Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Phase Royal:
Build Time: 5.5 hours

Parts list should explicitly state:
6 Knobs
1 Battery Clip
1 D/C Power Input Jack
1 LED
4 Screws for Case

Populating the Circuit Board:
I’m left with an extra 470K Resistor. Also, on the right side of the board (pg 7), there is a position for a “470” Resistor, and it is unclear whether that should be one of the 470K or 470R Resistors. Had to use image on page 17 to verify that 470R was the correct resistor. Still doesn’t explain why I have an extra 470K.

Step 8 would be easier if done before Step 4 (clipping the legs was tricky with IC Socket and Octocoupler in the way)

Step 10: 250K Trimpots were mailed separately. No easy way to determine which trim pots are 250K and which are 25K. I used a multimeter on the 2 outside lugs to figure it out. The more opaque pots are 25K and the more translucent pots were 250K.

Main PCB Assembly:
Before installing the potentiometers, the user should prep all wires needed and solder to the board as it is very difficult to access the solder pads once the board, pots, lugs, and jacks are in place. Cut 19 2” wires, strip an 1/8” off one end of each wire and solder (from the bottom of the board) into the terminals on the board marked Exp Jack, Input Jack, Output Jack, D/C Adapter Jack, and Footswitch Jacks. These can be cut down to exact length later.

Now is also a good time to seat your IC’s in their appropriate sockets. Also, usually it is mentioned that the “dot” on the IC corresponds with the slotted side of the IC Socket.

Step 1: It is not explicitly stated where the LED goes. It’s fairly obvious, but usually there are arrows or something pointing to that when the PCB isn’t labeled.

Step 4: References to Toggle Switch(s) are not relevant to this build
Switching Jack: User must bend these lugs inward so that the bottom cover and fit securely when done.

Step 6: Why are there 2 pictures of D/C Jacks? That was a little confusing at first with all the arrows pointing back and forth.

Script Module:
Build Time: 1.25 hours

Step 5: Mention that the negative leg is denoted on the casing of the capacitor or that the positive leg is simply the longer of the two.
Step 6: Trimpots mailed separately
Step 8: Could be clearer. Perhaps show a picture of the top side of the module to indicate where the pins go (even though it’s slightly obvious since it’s the last thing to be populated on the board).
Instructions never say when to insert the IC’s into their sockets.

Explanation of what the trim pot on the Script Module does would be helpful. Can the pedal function WITHOUT the Script Module?

Total Build time with Script Module and Testing: 6.75 hours

Overall, this was a pretty straightforward build. I have built a few of the BYOC projects over the years including the Octave Fuzz, Silver Pony, Super8 Looper, and 2 Tweed Royal Combo Amplifiers. Because of that, I’m fairly familiar with the layout of instructions and what I have found helpful or useful when approaching it from a novice’s perspective. My notes are not a criticism and are only here to help the builder navigate the instructions, and perhaps help BYOC in their next revision.

This pedal sounds fantastic! It took a little time dialing in the trim pots, but I have it set where I like it (from impossibly slow, to laser beam fast). It helps if you play a riff on a looper, and feed that into the phaser so you can focus on the trim pots and not strumming your guitar with a free hand. Having control over the input volume is particularly useful with the vintage style P90s I have in my Jazzmaster - they have a high output. Humbuckers on my SG sounded perfect at any setting. I have a Phase 90 with script mod and a MuTron Bi-Phase Clone, and this pedal gets me to a different place than either of those. Dark Side of the Moon tones are all over the place in this pedal. The vocal quality of the sweep and regen is very pleasing and thick but never muddy. Obviously it can be dialed back for a thinner sound, but I found my sweet spot for my playing style, and with a bit of fiddling, I think anyone can dial in the phase sound they’re after. Having a Mix control is very handy. The Expression Control is a very nice feature. I’ve never used phasing in this way and I have to admit it’s very fun. Again, dialing in the expression limits on the trim pots takes some time and is subjective to your individual taste, but once you found where you like it, it’s a very addicting sound. I’m using a Mission Engineering EP-1 for that, by the way.

I have not, however, tested this with a battery. I never use them, but I see some people having some obstacles with that. Once there is an official fix, I would love to be made aware of it.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks!

Finally!!
When Keith says “patience is a virtue “ take him for his word. I did so many impatient things that I’m sort of surprised the darn thing works: a testament to the superb quality of these PCBs. I unsoldered more than one component.

In an earlier post I said I would guinea pig with 100k trim pots for the upper limit speeds. They did not work for me. So unsolder the 100k and in with the 250k. Once I did that dialing in the phasing took 2 minutes. There’s a small window in the phase 90 PCB were I get phasing and once that was dialed in the speed was pretty simple.
The expression pedal was a little more involved but my Roland EV-5 doesn’t have the best taper it seems. There’s some dead space and fast action between fast and slow. I’ve noticed that when I used it with other things.
Sounds super smooth. Have to experiment with getting grittier sounds. And I LOVE the mix feature. Lots of nice subtle textures to be had with the in/out knobs.
Can’t wait to pick up a few different cartridges.

Fantastic write-up! Thanks for your diligence. In regards to the battery. Don't use it. We aren't going to include one in the final design. We were hoping for the ability to use batteries, but this thing has proven to be too thirsty for one. As for your other points, I will definitely take them into consideration for the final instruction file.

Once again, Thanks!

_________________
The tone is in my hands?!
Email: nick@buildyourownclone.com

FiresideWake, I agree with Nick that this was a GREAT piece of feedback--lots of useful comments. Some brief responses to a couple of points that were raised:


The extra 470K was just a BOM error on these beta kits. I'm sure that'll be corrected in the commercial release. Adding an "R" to the "470" label on the PCB is a good idea.


Actually, they are easy to differentiate visually...if you have a magnifying glass! There's a tiny label printed on the bottom of the body--"253" for the 25K and "254" for the 250K, with the third digit indicating how many zeroes go after the first two digits.


I agree with this comment. I do all my wire connections to the PCB before soldering the pots (and any other PCB-mounted hardware) to the board, with said hardware pre-mounted in the enclosure. The wire connections to the footswitch and jacks are the last solder connections I make.


BYOC offers either internally or externally mounted DC jacks with many of their kits, so the diagram shows the connection points for both.


Agreed, a description of the pot adjustment for the Script module would be useful, particularly since it seems to have a VERY small interval of its sweep where the phasing works. And yes, the pedal will work without the module--but it only passes the dry signal. The input and output level controls still work, the mix control rolls off the dry signal output volume in the second half of its sweep, and the rate control will still change the speed of the LED blinking.


The beta PCB has an error that renders the battery connection inoperable; in fact, it shorts the battery out and will drain it very quickly. But as Nick mentioned, the pedal really can't operate effectively with a battery anyway, so the commercial release won't include this option. The fix posted in this thread by Keith works, but really isn't worth doing. The pedal operates just fine with a DC adapter without applying the fix.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Done know what the miliamp rating is on the pedal?

Per Keith when he & I exchanged e-mails re: the battery problem, about 60mA with the 4-stage JFET phase module.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

A couple of observations now that I've had some "quality time" with the new Phase Royal:

• All of the controls work well--I particularly like the input/output combo. I find that if I dime the output and then roll on the input to the 9 o'clock range or so, I can have overall unity gain and still keep the output squeaky clean.
• Though it seems to be easy enough to dial in the phasing rate I want, it seems like the rate changes more quickly in the first half of the sweep than the second half. I wonder if maybe a log taper pot there would give a more uniform rate of change. But maybe that's already been tried....
• As Knight of Cups commented, the adjustment window for getting the phase effect with the script module trimpot is VERY small. IMO, it would be a big improvement if this trimpot adjustment could be made less sensitive. Maybe a lower resistance trimpot or a fixed resistor in series with a smaller pot could achieve this?

No doubt about it, though--the pedal sounds fabulous! Can't wait to try different phasing modules, especially a UniVibe "lighthouse" type!

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

You and me both, brother! Working on cracking that egg. 12V bulb, LDRs, PCB packed tighter than a stick of dynamite. It's all about the LFO now, and making it play nice with the bulb.

_________________
The tone is in my hands?!
Email: nick@buildyourownclone.com

After an unrelated comedy of errors, I finally got a chance to complete this build (though I am having some issues -- more later). Overall, this is a relatively straightforward build, although see my prior comments about the back-of-board IC sockets. Here are my new comments, beyond what's already been said by me or others:

1) Some of the instructions appear to be borrowed from the Crown Royal. I suggest replacing those, and especially getting rid of the references to toggle switches (appearing on several pages) that are not applicable to the Phase Royal, and replace the cover photo!

2) Update the parts list to include the proper trimpots, the red LED, the power jack (and maybe some more stuff I think someone else already mentioned).

3) There's no step 5 (at least, not in my instructions...).

4) I think you need to give more guidance on setting the trimpots. As has been mentioned, the module trimpot has a very small range in which it does much of anything. It would be helpful if the range was wider so that it was easier to dial in. I think you need some guidelines for setting the main board trimpots as well (again, more later). It seems to me that, for troubleshooting purposes if nothing else, having builders start with something like a "standard" trimpot setting may help diagnose any issues with a build.

OK, here's the more later part:

I set the main board trimpots to give me the widest range I could get that I consider even remotely usable. For me, that means a low limit of maybe 10 seconds for the LFO cycle (or, .1 LFO cycles/sec.) and an upper range of maybe 6-8 LFO cycles/sec. I want to be able to go from the Cure's "A Forest" to crazy warbles. Set that way, the rate knob (at least on my build) does relatively little until about 3 o'clock, from which it RAPIDLY increases the LFO rate. This makes faster rates difficult to dial in.

Also, my expression pedal doesn't seem to be working. I've sent the max EP rate to a little higher than the regular max rate, so I know the expression pedal switching seems to be working because I hear the difference when I plug it in. Other than that, however, the expression pedal does nothing. I've got an M-Audio "M-Gear Ex-P," and I've tried it on both the "M-Audio" and "Other" settings. Any ideas about what could be wrong?

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

If I recall correctly, and it may take some back reading, Keith mentioned the expression is controlled by the optocoupler. Did you solder that to the top? It should be soldered on the bottom like the IC.

I’ve installed it on the back of the board, but I suppose I’ll need to pull in order to make sure it’s in the right orientation. That’s not a mistake I make very often, though.

pics attached. I’ll get the back of each board once I can pull it from the enclosure.

Probably not related to your expression pedal issue, but the bottom op amp on the script phaser module looks like it's not fully inserted into the socket.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

Also, I think the expression jack is wired wrong?

A little hard to trace out in the photo, but it looks right to me. Worth checking, though.

_________________
“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

It’s correct. Hard to tell in the photo.

You can adjust the taper with the 2M2 resistor next to the optocoupler. It is in parallel with the resistive element of the optocoupler. I increasing the value seems to spread the taper out. Maybe a 3M3 (or 2M2 with 1M in series) would be better. Maybe a 2M7. If that seems to make it worse, then maybe it's already spread out too much and needs to be something like 1M8. I thought the taper was pretty good on mine though. You can also stretch it a little to one side or the other with the trimpots.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

You should worry about getting the pedal's rate knob working properly before getting the expression pedal working. You probably just need to adjust the trimpots. Did you use the 250k and 25k trimpots?

1. Set all the trimpots at center rotation.
2. Turn the rate knob full turn clockwise (as fast as it will go)
3. Slowly adjust the upper limit trimmer till you begin to notice the rate of the phasing begin to slow down.
4. Turn the rate knob full turn counterclockwise (as slow as it will go)
5. Slowly adjust the lower limit trimmer till you begin to notice the rate phasing begin to speed up.

You may need to repeat this a few times till you find the perfect equilibrium as the two trimmers have an effect on one another. Think of it like tuning new strings on a guitar with a Floyd Rose - you have to repeat the process until the bridge is properly tensioned.

Repeat the same process for your expression pedal. Your expression pedal should have its own lower limit trimmer. If your expression pedal has its own upper limit trimmer, stet the phaser's trimmer full turn clockwise and use the trimmer on the expression pedal to adjust the upper limit.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Hello, Everyone.

Thanks for having me on as a beta tester. The build itself went well. Like the other poster, I had an extra 470K resistor that left me scratching my head. On first plug in, I couldn't get any phasing sound though the rate knob and trimmers were affecting the LED. I thought things were worse than they were since my battery snap wouldn't work, but I read here about the other's issues with the battery snap and now know the issue with snap.

I removed the pedal from the enclosure, which was challenging given the dc jack, and discovered an IC that was not fully installed on the back of the board and I also moved on of the capacitors, labeled 103 by the optocoupler, face down - it was preventing me from fully installing the Script module. I wired the DC jack back up and tested again.

This time I get phasing sound when the mix knob is turned to "full module" but still nothing noticeable on the "full pedal" side of the mix knob. I was able to adjust the trimmers to change the Script module's phasing and think I've almost got it -- it still doesn't sound right.

Do you all have any advice? Do I just need to mess with the trimmers some more. I haven't had too much luck getting them tuned right. There could be something hooked up wrong, but I'm at a lose as to how to further diagnose it at this point.

If you aren't getting dry signal then you probably have a cold solder joint somewhere. Try reflowing your joints.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

VERY helpful Keith - thanks. I suggest adding this to the instructions.

I'm still having some problems. But first, however, I wanted to apologize to Keith, who took a chance on me as a new beta tester, and I kind of feel like I let him down. By way of explanation rather than excuse, I’ll just say that over the last couple of months my life turned a bit upside down. Long story short: my wife and I are suddenly moving to Brooklyn, New York from a small village outside Portland, Maine. The last month or so, in particular, has been nuts trying to get everything ready, the house sold, etc. etc. as we downsize from 2000+ sqft to less than half that, all of course for roughly 4x the cost! I hope that what I have been able to contribute has been worthwhile.

Anyway, I had some time this evening with no imminent emergency on the horizon and tried tuning the pedal per Keith's instructions. What I'm hearing (using Keith's instructions -- see earlier in this thread for what I heard when I tried to do it by trial and error) is the unaffected guitar signal. However, when I adjust the trimpots, I AM seeing the rate of the LED change as one might expect. Could this simply be a switch wiring error (something I'll check out in the morning)? Or maybe something else? If anybody's got an idea where to look please let me know. I'm done for tonight but I hope to have some more time tomorrow morning.

(See earlier in this thread for pictures).

Thanks all.

tboulette, I'm confused now. Are you now getting just dry signal and no wet signal?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Unclear. I’m not hearing any change of tone when I follow your instructions. But at the weird settings I put it on when I was first trying to calibrate it, I did hear a fast phase effect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

remove the phase module. Put a jumper between the SEND and RTRN sockets. What does the MIX knob do now?

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com