Build Your Own Clone Message Board

This build was a real PITA for me when it came time to stuff the PCB, jacks and switches into the enclosure. I kept breaking wires to the jacks and switches when I went to install them.

Here are two suggestions I would make when it comes time to stuff the guts into the enclosure.

The first thing I would do when it comes time to install the PCB assembly is to install the Send jacks and their wires into the enclosure first without them being connected to the PCB. Once the jacks are installed and torqued down you can attach the wires to the under side of the PCB instead of the top. Just don’t leave too much excess wire sticking thru the other side of the PCB.

The other thing I would suggest is to install the stomp switches and their wires into the enclosure but don’t connect the wires to the PCB just yet. You can do the circuit testing without the momentary switches attached. To do the testing you can just momentarily short the switch eyelets together using a small piece of wire. You’ll need an extra set of hands when you need to short two or more sets of switch eyelets at the same time. Once you’re done with the testing and have the Send jacks installed and connected to the PCB you can attach the switch wires to the PCB. Once all the guts are installed you’ll need to solder the LEDs. Before doing that take a close look at the Send jacks. Their solder tabs in particular. Some of these tabs get in the way of the LED leads and will need to be bent to the side a little to get them out of the way.

Taking these steps really helped me finally get my Super 8 assembled without breaking wires left and right.

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"It’s your soldering."

Not too long ago I finally completed by JMK/THC Epic Looper and that only has 5 send/rcvs and the wiring was a whole barrel of fun. I can only imagine having to do 8! I used the connectors for mine to give me a bit more of a plug-and-play for it so that I was able to do any debugging pretty easily. Thankfully it actually fired up and worked on the first real test.

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