cheap 1/4" jacks, and a looper switcher review

[blackieNYC]

I bought a 4-loop active switcher from Monoprice.  They've had it for $99 for a year or two, now it's marked down to $79, and I got it on a holiday sale for $64 plus shipping.  This is a low price for many ONE loop pedals on the market. Opened it - it's the Joyo (which sells for $99-125). Nice metal box, easy to use, can't change pedal order, Nice 2P2T stomps, electrically quiet enough (though a soft momentary switch would have avoided the mechanical sound of the switch), surface mount programmed chip.
I'm a little concerned about the jacks.  they are this type, which has no mechanical connection to the chassis, and in fact the only mechanical connection to the pcb is the soldered pins.  Many of you have seen these. They are the very worst, and I can't think of a worse application than the looper you stomp on and kick around so you don't have to kick around all those pedals. The problem is the solder joints cracking, or the legs breaking.  These will fail before the plastic body of the jack does.  I used to repair keyboards and studio stuff, and I've replaced these by the dozens:


Even though this appears to have some threads for a nut, no nut is used and the pcb isn't laid out to make use of a chassis mounting nut.  So how to replace it.  I have what might be a good idea but I'd like to fish around for others.  Or maybe someone has tried this idea.
This jack has got to be the most low-profile jack out there, in width at least.  Barely bigger than the plug. So, no jack I know of could be mounted in it's place and hand-wired. (this being the perfect method of shock mounting damage protection - a jack with wires and no pc connection) 

1. My replacement idea was to purchase this very jack, awful as it is, in the threaded bushing w/nut version. Then I'm hoping to mount the jack upside down in the original hole, and run wires to the pins. Even if I had to stick with the plastic bushing variety to avoid changing the ground scheme, I would have much more confidence in this unit's reliability.

2. An alternate idea is to try this: The pc board is on top of the jack (face up, you see only the jack legs poking out).  Underneath the pcb are the jacks, and standoffs attached to the bottom.  If I extend these standoffs, the board will move further away from the holes, and might allow me to wire in the switchcraft black enclosed jacks. They are larger in width, and certainly much more reliable.  I'd have to shorten the leads on 4 LEDs perhaps.  or bend them neatly.  I think that with whatever I choose I might have to stick with ground isolated plastic bushings.  Might be able to get those chunky Rean jacks in there.  Gotta make the holes bigger, but they have some low profile jacks that might work.

3. And this only occurred to me as I'm typing - Drown the jacks and pcb in epoxy.  Fill the inside of the box with epoxy, and if a jack still fails on me, throw the thing away.  As a wise man around here said, "nothing says forever like a solid block of liquid nails" or something.  When discrete electrical components are "potted", it is a special non-conductive epoxy?  I'm thinking I could probably get away with the hardware store "5 minute" epoxy just fine.  the more I think about this, the more I'm hoping a dozen people will reply that they've done this and it is a gloriously perfect solution.

Any thoughts on this?

Getting back to the review, I think this looper is great. I did buy it knowing I would want to improve the jacks some way. I could just barely see this detail in the online images. But for $225 and well up, you could get one that has chassis mounted jacks. Again, this is relay TB switching and not just stompswitch TB audio routing. For some people the jacks shown above is not a problem.  Matter of fact, it may well be the most commonly used jack in synths, workstation audio interfaces, and outboard gear.  But many of these applications are set-it-and-forget-it installations. I think the Behringer pedals use it, or so it appears from the outside of the box.

[blackieNYC]

Bump
I know it's long, but has anyone made cheap commercial 1/4" jacks more robust?

[blackieNYC]

Front page bumping, last time, I promise.
If the goal (and perhaps the lengthy first post) is limited to "preventing pc mount jacks from getting cracked solder joints on the audio connections (when that is the only mechanical connection- no enclosure mount)", does anyone have some creative means of robustifying the jacks? In this particular case, there is not enough room for any other style of jack to be fastened to the enclosure.

I think someone will try to stop me from drowning the jacks in epoxy. But will they? So lazy.

[MaxPower]

I don't pc mount jacks, pots, or switches so I've no experience with those issues. In any case I would solder wires between the circuit board and jacks.

[thermionix]

Move guts to badass metal enclosure.  Run wires from PCB to Switchcraft jacks.  Use appropriate nylon insulators to prevent jacks from grounding to enclosure.

[blackieNYC]

Thanks guys, and that's not a bad idea. But the enclosure is actually very nice- sturdy, metal, so that didn't occur to me. It's also quite compact and it is the perfect size for its contents, as it should be. Smaller than its nearest Hammond equivalent, shorter but deeper than some of the other enclosures I've seen.  Plus there's a square display that is needed-I'd be working pretty hard to get this box to look exactly like that box.   Otherwise I would explore the suggestion.

Since nobody wants to let me use epoxy I think I'll buy the threaded bushing/nut version of this jack and hand wire it upside down with its legs sticking up.  They should fit, and if not, possibly increasing or decreasing the height of the standoffs in order to move the board away from the holes to make room for regular jacks will be possible. 
Another idea I've considered is a Dsub connector. I do have a punch for that somewhere. Then a standard breakout cable (snake) to 1/4". Not too long. Certainly would be a quick setup.  With less spaghetti. Right angle plugs, maybe staggered lengths.

[wavley]

That d-sub connector isn't a bad idea.  I've had to dig through potting to fix solder cracks, so it's not necessarily a fix all for that.

Moving the board sounds like a lot of work but it may pay off in the end if there's enough room for everything.  Maybe there's a way to make a deeper lid if you need more room?

I've been thinking about one of these since they hit $79, it's pretty tempting.  I go back and forth about the ability to save presets and the fact that a big part of the talent of working a big pedalboard is the dance that it takes to do it.  I'm often as impressed by the way folks find to turn things on and off, the order in which they do it, and how they arrange things as the sounds they get and when I see someone really good at it it always challenges me rethink how I do my board. 

Then again, presets... maybe I should be thinking about new challenges.

[blackieNYC]

Dug thru potting to fix solder cracks - were these jacks or switches wiggled by human hands and feet by any chance, or are you talking about a manufacturing solder defect? (There I go again, can't let go of the lazy epoxy idea)

I think there will still be some pedal ballet, in that the four loops' pedals wouldn't be set&forget, but that would be mostly between songs and not during. I think the Dsub would be great, but I don't know if I could go without the 1/4" backup.  Both might be best. 

[wavley]

Dug thru potting to fix solder cracks - were these jacks or switches wiggled by human hands and feet by any chance, or are you talking about a manufacturing solder defect? (There I go again, can't let go of the lazy epoxy idea)

I think there will still be some pedal ballet, in that the four loops' pedals wouldn't be set&forget, but that would be mostly between songs and not during. I think the Dsub would be great, but I don't know if I could go without the 1/4" backup.  Both might be best.

Fixing jacks and pots, but the potting was a little on the soft side that I have a feeling may have softened more with heat.  I guess it depends on how hard your potting is.

I know, it's hard to make a switch to a non standard jack, Dsub seems like a good idea and probable is, but there's always that thing about being able to replace a cable on the fly that keeps me from using non standard connectors on things.

[chuckd666]

I actually quite like these jacks myself. If they're not PCB mounted and are mechanically connected to the chassis they should serve you well.

[Processaurus]

I actually like the D-sub connector a lot. One thing you don't usually realize before hooking up a bypass looper with 4 loops is that you have 10 cables going into one box. Unless all of them are right angle plugs, and they set up the jacks in a nice way that lets them run off to the side without hitting each other, there is a big space being used by the rats nest of plugs, in prime space at the front of the pedal board. The D-sub gets rid of the mess. I bet 3' cords coming off the d-sub would be enough for most pedalboards, because if you put the looper in the center front, you could stretch out 6' total (3' per side).

[aballen]

I have the 8 loop, joyo live unit with channel switching and MIDI.  Same jacks, I've never had a problem.  The direction you are stressing them in (in and out) are pretty well supported, and the edge of the connectors fits tightly into the case holes, so there is no stress in the up/down/side directions.

I like switchcraft jacks myself, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.... so many other projects you can spend your time for