in there, as well as a 5mm LED.


I have no doubt that this is one good fall away from Breaking, but that's life. I considered flooding the interior with silicone(minus clearance for the inserts), but I don't think I will.

The input is pretty sensitive, It does clip fairly easily, I think i need to tweak it a bit.
The plans i was following do say that it can take up to 18V (I'm running it on 9) and that it has more headroom that way, so I may tool with that too.
Which is great since the LED and the CLR were the first things to go in, haha.
You can hear some of the distortion early in this track:
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/gear-gear-950185522/pocket-di?si=ca73ea512a6b43c3be82e3f1a89dcaf6[/soundcloud]

[gordo]

Good gawd what a shot across the bow for the first build report I recall seeing from you.  Awesome job.  What is this Marking Compound you're referring to?  I'd love to get my NEJE to score raw aluminum like this.

[jimilee]

Wow! Very impressive. What are you gonna use it for?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Willybomb]

This is pretty crazy.  Great concept.

[Gearomatic]

What is this Marking Compound you're referring to?  I'd love to get my NEJE to score raw aluminum like this.

I use Cermark to mark the aluminum, and we have both a 40W and 60W epilog laser. However I do prefer using the 40W since I'm more familiar with it.

It works, However I wish it was a little more forgiving, and a little darker. I'm still messing with feeds and speeds to see what works best. Applying the coat too thick or thin, or having the laser too far out of focus, or the work piece not flat on the table makes for a bad marking. Then you need to sand it off and try again. Prepping the material goes a long way too (sanding and using some denatured alc. to remove oils), but I admit that's a step I usually skimp out on.

[Gearomatic]

Wow! Very impressive. What are you gonna use it for?

I don't have any direct reason to use it to be honest. I have a Audient ASP880 which I really like the sounds of so I tend to use that.

Although I have had to fix it twice already so maybe if it dies again I will have a good reason to use this.

[thomasha]

Nice,
now you got the 1590LB itch, do not scratch it, otherwise you will wake up some day with lots of those.
Using stereo open jacks in this enclosure is tough, kudos to you.
There are some jacks that take less space and have a nice flat surface where you can put your PCB on.

I really like the huge knob. Kind of reminds me of a safe.

[Gearomatic]

Was wondering if a PCB for this would even fit, lol.

but yeah, I could have used a smaller led, pot and jacks for sure.