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The taptalk plugin is active now...are people having trouble? What sort?

On Friday, 08.23, I will be doing some maintenance to the forum and website. This will be mostly backend stuff, and will require several hours to complete. You should expect the MBP website to be unavailable for 12-24 hours while this is taking place.

Once complete, the forum will be fully upgraded (which should prevent any further downtime) and the site will be on a new server.

Just temporary. I will have the old theme back tomorrow.

This is what my 7 yo calls them...little cities. Just one more year until I put a soldering iron in her hands!

What is your voltage reading on the output pin of the 7805? Are you still getting 5v to the PT2399 when the noise starts?

You can increase the volume of the repeats in Ghost mode by lowering the two feedback resistors: R21 and R22.  I chose the values in the schem to be not too loud or too soft, but you can certainly lower them to your preference. Sockets would be a good idea.

I'm pleased to announce the formation of a new pedal company, Function F(x), with myself and MBP regulars and DIY aficionados culturejam (Forrest) and pickdropper (Dave). We've been working behind the scenes for a few months to get this going...developing a business plan, doing product development, filing paperwork, etc. Things are coming together quickly and we plan to launch our first three products by Q4, or Q1 2014 at the latest.

Function F(x) also has two other developers/investors that are not members of the DIY pedal community. One is a software engineer and the other is a production manager with loads of tech experience. We've got a great group of minds and I believe we will be able to establish a lasting brand that has impact on the commercial pedal scene. We have big things planned, and I'm excited to see how this particular group of people works as a team over the next few months (and years)!

In the next few weeks, Function F(x) is going to start a small Kickstarter style fundraiser. We have put together a very decent amount of start-up capital on our own for the initial production runs, and we are looking to expand that for a targeted equipment purchase/lease: a laser engraver. The engraver will be the basis for a lot of the pedal artwork (if you've seen any of pickdropper's work then you already know just how awesome it will look!) The fundraiser will offer three brand new PCB projects, one each from Forrest, Dave and myself for a donation amount of about $30 (a pretty great deal, I think). It will run for a couple of weeks, and we will also be giving thanks to each contributor on the FFX website (www.function-fx.com). More details on that to follow soon.

As far as the impact on madbeanpedals...it will have some since I will be splitting my attention between two companies now. However, a lot of the project development for the remainder of this year is nearly complete. So, I do not expect it to have too much effect in terms of PCB releases in the immediate future. I'm still just as committed to MBP as ever, so this doesn't mean this place is going away or languishing by any measure.

Anyway, I'm really stoked about this new adventure, and I want to take the opportunity to thank all the members here for their continued involvement in MBP. Without that, I would never have reached this point...so thank you!

Make sure your charge pump isn't backwards (I've done it) or your electrolytic caps.
You should be reading -9v on pin5 of the charge pump. It may need to be replaced.

I've done several double sided boards successfully. There are a couple of tricks which help.

Use registration points on the four corners of each side of both top and bottom. These are 'crosshairs'. Transfer the bottom side first, then drill the four points carefully. Using a backlight, align the top transfer reg points to the bottom using the four holes as a guide and tape the transfer down.

Before printing, use an image editing program to remove all unconnected pads on the top transfer leaving only pads which have traces connected to them or vias.

Use small wires to connect vias from top to bottom.

Don't forget to reverse the top image before printing.

I'm definitely a gamer but I don't spend much time gaming these days. I tend to buy stuff on Steam sales (usually I never spend more than $15 on a game) but I have a collection of unfinished ones waiting for me.

My next hobby is going to be drum making. I already have parts on order to make a 12x7 maple snare (something I've wanted forever).

Thundershark?

The best part of watching Sharknado the other night was the commentary from my wife and daughter.

Wife: Those poor sharks. They are just looking for food.
Daughter (7): Yeah, food made out of people!

Low Rider, Collosalus, Cherry Bomb, Pastyface, Rangemaster and Pork Barrel now in stock!

New projects are expected around the first week of August. I'll announce what they are in about another week.

Just for appearance. I have some 3mm 0Ohm ones that I use occasionally.

Still waiting on shipping notification for the restock order from the manufacturer. Don't have an exact date yet when they will be available.

Prototype building over the next week: DigDug2, Polyphase, Attack Decay.

If everyone who's entered a contest here submitted their entries...well, we'd dominate that contest