Anyone Been Brave Enough To Build A Boss DC 2?

[vikki]

Just to say hi, i'm new around here.
Just wondering if anyone had been brave enough to have a go at a Boss DC2 Dimension pedal? I was wondering if it was possible to build one on strip board or would the capacitance effect be too great and give weird problems. Are the chips still available? I'm not looking for minature but a large pedal or rack would be o.k. I've a fair bit of experience at diy studio preamps, parametrics and uhf RF building, what are the odds of building the DC 2? May be some one has designed and etched a PCB?
Best Regards
Vikki(uk)

[Mark Hammer]

I've almost populated one from a layout Mike Irwin gave me.  The board is huge, though, so when I saw the layout for one at Topopiccione I quickly etched, drilled and tinned a pair of boards from that layout, and plan to, at some point, migrate the parts from the too-big board to the just-right board.

Someone with far more experience and success, though, is Scott Stites (AKA diyfreque) who has actually built a working one, and coaxed a few extra treats from it.

IN the grand scheme of things though, note that Behringer is poised to release an apparent clone of the DC-2, for what I gather will be a favourable price, so maybe building should be shelved for now.

[vikki]

Many thanks Mark..
Just had a look at the site with the DC 2 pcb and i guess it wouldn't be too bad to build...but if B/Ringer have one in the works i might as well build something else.
Thanks for the info.
Vikki(uk)

[shadowmaster]

I was suppose to build one but when I went to buy compander chips at a local electronics shop, only one is available so I shelved any plans of building this one that day teary-eyed until...

Woo!!! Hooh!!!
http://www.behringer.com/CC300/index.cfm?lang=ENG

Why not go this route instead!??? 

Maybe you can also TZF-ify this.

[lowstar]

my board is etched and drilled and awaits population...actually this is my no1 priority build now, as soon as my "lab" is ready again, i will attempt this.

cheers,
lowstar

[vikki]

Thanks everyone, i wonder how good the Behringer unit is, looks very interesting.
Vikki(uk)

[Steben]

Well, it will be a nice chorus, but TZF-ing it will be tough, knwoing Behringer goes SMD.

[Wild Zebra]

 Give it up to my man Scott Stites!!  http://mypeoplepc.com/members/scottnoanh/birthofasynth/id9.html  don't forget to check out the other two pages and many other awesome projects.

[vikki]

Nice work there with that rack unit, need a bit of patience and logic to buld that one
Vikki(uk)

[Cliff Schecht]

Damn, I have some of those NE570's somewhere. I'm wondering how much that Behringer unit is going to cost though.

[Zero the hero]

Damn, I have some of those NE570's somewhere. I'm wondering how much that Behringer unit is going to cost though.

For sure, less than buying all the components for the DC-2, not to mention at the time required for assembling and testing it.

[Mark Hammer]

The Behringer unit is obviously going to be priced pretty cheap.  Beyond the savings in lower-cost packaging and labour, and SMT boards, the real question that arises is how they will manage to sell it cheap through component choices.  Certainly one of the keys to the quietness of the DC-2 in the face of of some serious noise challenges is the use of NE570 compander chips (which I assume will be replaced with something more recent and SMT), but also there is a plethora of M5218L dual op-amps.  These are pretty dang quiet and decent units.  I know that Behringer chose to go with noisier op-amps in the AC-2 clone, and they may well go with a siilar poor choice in their DC-2 clone.  They may also choose a 571 equivalent over a 570, which will also add a tad more noise.  Then there is the layout aspect which runs the risk of heterodyning if not done right.  I guess we'll see when we get there later in the year.

All of this is the long way of saying that it could possibly turn out that Mr. Petrini's through-hole layout ends up being the quieter route to pursue, and for that reason more worthwhile for some folks than plunking down $50 for a Chinese-made clone.  Like I say, we'll see when we get there.

[vikki]

I notice there's another guy planning a clone of the DC 2....
http://burnit.co.uk/sdiy/index.php?page=home
No info at the moment though.
Did anyone asctually build the DC 2 on the Topopiccione  site? There seems to be some question marks after some of the components...
Vikki(uk)