Shaka tube wiring

[Grizz]

Ok, I have the board populated and the box drilled and everything prefitted...now I need to wire it.

Some of the wiring from the layout is obvious to me and some of it isn't, and this is the first FX I'm building that isn't from GGG where your hand is basicly held for you through the whole build.

On the two boards there are wire holes for V-,V+ and Bias...Do you solder a wire from V- from one board to  V- to the other and V+ from one board to V+ on the other board and the same for Bias?

Thanks

Grizz

[Grizz]

Do I need a 12v LED or just use a resistor or is the resistor already built into the circut?

Grizz

[Mick Bailey]

Would you post a link to the layout?

[Grizz]

Sorry that would have been helpful.

http://www.diyguitarist.com/PDF_Files/ST1590BB-PCB_9-9-06.pdf


I've been looking through the Wiki and if appears that V+ goes to the + side of the battery but the shaka doesn't use a battery so should it go to the power jack?

Grizz

[Mick Bailey]

Do you solder a wire from V- from one board to  V- to the other and V+ from one board to V+ on the other board and the same for Bias? Yes.

The LED connection isn't shown, neither is the resistor. You could take a feed off V+ and Ground (but not -V) which would give you roughly 12v, and insert the resistor into the lead.

BTW, 800ma is too high for the supply and with a nominal 12v will give something like 14V - 15V. The pedal doesn't take much power and 400ma is ample, otherwise the supply won't be loaded enough to drop the open circuit voltage. When you've built it up, check the filament voltage. If it's too high, place a 10 ohm 2W resistor in series with one leg of the filament supply. The rest of the circuit will run ok.

[Grizz]

Sorry, but I havn't got a clue what your talking about. I'm pretty new to this, so when it come to the wiring I'm out of my leauge.

[Grizz]

OH I bet your refering to my LED question.

[Mick Bailey]

V+ and V- refer to the outputs from the PSU on the Shaka Tube.

The input has to be AC, otherwise it won't work properly. Before building, study the schematic. If you have doubts about the LED connection my advice would be to wire the pedal and get it working first. So long as you've drilled and installed the LED you can figure the wiring out later. It removes one less doubt if you need to troubleshoot your new build.

[Grizz]

OK I'll search some more and try to figure this out myself. 

I feel like a kid where one question leads to another, but what is the PSU?

I wish I could figure out how to post the picture of the layout so I could draw up the wiring how I think it should be and then you guys could verify it or correct me, that would be a whole lot easier. But I can't right click on it and save it as a picture.

[Paul Marossy]

BTW, 800ma is too high for the supply and with a nominal 12v will give something like 14V - 15V.

I used an 800mA power supply with mine, it was a 50 cent thrift shop score. I was getting around the voltages you listed when I built it. I just used a resistor to drop the voltage down a little bit. The tube can run on +/- 10% of 12.6VAC without causing any problems other than slightly shortening the life of the tube.

The first time I built the Shaka Tube, I used a 300mA RadioShack transformer, and the circuit wouldn't work properly no matter what I tried to do. A 400-500mA power supply is probably just right - if you can find a wall wart that will give you that...

[Mick Bailey]

In the UK Maplins sell a 500ma adapter, but they skin you alive for it. I bought mine from there and felt my pet had just died every time I looked at it. Cost £13 ($26). Voltage works out right for the Shaka tube. Hey, it better had for that price.

A tip here to avoid accidentally using it with DC powered effects is to use a 2.5mm plug and socket so it won't fit most other things.

[Paul Marossy]

A tip here to avoid accidentally using it with DC powered effects is to use a 2.5mm plug and socket so it won't fit most other things.

Good idea! That could be bad if you plugged an AC adapter into a DC powered pedal... 

[Grizz]

Could you please check my wiring for me and if its to hard to read let me know and I'll zoom into sections of it.

link to my wiring
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/shakawire.JPG.html

link to pauls layout
http://www.diyguitarist.com/PDF_Files/ST1590BB-PCB_9-9-06.pdf

[Grizz]

here's a bigger picture of my wiring.

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/shakawire.JPG.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

[Pushtone]

Looks like you need one more ground wire connecting the PSU board gnd to the main board ground.

You could jump from the jack gnd lug to the DC jack gnd lug.

Dave S

[Grizz]

Do you mean the input or output jack grnd lug?

Scott

[Pushtone]

Doesn't matter, either one.

Ground is ground no matter where you take it from.

[Grizz]

I purchased a radio shack power adapter/wall wart for my Shaka tube and it comes with an adaptaplug (thier term) and the plug has to either be connected positively or negatively (not sure if those are real words). Is the Shaka tube a positive or negative curcit?

Grizz

[Paul Marossy]

If you have an AC power supply, it doesn't matter about the polarity. It does matter with a DC power supply, though.

Did you get an AC power supply from RadioShack? I would have thought they wouldn't have one...

[Grizz]

maybe I got the wrong one...it's a 12v 1500ma  ac to dc power adapter.