Journey of a Newbie Pedal Builder

[Phend]

Great read Aviator18.
Good information in there.

[Aviator18]

@kaycee
Thank you

I have one of these coming.
https://diy.thcustom.com/shop/signal-tracer-injector-pen-v6-2/
Saw it a few weeks back and thought to myself, "I need to get one of those." Your post reminded me about it so I immediately went to the sight and ordered it.

I have a UEI DL379B multimeter. It is a little large for the bench and is designed for the HVAC industry. I have a smaller one on the way that also has a foldout stand which will work better to have set up on the bench, plus I have a TC-1 multi tester. Down the road, I would like to add an oscilloscope to my setup.

@Phend
Thank you. It is my hope that what I share will have value and provide good information for others.  It also kind of serves as a safety net for me: if I am doing something crazy people can stage an intervention.

[Aviator18]

Little Bags Everywhere!

When you start getting your parts shipments, you will end up with a growing number of empty zip-lock bags. You may be tempted to throw them away. I almost did, but the "That looks useful, so I can't get rid of it" side of me kicked in and I stuffed them all in a box and held on to them. Well, I am glad I did. "Why?" you might ask. Because later I got shipments with multiple items in one bag, or items in a shipping envelope that weren't in a nice little zip-lock bag. Luckily, I had my stash of bags which I could label and put those extra items in. I keep all my components inside little zip-lock backs with labels, to protect and identify them.

[Aviator18]

For the curious,

Here is a photo of the "Victim" mentioned in "My Initial Adventure in Soldering." R7 is the resistor I had to replace. It is 1/4 watt; the ones that came with the kit are 1/8 Watt.

[Mark Hammer]

Little Bags Everywhere!

When you start getting your parts shipments, you will end up with a growing number of empty zip-lock bags. You may be tempted to throw them away. I almost did, but the "That looks useful, so I can't get rid of it" side of me kicked in and I stuffed them all in a box and held on to them. Well, I am glad I did. "Why?" you might ask. Because later I got shipments with multiple items in one bag, or items in a shipping envelope that weren't in a nice little zip-lock bag. Luckily, I had my stash of bags which I could label and put those extra items in. I keep all my components inside little zip-lock backs with labels, to protect and identify them.

Those little bags can come in quite handy.  After a while, if you're like me, you'll begin to accumulate little boards that are awaiting a pot or toggle or enclosure; something that makes it incomplete.  I put each of them in their own bag, and write the name on with a Sharpie.  Labeling is crucial when you build things on perf and only get back to something 6 months later...or more.

They also come in handy when you want to mod or repair something, have to disassemble the enclosure, and need somewhere to put the chassis screws, nuts, and washers so you don't lose them.

[Aviator18]

Here is a couple photos of my workspace. Note: I am still improving my foxhole.

[Jdansti]

Welcome. Very interesting read!

I wanted to share my favorite soldering video with you. I think this is a good one for all levels of expertise.

[Aviator18]

Good video.

Edit: Just noticed you are from Texas. I grew up in and around Houston.

[andy-h-h]

I read mention of a spreadsheet to track parts.   From your posts it sounds like you might be about to head into the world of too many parts to keep track of.    It happens faster than you think 

I once had a spreadsheet when I was starting out, and then gave up on it.   Soon I had too much to keep track of... 

[phasetrans]

https://partsbox.com/signup

Free for hobbyists. Has several features that I wish were available in some production MRPs.

[Aviator18]

@andy-h-h,
I very well could be headed in that direction.

@phasetrans,
I will have to check that out.

EDIT: I did indeed check it out and have been busy loading data into it.

[duck_arse]

For the curious,

Here is a photo of the "Victim" mentioned in "My Initial Adventure in Soldering." R7 is the resistor I had to replace. It is 1/4 watt; the ones that came with the kit are 1/8 Watt.

give in to your o.c.d. - load all your resistors with the tolerance band to the same end. this allows for quicker fault finding wrong values, and it shows you care enough about a build to care enough to check your values - before soldering them in. and it looks better, more professional than many professionals.

[Jdansti]

Good video.

Edit: Just noticed you are from Texas. I grew up in and around Houston.

Cool! I lived in Pasadena for most of my life and recently moved out to Lake Livingston.

[Aviator18]

Good video.

Edit: Just noticed you are from Texas. I grew up in and around Houston.

Cool! I lived in Pasadena for most of my life and recently moved out to Lake Livingston.

I have lived in the Heights, Sugar Land, Alvin (my nephew went to school with Nolan Ryan's son), FM1960 and I45, and Baytown.

[Kevin Mitchell]

That's a nice work area you've got going on!
Now I don't feel so apprehensive on the thought of putting a drill press in my own space.

Looking forward to seeing the stuff you cook up!
And welcome to the forum 

[Aviator18]

Thank you, Kevin.

I browsed through this thread: https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=80329.0 and saw all the drill presses by the workbench.

[Aviator18]

More Goodies

My Order from Newark arrived today (9/28/2021).  Actually, it is part one of my order. Part two is coming from their U.K. warehouse and has cleared customs, but I have no delivery date.

Up to this point, when I received a package, I was surprised by the size—as in, “My that’s smaller than I expected.” Then I would open the package, take out the components and think, “My, that is really smaller than I expected.” This time was no different except it was, “WOW! That is much larger than I expected.” Almost immediately followed by, “Wow, that box is much larger than I expected and WHERE am I going to put all that stuff!”

Let’s take a moment to talk about what was inside this package. Other than two ICs (both TC1044SCPAs), it was all resistors and capacitors. Most were in zip lock bags, but about a third were in sealed padded envelopes. Most were labeled with all pertinent information, but the packaging and labeling of the components in the padded envelopes were less consistent. A few (less than 10%) were lacking complete descriptions and I had to go to Newark’s website and look up the SKU. I received this shipment 11 days after I placed my order. Of all the places I ordered from on my “Let’s Get Started Building Stompboxes” orders, Newark has been the last one to get me my goods.

A few days ago, impatient to receive my stuff, I checked prices at Mouser and Digi-Key, and compared them to Newark to see about a faster alternative. I first went to Newark’s website and filled my cart with the items on the “Next Order” page of my spread sheet. Then I went to Mouser. I was still in the resistors when I switched to Digi-Key. I got all the resistors in the cart and started on the capacitors. The prices on resistors were somewhat higher at Digi-Key than Newark, but when I got to the capacitors, it wasn’t even coming close (and these were name brand capacitors in many cases). I exceeded the total price of what was in my Newark cart before I had gotten very far down my capacitor list. I came to the conclusion that Newark may be much slower, but the prices made it worth the wait. My advice: before you order capacitors and resistors, compare prices with Newark. Note: I have no affiliation with the company—I make nothing if you buy from them—I just want to see you get the most for your money.

Let’s talk about my strategy in placing this order. Sure, I placed the order to get the components for the PCBs I was ordering, but the impetus for this order was as much establishing bench stock as it was fulfilling BOM requirements. I already touched on my buying strategy for the resistors. When I got to the capacitors (which can be more costly), I decided to get a minimum of twice what was needed for the pedal builds and I bought three types of capacitors: MLCC (Multi-Layered Ceramic Capacitors), Metalized PET Box Film, and Electrolytics.

MLCCs
I got small values up to about 0.022uF. Going larger than that was getting too expensive. I bought C0G/NP0 if it was a practical option (i.e., If it wasn’t what I considered unreasonably expensive). If C0G/NP0 was not an option, I went for X7R. The caps I selected were rated at 50v, which I will not come close to, so the tolerance shift as you approach max voltage should not be a factor for them. I ordered twenty-four .01uF Vishay which were Y5V which was a mistake. I must have fixated on Vishay and not noticed the Y5V. Y5V rated caps are sloppy loose, with the value shifting dramatically with temperature changes and have a narrow band where they really are who they say they are. MLCCs are good in power supplies for the lower cap in the low/high filter pairs (i.e., 100uF Electrolytic and .01uf MLCC). If you are designing your own PCB, the MLCC in the power chain should be as close to the IC as possible.

Box Film Caps
I got values from 1000pF up to 2.2uF. Look for the 40volt to 63volt ones, they are physically smaller in size. The voltage here is AC and a 63volt cap is rated for 100Vdc (EDIT: this statement is misleading. The voltage in the Newark description was Vac and simply listed as 63V or 40V. This is not universally done and there was additional information in the listing that gave both Vdc and Vac ratings. See discussion below. Thank you PRR for correcting me on this.)  . I mistakenly got a few 450v caps when I wasn’t paying attention to voltage ratings (oh well, I can use them for tube amps). Most of the box caps I ordered were Kemet which I consistently got good prices on.

Electrolytics
I got from 1uF up to 220uF. In many cases I could get low-profile versions for prices that were comparable to the normal caps (in one case even cheaper). The low-profile caps are shorter and are sometimes fatter than the standard caps. A few of the PCBs I ordered called for low-profile electrolytic caps. Most the electrolytics I bought were Multicomp brand, but I also got some Panasonic, Rubycons, Cornell Dubilier, and United Chemi-Cons.

In the process of placing this order, I learned a few things. One thing is, pay close attention to voltage rating. I would get focused on price at times and not check the voltage. That’s how I ended up ordering 450-volt box film caps. I also had to research things like the different ratings for MLCCs. I had read about this prior to the order, but had to look it up again to understand the ratings more thoroughly and know where my dividing line should be for what I could use and what I couldn’t. I can’t remember how thorough I was at checking the quantity discounts (most items I selected were the same price regardless of quantity). Ideally, you should identify where the big cost breaks are and how high up the quantity ladder you can afford to go. The more you buy, the better value you get and I think we all want to leverage our buying power as much as possible. Concerning the whole batch of orders I made at the time, I could have planned it a little better (which would have saved me paying extra shipping when I had to go back to a few places). A lot of decisions were made on the fly. Luckily, I had done quite a bit of research and had organized and accessible notes to inform my decisions. I ended up having to stop and build a spreadsheet so I could get focused and on track and avoid the chaos I was creating. It just occurred to me that stopping to build that spreadsheet is why I started the process early in the evening but didn’t place my first order until much later that night.

The Let’s Get Started Building Stompboxes Orders After Action Report (AAR):
I ended up spending a fairly large sum of money, much more than I had anticipated. I knew going into it I was going to have to spend a bit of money because I needed to set up my workbench. The decision to build up a comprehensive bench stock added to the cost, but resistors and capacitors are cheap and that was actually a small fraction of my cost. Ordering thirteen PCBs to build was probably a bit much for someone entering this hobby and not something I would recommend to someone else, but I have always been bad about taking my own advice and tend to be a “Go Big or Go Home” type of guy. I actually ended up with fifteen because Barry at GuitarPCB threw in a freebee (a Stage 3 Booster) and I ordered two of the Red Specials (by mistake) instead of just one. It is amazing how quickly things add up and there always seems to be something you forgot or didn’t know you needed. I would recommend preplanning the actual order process more thoroughly ahead of time than I did and doing much of what I did on-the-fly, not-on-the-fly. I was just too eager to launch out of the starting gate. Well, I better like love this hobby, because I just made one major commitment to it!

By the way, I had to end up storing the resistors and capacitors in some of the padded envelopes because I didn't have room in my storage bins. I stacked them in order and place each decade of components in separate envelopes. The capacitors were separated by type (MLCC, Film, Electrolytic) See examples below:

[PRR]

> Box Film Caps - ...The voltage here is AC and a 63volt cap is rated for 100Vdc.

Are you sure?

[Aviator18]

> Box Film Caps - ...The voltage here is AC and a 63volt cap is rated for 100Vdc.

Are you sure?

I would check the data sheet for the capacitor to verify, but that is what I was finding when checking the ones I was ordering. See data sheet below:

[PRR]

The headline in your image says "100V". I'd call that a 100V cap. Which we *might* assume could stand 0.707 of 100V as an AC RMS rating; but we see they take a fudge from that.

Not that it matters in a 9 Volt world.