Korg DT-10 Pedal Tuner (LED & true bypass) Mods?

[formerMember1]

I have a korg dt-10 tuner.  
The reason I ask is because when in "tune" there is a green LED, when your not the LED's are all red.  I wanted to change the very last RED LED on each side of pedal.  Because when your in a dark stage or the likes,
and you are tuning down a 1/4 step,(down to last LED before it changes to lower pitch display) you can't tell if you are on the last LED or not.  They blur together.  I wanted to change the last LED to yellow or something so i could distinguish it from the other Red LEDs.  

[formerMember1]

hey guys,
I managed to remove each RED LED from each side without damaging anything.  They are 3mm LEDS but not like a normal 3mmLED.  I want to replace them with a yellow or green LED,  The problem is normal LEDs wont fit since they have a little ridge on the plastic body.In this pedal, that ridge stops it from being inserted into the plastic sockets they have in the board. THe plastic socket is NOT capable of being removed since the rest of the LEDs are attached to it, and it is also part of the display.

So my reason for post is:
Anybody know where i could get a 3mm LED with out that ridge on the plastic body?  The LEDs i removed from the tuner have no "lip" or "ridge" on the lense of the LED.
I have (2) yellow 3mm LEDs from smallbear that i was gonna use but, they have that lip on them.(just like every LED i have seen)  I tried sanding the lip off, but no success, seems like it would take forever to do anyway.  I was thinking about hitting it with a power sander but the thing is so small that it would be impossible!

thanks for your help,... 

PS:If anybody as a phone number to KORG that would be helpful since maybe i could ask them for (2) green LEDs.  I can't find a KORG telephone number for the United States of America. 

[formerMember1]

here is a pic. 

http://korg.com/gear/enlarge_product.asp?prid=DT10

[BDuguay]

I have the same tuner and you're idea is something I'm very interested in. I'm sure that if Korg was able to find ridgless LED's, we should be able to find them too. My local has a large selection of LED's so, the next time I'm there, I have a looky loo
B.

[SonicVI]

Sounds like a good idea though I've not really had much problem with distinguishing the leds.  I've already modded mine for true bypass.   Do you have a Dremel?  It seems like it wouldn't be too tough sanding down the rim with a sanding drum.

[formerMember1]

I've already modded mine for true bypass.

Did you mod the Korg DT-10 pedal tuner for true bypass or a different tuner? I just recently(literally a few days ago) built a true bypass looper box so that i could bypass the tuner's buffered out and inputs so that it wouldb't affect the tone of my other pedals in the signal chain.  I would be really interested in truebypassing the KORG DT-10 Tuner if you did it. 

My local has a large selection of LED's so, the next time I'm there, I have a looky loo

Thanks, 

[SonicVI]

Yeah, it's the DT-10, here's a pic:



Since the DT-10 is all SMT components on the main pcb I couldn't really mod it to be on all the time so I put a momentary SPST in the Bypass output hole which I never used and just hit it after I set up to turn it on. You have to use enclosed jacks since open ones won't fit.

[formerMember1]

cool thanks, that is a good solution, i don't use the other output jack anyway. 

I gotta go check mine out, i think mine looks different inside, might be my memory though,  :icon_lol: 

hit it after I set up to turn it on

You mean you hit the added SPST to turn it on, then use the other switch(3PDT) to turn it on and off from there?

yeah i wish it wasn't those SMT components, 

HOw did you figure out how to do this mod the way you did, i have to do this, it would be way easier than using the looper box, and would also save some real estate on the pedalboard, and one more pedal that doesn't need to be powered. 

[SonicVI]

Yeah, the spst is to turn the tuner on and footswitch selects between the tuner and bypass.   I just figured it out myself how to do it.  Basically all you do is remove the jacks from the board and rewire them as if they were offboard connections instead, inserting the foorswitch just like any other pedal. You can figure out the wiring by determining how the tabs on the jacks were soldered into the board, ie: the input tip, sleeve, ring, output tip and ring, and then use those pads for wires. If you understand how jacks and bypassing works I'm sure you can figure it out. I can take some more photos and maybe make a sketch of what goes where if you get stuck. Just PM in that case.

[formerMember1]

yeah i think i could figure it out then, if not i might PM in the future for some minor help  on something,thanks. 

I just happen to have a mono and stereo closed switchcraft jacks, that i thought i'd never use. 

[formerMember1]

yo sonic VI:

I happen to have two switchcraft closed jacks but they seem to be too big, the sleeve, ring, and tip are very close to the greenie cap and electrocap,(input jack) the mono jack(out) seems like there is room, but i think the battery compartment is in the way.(don't know yet)

In the picture you posted, What kind of closed jacks are they? I don't see them as being the same as mine.

1.So my first steps would be to remove/unsolder the 3 jacks from the board.
2.Remove the switch and that little board.
3.solder wires from the pads of the cicuit board to the 2 jacks(in and out)
4.THen mount the 3pdt and spst to enclosure, then wire them up respectively.(

I understand the method of it, i think,
i will take it apart and remove the jacks and switch,
and see from there
i understand bypassing, but confused in this pedal, 

If you could draw up a wiring diagram and/or instructions i would gladly pay you some money for your time and help.

THe part that i am confused on is the circuit board, if i run wires to the jacks from the board as if they were offboard connections,(<<<i understand that) then where do i send the wires from the 3PDT switch? I understand how to wire a 3PDT, i have done it many times, but it seems confusing in this pedal for some reason.

thanks....

[SonicVI]

Actually, I used one of the jacks from the tuner but just turned it on its side so the tabs were parallel to the pcb rather that sticking down into it. I couldn't use the other one becasue it was too wide to turn on its side so I think I found an encloded jack that has the tabs facing down instead of out of the end like I'm guessing you have. The only problem I had with space was with the bottom on the box, I had to insulate the tabs from the case.  Anyway, you can figure out which pad is which from studying the jacks, use a meter fto test continuity in case you can't tell just by looking  I do think I had a little confusion on the input jack becasue there were 4 tabs on the jack but I think only three were actually connected to anything anf the other was just soldered to a pad that wasn't connected to anything.  Look at it this way. Imagine that you're just elongating the tabs on the jacks so that they still fit into the pads on the pcb but you're elongating them with wires.  Look at it that way and it becomes more apparent how you should splice in the switch. Basically you're going to split the wires running from the  tips of the jacks to their respective pads and run the new ends where you split those wires to the footswitch. Does that make any sense?   .   I'll try to get some more photos and a sketch made up this evening.

[formerMember1]

yeah it  more sense now,

i think that inputjack with the 4th lug is a NC lug or something,

Basically you're going to split the wires running from the  tips of the jacks to their respective pads and run the new ends where you split those wires to the footswitch. Does that make any sense?

What do you mean split the wires and run their new ends to the footswitch?


i understand more about the wiring when you said to look how they were put into the pcb board,  i run a wire/s to the board and connect the input and output jack to board via wires instead of soldering them directly to board. but what do you mean when you say split the wires in the above quote?

>>Do you mean to run a wire from the pad of circuit board to the 3pdt switch?  So in essence i am soldering the jacks to the board via wires instead of directly to board, then running a few more wires in the respective places from the 3PDT switch to board.
(i don't think this is what i am supposed to do, becuase if i was doing that i shouldn't of had to remove the jacks in the first place. So i must be wrong)

think I found an encloded jack that has the tabs facing down instead of out of the end like I'm guessing you have

I might be able to bend the tabs up instead of out of the end like my switchcraft jack has...


I removed all three jacks perfectly, no damage, 
Gonna go remove the existing stomp switch now...  **edit**<<<<removed the switch>>>>>>>

thanks again for your time, help, etc... 

[SonicVI]

I mean, if you didn't have a footswitch in there you'd run the wires from the tip tabs directly to the input/output pads on the pcb. If you had it this way you would split those two wires so that there were now 4 wires and the free ends of those wires would go to the footswitch.
Here's a very crude illustrator drawing:


Also, since the pcb with the jacks was supported by the jacks and the footswitch bracket and now is not you're going to need to find a way to support that board to keep the dc jack and the little pushbuttons in their holes and to keep the two pcbs from touching. I used silicon adhesive and put globs around the jacks and a big glob between the boards to keep them apart. You can see the goo in the photo above. There's probably a better way. I tried a plastic pcb standoff between the boards but it was just a tad to tall for comfort.

[formerMember1]

Here's a very crude illustrator drawing:

heck no that is a great drawing, i think i got it now,  thanks a bunch, i really appreciate this help, and i am very happy i am finally able to have my tuner in the signal chain without annoying loopboxes and such,   

I have to pickup one of those SPST momentary switches, anyone in particular i should get?
Where did you get your SPST switch?  does radio shack sell a reliable one?  I will have to check this evening...

Is there a risk of the  silicon adhesive damaging anything?(those small SMT parts)

from looking at the picture i assume you reused the output jack?

[SonicVI]

Yes I believe it was the outpt jack I reused.  Any momentary switch that fits the hole will work. It doesn't even have to be a pushbutton,  a toggle would work too.  I got mine at a local parts outlet but I'm sure Radio Shack has something you could use. Just make sure it's a normally open switch. I don't think the silicon will harm anything. Fulltone puts that stuff all over their pedals. It won't come off easily though excpet if you want to cut through it to get the boards apart in case you want to reverse the mod or something. 

[formerMember1]

I got both the switchcraft closed jacks to fit!  Barely but they do fit, and they are not pushing to hard against the circuit board. Just barely touching. 

remember that metal piece that held the old footswitch and also screwed to the circuit board, well obviously it won't fit with a 3PDT switch, so i took pliers and cut it until there was barely enough metal to just reach under the 3PDT switch on one side. Then  i mounted the jacks, and pushed the metal piece under the board and put the other side of the metal piece under the 3PDT switch.  When i tightened the 3PDT to the enclosure, it held the metal piece tight against the inside.  THen i put that little screw i took out when i disassembled it through the pc board and through the metal piece and tightened it.  It just barely doesn't hit a component underneath on the other pc board,(think it is an opamp)  THe pc boards dont move anywhere. THe 3PDT won't come loose because it has that ridge in the enclosure that stops it from spinning. 

there is just enough room so that the pc boards don't touch each other and ground out! i measured about a 1/4inch of space.

I now have to get a SPST switch, (maybe a mini toggle switch, since then i could flip it one way so that it is always on andjust  always leave it there,) I still have to wire it up and see if the wires fit between the two pc boards. (<<<shouldn't be a problem)

First though i have to install those yellow LEDs i have been looking for, then i could solder/wire everything up. 

**EDIT*** the stereo input switchcraft jack>>> i had to bend the lugs a milimeter away from the greenie cap and electro cap, just for precaution.  And i still might stick a very thin piece of foam between the pc boards just for reassurance.

[formerMember1]

did you have any trouble getting the SPST switch to mount in the existing hole in the enclosure where the bypass jack used to be?   

[SonicVI]

The switch I used needed a 1/4" hole so it wa a little bit small so I just used flat washers on the inside and outside and it's holding fine. There was  no problem with space lengthwise.

[formerMember1]

I found a few switches, some are SPST on/on  and some are on/off.
here is one smallbear sells:

Switch - SPDT Toggle Mountain Sw 10TC410
(On-On) Sub-miniature, high-quality panel mount for power and control switching.
PRICE: $1.80     Shipping Wt. 0.11 oz

would that work?  it is a SPDT NOT a SPST though... BUt couldn't i wire the SPDT switch to no matter where it is switched the pedal will always be on?

I am confused about what the SPST switch is doing.  Instead of sending wires from those two holes in the bottom left corner of the pc board to the SPST switch, couldn't i just  jumper the two holes or something?

I will ALWAYS be using a power jack, i never ever use batteries in the tuner. Wouldn't jumpering the two holes make the pedal always be on then i could just (true) bypass it by stepping on the 3PDT switch? Or am i thinking unclearly. 

thanks again...