Messages

[As promised the Free Shipping starts today and will now go until Nov. 4th. Restocks are available for the following: Pork Barrel, Stutr, Karate Shop, Harbinger One, Green Bean, Glam.]

As promised the Free Shipping starts today and will now go until Nov. 4th. Restocks are available for the following: Pork Barrel, Stutr, Karate Shop, Harbinger One, Green Bean, Glam.

------------------------

Unfortunately, the Softie and Wumpus will not be releasing today. Both have issues that popped up in the verification builds.
Softie: there is relay noise propagating through the switching when it absolutely shouldn't. All attempts to solve this have failed and I'm left with it being a layout problem. Why it wasn't such a problem in my prototype I don't know.
Wumpus: there is an issue with the proximity plate control and how I chose to implement it. It cannot be solved as I have designed it and will require a re-design to work the way it should. The circuit works...it's the overall design that was stupidity on my part.

Both of these projects were thoroughly prototyped and the issues came up only at the last minute (the Wumpus is majorly my fault...wouldn't have happened if I had been just a bit more thorough) . My apologies to anyone who was looking forward to these releases. Frankly, I'd rather lose my time and investment in these projects than release something substandard. I'll make a decision later on whether or not to work on re-designs or go forward with some of the other projects that are close to ready.

Just a gentle reminder that when seeking tech help, a clear picture of your PCB top (and bottom if possible) and any wiring literally saves everyone a lot of headaches when trying to assist. I feel like we are constantly having to ask people to do this in tech threads when it really should be automatic. Of course, not every tech question may require that but if your build isn't working and you don't know where to start...that's where you start. Lots of us here can easily spot a wrong resistor, dicey wiring, backwards parts with minimal effort. Trying to deduce that without a visual aid is much, much harder and an unnecessary waste of everyone's time, including yours.

So, please, use this guideline:
Is my build not working, or not working as it should and I don't know where to start with debugging? No problem..we can help. But, help us a bit first by taking a couple minutes to snap one or two pictures and attach them to your post.

If we need further info like some voltage measurements, we'll ask

I think some voltages and a pic of the build would be helpful here.

It's clear to me I'm not going to make it for a release today...there's just too much left to do on the documentation side plus I have Halloween activity obligations (the wonders of parenting). I'll update tomorrow when it's ready.

Also...there will be a free shipping "sale" starting tomorrow and going until Nov. 3rd. This will cover the following:
All USA orders ship free
All International orders $39.99 and under will ship free. For the VFE stuff that requires "shipping adjusted" prices you will still have to pay that (AlphaDog, Tractor Beam and Pale Horse) minus the $4 shipping fee that normally goes with it automatically.

The VFE stuff is getting close to being sold out, FYI. Across the board. There will be more soon after I finalize the new switching board design (should happen later this week) and get the next batch of micro-controllers.

Right. I forgot to say that i have the mn3209, without the 4049n. I removed the 680pf cap because i read that it wasn't needed. Do i need to put it back in place?

Don't have any experience with the 3209 but certainly you could socket that cap and see. It won't hurt anything....it's just an LP filer (two 4k7 in parallel to make 2.35k summed plus a cap to ground). A 10n cap will start filtering around 6.7kHz. There's no correct value to use other than the one that produces the result you like.

The easiest way to decrease the overall brightness is right at the output: change C14 to a higher value. I would socket it and try 220pF, 330pF and 470pF. This will effect dry and wet output.

To change the brightness of only the wet output you can try higher values of C6...probably anything up to 10n.

Was the output okay before boxing it or did you check that?
If so, I would like for any kind of wiring issues, esp. a frayed or small strand that could be grounding out the signal.

There's no power to the board. Check voltages on both sides of the 1N5817.

It's normal for the signal coming out a pin7 to be very loud. A small amount of distortion is okay but it should not be too noticeable. If the repeats are very distorted coming out of the compander (pins 10 and 11) then there is a problem. It could be the chip itself. Also, make sure you have used the correct values for R13 and R14 as that could cause distortion as well.

Try Joe Gagan. I've bought some off him before. He's a member here and DIYSB.

Another vote for selling direct. Set a budget for advertising and spend money on getting well known personalities doing youTube demos. Sometimes this will cost you a pedal. Some have a fixed fee. It's worth it if you get the right people. Get some heat on you before going to dealers (they may even come to you eventually). And, as already mentioned: start small. Put your best idea out there first. An ideal release schedule for pedals is somewhere around 4-6 month cycles. This gives you time to maintain stock levels on current products but also keeps your name/brand out there by putting something new out a couple times a year.

Also, you will get lots of people coming out of the woodwork trying to get free pedals for demos for their "new youTube site/blog", etc. Be polite but refuse. Spend the money and time where it counts.

If you touch a wire between the transformer casing and the enclosure does the whining go away (random guess)?
Not sure what would be causing this unless it's just too much output. I'll bust mine out and see what I can find.

I've just been reading the Build Notes which state that the three resistor arrays do not have orientation; but as one of the arrays (the 22K) is a "common bus" surely that must be orientated - one end and only one end is the common bus connector.  Or am I missing something here?  If not, which way should the bussed array be orientated?

I should have stated the wording better: the bussed network can have an orientation, however in this case it doesn't matter because the two outer pins are both connected to ground. So, each resistor used in the network on this PCB connects to bus (ground in our case) no matter which way you put it in. I will add a note to the doc for clarification. Thanks.

Great, glad that worked out. I think I will add a note in the doc about routing the wiring e.g. if connecting to the J2 pads leads to whine then just take a longer wire directly from the jack to the 3pdt.

It's possible proximity of the jack itself could be a contributor. How close is the jack to the delay pot when the plug is inserted?

I probably should have drawn the drill diagram a little differently to make the jacks higher up on the box. It's just something I did not think about.