Meatball / McMeat Layouts with on-board switches

[Shed_FX]

Hi,

Ive just set out on a quest to construct all of the Lovetone/Loveclones that are floating about. Ive got the original McMeat layout and ive etched the board. However I was wondering if anyone had done a layout with the switches mounted on the board with all of the freqency range caps in place? It just seems to be a neater way of doing it.
If no one has i think i may draw one out.

As a side issue can anyone post some gut shots of a genuine Meatball to give me a starting point.

Thanks very much in advance

Shed_fx

[ulysses]

http://www.pisotones.com/Meatball/psst/meatball-psst.html

just follow this and you will be alright.. if you already have the board etched id say it would be easier to do it on that

cheers
ulysses

[Shed_FX]

Thanks for the link ulysses. Ive decided to remake the board just to make the wiring neater and more managable. Its a bit bodged but should work nicely. The layout for the jumpers and labelling of the controls is shown below:


The main circuit is based on the original layout by Joep but ive made a few tweeks which should be obvious enough. The controls for the rotary switches will be reversed in position ie on oposite sides to the original unit. This was to reduce the length and complexity of the links from the original layout. I wanted a neater board and not so worried about reproducing the meatball perfectly. Ive then neatened up the layout as much as possible but only spent a couple of hours on it. I will make this board up and then let you all know how it goes. The layout below should be 184mm x 131mm.



Hope this is of use to anyone who is interested in making a meatball clone. I may revise the layout and try to get the controls in the right places if i have time.

[Shed_FX]

Right just re-giggled the board. Now everything is in its right place. There are quite a few jumpers and flying leads but i just feel it would be better to have all of the components including the switches mounted onto the board. So here is the final version. Thanks to Joep and the guys for creating the original project!

Jumper Diagram:



Layout:



Full details of all of the wiring can be found at: http://www.pisotones.com/Meatball/psst/meatball-psst.html

So if you decide to use this layout check it first but i think it is fine and have fun.

Cheers

[vin]

Man thats awesome. these leads are driving me nuts.

[snufkin]

amazing this is just what i wanted i may try this one soon


thank you so much

[Shed_FX]

Hi,

Thanks for the interest in this thing, I must admit i think this makes it a hell of a lot easier to build. I have built it since and it  works! There are a couple of changes and corrections that I need to implement on the layout but the board shown below is the one I built. However the switches and the pots are all reversed. i.e. blend is at the on the left as you look at the board. I did however do another layout that is correct. What happened was I arranged it all and got confused with having to invert the board for transfer so a rearranged it! Well it was my first attempt at layouts!
As there is interest I will do these last mods and post a final,final version in the next week or so. As a quick get out. It is probably best once Ive posted it to check it through for yourselves with the pisotones stuff before you build it.

One other thing remember that having the pots on board means you are restricted with the enclosure you can fit it in. I will post a photo of my finished meatball tonight, I;ve only just finished it!

[c101aviojet]

Hi Shed,

I hope no one wants to kill me for bumping this thread but, did you get to draw that final layout?
I wrote a sort of Lovetone page and would like to include it.

[Shed_FX]

Hi there,

I have built my Meatball on a different layout to this which resulted in all of the controls being in the opposite place! (The completed thing is on the Pictures thread). This layout should be the correct way round and has simply used the Pisotones layout with on board jumpers or traces.
Another forumite "Mamora" contacted me about the final layout earlier in the week. I sent him these layouts I have asked him to check it against Pisotone's as it is not confirmed and may well be mistakes. All of the work was done in Paint! But it worked quite well so can probably be modified/corrected easily using that!
Anyway the Layouts:



Have fun the plan was to make the build a bit neater and easier on the brain for assembly.

All the best.

Shed

[c101aviojet]

I have built my Meatball on a different layout to this which resulted in all of the controls being in the opposite place! (The completed thing is on the Pictures thread). This layout should be the correct way round and has simply used the Pisotones layout with on board jumpers or traces.
Another forumite "Mamora" contacted me about the final layout earlier in the week. I sent him these layouts I have asked him to check it against Pisotone's as it is not confirmed and may well be mistakes. All of the work was done in Paint! But it worked quite well so can probably be modified/corrected easily using that!
Anyway the Layouts:

Hi there,
I want to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind the stupid doubts I have. 
- This layout is theorically a virtual copy of Lovetone's? I mean, the schematic is the same, and all knobs and switches are placed and work (no reverse or flipped knobs) as in the original effect?
- I've read that, in some circuits (= high frequency or resonant circuits, for example) trace design is vital to avoid problems. Are you aware if that aplies here too?
- Also, which of the two would you use? They are 1:1 scale, aren't they?

By the way, I've updated the wiki with the layouts. I've given you the credit you deserve, but if you want me to remove it just let me know. Just in case you didn't know about that wiki, here it is. Just go to "Ready to build effects" -> "Meatball files" and there it is.
Thanks!
PS. I guess I'll be making my Meatball with this layout. 

[jakenold]

This is really great. That layout should be perfected. Great work mr. Shed!

Wasn't the positones wiring upside down or something like that?

[MarcoMike]

I built mine on joelap's layout, with the usual "wires mess" and it works nicely... I think the layout is not source of problems. great work mr. Shed!

[aidlook]

Hi! built a meatball the other day with the on-board switches, although I haven't gotten it to work properly yet. First thing that comes to mind is that as a temporary solution I used LED/LDR with heatshrink instead of the vtl. Ok, so for the problems.
It does modulate the sound, and the controls seem to work. However it is very hard to get it to trigger, but with a boost in front of it it triggered all the time. The green light lights up as I play, on some settings it does the reverse but I'm not shure if it's supposed to do that.
The sound is also fuzzy.

When building I checked every component against the schematic, and they all seemed right except for the Sens switch wich didn't really seem to correspond to the schematic or the way pisotones suggested to wire it. The input output jack wiring according to the schematic also struck me as odd, can anyone help me out with those uncertanties?

[MarcoMike]

When I built mine I was in the same situation, the envelope detector was working but there was no filtering...
The most important thing to do is to check the pots and set them to a position that "makes sense"
attak and decay are the most tricky.

try this way(values are intended from 0 to 10): drive up (au), attak 0, decay >6, colour >7, intens 7, blend 10, lowpass, range on the low-side, then move sens to find the right spot.

have fun

[aidlook]

Any idea of what could be causing all the fuzzy sound?

And another thing, at all settings of the blend knob I still get clean guitar sounds through, and I assume it's not supposed to do this?

[Shed_FX]

Hi aidlook

I have had a look at the layout and you are correct that the Sens control is wrong I have corrected the layout below. You should be able to modify the control by cutting one trace and drilling a new hole in the board. I am sorry for that mistake but it was for this reason that I said for people to check it through first and post queries before building the board. It sounds like that sorting this control will sort out the triggering and may sort out the fuzz. Try correcting the wiring as below first and then post the results.
Well done on getting it working this far it sounds like it is almost done!




MacroMike, I presume you built yours using the original Pisotones layout?

[MarcoMike]

MacroMike, I presume you built yours using the original Pisotones layout?

Well, I didn't follow the Pisotones tutorial, as I remember someone saying there was a mistake somewhere. I wired mine following Joep's schematic and layout (Thanks again Joep).

By the way, I really like your on-board switches layout, next time I make one (if ever) I will use it instead of spending ages in wiring!!

[Shed_FX]

Wait until it is debugged first!
All the best.
Tom

[aidlook]

Got it working now!!! and considering I started building stompboxes last week, I'm pretty damn proud

After fixing the sense pot it was working better, but still very fuzzy and hard to trigger.
I had a look at the board I used wich is the one in reply#3 and also one of the boards on the wiki. The blend pot is not connected right on this board, it has been fixed in the later ones, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.

Thanks for the help, I'm off to play some funky stuff...

[Shed_FX]

Wow Aidlook, that is really great! Well done! Can you mark the changes you made on the modified layout with the corrected Sens control and then I can update and post a confirmed layout.

Again well done I am glad that it worked out. It really needed to be built in order to find all of the little bugs.

Sounds like you've made an amazing start to building pedals!

All the best

Tom