Just ordered my first pedal kit

deano

I've bought the Echo Blue Delay pedal kit from Poodle Pedal Parts Emporium. I think I may have been a bit ambitious for a first build but I don't need any extra drive pedals( I have a Marshall UK made Guv'nor and a Joyo Sweet Baby).

I've done some soldering before (A Level physics and some electronics at Uni, and the odd bit around the house) and have a nice fine-point soldering iron. My solder is pretty old (I must have had it well over 25 years) flux cored and with added lead for extra sparkle! I've also got a fairly basic multi-meter but I the display is a bit dodgy and you sometimes have to have an educated guess at the numbers it's trying to display, and one of those weird angle-stand devices with crocodile clips and a magnifying glass to act as an extra pair of hands.

Anyone got any tips on building either this pedal, or pedals from this supplier, or indeed general building tips. What kit am I missing? What do I need to know that aren't in the instructions?

I watched a guy build a fuzz kit from Poodle on YT and it seemed straightforward but he put all the resistors in first, then the capacitors and so on. I think I will try to work from one edge, putting everything on the edge in, then move in a little bit. That would seem to me to give me the most room to manoeuvre as the board gets more and more populated. Does this seem reasonable or am I missing something?

ThePrettyDamned

Poodle has instructions in PDF's on the site.  If there is any reason to go in a certain order, he'll say - perhaps some caps need to go in a certain way, sitting on top of other bits.  They are well laid out PCB's though, so I doubt you'll have any problems

citizen68

Have tried one kit before - a phaser from musikding. To be honest I found the board the easiest part as long as you take your time. It's when you get to the connections with switches, jacks & LED's when it started getting messy for me :x Get a 'third hand' or set of vice grips to hold parts when you're soldering your fingers together

stickyfiddle

I've done a load of Poodle's kits. They're all great. Good clear instructions and decent quality parts. 

Just be super-methodical, and doesn't hurt to test your resistor values on a multimeter before soldering if you're not 100% certain. The only issues I've ever had with these kits is where I put a resistor in the wrong place.

FWIW I always go resistors, capacitors, chip holders, transistors, off-board wires. Basically go from least to most fragile, so you have less chance of burning something delicate out by putting the iron somewhere you shouldn't late on. Then do your off-board wiring. That's where is gets tricky on big builds but obviously depends on how many pots and switches the kit has and how small a box you try and cram it into!

suspiciousminds

I use a bit of blue tack underneath to steady things if i'm soldering something and am using both hands.

freakboy1610

I would add some needle nose pliers to your kit. You can get a basic but effective multimeter on Ebay for less than £10. You may need this with a Poodle kit as none of the bits are labelled. I found this page quite helpful. You can save it as a pdf and print it off. It's good with soldering tips but also has info about which way around the components should go etc. In terms of order of assembly, I would go in order of height, starting with the lowest/shortest components and working up to the tallest. Good luck!

GuyBoden

I've only built one pedal from a kit, a Zendrive, but I've built plenty of pedals and amps from parts, I always double check everything before soldering. This is where prototyping circuits on a breadboard etc comes in handy, you can test the circuit and mod the components to your taste. Happy building.:)

stickyfiddle

+1 for needle pliers. Decent wire strippers are really handy too.

deano

Well the kit has arrived and I've started to put it together. I've built the board up fully apart from the diode (a 1N4001). This has a small silver ring painted around one end, but I can't figure out which way round it goes on the board. The board has a "square" shaped hole and a round one.

Anybody know whether the silver end of the diode goes in the square hole or the round one?

I've emailed Pedal Parts so hopefully I'll get an answer back tomorrow, but if anyone knows I'll be able to crack on sooner.

Cheers,

Dean.

frankus

Here's a helpful pointer:



This document clearly shows the band on the square pad: http://pedalparts.co.uk/docs/EchoBlue-v2.pdf