Discuss your preferences on Enclosures, Box Layout, and wiring

[joelap]

Inspired by Dragonfly's wiring in the 56k-killer Pictures thread, I was wondering what each person's preferences were on enclosures, wiring, and box layouts.  For instance, I have always wondered why many DC jacks are placed to the side of the 3PDT stomp (such as in the BYOC pedals), when to me it makes most sense to keep them towards the top of the pedal for easier chaining with most commercia effects.  However, placing the DC jack at the top of the enclosure typically requires more wires to be stretched out across the inside of the pedal.  In regards to wiring, it is my least favorite task, and keeping the jacks near the 3PDT seems to make for much shorter wires and easier wiring, so I guess it ends up being a give-and-take (easier to wire vs. functionality in chaning effects).  Also in regards to wiring, what are general conventions to follow to reduce noise in a build?  Does bare wire have a tendancy to be more noisy than insulated?

Interested to hear some of your preferences.

Joe

[markm]

Have a look, I have some gut shots of my own builds here;
http://aronnelson.com/gallery/album23

[SonicVI]

Whenever possible I always prefer to put all jacks on the top side so boxes can be placed right next to each other with no space between them.

[markm]

Whenever possible I always prefer to put all jacks on the top side so boxes can be placed right next to each other with no space between them.

I like space between 'em but, I'm from the pre-pedalboard days and that's just "how it was"!
My age is showing again! 

[s.r.v.]

Do you guys mount all the jacks, switches etc in the box and then wire, or do you wire outside of the box? I cant figure out how to get wires as neat as you guys!

[SonicVI]

Do you guys mount all the jacks, switches etc in the box and then wire, or do you wire outside of the box? I cant figure out how to get wires as neat as you guys!

I have the same trouble. I always end up with my wires too long and it ends up looking messy.

[soggybag]

I prefer to keep as much of the wiring on the board as possible. This makes the build process much more streamlined. It also makes the debugging, adjustment and modification processes much easier. I think limiting the number of flying wires can also cut down on errors and noise problems.

At this point I'll plug my most amazing invention! Soon to take the world by storm. Case in point, Brittney Spears was going to by my entire stock, but had to back out at the last minute when her people pointed out to her that she didn't know how to solder!

For my part I was about to quit my day job. But, I had to stay on. I've sent boards to other famous DIY'ers in the US and Europe! I'm conversations with Justin Timberlake's "people" at the moment. Though I hear they are having trouble with insurance worried a solder burn might hurt his marketability.

Without further ado here it is:

[joelap]

^ Very cool, and I had thought of doing that, but what sive enclosure will fit that board exactly?  Can you drop that into one of the enclosures smallbear sells for instance?  Also the reason I shyed away from that is that it requires precision drilling.  Can't have the holes off-kilter or the board wont fit right.  My drilling skills are sub-par, hence why I shy away.  But awesome work if you can do it!   

[GREEN FUZ]

I like this style of doing things. Where do you get those jacks from? I`m guessing the, whatsitcalled ( heaven help me  ) bit where the plug goes  in (descriptive powers failing me once again  ) screws into the jack to support the whole assembly. Very tidy.

[soggybag]

I use jacks I buy from Mouser:
DC Power Jacks Mouser P/N: 16pj031
1/4″ jacks Mouser P/N: 550-22302

These are pretty cheep and work well. They're tough and make a good solid contact. They are also stereo and switched if have a use for the switch. They make a mono version but I use the stereo one on both sides. They cost the same I think.

The input and output jacks have a chrome shoulder nut that screws in from the outside. That and the switch hold the board pretty securely. The jack are by Neutrik and I see them used on many commercial effects.

The PCBs fit the MXR sized boxes that are sold by small bear and everyone else. I always use, and this is what is in the pictures, the 1290NS enclosure (4.37X 2.37X1.07). This is a clone of the Hammond 1590 B.

Here's a link to the enclosure at SmallBear.
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=50

Drilling does need to be fairly accurate. It's not so difficult. I drill all of my boxes with a hand drill. I measure and mark the box with a pencil. Then Drill a pilot hole about 1/8 or 1/4 inch. Then I use a larger bit, but not a full sized bit. I check the alignment of everything and if I'm off I use hand reamer or file to move the holes a little to one side or the other.

I just got a spring loaded center punch to mark a starter pit before drilling. This thing is great, and cheap to, I'd recommend one of these to anyone drilling anything.

The input and output jacks have large plastic washers. These have a small lip on the inside. I usually drilling these holes a little larger. This gives some room for error and lets the inside lip fit in the hold which makes the washers sit flush to the box. I also drill the DC jack a bit larger to make sure the barrel of the plug doesn't contact the case so there's some room for error here also. The Switch can also have room for error if you use the large plastic washer.

I'm working on a drilling guide that I will post to my site as soon as I finish it up.

[Pushtone]

I like to do the box layout in Adobe Illustator with scaled parts I get from PDF data sheets.
You can really see if its going to be tight or an easy fit.

Here I have downloaded the box from the Hammond datasheet and the pots from the Alpha data sheet.




As far as wiring it I think I have tried every sugestion mentioned on the forum but what I tend to do the most
is what I call "ship in a bottle" wiring.

First I mount all the pots, jacks and switch.
Then I wire up the bypass LED so it look like this.
This pedal uses two LEDS so I used a small perf board to hold the resistors.




Then I wire up the PCB with super long off board leads.
I mount the PCB in the box and start cutting the leads to length.
Sometimes I'll remove the jack, pots and switch to solder outside the box after the leads have been cut nice and short
but more often I do the ship in a bottle thing and solder it all right in the box.

I also have been doing the star ground thing so I prep the output jack with six ground wires covered in heatshrink.
You can see it in this pic with the jack on the left covered in purple heatshrink. That covers all the ground wires needed




I'm getting a couple of soggybags most excellent PCB to try the mounted jack and switch thing.
If that works out I might not want to go back to the ship in a bottle build technique.

[Processaurus]

It's questionable to DC jack the side of the box by the switch ( BYOC style).  While it is tempting because it makes construction neater and saves 3 cents worth of wire, it seems to just to move the mess outside of the box, when it comes time to actually use the DC jack.  If you use a straight DC plug, it is sticking out way past the 1/4" jacks on the side, making that plug the deciding factor in how close other things can get to the pedal.  For the lone pedal, it'll get stepped on eventually.  You want those chinsey jacks and plugs as far away from stomping feet as possible.  Right angle DC plugs are a better way to go with the side DC jack (like the nice visual sound 1 spot daisy chain, with the leisurely 10" between plugs), but with the DC jack so close to the 1/4" jacks, when you want to route the DC cable up the side of the box, the 1/4" plug is right in the way.  Do you go under? Over?  A nightmare for the neat freaks.

It's funny, it would be great if stompboxes as a rule either all had their jacks on the back (so you can use all straight plug patch cords) or all on the side (Boss style, so you can use all right angle cords to connect everything).  But instead it's anarchy.  

[Andre]

On many builds I see the stompswitch and other controls like pot's and switches placed real close to oneother.
Don't you guys have trouble hitting the stompswitch without touching other controls?
For this reason I try to place them as far apart as possible as you can see.



André

[soulsonic]

Andre, I've recently started placing my controls far away for the same reason. I think this is probably the best way to go for overall reliability.

It's not good to stomp on the controls!
I actually had a pedal destroyed at a gig one time because the singer accidentally stepped on it and crushed one of the toggle switches. I now try to arrange everything so that it will be least likely for anything delicate to be stomped. It is good advice.

[ADR]

Andre, I like that pedalboard and the layout. Very clean. Did you make the case yerself?

[AM]

André

Hi, I remember seeing a picture of your pedalboard in the pictures thread, featuring a double rat. What happened to it? Did it end up not being a practical idea and you switched back to a single one? I'm asking because I am currently building a distortion pedal and thought that wiring two sets of controls via a 3pdt in a similar way to your double rat was a good idea for distortion boxes. Any other people who favor this type of wiring for distortions?

Anastasio

[Andre]

Andre, I like that pedalboard and the layout. Very clean. Did you make the case yerself?

Thanks. Yes I built it myself, there are some more pics in the picture thread.

Hi, I remember seeing a picture of your pedalboard in the pictures thread, featuring a double rat. What happened to it? Did it end up not being a practical idea and you switched back to a single one?

Although the double rat worked great, it had the problem of the stompswitch being too close to the controls.
During gigs, when I sometimes need to hit the switch without looking, it often happens I also hit one of the controls and change a setting. I use it now in the rehearsal room on another pedalboard.

André

[soggybag]

I like Pushtone's box with the knobs on the side. This is similar to the Blackstone Appliances pedal. I haven't built anything like this yet, but I have had the idea to do a box like this on the drawing board for a while.

With the knobs on the back side and the switches on top the design is pretty bomb proof. You'd also have room for two switches on top of the box if you needed an extra switch. The down side would be getting everything to fit in the box and it would be hard to see the settings.

This is has been a misgiving I have had about the Zvex Fuzz Factory and others. It seems the switches are too close to the knobs. Also  if the pots were board mounted you might be applying too much pressure on the pot while stepping on the switch and knob.

[John Lyons]

One thing I do is to drill the box so all the switches, jacks and pots fit as I want them.
Then take the drilled box and trace the outline and holes onto a piece of cardboard.
Then I install all the parts to the cardboard template for wiring.
This way you can get to everything easily and debug is easier since you don't have the side walls to block the view.
I mark the cardboard with the jack locations so I know how much wire to use but leave it a little long.
I wire everything up and when it's working and ready to go in the box I trim the jack wiring to the exact size I want. Jacks are easy to solder in the box anyway.

John

[Processaurus]

One thing I do is to drill the box so all the switches, jacks and pots fit as I want them.
Then take the drilled box and trace the outline and holes onto a piece of cardboard.
Then I install all the parts to the cardboard template for wiring.

Excellent, maybe one could try sticking the cardboard on or in the enclosure during drilling, so it gets cut when the box gets drilled.  Something thin like cereal box or 6 pack cardboard.