I guess I'm venting. It costs a lot of time and money to build a pedal and it just seems so wasteful. So far I've built a VFE Tractor Beam, a Wumpus and a Dig Dug 2.
The Tractor Beam (I got the early version with the original VFE switching board) works and I'm happy with the sound. The Wumpus worked for a while and then crapped out. I haven't had the gumption to tear into it to figure it out, mostly because I wasn't happy with it's limitations. I know it's not a production pedal and was a freebie board when I bought the Dig Dug 2 so I wasn't too frustrated with it and I just shelved it.
Today, I finally got the parts for the Dig Dug 2 today and put it together. I even made an engraved enclosure for it. It's a pretty neat pedal and I was having fun playing with it but in the same manner as the Wumpus it quit after a few minute of use.

I imagine it's the expensive photocoupler parts.
I guess I'm just disappointed and I'm going to give up on putting together designs that aren't my own.