DIY Pedal board with Control Box

[GuitarLord66]

Hey guys

I originally had this post http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87218.msg732803#new which was originally intended to just be a simple bypass looper.

My hand drawn schematic for this looper was

My brain started working over time and I came up with so many more ideas, one idea led to another and I'm currently at the stage of the following -

I have a TC Electronics G Major and I use a Distortion pedal for my dirty tones. I cannot afford a midi controller, but I managed to get an old keyboard sustain pedal to work plugged into the G Majors External Control port, this port only has 1 connection. So I decided that I would create a patch that had the effects I wanted for clean, and used the pedal to switch them to the effects i wanted for dirty. This is NOT preset switching, I worked out all the effects I wanted in one preset and the pedal just choses which ones are on/off whether the pedal is pressed or not.

Now my problem here is that I cant press my distortion and my other pedal at the same time, but the G Major has 2 build in Relays that I can also control with the switch, so i went ahead and build a simple loop bypasser with a DPDT Relay, 5 mono jacks, DC Power plug and 2 LED's, Its simple and worked quite well, except I never built a on/off switch, the LED's were way to bright and the relay created an audible click.

So, then I made this project WAY bigger.

I want a simple pedal board with about 3 switches on it and an expression pedal.

I want to build a booster pedal, when I play with the band I cant hear my own solo's and I need a volume boost of some kind, any ideas on that?
Once I have the booster pedal sorted out, I want to create a second loop bypass so i can bypass it

Finally I want to maybe built/use an existing wah pedal and also have it connect to a loop bypasser and also have cable that connects to the expression pedal, but without sending the audio down the line? So its either I try and find my old ZOOM 505 II effects pedal and see what the wah is like on it, or I have to customize an existing wah or build one from scratch and use the LED/LDR method so that led's brightness controls the wah and can be done from a distance.

Finally I will have to have a box that all these loop bypasser's would be in, a single Control Box.

I also want to have 2 Inputs, A and B, one on the back and one on the front. Input A is for direct guitar signal and Input B is for wireless, both switchable from the front of the control box.

Oh also my signal chain goes as follows -
                                                                            GUITAR > INPUT A
GUITAR > WIRELESS TRANSMITTER > WIRELESS RECEIVER > INPUT B > BOOSTER > WAH > DISTORTION > AMP > SEND - GMAJOR - RETURN > AMP

BOOSTER > WAH > DISTORTION - ALL GO INTO CONTROL BOX, ASWELL AS AMP's CHANNEL SELECT, G MAJORS EXTERNAL CONTROL AND WAH CONTROL

CONTROL BOX GOES OUT TO CONTROLLER
So the control box would need to have -

*Input A and B
*Relay controller Send and Return for Wah
*Connection that takes Wah input
*Relay controlled Send and Return for Booster
*Relay controller Send and Return for Distortion
*Output
*Connection to controller that outputs control of Wah, Booster and Distortion loop relays and Wah input
*a toggle switch for both power and input selection
*LED's on Control box for power on, which input is active and relay 1, 2 and 3 active

The Controller will have 3 foot switches to control relays and an expression pedal to control wah
The Controller will have the same LED's as the control box

I'm guessing something like a cat 5 cable to connect the controller to the control box, it only transfers electricity, no audio will be sent to the controller so I can keep all the audio cables ontop of the amp.

I found this schematic which shows a true bypass setup with a DPDT Relay but with extra components so the relays click is inaudible.

The schematic was found at http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/rmtswtch/rmtsw.htm

Now that its all planned what do you guys think? too over board? or reasonable? Any suggestions are welcome

Thanks to anyone that helps me out in advance.

[GuitarLord66]

I went home today and I tried out my old loop bypasser that I threw together and the relay click, when the amp is loud you can even hear so I'm not going to bother with that other circuit that I posted. I went ahead and drew up a schematic of what I need, I think I drew it correct.



Sorry if its hard to read and a lot is unlabeled, what resistors should I use to keep blue LED's at a standard visible level, not blinding like my current ones are...
There's 4 DPDT Relays that control everything including the input selection. So does it all look correct? its pretty much just a True bypass box with 3 loops and 2 inputs and LED's, which is all I really need?
Then I just need a jack that controls the switch of Relay 4 (Ext control 3) that will go to my G major, and another cables that comes from the G major back into the control box. Then I need to make a controller that connects to Ext Control 1 and 2 and the G Major and the Wah input how ever I go about that.

Is this looking good?

[defaced]

I'm worthless from the signal flow point of view, but you need flyback diodes across the relay coils.  Reverse biased 1n4148s do this one really well.  This is D2 on RG's relay schematic you linked to in your previous post. 

[GuitarLord66]

oh ok that makes sense, thanks
I'm really hoping I can get a semi decent wah out of my ZOOM 505-II just it is a cheapish multi-effects, how hard is it to build a decent good sounding wah from scratch? and I still need to work out how to build a volume boost pedal as well.

[jkokura]

The expensive parts for building a wah is the enclosure, the inductor and the pot. It depends of course on whether or not you use 'name' brand parts, but those are the ones that cost.

Blank enclosure: Used (ie old crybaby) 20-35 bucks; New (from Smallbear) ~50 bucks
Inductor: Used (ie old crybaby) see above; New 5-25 bucks
Pot: Generic or Used: See above; Hot Potz 15 bucks?

Then of course there's the board, resistors, caps, and extra parts. If you wanna build yourself a wah, that's cool cause I do too. However, it's much, MUCH cheaper to look at finding an old used Crybaby or Vox 847 and then doing some mods like TrueBypass, adding the output buffer, and changing some resistors and such to customize the sound. If you want to do that, you could have a really great wah for less than 50 bucks. And it would kick that Zoom unit all over the parking lot like Mike Tyson fighting Ferris Bueler.

Jacob

[GuitarLord66]

Sweet thanks, just I'm not sure if people are understanding what I want to do. I want to build myself a rack unit control box, so I can keep my stomp boxes in my rack. Well I have to build a rack case myself too... But I drew up the general layout of what I want to do, btw its all out of proportion -



Also about the wah needing a case, I intend to use this pedal I bought ages ago, they charged me $70 AUS!!




So that pedal will be mounted on the custom foot controller that I drew in the first picture.

That already has a pot in it, but I read an article about rack mounting a wah and you can use an LDR as the pot and an LED with a pot controlling its brightness, and then you can have the pedal as far away from the wah as you like without tone loss because the pedal only controls the brightness of the LED which then the LDR picks up and acts as the pot.

I still need to find a schematic for a simple volume boost and a schematic for a decent good sounding wah. BTW I've never really made a circuit before... I can kind of draw schematics, I can understand relays and LED's and Resistors but all the other components I'm lost with... But I do want to learn.

[jkokura]

I think Dunlop released a rackmount wah ages ago you should look into. I think it allowed you to control the wah using a Midi Foot controller like the ones built into many midi switchers. Perhaps you should look at that. Otherwise, I don't know how you'll control the wah using that unit, you may as well put the wah on the floor with your switching.

Jacob

[jkokura]

http://www.juliencarayon.com/en/blog/diy-rackmount-wah-wah-part-i.html

Just found this link. I might be worth looking at.

Jacob

[GuitarLord66]

Yeah that link uses the LED/LDR method I was talking about, and that way over priced dunlop rack mount wah is not midi controller it has "expression pedal out" jacks on it.

The whole reason behind this design is so I don't have to run audio to the floor, I can keep all the audio cables in the rack and just use switching on the ground. I have an Ibanez Weeping Demon wah but I hate having it because I have to run cables from my wireless unit, then back up to my amp, as well as a 9v cable. Thats why I want to build this, control everything from one footswitch, its basically a midi controller is for, without the midi.

[GuitarLord66]

I made what the back of the unit would look like in photoshop... 11 mono jacks!



This doesn't even have the plug that will go to the foot controller...

[Hides-His-Eyes]

Ain't cheap for sure...

You should look at the coloursound Inductorless Wah, that works well with an LDR.

[GuitarLord66]

Is this a correct schematic for the Inductor less Wah you mentioned?

[GuitarLord66]

OH! One thing I forgot to mention, with my inputs, because I have two I'm using a DPDT relay to select which is active and an LED for each, could I just use a cheap DPDT toggle switch? or will I get tone problems?

[GuitarLord66]

Parts lists...

Control Box -

12 x mono jacks
1 x DC power jack
6 x blue LED's
2 x toggle switches
4 x DPDT relays
4 x 1n4148 diodes
6 x 4k resistors (unsure on this)
some sort of plug that connects this to the controller

The case I will build myself

Controller -

3 x HEAVY DUTY DPDT FOOT SWITCH
3 x blue LED's
3 x 4k resistors (again unsure on this)
1 x expression pedal

again I'll build the case myself

Wah -

Resistors - 1M, 330K, 5.7M, 10K, 180K, 180K, 33K, 33K, 100K, 47K
Capacitors - 100nF, 100nF, 15nF, 2.2nF, 6.8nF, 100nF, 2.2nF
Transistors - 2N5088
Pots - 100K
Wah pot replaces with LDR and LED
DC power jack
2 x mono jacks

Booster -

No Idea how to build a volume booster...

I think all this will cost quite a lot of money...

EDIT - around $75...

[GuitarLord66]

Well after even more thought... starting to think this is a stupid idea...
I could do something like a pedal snake, and run audio cables to my pedal board, that way I can expand if I like... and just keep the one pedal that switches my g major, distortion looper and amp channels at once... I can carry power down the cable to the pedal so I can use that for power for my weeping demon wah, just I need to work out a booster...

I'm sorry this thread is so confusing I just keep changing my mind... :S

[Hides-His-Eyes]

I don't know where you are, but there's a guy called 'johnny shredfreak' here in the UK who does very cheap cable snakes, perhaps check that out.

[GuitarLord66]

I'm in Australia, as to why everything is so damn expensive... absolutely everything food, gear, electronics, taxes...