How about a what-the-heck-WAS-that thread?

[Mark Hammer]

I'm digging through bins of semi-finished circuits, and etched/drilled/tinned boards, and some of these things don't ring a bell AT ALL.  Nice boards, but they don't say what they are on the copper side, and damned if I can tell what they are from the components (when there are any).

I certainly can't be the only person who has made up a board, not gotten around to it, and then simply forgotten what article/circuit the board "goes with".

So, is there any appetite for an ongoing thread where someone could post a picture/scan/layout of a board and ask if it rings a bell for anyone else?

[zeeman]

So, is there any appetite for an ongoing thread where someone could post a picture/scan/layout of a board and ask if it rings a bell for anyone else?

I think you just started one.

zeeman

[skiraly017]

I have some but they're put away someplace. Good idea for a thread, I'll post pics when I dig them out.

[RickL]

I've avoided boxing a working circuit a couple of times because I wasn't sure exactly what it was, particularly when I built it on perf. After it happened a couple of times and I had to spend hours sorting through hundreds of paper copies of schematics and layouts I finally started putting the name of the pedal on the board with a sharpie. I also put the name of each control on the component (pot or switch) as I build it. Usually figuring these out is easy enough but a multistage distortion with controls labelled 'drive', 'gain', 'pre-gain', 'boost' and 'volume' can be a little hard to decipher when you don't have the schematic in front of you.

[sean k]

I started a thread like that about a year ago. I'd done all this stuff and then had a few years off then when I came back to it there were a few circuits I had no idea about and even if I did it was a chore tracking though all the papers to find out what kind of mods I'd done to it.

It is really hard to identify something without a name and no bits soldered in... I've only had one of those but finally figured it out. Figured it was mostly right but enough wrong to be something I should have binned straight away. Now I name and date all my printed PCB's and store them with the papers which have numbered revisions so I know which I etched. I'm even trying to do a kind of project file with schematic, PCB drawing and dates and internet addresses.

If you still can't identify enough then make them into a lampshade. Light looks good shining through unpopulated PCB's 

[Mark Hammer]

I did what you did, Rick, a while back, but there are still some things that are presumably back from "the old days" before I had any sense.

One board I know is the PCB for a parametric equalizer project that Popular Electronics had in the late 70's.  Wish I could find the circuit for that again.  Another I found out was the James Barbarello Envelope Modifier project from 1979, also from Popular Electronics.  Populated the board, and hope to fire it up next weekend.

Sadly, there's more.  There are also PnP layouts and others printed to photo paper, that have no markings on them to indicate what they are.  Some, I have been able to identify as coming from Japanese project books, simply by the layout style.  Other people who have posted layouts also have an identifiable style (like U-Stomp's Steve Ritmeyer).  But then there are these synthesizer modules from the DIY crowd that I neglected to label, and there are a LOT of them.

As I've noted elsewhere, I'm helping the late Peter Snow's wife sort out his rather massive lifetime collection of stuff.  The commercial items are nicely catalogued (thank you, Peter!), and will be easy to sell.  But, like myself, he had piles of half finished projects on PCBs and vero/perfboard.  I may well end up being the inheritor of them, once we're done fetching money for the rest of it, but there is considerable detective work ahead to figure out what they are.

[doitle]

I've had this happen and I'm 21... and the project I built was like 2 months ago and I can't remember what it is. I think that's pretty bad

It's like 7 components soldered horribly to a perf board with two jacks and a switch and it doesn't work. It's either a Rangemaster, Brian May Rangemaster, Fuzz Face, Electra Distortion, or some other one transistor pedal but I really haven't the slightest as to which it was. I wish it worked but I'm just awful at perfing from scratch. I really need to plan things better.

[Nitefly182]

Any time I buy a PCB I usually buy an extra. I have a bag full of them in case a friend plays something and wants one. Anything without a name on it gets a masking tape label.

[Paul Marossy]

That's why I usually put the name of the circuit on my PCBs with an extra fine point Sharpie, so down the road I'm not asking that question! 

[Rectangular]

wait, peter snowberg is deceased ?!  when did that happen ? I've been away from the forums for the past year or so, what terrible news. I wish his wife and family the best.

[wampcat1]

wait, peter snowberg is deceased ?!  when did that happen ? I've been away from the forums for the past year or so, what terrible news. I wish his wife and family the best.

what???!! when did this happen??

bw

[snap]

wait, peter snowberg is deceased ?!  when did that happen ? I've been away from the forums for the past year or so, what terrible news. I wish his wife and family the best.

what???!! when did this happen??

bw

please read more carefully what Mark wrote!
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=50900.0

[Rectangular]

sorry about the confusion.

[aron]

How bout I made a ton of working boards, forgot to label and now I can't remember!

Aron

[Mark Hammer]

It would seem that I am not alone with respect to that particular problem.

Maybe its time for a sticky-like thread called "Help me identify this", where someone could post an image of a layout (photo or other), or perhaps an unlabelled schematic, and ask the assistance of others to see if it rings a bell for them.

[markm]

I got loads of 'em too and half are things that I designed myself, got to work and then forgot about them. Lord know what the heck they are or what they do! Like I said they work but, don't necessarily sound good!   

[drewl]

Funny, I was just cleaning up some stuff and put different boards/builds in bags and labeled them to avoid this problem.

[petemoore]

  I'm with Aron on this one.
  Plenty of boards...I used to regularly think...oh I'll be able to tell or remember what this thing is.
  Then 'this was?' and 'later' comes along and the boards ID's have become a complete mystery...piles of them.
  Label your boards, masking tape and thick ball point pen suggested, anything works, sometimes there's room along the edge...label your boards for best results.
  1 board took 2 days, another I had to come backagain next week to finish, others never got finished or worked...what a mess. I tossed piles of 'em...done/gone.

[jessetrbo]

Mark

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=77503.msg636133;topicseen#msg636133 

This recent thread was fun/informative... Post some pictures!! 


Jesse

[scratch]

I've got the other side of the coin of this issue ...

Ordered a pile of parts a while back, all digital stuff (non stompbox related), 4x4 file register, parity generator/checker, various logic chips... all TTL

I'll be darned if I can remember what they were for, been through all my schematics, magazines ... nothing comes close.

Now I try and keep a 'memo' on what is ordered for what project pinned to the cork board.