This is a great PCB layout by a guy named Papasmurfsharem on the Madbean forums. It’s a nice Timmy layout with 2 switches for clipping diode selection. A very cool medium gain pedal that cleans up nice and has great note sustain. This will make it on my board for sure.
Etched the enclosure and shot it with a blue metallic paint with some matte clear.
Gut shot:
This is a Madbean Serendipity which is a “inspired by” Hermida Zendrive. This is, so far my favorite low gain pedal. I built one for my father and I really like it so I decided to build another one for myself. I did change the Drive pot from 500KB to a 100kB since I really did not use the drive past 50%. I am super happy with this build.
I did a reverse etch and used the Dumble fonts. I shot it with a flat black and a matte clear.
Went with a amp like look.
Gut shot:
Voltages:
AD712
1 4.7v
2 4.7v
3 4.5v
4 0
5 4.7v
6 4.7v
7 4.7v
8 9.5v
Work has been stupid busy the past few weeks and I just wanted to come home and do nothing. It would be an understatement if I said I have had no time to build recently. I had the stomach flu for 2 days and had some time to work on a few layouts and a bit of artwork, nothing life changing. Tonight I decided to etch 9 of my 3PDT daughter board so I am ready to populate a few enclosures this weekend.
(The white on the PCB above is the toner from the transfer. I leave it on the protect the copper and wet sand it off when I am ready to use the board.)
I have the following PCBs on my bench right now that have been tested and tuned and ready for boxing:
Hope to get these all boxed up this weekend.
I was asked by a few this morning about the 5 pin DIN cable I made for my test rig. I took some pictures of the process and maybe they can give some others some ideas. It was pretty straight forward.
What’s needed:
Make sure you place the shrink tubeing and the DIN connector cover on the alligator leads before soldiering on the DIN connector. I have made that mistake a few time… time wasted.
I then soldiered each alligator lead to a pin of the DIN connector.
I then placed the connector shield together and used a bit of painters tape to hold it together before hot glueing it.
Fill the barrel/shied with hot glue and let it setup.
Shrink the tubing and secure the DIN connector
My old testing rig was falling apart on me and all I really could do with it was test PCBs before I boxed them up. It was not a good tool for troubleshooting by any means. I would usually have to get my tone generator and my audio probe and troubleshoot a stubborn circuit. Jacob of JMK Effects made a new Testing Rig that solves my headaches by having all the needed troubleshooting/testing tools in one device. His Testing Rig PCB is a perfect addition to any bench for DIY pedal builders.
Here is pictures of my build:
I wanted the in, out, 9V & GND to be detachable so I could use the pedal as just a headphone amp and not worry about the leads shorting out. I also thought it would be nice to have multiple cables made so I could bounce between builds. I also added a BNC connector so I could use a probe from my oscilloscope as an audio probe.
I thought, why paint something that is just going to be a bench utility, so I left it just raw aluminum. I will most likely use stamps to label the switches and knobs.
Got a King Tut PCB from Rully and it just simply sounds great. This is my favorite Big Muff variant to date. This will replace my larger 1590BB clone that I made on a Madbean Mudbunny board I made a few months back.
Etched the enclosure and shot it with some burnt gold metallic. The pictures do not do it justice.
Here is a gut shot
This is Madbean’s take on the Mid-fi Demo Tape Fuzz. This is one LOUD fuzz pedal.
Here is the board after I etched it and populated it.
I etched an enclosure for this build
Finished
Gut shot
Voltages:
IC1 JRC4558
1 4.4v
2 4.4v
3 4.4v
4 0v
5 4.4v
6 4.4v
7 4.4v
8 8.9v
I was looking for something to sit my enclosures on when I paint so I can paint the bottom edge evenly. It was a trial and error and I never found a working solution. I ran the problem by my father-in-law (MacGyver-in-law) and he came up with a perfect solution for me.
He used some Tie Plates he had on hand and some nuts and bolts and came up with something that I can paint on and transfer right to the oven for drying.
Here are the 1590A ones:
He made me 2 for each standard size (1590A, 1590B and 1590BB)
You can pick up the Tie Plates from Home Depot for under a dollar a piece.
Time to get some paint on them!
This is a great layout made by josh at 1776 Effects and designed by the RunOffGroove people. This is inspired by the Vox AC30 with top-boost and I say it nails it perfectly. I love how you can get the jangly highs with this pedal and it’s low gain breakup.
PCB etch:
Populated and biased:
Etched enclosure:
Finished:
Gut shot:
Over all I am very happy with this build. Just like the Voxy Brown circuit I built, it’s a bit shrill sounding at times on my Twin Reverb but it does sound excellent on my Bassman.
I was playing around with a few low part count fuzz pedals and found Marks vero layout of the Monolith Fuzz Oracle and the demos sounded awesome. I used the following transistors in my build.
Q1: AC152 Hfe 114
Q2: AC125 Hfe 306
I decided to go with a “darker” theme on this pedal due to the sounds this thing produces. It gets some great low end and a VERY usable tone knob.
Here is the etched enclosure.
Drilled the enclosure and hit it with some flat black rattle can. I then wet sanded with 1000 git.
Assembled and ready to melt faces.
Gut shot
