Post-Lockdown pedal building

stickyfiddle

Im a fan of the Stewmac 5mm LEDs and metal bezels. I assume you can get those in the UK from somewhere easier than Stemac

roberty

Bitsbox are really good for small orders, they have a good selection of bezels too 

https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=172_239

SteveF

Another vote for Bitsbox here. I have used them since i started pedal building. I tend to buy bulk stuff (resistors, enclosures, knobs etc) from Tayda and then ICs, transistors etc from Bitsbox where possible. 

rsvmark

Thanks fellas. How do I select the correct one? Mcd referees to brightness, and looking on bitsbox there are a variety of properties. So colour and brightness I can take a view on and I am not going for flashing or multi colour!

Presumably Vf refers to voltage drop properties and Ifmax refers to maximum current (before it blows?).

These all vary So how do I select a compatible one for the circuit? Or is it as simple as chatting to fuzzdog?

stickyfiddle

They’re not circuit specific. Every LED will get 9V From your circuit, and will be in series with a single resistor (in FuzzDog’s case this is the “CLR” or current limiting resistor, usually 2k2 value - usually the only beige coloured one in the kit). I generally find these work fine with most LEDs. You can go a lower value to get a brighter LED if you want, but obviously if you go too low it’ll let too much current through and blow the LED.

Just V=IR and you can work out your min resistor value based on the LED’s max current. 

lasermonkey

I usually get my LEDs from Tayda and if I have three different colours on the same pedal I use 18K for green, 4K7 for blue and 1K8 for red to get equal brightness on all three colours. Anything less than 10K on those green ultrabrights and it's like looking into a supernova!

roberty

lasermonkey said:

I usually get my LEDs from Tayda and if I have three different colours on the same pedal I use 18K for green, 4K7 for blue and 1K8 for red to get equal brightness on all three colours. Anything less than 10K on those green ultrabrights and it's like looking into a supernova!

Yeah a too bright LED can literally ruin your night on a dark stage haha. Pretty sure my retinas are scarred

rsvmark

Thanks chaps. So different LEDs give out different amounts of light depending on current? So reading the posts above, people appear to be Changing the CLR to change the current Flowing and therefore the brightness?

So taking a 2200 ohm CLR, and a 9v circuit, am I right in thinking 4mA would be the correct current? Therefore I could select any led as they all seem to handle up to 20mA. (Sorry about the basic questions)!

stickyfiddle

rsvmark said:

Thanks chaps. So different LEDs give out different amounts of light depending on current? So reading the posts above, people appear to be Changing the CLR to change the current Flowing and therefore the brightness?

So taking a 2200 ohm CLR, and a 9v circuit, am I right in thinking 4mA would be the correct current? Therefore I could select any led as they all seem to handle up to 20mA. (Sorry about the basic questions)!

Yep, basically. It's a bit of trial and error as obviously different LEDs will give different brightness and that also varies with the resistor as well. I don't worry about it and use the stock 2k2 unless the resistor is dramatically too bright or not bright enough. And LEDs are cheap, so I don't tend to worry if I pop one occasionally

WeZ84

Here’s the two Fuzzdog kits I’ve been working on - finally finished them today after waiting a few days for the lacquer to fully harden.

The red and black one is a big muff clone. I went for the switchable clipping diode using some leds I had lying around as the alternative option although I might experiment with that later. 

The other one is the fuzzdog Deep Vibes kit which is a clone of EQD’s The Depths. Both sound pretty good although I am getting a whine with the big muff which wasn’t there when I tested the main PCB so will have a look into that tomorrow - presumably some issue with the switch daughter board or something shorting on the enclosure.

lasermonkey

@WeZ84 are you using a different power supply on your boxed Muff than when you were testing it? The Muff circuit (and any other discrete transistor dirt pedals, for that matter) can be very noisy with certain power supplies due to the poor power supply filtering. I always have the 9v going through a 47Ω resistor before it gets to the board and then put a 47nF cap in parallel with the 100uF filter cap (C14). This should filter any PSU-derived whine.

WeZ84

lasermonkey said:

@WeZ84 are you using a different power supply on your boxed Muff than when you were testing it? The Muff circuit (and any other discrete transistor dirt pedals, for that matter) can be very noisy with certain power supplies due to the poor power supply filtering. I always have the 9v going through a 47Ω resistor before it gets to the board and then put a 47nF cap in parallel with the 100uF filter cap (C14). This should filter any PSU-derived whine.

Thanks @lasermonkey. I’ve had a closer look at it and tried a different isolated power supply and the whine goes away. When I tested the main board before wiring up the switch etc I used a battery. I guess the 9v supply I tried it with yesterday was a little noisy. Since my board uses a quieter supply I don’t need to make any changes right away but I will consider the extra resistor and capacitor in future.

rsvmark

Planning my next build. I am after some knobs! To suit 6.3mm shaft (fuzzdog) and ideally 11mm diameter with set screw and an indicator. I don’t want to use plastic 1900 styles But I am buggered if I can find anyone with a Metal range in stock. Any suggestions? I would prefer aluminium colour as opposed to black to fit my design but beggars may be be able to be choosers. The build in question has 3 in a row and 2 rows so small knobs are needed- 17mm hole spacing on the enclosure.
thanks in advance all

stickyfiddle

Banzai are my go-to for high-quality knobs and multiple sizes of the same thing. They're usually quick enough for shipping, though I am waiting on a backorder from around the beginning of this thread (I assume COVID-related supply chain issues so not complaining, yet)

Keefy

WeZ84 said:

Here’s the two Fuzzdog kits I’ve been working on - finally finished them today after waiting a few days for the lacquer to fully harden.

The red and black one is a big muff clone. I went for the switchable clipping diode using some leds I had lying around as the alternative option although I might experiment with that later. 

The other one is the fuzzdog Deep Vibes kit which is a clone of EQD’s The Depths. Both sound pretty good although I am getting a whine with the big muff which wasn’t there when I tested the main PCB so will have a look into that tomorrow - presumably some issue with the switch daughter board or something shorting on the enclosure.

What did you use to label/decorate the cases?

WeZ84

I sanded the enclosures to about 800 grit then drew the design with Posca pens then did a clear coat lacquer using some lacquer from Halfords. 

The Posca paint rubs off easily (maybe because I didn’t use any primer) but the clear coat should protect it. Hopefully the lacquer won’t yellow up too much or chip off but only time will tell. 

Keefy

WeZ84 said:

I sanded the enclosures to about 800 grit then drew the design with Posca pens then did a clear coat lacquer using some lacquer from Halfords. 

The Posca paint rubs off easily (maybe because I didn’t use any primer) but the clear coat should protect it. Hopefully the lacquer won’t yellow up too much or chip off but only time will tell. 

Cheers!

rsvmark

stickyfiddle said:

Banzai are my go-to for high-quality knobs and multiple sizes of the same thing. They're usually quick enough for shipping, though I am waiting on a backorder from around the beginning of this thread (I assume COVID-related supply chain issues so not complaining, yet)

Awesome- even a choice there, thanks

roberty

@Keefy by coincidence I built the same Fuzz Dog EQD Depths clone from a kit over the weekend. Quite a fun build with the LDR/LED arrangement. I misjudged the knob labels on the decal and the bottom ones are partly obscured by the knobs. All a learning curve. The text is a bad pun on this song title

roberty

Made this for a friend, matching the branding of his band. Another friend did the graphics. He doesn't know about it, we're just going to post it to him. It's a germanium Rangemaster with a slightly higher value on the input cap for a bit more body and a higher value pot to really smash the transistor if you want to (it genuinely goes to 11). He uses a reissue at the moment so wanted to produce something that sounded slightly different, maybe a bit more modern. The LED is pure white