Pictures!

[patrick398]

Interesting. If you are doing the front panels in Illustrator, how do you get gerber files to send to a PCB house? Does Illustrator output some format that's useful?

No i just do the design in illustrator then use the Bitmap2pcb function in Kicad to turn the graphics into a 'part'

[slowpogo]

Whether it's economically viable for one offs depends on how much you're willing to spend making a single pedal really. Minimum order from fab houses is 5 pieces so it's more expensive than a lot of finishing options.. The whole process took me a while to perfect, it means designing the faceplate before you design the pcb, which creates some part placement limitations on the pcb. Usually takes a few redesigns to get things where you want them on the faceplate but also nearish where they need to be on the pcb.
I use illustrator and Kicad and the process is a little fiddly, requires a bit of back and forth.

Gotcha..probably not a realistic solution for me unfortunately.

I'm on the lookout for something professional, relatively affordable and without a steep learning curve. I initially hand painted my pedals, then discovered UV printing at Pedal Parts Plus. I had one pedal done that way and loved the results, but this was right before they ceased one-offs and required an order of 25. I haven't found any comparable services.

I've looked at customrubontransfers.com, which is affordable if you can wait a few weeks and in theory can get you super professional results. Depending on the design you could also cram many pedals' worth of text and graphics onto one sheet, potentially dropping the cost to just a few bucks per pedal. I'll hopefully be giving that a try soon.

[patrick398]

Yeah I'd really like to own a uv printer one day, but they are crazy expensive. The 'cheap' Chinese ones are starting to emerge but I'm not sure I trust them not to just break and be irreparable. Have you tried the water slide decal method, people have got some crazy good results that way, just takes a little trial and error I think

[vigilante397]

I came REALLY close to picking up a UV printer a year or so ago, about $2500 if I remember right. I still haven't stopped wanting it, so we'll see what happens

[slowpogo]

Have you tried the water slide decal method, people have got some crazy good results that way, just takes a little trial and error I think

Water slide decals sometimes look good,, but often look faded and cheap to me. The way people use water slides is often so chintzy (in my opinion), it reminds me of trashy van wraps or bad tattoo art or something. I'm more interested in text and vector art. I should try it once though, it's cheap enough.

[rockola]

Water slide decals sometimes look good ... I'm more interested in text and vector art.

No reason why you couldn't have text and vector art on a water slide decal. Here's one I prepared earlier: the image is from the cover of "Never Never Land" by Pink Fairies, redrawn as vector art in Inkscape.

[patrick398]

I came REALLY close to picking up a UV printer a year or so ago, about $2500 if I remember right. I still haven't stopped wanting it, so we'll see what happens

Let's go halves, I'll have it Mondays, wednesdays, and Fridays, you have it Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. We'll need to make the week an extra 5 days long to account for shipping but that seems fine

[vigilante397]

Let's go halves, I'll have it Mondays, wednesdays, and Fridays, you have it Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. We'll need to make the week an extra 5 days long to account for shipping but that seems fine

Shipping something that big and heavy internationally every week would get a little expensive, we may have to re-think this plan

[Ben N]

Shipping something that big and heavy internationally every week would get a little expensive, we may have to re-think this plan

Just the insurance... 

[Willypp]

Don't think I've posted these ones yet....

I'll just post what they are and let you guys work out which is which:
Bimmy - two channel Timmy with clean blend and input cap selection for use with bass.

Biohazard - two channel Boneyard Plexitone with green LEDs for channel 1, red LEDs for channel 2

The Crossroads - OCD clone

Airwolf - X88r on vero from Sensei Tim's layout at the tagboard forums with dual channels and a treble booster as a preboost.

A couple of F3-7 workalikes for use with my MS-3.

[peterc]

Hi Willypp

Can you please post a link to this?
X88r on vero from Sensei Tim's layout at the tagboard forums

I have searched and not been lucky.....

Thx Peter

[Willypp]

Hi Willypp

Can you please post a link to this?
X88r on vero from Sensei Tim's layout at the tagboard forums

I have searched and not been lucky.....

Thx Peter

Sure:
http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Soldano-X88R-preamp-td28669.html

[peterc]

Thanks Willypp, appreciated.

[niektb]

My fully costum-designed PEAQ booster! Maybe I should rename it to Italian Boost or anything XD You can find the schematic here: https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=124298.0



Never trust Chinese pre-drilled enclosures lol, some holes are a little off 

[vigilante397]

Here's a new design I made for a customer (and hopefully will never have to make again). It's an Orange Rockerverb preamp, two channels, and my first endeavor with soft switching (using ATTiny85 and relays).

[Willypp]

Have you tried the water slide decal method, people have got some crazy good results that way, just takes a little trial and error I think

Water slide decals sometimes look good,, but often look faded and cheap to me. The way people use water slides is often so chintzy (in my opinion), it reminds me of trashy van wraps or bad tattoo art or something. I'm more interested in text and vector art. I should try it once though, it's cheap enough.

That's why I use laser prints on Datapol.  Very sharp, great colours.
https://everylabels.com.au/datapol-synthetic-white-labels

This is my Arcadiator build...

[patrick398]

Here's a new design I made for a customer (and hopefully will never have to make again). It's an Orange Rockerverb preamp, two channels, and my first endeavor with soft switching (using ATTiny85 and relays).

Looks great Nathan! How are you finding the relay switching? An audible noise? I'm still using a 555 flip flop but wondering if i can make it quieter by using a uC
What code are you using for it?

[ElectricDruid]

That's why I use laser prints on Datapol.  Very sharp, great colours.
https://everylabels.com.au/datapol-synthetic-white-labels

This is my Arcadiator build...

I'd like to try that for a change. Does anyone know where you can get those labels (or similar) in Europe?

[vigilante397]

Looks great Nathan! How are you finding the relay switching? An audible noise? I'm still using a 555 flip flop but wondering if i can make it quieter by using a uC
What code are you using for it?

I really like the relay switching as I appreciate the work that goes into it so it feels fancy, but I did a poll on my facebook page and most people said they prefer a solid mechanical clunk of the footswitch, so it will stay a by-request-only thing. No audible noise though, it's dead quiet. I wrote the code myself for the ATTiny, but to make things easier I flashed the Arduino bootloader onto it so I could code it from the Arduino IDE

[temol]

My turn...
Tycobrahe Octavia.




T.