Messages

Very nice work!

Not as hard to make as I thought, just did it over a few days rather than trying the whole lot at once.

I bought a 1uf multilayer ceramic specially, its a perfect fit in series with the 6.8K for R10.

Awesome!

As a side note... what a weird lookin' NE570, not seen one like that before.

I think it's a Signetics, got it from small bear when I got the V3205s.

Won't be in a box for a few more weeks, but it fired up first time!!
A little noisy on the repeats, but it'll get a final setup when boxed.
Very happy, it's not something I would have liked to fault find.

Don't forget to read up on Barry's Morc compressor at guitarpcb.com that Tonnman and him put together, I think it was Tonnman off memory. I've got the PCB but just have not put it together.

Built one of those on a Das Musikding board, sounds great.  Added a switch to change the release times and its really useful at higher compression levels.

Rothwell Love Squeeze.
http://www.sabrotone.com/?p=1331

Me and Juansolo came up with the missing cap values after we borrowed one to compare, all surface mount, so probably not the exact ones, but it sounds very close by ear.

It's really transparent, not one for those who like tons of squish, in fact once you've had it on for a while, you don't notice until you turn it off.

Got a Boss CS-3 mint condition, boxed with instructions, but non-working for £10.

The factory opamps in it were inline 4558s but a variation only rated to 7V max.  Owner said it worked for around a year and then just stopped.  An opamp swap and it worked.

Great news Brian.  What resistor did you use for R21, or did you use a trimmer?

I love the "wah" setting at about 75% on the sweep, and 25% on the fuzz.  Sounds like a talkbox.

Some more envirotex hints.

Don't mix a small quantity, less than 30ml.  I've found that the measuring cups I used, are probably not quite accurate in the markings, and I've had a few pours than didn't harden properly.  It's not my mixing techniques, as the first few I did, I mix 30-40ml of the stuff, which was way too much for a single pedal, and it hardened perfectly.  Only when using less amounts have I had problems.  I'm now mixing 40ml, and doing a few pedals at once.

It is possible to just pour on the tops which gives a nice look if the enclosure is bare metal, and given a but of the polish.  Check for runs regularly, and wipe them off with alcohol on a rag.  If you notice one after a day, be very careful, and cut vertically through the run using a razor or scalpel.  Try not to touch the top as it hasnt fully cured.   The cut edge will polish up with 1500 wet/dry paper and polish after a week or so.

To avoid flow marks, don't have holes in the top when you pour.  I've noticed this can give a strange finish.  Also, don't drill the enclosure after pouring, as the metal particles can get between the enclosure and the envirotex, and ruin the box.

As the above seems to be a conundrum, its taken a few attempts to get a good finish.

1.  Pre drill the box.
2.  Apply the decals.
3.  Pour envirotex, and let it fully cure.
4.  Using a craft knife, cut off the decal from the inside of the holes. This stops any particles sticking to the decal, and being pushed between metal and envirotex.
5.  Carefully drill using a step bit the envirotex, but leave 1-2mm.  Don't go the the edges of the metal.
6.  Using downstrokes only, cut the remainder of the envirotex from the holes.  It might lift slightly, but don't worry, as there's no particles around, it should press back down, and the washers will squash it anyway.

It takes longer than expected, but give such a good result I'll stick with this method.

http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/72-7765/multimeter-digital/dp/7430558

Have to spend £20 at Farnell minimum, but it is free delivery.

We had to change a cap on the tone pot on our build to thicken it up slightly. Also the taper of the pots was slightly off. But you could dial in the same tone pretty much across the board with it. Built a MK1C yesterday from GuitarPCB with the same values. Sounds idenitcal... With no charge pump and bypass wiring. Interesting experiment!

It is identical, but we subbed all resistors and caps for the values used in the Sunking.

Pm me your address i'll stick a couple of 24k and 33k in the post for you on monday, if you havent already teepee'd 'em.

It lives!

We disconnected the depth pot from the rest of the circuit to debug it in isolation, and the lfo sprung into life.
Couldnt see any problems with the circuit up to q5, so just reflowed a few joints in that area, and it worked.

Cheers.

That's really helpful mate.

I can tell ours isn't right, as the reference voltage on the TL062 drops to less than 1V when the depth is max'd.  It's correct at around 4.5V at minimum.

I like the little millennium boards for DPDT switches, I assume they are the ones which Mark made.  Thanks for those.

Tried another pot, and the result is the same.

An interesting development.

As the problem seems to be with the depth pot, I disconnected pin 1 from it, and it now choruses.  Of course, the depth doesnt change with the pot, but at least it's pointing us in the right direction, those voltages would still be great, if you could check them at min and max depth.