Personal Best Project

[R-Man]

my 2 considering plans are these:          (made in photoshop so not entirely realistic)



what do you reckon?

[mattpocket]

My computer will only let me see the black box with green flames... thats not your fault, I will jsut comment on that one.

If you plan to use decal transfers for this design, you should know that the decals will not turn out too good. Printers make a colour by accounting for the colour of the background. In most cases this is white, when you change the background colour, the printed image will look a lot different...

I remember seeing a picture of a box a guy on here did. He wanted yellow graphics on a black background, the turned out a very light green colour which wasnt very noticeable.. You might be able to get around this by fiddling with the print densities to get the best results, although I wouldnt expect much better...

You can use white decal paper which is opaque, but it means that you will have to cut around each individual flame to get the black background you want. Or you could use green paint and paint the flames on by hand.

Matt

[R-Man]

i was thinking there might be some kind of totally transparent printable decal paper so i can cut a shape around it u know?
hmmm

otherwise i'll get me some green spray paint and make a template... Bobs your uncle Fannys your aunt done as a bun hahaha

[mattpocket]

i was thinking there might be some kind of totally transparent printable decal paper so i can cut a shape around it u know?
hmmm

The problem is, you'd paint your box black first right? Then print your green flames onto decal paper. They'd look great cos the the decal backing paper (which eventually gets removed and thrown away) is white. When you apply the decal there will no longer be a white background, it'll be black, and because the printer bases its colour mixes on using the white background the colour will change.

Matt

[R-Man]

so it prints Green as Green-on-white which looks different when its black in the back ground

i will look into this further but hows the idea of green spray can + template cut out?

[mattpocket]

Yeah that could work. For a really neat stencil you could spray the box green get a mailing sticker (you can get really big ones) and cut your flames out, stick it on the box, spray over with black, and then peel back the label.

Matt

[R-Man]

non paint related but this is itching me now,

i would like to test to see if it works, would i just wire on everything and place it neatly somewhere? so im not installing it into the enclosure im just wiring it all together

is this a good idea?
if the wires are longer than they should be then when i put it in the enclosure will it cause me greif:(

oh i just remembered another thing, my friend Matty Booth told me about multimetre, it can tell me if its a complete circuit but i dont understand it could someone shed some light?

[GREEN FUZ]

I would say it`s actually a good idea to test it before putting in the enclosure. As for the wires being too long in my experience it is the opposite that has caused me problems. You can always cram the extra length in somehow.
If you intend to build more pedals a Multimeter is a good investment. It will have two probes one of which you place on the grounded part of the circuit, the other on the point of the circuit you are testing for breaks. Some of them have a continuity tester function that emits a beep if the circuit is unbroken.

[petemoore]

  I like trim wirings, short input and output wires.
  Build a testjig...
  It can have an insulated box [cardboard works] fastened on top of a large RACO [or other conductive] box with input and output jacks installed, I turned the RACO upside down and used the bottom screws to screw on the 'right sized cardboard box I got from Mouser instead of the raco bottom.
  Ending up with a RACO wieghted base, and a circuit tray on top.
  the only other thing I did was run a ground wire to a testclip, run the input tip wire to a testclip, run the output jack tip to a testclip, the wires poke through the tray, testclips then attached.
  Oh I drilled some potshaft holes in the sides of the box too..
  So then just put the circuit on the testjig, connect the Gnd., in, and out testclips,
  plug your guitar/amp in the RACO's input/output jacks...test for shorts in the battery clip, add battery...test and tweek.
  Slip the testclip insulators over the three wires before soldering the testclips...you'll want insulated testclips.

[R-Man]

well what a surprise it doesnt work

im not sure what is wrong, i'll probably have to buy new components and start all over again

[R-Man]

the bypass works fine but that doesnt get me anywhere that just proves the switch is fine,

from what i can work out its the components on the circuit which arent right probably burnt out i assume

[oldrocker]

Don't give up on those components just yet.  Unless you see smoke I wouldn't jump to conclusions that components are fried.  In fact that's hardly ever the case unless you supplied bad or over voltage to it.  One reason not to go overboard on the enclosure with a great paint and design right away is, none of that matters unless the circuit works.  Put all your efforts into a working nice sounding circuit.  Test it, even jam with it unboxed for a couple of days to see if you really like it and everything is working OK.  Then get a nice enclosure going if that's what you're striving for.  I myself don't really care what my pedals look like as long as they're functional a sound good.  It gets dissappointing when you put so much time and money into a housing for a pedal you haven't got debugged or even heard yet.  Especially when there's a problem.
I would take a step back maybe make an audio probe and buy even a cheap meter, learn to use them and hone your troubleshooting skills.  It's all part of the learning experience and you'll get great satisfaction when you do get it working.

[R-Man]

ok then so how do i make n audio probe? and i will get a meter (you do mean multimeter yes?)

[R-Man]

oh and also i thought i may as well go into a bit of details,

once switched on, NO sound goes Out (meaning i dont hear my guitar in the amp) i hear a fuzz noise, i turn the drive full up the fuzz is more extreme, turn it down its less extreme but still there
i turn up volume it does what it should, volume is increased and decreased when turning down. just no guitar sound!! also the LED doesn't glow!!!!!

the positive square of the LED area on the top of circuit works because i touched the negative lead to the battery and positive to the circuit... so the negative solder spot of the LED isn't working 

thanks, Raahem.

[mattpocket]

Debugging your first circuit is always hard, because you dont know what you are looking for...

Read the "what to do if it doesnt work" thread. Its stickied at the top of the forum! 

[petemoore]

once switched on, NO sound goes Out (meaning i dont hear my guitar in the amp) i hear a fuzz noise, i turn the drive full up the fuzz is more extreme, turn it down its less extreme but still there
i turn up volume it does what it should, volume is increased and decreased when turning down. just no guitar sound!!
  I think you might have most of the gain staging wiring correct, but the guitar signal isn't making it much past the input.
also the LED doesn't glow!!!!!
  No guitar and no LED...sounds alot like the bypass switch is 1/4 turn 'too many' [may need unwired, turned 1/4 turn, rewired]...but I'd verify that with the switch results using DMM and switching...bypass mode should connect the input and output jack tips, effect mode...you should be able to trace continuity from the input jack tip through switch to circuit, same for circuit output/switch/output jack tip.
  The LED uses two 'circuit side' lugs of the unused row, and that should be verifiable via DMM as wired correctly using the DMM. I like to hook the resistor and LED circuit, than put that to the power first so it lights and I have the LED right way around...then wire it the LED resistor circuit that lights throught he switch.

the positive square of the LED area on the top of circuit works because i touched the negative lead to the battery and positive to the circuit... so the negative solder spot of the LED isn't working 
  Matt, this is correct.
  A full debug report would help, entered in the forum under its new dedicated thread.

[oldrocker]

Yes a DMM (multimeter) is what I meant.  I put a pic I got from DIYguitarist.com for an example of an audioprobe.  You'll need a 50volt 0.1uf (104) cap.   Instead of a female mono jack you could use a 1/4" male mono plug so it plugs right into your amp.  Which is where it plugs into anyway.  Then ground the sleeve on the circuit and use the capacitor end to probe around the circuit.  Starting at the input and working your way to the output.  Keep track of where the guitar signal sounds and where it stops sounding and that's where your problem might be.

http://www.logmonster.com/images/full/?pic=audioprobe_1177763530-422-15027.jpg

[Dylfish]

ohhh alright cool

I'm getting a kit from BYOC as GF suggested to me. There was an issue with the postage and handling costs but i found out that they have a shop in Perth (Western Australia) so I'm gonna have it ordered from there!

Where in perth? im in perth too

[theblackman]

me too. are you guys on perthbands.com??

[R-Man]

http://www.ormsbyguitars.com/contact.html
(look at the very bottom for BYOC brochure)
thats the shop in Fremantle (sorry i thought it was perth), i actually live in Melbourne but ordered it off the shop the owner's name is Perry Ormsby

as of yesterday they have updated the catalogue with all the good stuff