Hot-Rodding an OD-3 kit

[Cozybuilder]

Hi Andy-
I went through my notes on the first one, pre-hot-rodding, and first note that the PCB is the same one as in your kit. The kit had some components that were incorrect. Here is my original tracing with the components that need changing highlighted in red, and the revised schematic:

 

Here is a shot of the un-modded populated board, using the kit components (except the wrong valued ones):



To make it all fit in the drilled box they provided, I had to move the input and output jacks closer to the face of the pedal:

[AdminoPasswordo]

Thanks Cozy for letting me gargle a little. You have been a great help. I guess I'll get my hands dirty now.

One last question: any idea, what [on] and [off] is for? My best bet was [on] could be for the LED?

[Cozybuilder]

Yes, the "On" and "Off" are for a pair of LEDs- I left the "Off" one unconnected, it didn't seem useful. On the PCB, the DPDT center connector (on the lower/outer edge) is connected to the CLR from power. This feeds either of 2 LED anodes, depending on if the effect is on or off. The hole on the side closest to the switch is for the anode (positive lead), the other hole has a trace that goes to ground.

[AdminoPasswordo]

sweet, got it, cheers

[Cozybuilder]

A couple of hints- usually you solder the lowest profile components in first, then work your way to the taller ones. In this case, I suggest soldering the transistors first; because the pads are so close together, solder bridges are easy to form, and a bear to get rid of. I found that if you solder the middle leg first, using a small toothless alligator clip heat sink on the component side, and bend the other 2 legs as far away as possible, flux first and use minimal solder, then solder the outer legs, your chance of avoiding a solder bridge will increase.

IMHO you really should use the heat sink for these transistors, and its much easier to clip it onto the transistor leg before other components are on the board. Mine look like this:

[Uffah70]

I wrote a message to aliexpress seller to know if diY kit is stil available.  Hope is a good OD-3 clone.