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Life got in the way and I haven't done much pedal building in the last few years. I've got an original Polytrog PCB that I now want to build, but don't have the build doc and couldn't locate it on the site. Could Brian or someone point me to where to find it? Thanks in advance.

I'm getting back to pedal building after a multi-year hiatus.  As I was going through my inventory, I saw that I had bought Brian's ProtoRig kit a while back.  I put it together and used it for the first time this weekend to help with set-up and testing of a few boards I had in process but never finished. Using the ProtoRig really was a time saver and makes 'boxing before rocking' a lot easier.

So shout-out to Brian for a great kit and really helpful documentation!

Greetings all,
First, apologies in advance if I should have found this information elsewhere...
I'm working on a build of the Harbinger 1.5 and have a couple questions:

First, here's a link to the build doc: https://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/_folders/FilterMod/pdf/HarbingerOneFive.pdf

1. 18V Operation:  I'm building the Harbinger to run on 18V.  I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I don't want to mess this up: I assume that the input power is supposed to connect to the pads marked 18V near the bottom of the PCB?  I checked against the schematic, and this seems right, but the pads are in an unusual spot which makes me wonder if I'm looking at this wrong.

2. LDRs:  I bought the NSL-7532 "high dark" LDRs from Small Bear - the same as those linked in the build document.  The problem is, I also bought - in the same order - four of the 'regular' NSL-7532 LDRs for another project.   I love Small Bear, but they don't mark their packaging, so I'm not sure which LDR is which.  I want to make sure to use the "High Dark" LDRs in the Harbinger.

I tried to measure the dark resistance of each LDR type, but am not sure I'm doing it right.  My DMM only goes to 60M ohm, so I measured the LDR in parallel with 40M resistance.  Both LDRs measure about 500M ohm 5 seconds after light removal.  One of the LDR types, though, seems to increase in resistance after light removal much faster than the other.  It also has a lower resistance when illuminated (~  500 ohm vs. 1k ohm)  Also, this LDR has a much tighter trace of Cad Sulphide material (that is, more 'loops') than the other type.

Any suggestions on how to tell the LDRs apart is appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I'm building a KoT project from a PCB.  The project has trim pots and DIP switches that I think could be useful to have as external controls.  It seems that it would be really useful, though, to be able to populate the board and evaluate these controls before deciding. 

This got me wondering: are there jumper wires suitable for making temporary connection to PCBs, so I could insert jumper wires and connect the controls before soldering anything in place?

Maybe a totally dumb question given the variability in PCB hole characteristics, but figured I'd ask to see if anyone has done this sort of thing already.

Thanks!

Hello all -
I just finished (maybe) building the Nom Nom project.  The speed LED, though, flashes continuously even when the pedal is bypassed.  This doesn't seem right to me.  Is this how it's supposed to work, of have I messed something up?

thanks in advance

Noob question....
I melted the corner of the housing on a film cap while I was soldering a pot to a board. In situations like this, is there any way to judge if a film cap has been damaged and should be replaced?

Thanks

I'm new to DIY pedals and want to develop my understanding of electronics as related to effects, and maybe someday amps.  I studied mechanical engineering, and my basic electronics courses were 35 years ago. So I understand a bit but not a lot. I recently bought 'Electrical Engineering 101' by Darren Ashby which is excellent so far. I've also found the Electrosmash site which has good info on some classic circuits.

Are there other books or resources that any of you would recommend?

Thanks

Okay, so I'm pretty new to pedal building.  A few months ago, I planned out about a dozen projects and made my first round of part purchases from Mouser, Small Bear, etc. etc.  Got through a half dozen builds or so, no problems.  Then I started a build of a Tube Screamer type project, and found that I had neglected to order 510k resistors.  Yes, I know I could combine resistors, but wanted the build to be clean, so figured I'd put it aside and come back to it down the road.  I started another build at random, and sure enough that one also needed 510k resistors. So I took it as a sign from on high, and figured I'd order them.  But I'm not going to order just 510k resistors,  because if I'm going to pay the grand sum of $7 for shipping, I'm going to make it count, right? So I embark on planning out the next phase of pedal builds, and all the additional parts I'll need, which then turns in to ordering a bunch of stuff not only from Mouser, but Small Bear, Tayda, and so on.

So I'm going through my Mouser shipment, eager to get back to my Tube Screamer, and guess what I forgot to include on the order.....Yes, you guessed right - 510k resistors.

I've done a lot of carpentry, and as the old saying goes: measure twice, cut once.  Pedal building is similar.  But now I've got to remember to apply the same rule to ordering stuff.  Check your work 

I placed an order at Small Bear this past weekend for about $130.  Naturally, the next day I noticed that I'd left a couple things off. So I emailed them and asked could they please add these items to my order?  They got to back to me yesterday and said no problem. Today, then sent an updated confirmation, and told me not to worry - no extra charge for these items!
Needless to say, I was completely blown away by this extraordinary level of customer service.  I just started making pedals, and this is only my second order with them, which makes their response even more impressive to me. 

I'd guess that others on this forum have had similar experiences, so this won't be a revelation to anyone. But I wanted to give a shout out to Small Bear anyway.  What a great company!

And one more....
Another Aion Project - this is the Horizon, based on the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret.  Since the DLS is supposed to give a Marshall stack tone, I figured I'd do a British Flag graphic for the pedal.  I like the sound of this pedal a lot as well.

I've done a couple others from Aion, including the Aurora compressor and the Azimuth projects which are shown in the last photo.  The Aurora is a Ross/Dyna Comp derivative, but I did the graphics sort of like the Keeley compressor.  I made this one for a family friend who gigs who needed a compressor.  The Azimuth is based on the Zendrive, so the look is inspired by that.

Here's another build.  This was my 4th pedal, an Aion Cerulean, based on the Bluesbreaker pedal.  I had watched a video from That Pedal Show on Bluesbreaker-based pedals, and I really really liked the Keeley 1962x, so I mimicked the Keeley design for the pedal graphic which I think is great.  Of the dirt pedals I've built so far, this is my current favorite.

Again, a shout out to Kevin at Aion for nice PCB designs and excellent build docs.

I started building pedals about 2 months ago, and have completed a few so figured I'd post the builds here.  Although I'm not sure it's smart to post after pickdropper - he's an impossible act to follow!

This is the first pedal I completed - an Aion Procyon, which is a clone of the BJFe Honey Bee.  Kevin's projects and build docs are great, especially for noobs like me.

I sourced the parts from Mouser and Small Bear.  The enclosure is an orange anodized finish from Pedal Parts Plus.  The finish is very cool, but way too rough for water slide decals as I learned the hard way.

I think I spent more time on the label than I did building the pedal.  I didn't know what "Procyon" meant, so I looked it up and saw it's a star system in the constellation Canis Minor.  So since Canis refers to dogs/wolves, I figured I'd use a Wolf graphic on the pedal.  (And by coincidence, I stumbled across a thread the other day that showed pickdropper's pedal board - and he had built a pedal with the same graphic.)

I'm going to re-do the label with black vinyl decals in the near future.

The pedal sounds really good.

I'm strictly a bedroom player now, but I love experimenting with the different tones you can get from various pedals and trying to replicate the tones of the great guitarists I've loved listening to since I was a kid.