Topics

Howdy folks,

A couple years ago I bought a Sunking II board, but neglected to save the build doc to my project files. I searched the forum and didn't find it - anyone got a copy they could link or send me?

Thanks,
Blake

I rocked this before I boxed it and everything worked fine through my test rig.  Wired it up and now it only works in bypass.  I've quadruple checked my wiring and can't find any problems, but I believe something is going awry at the input.  I don't currently have an audio probe, though I need to make one soon.

The entire right side of the PT2399 reads the exact same (3.58v). 

Here are my voltages:

LM386
1- 1.26   8- 1.26
2- 0.00   7- 4.03
3- 0.00   6- 8.08
4- 0.16   5- 2.89

PT2399
1- 7.18     16- 3.58
2- 3.57     15- 3.58
3- 0.00     14- 3.58
4- 0.00    13- 3.58
5- 3.79    12- 3.58
6- 3.58    11- 3.58
7- 0.50    10- 3.58
8- 0.99     9- 3.58

Reg. L78L05
1- 7.18
2- 0.00
3- 8.08


Pics - I had to desolder the input, ground, and +9v wires to get shots of the solder side of the board:

Just boxed up the Multiplex Jr. from 1776 Effects.  It's basically the EP-3 mode of Josh's Multiplex delay circuit with on board modulation.  This thing sounds amazing to say the least; very tape-like.

Box is a 125B I painted a cream color with Valspar spray paint and clear.  Stamps all from Hobby Lobby and using black ink.  If getting into stamping and you're painting your own enclosures, stamp before the clear coat and let the ink sink in the paint for a day or two.  I had to sand down and start all over with this one because I applied the clear first and the ink just sat like water on top of it.  :x

Again, this thing sounds excellent.  I'm not much of a delay user but have built a few of 'em.  This'n'here is ol' 'Bread's favorite yet.  The build itself is pretty easy, especially with board-mount pots.  I opted out of the modulation switch and the rate LED just to keep things relatively simple, though I'm sure those are useful features.

Here's a rough demo I recorded of the Mudbunny I built a while back.  Excuse the spotty playing, something about arming any record button makes me a terrible guitar player.   

I'm populating an etched Boomstick I got from Haberdasher right now and got confused by the presence of an R22 on the board/layout.  There's no R20 or R21 on there, and the value for R22 is not listed in the BOM section of the PDF.

Has anybody built this and left it out, or is the missing value critical to the circuit?  One leg on the layout shows it going to the cathode end of D2 (1n5817) and the other end going to R18, which appears to be the CLR.

Please excuse me if this has been asked/answered before, but searching "boomstick r22" yielded nothing.

Here's the second Rub-a-Dub I've built.  This one has the long-brick unit in it.  Just a simple matte black enclosure w/ aluminum knob.  I used a 15k in R5 and there is a subtle boost when engaged.

I somehow accidentally drilled the DC tap in an awkward spot (upper left side), so I heatshrunk the connections to avoid any possible shorting out from the board.  This turned out to not be too much of a problem, as I accidentally ordered the long-pin PCB mount pot, so the board sits kind of high and just clears the DC jack.

Though there's not as much difference between the short and long bricks as I had assumed, the long brick seems to sound more hall like at lower setting than the short one.

This is the first build where I used only one color of wire for the most part (it would have been too confusing a few months ago).  Also my first time "teepee'ing" resistors.





Here's a video I recorded with my iphone.

I've decided to slowly start boxing up all of the working circuits I have lying around. This is the Shortstack circuit from jtn191's last run. You'll notice I left the diodes out of the circuit but socketed the pads for the Bluesberry mod. As with the Crowther Hotcake, I prefer the non-Bluesberry variation. I've owned a couple of the originals and this one sounds dead-on based on my memory; perfect with my AC15!

For now, it has a TL071 like the current Hotcake units, though I'm sure I'll try out a ua741 mojo can IC and a NE5534 for experimentation. Sorry, it's not much to look at and my shoddy photography could stand some improvement. I just can't bring myself to do the waterslide decals...yet.

On the bright side, I took more time with the wiring than usual and think it turned out relatively well. It's certainly my best wiring job to date.

So I haven't posted any of my builds for a while now; it's time I do that.

I populated this board a while back, but never boxed it up. I did so today. Still waiting on a 2n3565 that I think I may like better than the 2n5088, but here it is. It sounds much more like a Tweed through my AC15 than it does with my Champ.

As I have perused the depths of the internet (here, FSB.com, etc.) I have found out that many 'boutique' vibe designs are basically tweaked phaser circuits.  I read somewhere that the Lovepedal Vibe was simply a modified Phase 45, which the Smoothie is also based on.

So I was wondering: Can I make my Smoothie build sound more vibey?  If so, what would be the key mechanisms of doing this?

So I finally got around to recording a demo for the short brick Belton unit in my build using gtr2's board.  Please excuse the playing; something about hitting Record makes me inept at playing the guitar. 

My signal is a Tele-->Klon (not engaged, just buffering)-->Rub-a-Dub Reverb-->Vox AC15C1 (reverb off on amp).  The playing is just me messing with some old material I'd drudged back up.

http://soundcloud.com/c-412/rub-a-dub-demo

Thanks again to Josh for the board!

Here's a Klone I built.  A couple of errors:  Wired the LED backwards, gain pot acts like a tone cut instead of increasing gain (after a couple of headaches, I remembered that the only setting at which the gain acts normally is all the way down; that's the way I always set a Klone anyways so I left it). 

So this is an interesting looking Klon, but not because I'm an adept artist or know enclosure-prepping Kung Fu.  Basically, I got this enclosure pre-painted in wheat yellow or something like that.  Well, the clearcoat on it seemed either nonexistent or minimally coated, so I just arbitrarily sprayed over it with chocolatey brown Rustoleum for some reason.  Next, I tried to apply some Rustoleum clear, but it went on like a powder (not sure why, but it literally came out and behaved like powdered sugar would).  Well, I decided I didn't like this, so I began scraping off the browned & powdered layers.  This is the result:

So I'm knocking out the builds I've had parts lying around for.  Yesterday a Muff, today a reverb!  This uses a Rub-a-Dub board I got from gtr2 and uses the short brick version of the BTDR-2.  There is still plenty of reverb on tap with the short brick, and has a very interesting modulated fluttery effect when at the extreme setting.  All in all, sounds great!

I blew out the LED by accidentally forgetting to add a CLR for it.     The strange thing is that I used a green diffused LED, but when it first turned on it glowed red, then orange, then not at all.  Not planning well enough ahead, I had to drill for the in/out jacks pretty low and almost had to scrap the enclosure (I also found that I should be more careful center-punching these guys); lessons learned.

The inside of the lid (though a pedal built for myself) reads, "It is this space that births us into being."  Significance?  I heard my meditation instructor say this once, thought it sounded cool to write inside a reverb pedal.   

So here's my latest boxed build.  I have about four circuits tested but unboxed while awaiting enclosure finishing.  This is a Mudbunny PCB, which I built to Green Russian specs, hence the Sovtek title.  I meant to write "Soviet," but must have had "Sovtek" on the mind when I was writing on it.  Anyways, this thing is pretty much stock as per the BOM, though I socketed D1-D4 for future experimentation.  The enclosure is ODB Green from Mammoth.  I tried so hard to keep the wiring really neat and at the last minute realized that I should have soldered the pot wires to the component side of the PCB for the neatest results.  Ah well, it fired up first time without a hiccup; I'm pleased.  

Edit:  Now that I looked at the photos, there a couple of leads I forgot to clip. 

This thing sounds killer!

I went to to test my Sea Urchin board this morning.  I get bypass, but no sound whatsoever when engaged.  The first thing I did was check the voltage to the +9v on the board, which read 8.81v; same as DC jack.  I then took readings from both ICs and the Voltage Regulator (I used a 78L05, which as per schematic and data sheet sends the cathode end of D1 to the input of the REG). 

After the readings, I used an audio probe to figure out where I was losing and getting signal at.  There is nowhere on the circuit that I am getting any sound while probed, not even at the input, so I desoldered and wired up the input again for good measure but got the same thing.  I've checked the orientation of all the components, all good.  I also triple-checked my footswitch and in/out and DC jack wiring as well.

I'm not sure why, but the IC readings seem a little funny to me.

Here are my readings:

TL072
1= 6.05  8= 6.64
2= 4.44  7= 6.04
3= 0      6= 6.01
4= 0      5= 0

PT2399
1= 4.95  16= 2.49
2= 2.48  15= 2.49
3= 0      14= 2.49
4= 1.55  13= 2.49
5= 4.94  12= 2.49
6= 2.49  11= 2.49
7= .02    10= .71
8= 4.57   9= 0

78L05
IN = 6.64
Common = 0
OUT = 4.96

Here are some pics:



Sorry, my camera is awful at closeups, making good solder side pics virtually impossible.






Thanks in advance.

So now that I got my Yellow Shark circuit working (bad trannie), I have boxed it up.  The enclosure is Orange Vintage Sparkle from Mammoth.  I had a Bearfoot Honeybee a while back, and this thing is fairly close if my memory serves me correctly.  Also, I wired this board up to test it a month or two ago.  I couldn't bring myself to resize all the wire and go through all that soldering, so I left it.  Point is, my wiring is typically prettier than this now. 

There's one slight issue that came to my attention after boxing it up.  The LED is always on, when bypassed or engaged.  I'm not sure what would cause that, but it worked normally beforehand.

Anyways, here's some pics.

I populated this etched board over a month ago, it didn't work and am just now getting to troubleshooting it.  Indicator LED and bypass work fine, but there is no effect when engaged.  I've now quadruple-checked the wiring, everything looks good.  I will continue checking, though.  I can't find any cold solder joints or traces, but ran a pick through just to make sure.  I'm getting GND continuity and 8.95v to the center pin of the DC jack.  No substitutions were made for the components, and I've triple-checked values for good measure.

I did accidentally lift off the negative lead LED and SW pad, so I soldered those respective leads to each other since the trace between them was connected and isolated as well, so I don't think this could cause a problem since the switch and LED appear to be functioning properly.  The clipping LEDs are not lighting up at all.

Now for voltage readings.  Here's what I'm getting on the CA3130EZ:

1 = .07    8 = 4.26
2 = 4.10  7 = 8.25
3 = 2.95  6 = 4.11
4 = 0.00  5 = 0.00

From my limited understanding (and reference to the datasheet) this looks pretty close to what it should be (I think input should be around 4.5v and output around 9v?).  Please correct me if I am wrong, however, as I'm used to dual opamp readings.  Since pin 4 is V- and pin 7 is v+, should I be getting -8.25 at 4?  On the schematic, both 4 and 8 go to ground, so I'm a little confused on how voltages should read here. 

Also, the drain of the 2n5457 is getting 8.19v.  My uneducated guess is that I may have a grounding issue, though I can't seem to find where.

I have to step away from my workstation to run an errand, but I will take some close-up pictures when I return.  Thanks in advance for any suggestions or tips!

Some of you may recall my "soldering iron woes" thread from a couple of weeks ago.  Last time, my iron quit working after being accidentally left on for about 6 hours.  No biggie, I replaced it the next day with (unfortunately) the same one.  However, my recent one has quit working all of the sudden.  It worked last night, I tinned it and unplugged it as usual.  Went to fire it up today and...nothing. 

Up to this point, I'd been going the quick and easy route by purchasing Weller 40 watt irons from Home Depot.  It appears that these just don't last very long.  I also think I may need more like a 25-30 watt iron or one with variable temp.

So my question is this:  What is a good, reliable iron?  I've heard good things about Hakko, while I initially thought Weller was a proper product.  I don't have a whole lot of budget for one, so I'm seeking the best value while maintaining quality.  Under $100 is ideal, closer to 50 or 60 to be honest.

Though I've had some shoddy tools from there, I have a local Harbor Freight and recall their prices being pretty low.  Can anyone verify that they have decent irons, or maybe someone can testify to their iron they got from there and provide a model #?

Many thanks in advance.

Got this etched board in a trade (Haberdasher etched).  Overall, this was an easy build and a fun one.  I got to squeeze into a 1590B, which makes me happy.  The enclosure is from Mammoth, pre-drilled and painted.  The only sub I made was the IC, which is a JRC4558 in mine, sounds great.  Oh, and I didn't have any 3n3's, so I subbed a 3n9 for C4.  I ran into a little trouble testing it last night, but it only turned out to be a bad joint and a simple grounding issue.

Though I've owned a lot of boutique brand OD pedals, I've never desired or played a Zendrive.  Maybe the demos just weren't great, I don't know.  Anyways, I plugged this circuit in before boxing it and...BAM!  This thing sounds amazing, spanky w/ single note clarity and sustain for days.  I love it.  The knobs are very interactive, and a good many tones can be summoned from this beast.

This is my 6th build thus far, and I think it's the most sturdy and well put together yet as well.  Anyhow, here's some pedal porn.

So I fired up my etched Serendipity build and....nada ting.  I've looked over it a number of times, no solder bridges, correct component placement/orientation, wiring done as illustrated in build documents, etc.  I'm getting continuity throughout, and see no cold solder joints.  I'm getting 8.95v at the DC jack as well.  The IC (JRC4558D) is the only subbed part and seems to be getting reasonable readings (though I don't know exactly what they should be):

1 = 4.49  8 = 8.95
2 = 4.49  7 = 4.48
3 = 3.05  6 = 4.49
4 = 3.05  5 = 4.44

I'm not sure how to measure the transistors (datasheet for Fairchild 2n7000 doesn't use the "BCE" orientation, which added to my confusion).  Basically, two of the leads on Q1 are reading 4.49, one at 4.16.  Q2 shows two leads at 4.49, one at 4.31.  If there's any more information that would be helpful I can get it.  I'd love to learn a little bit here, so feel free to school me on troubleshooting.  I'll see about getting some pics up here soon, but may be going out of town tomorrow.

Thanks in advance.

I got an old ver.3 Sunking board in a recent trade, so I had to get on building it.  However, I accidentally plugged the AC input cord for my DC Brick into the DC jack.  Some of you may have seen me in Tech Help freaking out about my nonfunctioning Sunking some hours ago.  All that was needed was a diode swap and I was in business.  I've owned a couple of Klones before, and this hangs in there with the best of 'em for sure!

The oddball knob is because the knob I was planning to use wouldn't tighten up to the pot for some reason, so this is a temp on the gain pot.

As usual, the wiring leaves something to be desired, but it works and is my favorite build yet (I think it's the 5th pedal I've built so far).