Really dumb/basic question about pedal building, sorry in advance.

[NeedlessKane]

Guys I've been looking at these schematics and i was wondering, when you guys are putting these pedals together, do you guys lay out the components in a way such that everything that needs to be connected can be, or do you guys sometimes just use little pieces of wire to accomplish this? Like solder one end of the wire to one component then the other end to the component that it needs to connect to. That procedure seems sloppy, but it would seem taht sometimes you would have to do this. Like I said, sorry in advance.

[calpolyengineer]

OK, first off there is no such thing as a dumb question. (Actually thats not true, but this is a good question)

When doing a layout, I take some time trying to minimize the number of wired connections (jumpers) in my layout. Invariably something will have to be jumped, especially with more complicated circuits. The game of building a circuit from a schematic is to play with the layout so that it accomplishes what it needs by using a reasonable amount of board-space and keeping it as clean as possible.

With many of the circuits posted/discussed here, there is already a working layout somewhere. Usually asking on the forum brings up loads of links.

-Joe

[brett]

Hi
there's three main ways of putting things together:
Breadboard, which holds components in place so they can be connected with lots of wire.
Veroboard, which has many strips of copper and holes, so that different components can be easily connected a variety of different ways without too much wire.
Printed circuit boards (PCBs), which have copper tracks specifically designed for the particular circuit and components.

You CAN just solder the parts together, making a "dead bug", but it is prone to problems, and not recommended.  Many people use veroboard, but I almost always use PCB.

Check out the layouts section for examples.

cheers

[GibsonGM]

Don't forget perf board!  Generic PCB with lots of holes printed in it, sometimes has some multi-hole traces for IC's.  Part leads either act as their own jumpers, connecting together under the board, or you can install jumper wires.  I've done tons of stuff this way, with a lot of success.  No time involved in etching a board, no chemicals to get rid of, and they even have it at Rat Shack! 

[RaceDriver205]

You want to be looking www.tonepad.com, and making yourself a "Printed Circuit Board". Then its just a case of putting the parts into the little holes and soldering the leads to the board. Nice 'n clean, nice and efficient, and less time debugging.

[NeedlessKane]

Gibson: I saw a build online that someone did w/ a PCB and that's how I plan on doing mine. They used "tinned solid wire", where can I get some of this stuff? Thanks.

[cakeworks]

what does everyone use for drilling those teensy little holes? do you have 1mm drill bits for big drills or do i need to get one of those dremel things?

[petemoore]

  There's also non clad perf, which is also re-usable
  I used to paste little schematics to the board [something strong, thin, insulative], drill holes where I wanted to feed component leads through, twist 'n solder...
  No board at all is called 'Hanging Garden', I had an Olson 'Frizzy Fuzz' built this way, also with 'flexy sides'...and it would consitantly intermittently fail, a while after each rebuild...
  Then there's the dowel rod system..do your layout around and through the holes drilled in a dowel rod...never tried that one myself...too '3D' for me to want to figure out.

[GibsonGM]

When I do my perf projects, I mostly just use 22ga. rat shack hookup wire, solid core.  My goals is to keep it simple and cheap; I can do a BMP for like $30 incl. box, jacks, switch & knobs.   If you want the nice stuff, go to www.smallbearelec.com...they have most anything you could desire for perfing, boarding or PCB'ing your projects.   Search on here for "PCB", and you'll find all kinds of info on making & etching your own boards if that's the route you wanna go.

[jonathan perez]

dumb question: if a rat is stuffed into a cup, how many times must an old man howl, in order to save 3 dying pigs from nuclear fallout?

[Seljer]

what does everyone use for drilling those teensy little holes? do you have 1mm drill bits for big drills or do i need to get one of those dremel things?

1mm is a bit too large, espescially for small pads. I use a 0.8mm drillbit for most things, somehow crammed into a regular drill in on of those drill press holder things since you really can't do it by hand if you're using a dril (since the hole is a bit too small, I put the drillbit in the tube part of a ball point pen so it fits... a pin chuck would probably be better but I can't find one)

[John Lyons]

Cakeworks

I use #66 or #69 Drill bits from smallbear. A drill press is best for a lot of hole drilling. Faster, more accurate and esier on your arm.

KneedLessKane
Perforated board  (Perf) is what is used for making a circuit board just by poking in all your parts and connecting the legs together. SOme folks are really good at making this look nice. It's clumsy until you get a little practice.

John

[brett]

Hi
If you are gonna stop after a couple of pedals, stick with perf or vero (maybe even dead bug if it's really simple, like an easydrive).
Many of us planned to make one or two pedals, and become addicted.  If you are gonna wind up doing 20 circuits, you might as well organise drill bits and a drill, stuff for making PCBs (blank board, Press n' peel, etchant), boxes, templates, paint and stuff. 
Check out some of the photo galleries for materials and methods.
Have fun and let us know how it goes