Your boxing technique

[billstein]

Just populated Green Bean and Fat Pants boards and want to put them in the same 1590bb box. It got tight quickly. Made me really appreciate the craftsman I've seen on this board.

Do you connect all the wires before you put anything in the box or do you secure everything in the box and then wire it? Any tricks from you masters would be greatly appreciated.

[jimilee]

Well following to rockit before you box it method,I wire the pots but then I wait to box it before I wire everything else,and if need be,shorten the wires to the pots. Somehow my guts end up looking like spaghetti anyway.

[billstein]

Well following to rockit before you box it method,I wire the pots but then I wait to box it before I wire everything else,and if need be,shorten the wires to the pots. Somehow my guts end up looking like spaghetti anyway.

Yeah I did rock it first. I built a test rig that I can hook two pedals up to easily and I think I'm really going to like this combination.

It's so tight though. Really not looking forward to wiring this up.

[Stomptown]

I agree with above posts. Rock it before you box it. I wire up the pots, 9V, G, In, and Out and make the wires extra long so I can cut them to size later when I box it as well.  In the meantime I also put my swithches, in/out jacks, LED and DC jack in the enclosure and wire everything up. Without the board in the way it is much easier to keep all of this stuff clean (as long as you plan carefully). Zip ties can also be helpful as is heat shrink. Definitely make a testing rig if you haven't already. There's a great post from Jkokura on how to build a simple one. Pickdropper also has a great post on 1590A build technique with great advice that applies to all builds as well...

[mgwhit]

Although I do "rock it before I box it", if I'm using board-mounted pots I will drill out the box first, mount the pots to the box and then solder on the board.  It's easy to just unmount the pots and pop the whole assembled board out for testing.

In my experience trying to fit pot shafts into your drilled holes after you've soldered can be difficult and put a lot of stress on the board if you haven't fitted them that way first.

[aballen]

I try to go with board mounted pots, saves space and it makes outing the board easier, because I don't have to, its already attached.

For the remaining wires like non mounted switches I attach with long wires so I can rock it, but these get unmounted later.  The in, out, and power never get soldered to anything, I just use extra long wires and my "beavis box".  If you don't have one, make it your next build, really, its just so useful.

You can add pots and switches to the beavis box, but I find there are too many options to cover so mine just does in, out, gnd, 9v, and a simple spdt.

Now once it is rocked, and the box is drilled, I mount the board(using the pots), I mount the jacks, power, in, out, and 3PDT.

I then route the wires, so it looks clean and trim them right about where they will get soldered.  Leave a hair of slack, you can usually tuck that out of the way without messing up the pretty placement/routing of your wires.

I then solder the wires up... usually as I cut them to length.  This keeps the guts relatively clean.  If I find a problem, I can remove the whole thing(depending on which power jack I use) and test again.  This is how I determine if there is a short somewhere, or I just wired it up wrong.

[davent]

I make a jig based on the drill template of the enclosure, mount all the pots, switches and board to that, wire all that up. Install the wires to the board that will be going to the jacks and then it's ready to install in the finished enclosure. Easy to trim the flying leads and attach to their jacks and wire from jacks to stompswitch after things are in the enclosure.


dave

[jkokura]

For me, it depends on the build. Sometimes I wire in the box, sometimes out. I really have been meaning to build up an assembly jig, but thus far I haven't gotten it in place yet.

Anyway, some typical 'moves' from me:

1. Use board mounted pots whenever possible. Cuts way back on wiring for sure.
2. Attach pots and wires to PCB, that's the first and best step.
3. Mount DC jack, and LED bezel in enclosure first, wire red lead of Battery snap to DC jack, and insert LED in Bezel
4. Install board with pots into enclosure also.
5a. Do basic bypass wiring on the switch (if needed) outside of enclosure
5b. If using bypass board, attach wiring needed to bypass board to attach to jacks
6. Install switch into enclosure
7. Trim and solder in place the PCB to Bypass board/switch wires
8. Install 1/4" jacks, solder in place the black battery snap lead to input ring lug.
9. Trim and solder in place Bypass board/switch wires to 1/4 jacks
10a. Trim and solder in place LED wires/leads to Bypass switch/board
10b. Solder in place bypass board.

That's typical.

Jacob

[billstein]

Thank you everybody for taking the time to answer. Very helpful.

For me, it depends on the build. Sometimes I wire in the box, sometimes out. I really have been meaning to build up an assembly jig, but thus far I haven't gotten it in place yet.

I was just thinking about the same thing.

[billstein]

I make a jig based on the drill template of the enclosure, mount all the pots, switches and board to that, wire all that up. Install the wires to the board that will be going to the jacks and then it's ready to install in the finished enclosure. Easy to trim the flying leads and attach to their jacks and wire from jacks to stompswitch after things are in the enclosure.


dave

Great Idea. Now just need some scrap wood from somewhere.

[davent]

I use 1/16" plywood because i have it but in a pinch a piece of box board like from a cereal box would be fine.
dave