SteveF's Pedal Building Journey

SteveF

Is it just the tops you coat or do you coat the sides too? 

Adam_MD

Just the tops to protect the decal the powder coating doesn’t need it.  

SteveF

Not looking too bad. 3 or 4 coats so far. I’ll see how it looks in the morning but I think that may be enough.  Not sure how hard wearing it will be but we’ll see. 

SteveF

And the first one is DONE!  

Unfortunately I seem to have ever so slightly mismeasured somewhere so the "drive" label above the knob is partially obscured, but I can live with it as a first attempt. 

Danny1969

Nice job, maybe use a smaller knob to get over the drive logo ?

SteveF

Danny1969 said:

Nice job, maybe use a smaller knob to get over the drive logo ?

Good shout. I have various knobs in my Tayda basket at the moment so when I get the order sorted I'll chuck a Marshall style one on there perhaps. 

Philtre

Nice work. :-)

Regarding knobs - these depend on the length of the pot's shaft. MXR-style knobs have a short recess and need a pot with a 15mm shaft otherwise they sit too high, whereas I find Davies 1900H and 1510 types work better with 17mm shafts. Boss type knobs need even small shaft lengths, and when I used those I had to hacksaw them down to size.

Adam_MD

Philtre said:

Nice work. :-)

Regarding knobs - these depend on the length of the pot's shaft. MXR-style knobs have a short recess and need a pot with a 15mm shaft otherwise they sit too high, whereas I find Davies 1900H and 1510 types work better with 17mm shafts. Boss type knobs need even small shaft lengths, and when I used those I had to hacksaw them down to size.

The other bodge I’ve done a few times when the knob sits too high is to bung a few washers or an extra nut on the shaft underneath to lower the height above the enclosure a bit.  

Danny1969

Cutting the shafts to suit the length you want is normal, and it means you can get the height perfect. I like hardly any height between the knob and the pot as I think it looks amateurish 

Philtre

Adam_MD said:

Philtre said:

Nice work. :-)

Regarding knobs - these depend on the length of the pot's shaft. MXR-style knobs have a short recess and need a pot with a 15mm shaft otherwise they sit too high, whereas I find Davies 1900H and 1510 types work better with 17mm shafts. Boss type knobs need even small shaft lengths, and when I used those I had to hacksaw them down to size.

The other bodge I’ve done a few times when the knob sits too high is to bung a few washers or an extra nut on the shaft underneath to lower the height above the enclosure a bit.  

Yep, done that too.

Philtre

Danny1969 said:

Cutting the shafts to suit the length you want is normal, and it means you can get the height perfect. I like hardly any height between the knob and the pot as I think it looks amateurish 

I found it tricky to trim off 2mm from a metal shaft with a junior hacksaw!

Danny1969

Philtre said:

Danny1969 said:

Cutting the shafts to suit the length you want is normal, and it means you can get the height perfect. I like hardly any height between the knob and the pot as I think it looks amateurish 

I found it tricky to trim off 2mm from a metal shaft with a junior hacksaw!

You need a  decent fine blade rather than a coarse blade. A decent eclipse blade will go through a solid metal pot shaft in seconds, split ones are easier still. 
Making up little jigs for common tasks like cutting pot shafts can be handy. Suction is also handy. I have a Henry beside by bench which sucks up the filings as I'm cutting. A decent little vice is also more than handy 

SteveF

Timmy circuit built, tested and working.

Some of the resistors on the right look a little squiffy because I managed to get them in the wrong place initially and had to move them. Apparently the original has an internal dip switch to switch between different clipping modes but I used a layout that had this on an external toggle so you can change it easily if you want. 

Question on the resistors.  The little tiny ones came with a kit I bought - am I right in thinking that those are metal film ones and the big ones are carbon film?  Is there a difference in quality? 

One more: @Philtre The Schottky diode on the V+ track is there for reverse polarity protection right (like you mentioned previously) i.e. I don't need to add one in my off board wiring? 

Adam_MD

Not quality the carbon ones have a 5% tolerance vs 1% for metal film and metal film should be quieter introducing less noise into the circuit but at the voltages we’re using it’s unlikely you’d hear much of a difference.  

SteveF

Cheers @Adam_MD ;
  

Philtre

SteveF said:

Timmy circuit built, tested and working.

Some of the resistors on the right look a little squiffy because I managed to get them in the wrong place initially and had to move them. Apparently the original has an internal dip switch to switch between different clipping modes but I used a layout that had this on an external toggle so you can change it easily if you want. 

Question on the resistors.  The little tiny ones came with a kit I bought - am I right in thinking that those are metal film ones and the big ones are carbon film?  Is there a difference in quality? 

One more: @Philtre The Schottky diode on the V+ track is there for reverse polarity protection right (like you mentioned previously) i.e. I don't need to add one in my off board wiring? 

The Timmy was the first pedal I built. It's a good one.

Are those tiny ones 1/8 watts? I normally use 1/4 watt metal film 1% tolerance.

Yes, that layout has a 1N5817 Schottky diode in series with the V+ track as you say. So no need to add another offboard. If the layout doesn't have one on the vero board I solder one directly onto the DC socket and solder the red V+ wore to the other end of it.

SteveF

Did you do the external clipping switch?  I couldn't hear a huge difference when I tested it, but to be fair, I'm generally just testing for functionality rather than tone so it was just into a little battery amp.  When I start looking at experimenting with components I will plug into a decent amp for the test. 

Just checked, the little ones are 1/4 watt metal film 1% according to the parts list on Bitsbox. 

Philtre

Yeah I did the clipping switch but like you say not much in it. I set it to the middle position and leave it.

Are you wiring the Bass and Treble pots the "wrong" way round, as a Timmy has them?

SteveF

Wired however it is on this layout - I didn't notice when testing to be honest:



Couple of questions for you actually, if you don't mind - they've popped up throughout this build but I wasn't sure:  

1. The kit I got had the parts for V1 of this layout and the far right hand resistor was 2.2k on the V1 but seems to have been switched for a 100 ohm on this layout.  I swapped it as per this layout.  What is it doing and what effect would the change have been?  From what I can make out, it's immediately after the Schottky in the circuit. 

On V1 (below) the 2.2k resistor is the CLR, I can see that as it is between the V+ and the LED + lines. On this version, the LED line has been removed and I'll just wire it in to the off board wiring along with a CLR there.  I'm just curious to know what the 100R resistor is for, as it isn't in the other diagram, whilst all the other components are the same. 



2. With the capacitors, are they interchangeable in terms of type?  I know you mentioned that polyester mylar (greenies) could be replaced with polyester boxes.  I assume that the electrolytic ones will need to remain as is, but can the tiny cheap ceramic discs be interchanged with multilayer ceramics?  For example in the version 2 layout, the 100p ceramic disc next to D4?  I bought some of those little blue multilayer ceramics you mentioned on your thread but wasn't sure if I could switch it, so left the little disc in there. 

Philtre

SteveF said:

Wired however it is on this layout - I didn't notice when testing to be honest:

Couple of questions for you actually, if you don't mind - they've popped up throughout this build but I wasn't sure:  

1. The kit I got had the parts for V1 of this layout and the far right hand resistor was 2.2k on the V1 but seems to have been switched for a 100 ohm on this layout.  I swapped it as per this layout.  What is it doing and what effect would the change have been?  From what I can make out, it's immediately after the Schottky in the circuit. 

On V1 (below) the 2.2k resistor is the CLR, I can see that as it is between the V+ and the LED + lines. On this version, the LED line has been removed and I'll just wire it in to the off board wiring along with a CLR there.  I'm just curious to know what the 100R resistor is for, as it isn't in the other diagram, whilst all the other components are the same.

2. With the capacitors, are they interchangeable in terms of type?  I know you mentioned that polyester mylar (greenies) could be replaced with polyester boxes.  I assume that the electrolytic ones will need to remain as is, but can the tiny cheap ceramic discs be interchanged with multilayer ceramics?  For example in the version 2 layout, the 100p ceramic disc next to D4?  I bought some of those little blue multilayer ceramics you mentioned on your thread but wasn't sure if I could switch it, so left the little disc in there. 

Timmy's Bass and Treble pots act in the opposite direction - anti-clockwise adds more bass and treble.

1. Yeah, he seems to have gone for a couple of iterations. v1 puts a 2k2 CLR on the board, v2 keeps the CLR and adds a Schottky, and v3 keeps the Schottky and removes the CLR and adds a 100R resistor. Good question, I can't see what that is doing. Maybe @Adam_MD knows?

2. Pretty much so. As you say, apart from Electrolytics, the caps in the nF range can be boxes, mylar, film, and the pF range it;s better to use NP0 / C0G ceramics or multilayer ceramics. Yes, you could use the blue one there and it would be better quality.