Messages

Hey guys, I'm looking for a 3D model (to use in Diptrace) for a SPST soft-touch switch, like this! https://www.taydaelectronics.com/spst-momentary-soft-touch-push-button-stomp-foots-pedal-switch.html. Never made my own, but if you guys don't have one I may do that. Thanks for any help you can provide!

Thanks all, I'll go at it with an audio probe. I appreciate the help.

No warranty?

I don't think Keisman makes/works on any pedals anymore. Can't find anything online about the company.

If it's using solid core wire then there could be a broken wire between the board and the switch.

This is a good thought, it uses stranded wire - plus I have reflowed every joint that looks suspect. I still can't narrow anything down.

I have a friend who had a Thunderbird that only was half working. Based on what he was explaining it sounded like a bad footswitch. After replacing it i've found out that it's something much sneakier, and would love some assistance finding out what it is.

If you don't know, the Thunderbird is like the Double Barrel, it has a Blues Breaker circuit and a TS circuit. Like I said, only half of the pedal works. If I move the board that doesn't come through around enough, I will hear the effect come through for a few seconds at a time, which makes me think it's a loose cable? But I've reflowed almost every cable that connects to the PCB with no luck. I've checked all points I can think of for grounding problems, but it all checks out. Absolutely no disrespect to Keisman, this pedal is super nice, it's just a mess of cable on the inside, which makes it hard to troubleshoot. Does anyone have a thought that might help me? I'll happul post a video I took of the problem.

Hey guys, I'm looking for some resources on how to add a gain knob to an Acapulco Gold circuit. I had some boards fabbed and they work perfectly other than the gain control. It only works with that turned all the way up. It's a 1MC pot and pin 3 is the input, pin 2 is the output, and pin 1 is grounded. If the control isn't totally dimed I get crazy feedback and no guitar signal, but if I turn it all the way up it works great, just a bit too gainy for my application. Anyone have ideas? It's setup like this http://pedalparts.co.uk/docs/SunnTAMZ.pdf schematic.

If I'm not mistaken this is from the relay.
The best current way to do this (that I know of) is to add a temporary mute through the use of a photoFET and some creative code on the microcontroller. Check out Coda-Effects explanation of photoFETs if you haven't already, it's the way to go.

But, really - what someone needs to do is design a tiny pre-fabricated surface mount board and produce them in large quantities to make it cheap. Then the builder just has to add wires and a switch.

I've considered this exact thing. Making a board with a surface mount PIC and a 5-pin head to burn code to it, all with the relay, photoFET, and regulator already installed. It seems doable, not sure if it'd be cost effective.

Anyway, I didn't mean to derail the discussion. Tuxedo, I think you should absolutely do the tutorial. I have an etchable layout for the CODA bypass in the Etcher's Paradise so if you want to incorporate that in any way please feel free. We could even post the end result on the Tutorials page (but only if that doesn't interfere with your personal plans for the guide).

That sounds great, I'll start working on it later today.
Again, I just want to be clear that Coda Effects really did a fantastic job on his post (that's all I used) and give him the credit for the idea. I'm lucky to have a decent amount of experience with coding and I realize not everyone has that luxury so I'd be making this tutorial for the layman.
He also has a small board for sale on his site that comes with the pre-burnt PIC and I believe the relay? Seems like it'd be easy to adapt to many different projects.

I'd be interesting in hearing your experiences getting set up for the Pic and how you go about programming it and everything. I'm pretty comfortable with the programming side of things, I'm just not used to setting up the hardware to start programming.

The link I posted gives very detailed instructions on how to do this start to finish, but I will be working on a video with explanations on how every little part goes together. I believe it will be really beneficial in addition to the article.

I think the reason that relay bypassing is not as popular is pricing. The PIC, Relay, and supporting parts are not all that cheap when compared to a sime 3PDT or Millenium setup. Although I believe relay bypass is superior... it is just not cost effective.

This is a good observation. It's definitely more costly in time and money, I can't deny that.
Although, comparing a 3PDT (which is rated for ~30,000 cycles, maybe ~50,000 depending on quality) and a Soft Touch SPDT (which is rated for ~10 million cycles) there's an obvious winner when it comes to thinking about the life of builds. It's something i'd love to help the community think about and potentially use more and more.

Yesterday I finally got all the parts I needed to test out Coda Effect's relay bypassing schematic. I programmed PIC12F675 to work with a soft touch switch and it worked great the first time around. I was wondering, is anyone else interested in implementing relay bypassing in their pedals but maybe doesn't know how to do the coding portion?
I'd love to either provide folks with the micro-controllers already burnt with the proper code OR even make an in depth tutorial (expanding on Coda's incredible info) on how to implement it. Let me know your thoughts guys.

http://www.coda-effects.com/2016/04/relay-bypass-conception-and-relay.html?showComment=1510840701063#c6018597602149103674 here's the first installment of the relay bypassing code that Coda posted.

Okay you guys asked for guts!

Some of you are probably getting tired of my numerous versions of this pedal, but here's the one I'm going to attempt to sell moving forward. Got the printing done at Mammoth, I drilled them myself. Love the look, the circuit is a little quiet, so I'm going to iron that out before I sell them, of course.

I can recommend chromesphere's store DIYGP. I've used his J201 SMDs boards and transistors a few times. They are a fantastic replacement.

I might have to try this. I've always tried to stay away from SMD, but I don't know if I have a choice now. I'll give that a shot.

Hey all, I'm planning to do quite a few builds in the near future that require the J201 and/or 2N5457. I've read some posts about this but wanted the opinions and experiences you all have had, what are good replacements for those 2 transistors?

You can use a 3pdt; you don't need two poles for the two LEDs. Put the ground on the middle lug and the LED- for each on each side. That way, either LED1 or LED2 is engaged.

... of course. Totally missed that. Thanks so much for the insight.