**The DIYStompboxes 10-Year Anniversary Contest Thread**

[pinkjimiphoton]

it's good here, greg!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Thats odd....  

Just tried from my desktop AND my phone and it still says it is set to Private  

EDIT: The Ezekiel 37 video works fine  

EDIT@: Am I the only one not able to see the Zeropoint?

[Jdansti]

^I can't see it either. When I click on the link, it says "Private". When I plug the URL into my browser, it says it can't open it because its a "local file". Hmmm.

[haveyouseenhim]

It's not working for me. Says it's set to private.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Can anyone here get a hold of Jacob so he can fix it before deadline?

In other news....

Who here is going to get the old married woman award? (not ready/posted until the last minute  )

[pinkjimiphoton]

weird, the preview shows up, but no video once i click on it. sorry guys, i hadn't had a chance to watch yet, but i can clearly see the preview.
when i click the link it does nothing, when i go to youtube it says it's private as you all report.

[jkokura]

@Jacob

Video set to private for the Zeropoint 

Should be fixed now.

Jacob

[jkokura]

Also, I think I made the 3 hours left till deadline mark. Anyone left now has bout 2 hours.

Jacob

[GGBB]

Entrant: GGBB/Gord
Pedal: Orange Smoothie Compressor

This compressor project started life as a desire to build an Orange Squeezer with modifications.  As I searched for potential modifications and other improvements, I came across Mark Hammer's modified Orange Squeezer and decided to pursue his dual op-amp idea as well as the variable gain and brightness controls.  Eventually the pedal would become much more like another of Mark's designs - the Tangerine Peeler, but a lot less complicated, and with a few enhancements, plus all the bells and whistles. 

As much as I'd like to go into the details of this pedal's complicated evolution, I will spare you the gory details.  Suffice it to say I had no idea that I would end up with such an amazing pedal when I set out to build myself a lowly OS.  I really learned a lot doing this build.  Two things stand out - I definitely need finer solder, and I probably need a smaller tip for my iron.  All kidding aside, I'm glad I entered this contest because it really pushed me to be a better, smarter builder, and because I know I have improved on my past pedals.

Features:
Side-chain Processing - The dual op-amp design allows compression to take place outside of the audio path.
Band-pass Compression Filtering - Toggle switch enables high pass filter on the compression signal to retain dynamics on low notes and bass-heavy chords.
Quiet Bias Supply with True Vref  - Reduces AC noise from DC supplies - a common problem with stock Orange Squeezers.
Low Power Consumption - Circuit draw is about 4.5mA.  Super-bright LED with 6.8K resistor draws about 1mA.
Variable Compression Ratio
Adjustable Threshold
Attack and Sustain Controls
Active Volume Control
Brightness Control
Reverse Polarity Protection - Series 1N5817 Schottky.

Build Details:
Compression Diode - BAT48 Schottky.
Capacitors - All electrolytics in the signal path are tantalum.  All other caps are mica or film.
Op-amp - I tried many, including some exotic ones like the OPA2134, and a rare one (MC1458S), but the TL072 had the best balance of neutrality and low noise IMO.
Layout - Designed my own - all pots are board mounted - off-board connections are strategically placed for close proximity to connected item.
PCB - Etched my own - this was my first time.  Toner transferred a component and connection guide on the reverse side.
Paint/Graphics - White enamel primer; orange enamel paint on sides and back only; colour laser printed waterslide decal on top with bubbly orange smoothie picture background; enamel clear coat (to make the decal transparent); water-based polyurethane top coat.
LED - It's orange!!!!!

Video:
This is just a quick short low quality video demo to show it working live.  The full demo is the MP3 file below.

Audio:
http://soundcloud.com/ggbb-music/orange-smoothie-compressor

Pictures:










Schematic:


Layout:


PCB Transfer:


Screen Transfer:


Credits:
Based on the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer from J.D. Sleep (generalguitargadgets.com) and the Tangerine Peeler by Mark Hammer (hammer.ampage.org).  Threshold control idea by Mark Hammer.  Brightness control by Jack Orman (muzique.com).  Compression control by G. Tranter and 'free electron'.  Attack control by G. Tranter from Mark Hammer and Jon Patton.  Sustain control from Mark Hammer, Jon Patton and others.  Thanks to R.G. Keen (geofex.com) for 'The Technology of the Orange Squeezer' and Aron Nelson (DIYStompboxes.com).

I am planning on putting together a build guide for this in case anyone is interested.  The enclosure I used was a 1590N1 so the PCB is 2.4x1.6", but I also have a 1590B sized version of the layout and transfer - just PM me if you want it - I will post them somewhere eventually.

Good luck everyone - this is an amazing competition - I had a lot of fun building this pedal.

[pakrat]

Wow Gord, that pedal is beautiful! I have been looking to build a comp and I think this one sounds very effective, so thank you for that. Overall a very professional looking/sounding build.

[pinkjimiphoton]

After many marathon building sessions, I have completed my entry..... finally!

Name of entrant: pakrat
Pedal name: Mad Clone
Tell us a bit about the pedal: It's a Tonepad Small Clone with a bunch of mods found in the build reports and on the internet. The mods required a lot of extra wires and switch mounted components making the build messy and tedious, so I decided to make a new pcb with all of the mods board mounted. This is not a new layout, it's Francisco's layout from Tonepad with a few additions.
The mods allow a pretty wide range of sounds over a the standard Small Clone.... they include flanger, tremolo, regen control, and vibrato. The toggle switch changes it from chorus to vibrato, and also has a dry setting if you want the tremolo by itself. To be fair, I should note that this pedal suffers from the volume drop many others have reported, and traditional "fixes" did not work because of the tremolo mod. I believe the LDR is responsible but didn't have any others in stock to experiment.
The box is finished in yellow powdercoat, full faced waterslide decal, and powder coat clear on top. I have never worked with powder coat prior to this and it proved to be very difficult to get the clear to evenly cover the decal without pin holes or other problems. I had to strip the box to bare metal and start over six or seven times before I got it, but in the end I'm happy with the results.


Here are some pics:











Here it is next to the prototype I built to test the mods:



My $50.00 Harbor Freight powder coating gun:



One of many failures....



Which leads to this:



Guts:





Video: The audio is clipped in spots because I used the camera audio. Signal chain: Les Paul Standard > Mad Clone > Mesa Mark III

Layout:



Pcb:



Schematic: Fransisco's schem with mods added. Don't laugh if it's wrong, I've never drawn a schematic before....



References:
www.tonepad.com
http://beckyjc.wordpress.com/pedal-builds/small-clone-mods/
http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/board/index.php?topic=1578.0

Special thanks to JOK3RX for helping me with tracing the original pcb!
Special thanks to Fransisco at Tonepad for this, and all of his other great projects!

oh man... beauty. what me worry. *throws in the towel*

i'm only up to page 8 so far... you guys are some of the best natured, funniest guys i have ever had the pleasure to know...thank you all for the humor, the candor, and the awesome submissions. i raise this here doob....errr...cup 'o meade to you all!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

Ok, here is my entrance to the contest :
Name : liagasg (george liagas)
Pedal Name : Soul Breaker

Soul Breaker is a distortion unit build after order for a fellow guitaristwww.thereckoning.net. It's look is totally inspired by his album / merchandise art.
It's build with the metal guitarist in mind providing 2 different types of distortion with a flick of a toggle switch. I've also add the light emitting borders effect as a gift, to create a better looking unit. The unit turns green on normal distortion mode, and red on ultra high gain distortion. It has Gain-  Bass - Treble - Contour - Output knobs. Works on 9VDC. No battery compartment.

Design



Guts





Layout





Video PART 1

Video PART 2

that's it. i'm gonna stick to slingin pizzas!! 

this thing sounds AWESOME.

[pinkjimiphoton]

Three tremolos in one!  Ya can't beat that!  

Edit:

Now we just need to figure out who I'm going to ship it to...

me!! me!!!  lol

[pinkjimiphoton]

i just read 30 pages .....

[Jdansti]

About 45 minutes...

[haveyouseenhim]

ANNDDD   THAT'S THE GAME!!!!

[Jdansti]

Yup.

There was a short outage on the forum a few minutes ago. Probably due to high traffic as people and news agencies all over the world were tuning in to see the last entries.

[tubegeek]

Hats off to all entrants. I'm VERY impressed. If I hadn't been on vacation for two weeks, I'd a submitted something AWESOME! (Yeah, keep telling yourself that...)

Tough job for the judges!

[Jdansti]

>Tough job for the judges!

No joke!  Kinda tough when all of the entries are top class and there are no duds.  This is like an  Olympic event where the athletes' times are all separated by 0.000001 seconds!

[Vallhagen]

Wow. Some really hot entries while i was sleeping:)

It would be very cool if someone (judges?) could list/pic all entries in one post. Can i ask for that:) ?

Cheers