VFE Mega Pedal

[fair.child]

TLDR; You can read the whole story here

Here's the final result of my VFE Mega Pedal

[bsoncini]

I can't help you with any of your questions. But I salute you in your effort. That is quite the ambitious build. I wonder how much it will weigh?

[fair.child]

No worries, I am guessing the weight will be around 10-15 pounds (just a blind guess).

[bsoncini]

Weight and size is always the first thing I think of.  Driving in paris sucks so I have to put all my pedals in a bookbag and take the subway. Anyway good luck.  You planning to wait for all of these vfe pedals to be released to start?

[fair.child]

Well, I will combine some of parts from Brian. Plus, there are some fuzz pedals on the board which Brian is not going to release (or at least I'll say unplanned for him). I'll do a head start. As always, right now I am trying to find where I can get the PCB fabricated nicely. I've seen elecrow and advanced circuits. I'll try to contact elecrow first, rather than go with OSHPark. The reason is I don't want to have three same PCB's at one order. Plus, comparing the cost I am betting the most expensive build I've ever made. I don't mind for how heavy it's going to be. It's the matter of the fun building it.

[Aentons]

I had entertained the idea of making a mini mega pedal (single row) by using individual 1590b cases and leaving off the input/output jacks and routing a hardwired disconnect through a hollow bolt across the input to output holes, and using a spacer of some sort to compensate for the cases side slope.

I have 4 vfe pedals on my board right now and if I turn on 2 or more and one has a charge pump, I get ungodly amounts of noise so that has deterred me somewhat, so watch out for that. (Merman>Enterprise>AlphaDog>Triplet)

[fair.child]

That is the reason he has an extra EQ on the switching board. Basically, the Mega pedal will utilize the Mega Board EAGLE file. The schematic doesn't give much info but the Layout has a buffer and one huge PIC switching which I am still tracing out. I am working on populating the GPIO pinouts from the PIC to I/O of the board. Once that task is completed then I can start ordering and planning the PCB.

[fair.child]

After careful planning and continuing the story plus VFE fever, I decided to go with this Mega pedal chain:


1. Merman - OSHPark
2. Alpha Dog - MBP
3. Pale Horse -MBP
4. Triplet - MBP
5. Blues King - MBP
6. Bumble Bee - OSHPark
7. Rocket EQ - OSHPark
8. The Scream - MBP
9. Mini Mu - OSHPark
10. Tractor Beam - MBP
11.  Choral Reef - MBP
12. Old - School - MBP
13. Mobius Strip - MBP
14. White Horse - MBP
15. Focus - OSHPark
16. Blueprint - MBP
17. Yodeler - OSHPark
18. Fiery Red Horse - Ralfg

Quite different than the real Mega Pedal but I challenged myself to build something different. Also, I plan to put all the modulation on the fx loop, not just daisy chained it. I figured that I might print 9x2 board switchers instead just run 18 mega board.

[fair.child]

Update:

11 boards acquired, 3 boards in the fab and 4 more boards to go. Getting close!

Just got the latest board from MBP and started to build up Alpha Dog, White Horse, Pale Horse, and Merman

I tend to take the build steps slower and take a more careful read. Still waiting for the Blueprint-MBP to released, Bumblebee, Mini Mu and Rocket EQ.

[Ralfg]

I got an extra fiery red horse from an osh park run I did a while back that you are welcome to.

[fair.child]

I got an extra fiery red horse from an osh park run I did a while back that you are welcome to.

Wow, nice. I am sending you a PM!

[fair.child]

Okay, folks, Nigel at Honey Bayes did a huge favor for me in terms recreating this $4k pedal (I didn't know it costs much).

He took one picture and bravely opened his VFE Mega Pedal.

Attached is the snippet of his VFE Mega Pedal. Now, what do you guys think? Plus, there is a TAP tempo.

[somnif]

Okay, folks, Nigel at Honey Bayes did a huge favor for me in terms recreating this $4k pedal (I didn't know it costs much).

He took one picture and bravely opened his VFE Mega Pedal.

Attached is the snippet of his VFE Mega Pedal. Now, what do you guys think? Plus, there is a TAP tempo.

Um, that big DSP processor board has an electro harmonix logo on it. Is this perhaps a different multi pedal?

[fair.child]

Okay, folks, Nigel at Honey Bayes did a huge favor for me in terms recreating this $4k pedal (I didn't know it costs much).

He took one picture and bravely opened his VFE Mega Pedal.

Attached is the snippet of his VFE Mega Pedal. Now, what do you guys think? Plus, there is a TAP tempo.

Um, that big DSP processor board has an electro harmonix logo on it. Is this perhaps a different multi pedal?

I am highly doubt it. However, thank you for catching that. I even didn't see that EHX logo. The picture is not in high res from Nigel. He said that "the switching system was not implemented as it does render the unit somewhat difficult to navigate, particularly when using it as a performance tool. In the studio it's great, particularly the inclusion of the patchbay on the back, and visually, it's just looks amazing."

That quote implies that Peter didn't finish up the PIC switching system instead using 12F509 for controlling each of the effect. I am exploring now and thinking an Arduino could be potential solution for this switching. Otherwise, I will try to utilize the 12F509 from Brian and add a toggle switch controlling the signal line. I don't know yet and I am figuring it out as I keep build them.

[fair.child]

Update Today:

Most of the parts are populated and ordered extra resistors from Mouser. That 14.3k and 1.43k are the real pain, though it says I can use 1.5k or 15k. I will stick with the real values. I am also waiting for my Blueprint to come. Haven't heard anything back from OSHPark, hopefully in next day or two, I'll hear about Bumblebee, Mini Mu, and Rocket EQ.