Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I have just begun putting together BYOC kits. I assume that will lead to breadboarding etc… but for now I am chomping at the bit as my enclosures dry, as my waterslide decals cure. Haven’t reached the lacquer/epoxy stage yet. What do you do?

If I had completed ONE of them to see if it actually worked I would just assemble the other kits I have… (Still waiting on the multimeter from China/amazon) but i’m not 100% sure of myself yet.

Any ideas?

Just staring at my recently almost finished PCB and thinking positively for now… how bad is the soldering?


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As Tom Petty rightly declared, "The waiting is the hardest part!"

What I would recommend is to fully assemble the kit into the unpainted enclosure and test it, then remove the "guts" assembly and do your enclosure finishing. Looks like it's too late for that on this kit, but try it on your next one. The only desoldering you'd need to do is the two or three wire connections to the DC jack (assuming that it's the internal nut style; if it's the external nut, there's no desoldering required to get the guts out).

Your soldering appears to be quite good from what I can see, but we'd really need to see much larger photos (BOTH sides of the PCB) to see the detail needed to give you better feedback.

Good to hear that you have a multimeter on order, as that is a required tool for pedal building (handy for testing batteries and other various household tasks, too!). Here are two more essentials that I would strongly recommend that you acquire, as they are critical for fixing mistakes and cleaning up soldering quality issues:

https://www.amazon.com/TBBSC-Desolderin ... B08XQF9WYV

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008O9VLA2/

Don't know what you're using for a soldering iron at this point, but if this is a hobby you plan to continue, investing in a good quality temperature-controlled soldering station is highly recommended. Many of us swear by THIS HAKKO UNIT, but there are perfectly serviceable units like THIS ONE available for considerably less $$. I find that a temperature setting of 700 F is ideal for pedal work.

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

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

Thank you for your & Tom Petty’s understanding.

I was afraid to upload straight from my iPhone. There was a time with a desktop computer that I was able to size photos to be large, clear but not too many Kbytes. Now I’m not sure. Didn’t want to be a bandwidth hog.

No kidding. I had a solder sucker and wick lined up when I first was getting ready to jump into this hobby. Has a load of stuff in an Amazon basket and another brimming over in a StewMac basket. Until I saw SM wanted almost $200 for shipping. I found Axe&YouShallReceive and sourced most of the Amazon order more locally. Somehow forgot those two items. Will be getting Both soonish.

I have a brand new Hakko 888D! Kester solder 0.020 inch leaded, some thicker (1mm) no name stuff for guitar pots etc … Will use that on the jacks I guess

BTW
My first Axe… order was:
Brownface Tremolo
Mouse
Analog Chorus
Soaring Skillet
Echo Royale
(2 classic fuzzes a few days later)

StewMac might want to reconsider their postage policy. They made me a loyal BYOC customer.

Cheers.


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Yeah, I hear you re: StewMac. Great quality products, but expensive to buy and to ship. For some things (the more serious luthier tools & supplies) you can't beat them for quality and selection, but for more basic stuff, shop elsewhere.

Re: those kits, I would suggest building the fuzzes first, then the Mouse, then the Chorus & Trem. Save the Skillet and Echo Royale for last, since they're the most complicated builds of the bunch. Nice bunch of pedals, BTW!

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

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

Thanks. I just finished the tremolo. Fuzzes next. Really excited about the mouse! Thanks for the help.


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I would echo what Voodoo says in that testing before you do finishing on the enclosure is highly recommended. You don't want to mess up the decal and or finish that you use. This would mostly come into play should you have to debug the pedal where you constantly handle it while you poke around.

If you go the epoxy route I would read the sticky on Envirotex. Then when you are done and sufficiently scared you may move to lacquer

But my thoughts on the finish are like life. You get out of it what you put into it so if you want it to look really good then no matter the method you use you will need to spend a little time on it and as with all the finishing techniques there is a learning curve. You WILL mess up at some point. Frustrating but just keep pushing through. Some I've lived with and still notice to this day though and others I scrapped off the finish and started over.

Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

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Amen. I took your & voodoo’s advice. Messed up my Mouse. Works great, no bypass, no pass at all. Probably on the footswitch, I’ll redo that first. Glad I did not have a finished enclosure at that point, plus I left out a washer & no slip washer.
So thanks for the advice. I am green & really appreciate it.


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Also double-check your I/O jack wiring, and make sure you didn't test by switching the input and output cables in the jacks, a mistake that we've all made once (or twice, or.... ).

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

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

As mentioned, the pedal works… but when you stomp it off, no signal through. Takes power from Jack @ battery Knobs seem to work as does clipping switch. Only issue is the roaring silence when pedal de-activated- what should be bypass is a wizard saying “none shall pass”. But after I redo the lugs on the switch (I’m looking at you lug 2>9) I’ll delve deeper if’n I need to.


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Thanks for clarifying. I wasn't sure how to interpret "Works great, no bypass, no pass at all" since the first and last parts seemed a bit self-contradictory.


That's 4>9. The lugs are numbered vertically, not horizontally.

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

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

Works well when footswitch on. Footswitch off isn’t “true bypass” it stops dead.

I am so new to this when you mentioned i/o jacks I only thought of them as “sound passes through,must be good”.

I looked at the schematic and instead of stareing vacantly and thinking “oooh, pretty lines” I started looking FOR stuff instead of looking AT stuff. I immediately found the bypass … well we know where that led.

As soon as I stop playing with the pedal, it sounds amazing, I will take the back off and deal with it. I’m thinking Thursday.

Thank you for your response.


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Latest update, tried a quick fix, failed. So I have removed ALL the wiring. Spent some time removing all solder from the eyelets in the stomp switch etc. re wiring over the next few days. Wish me luck.


From the dusty corners of the Ottawa Valley

You should test the function of the footswitch as described here: http://byocelectronics.com/board/viewto ... 10&t=31545

If the lug 8-lug 9 internal connection isn't made in the bypassed mode, you'll get no bypassed signal output.

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

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

After testing, ok let me know if I should retest, lugs 7 &8 unresponsive. 2/3, 5/6, 8/9 all beep (BUT the one soldering job I did not undo was the 3/6 jumper) 1/2, 4/5, do beep in the 2nd switch position but 7/8 are silent.


From the dusty corners of the Ottawa Valley

Pic of multimeter setting
Pic of switch

I probably will mess this post up but here goes…






From the dusty corners of the Ottawa Valley