Building the Echo Base PCB

[midwayfair]

You might want to check out the cave dweller over at mad beans

+1, it's awesome and even fits in a 1590A!

[ORK]

You might want to check out the cave dweller over at mad beans

+1, it's awesome and even fits in a 1590A!

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=96077.0

[slacker]

on another note--
are there any mods for darkening the repeats on the echobase?  I'd like to have switchable darkened, cave like repeats...

You can make the 15n cap between pin 14 of the PT2399 and the feedback pot bigger for a darker sound. You could make that switchable or use a bigger cap with a pot in series to ground, like a guitar tone control if you want a tone knob. You can also make that cap smaller for a brighter sound but you run the risk of noise at longer delay times.

[greyscale]

Is there any chance somebody could explain how to change the Modulation toggle into a footswitch with LED? Taylor mentioned it in the first post, but I never saw a diagram for it after.

Thanks!

[snarblinge]

instead of the toggle, use a footswitch, but one with an additional set of poles, use these additional set to switch an LED on and off. much the same as running an effect with no LED and using a DPDT instead of using an LED and using a 3PDT. for more go here http://beavisaudio.com/techpages/Switches/ beavis is awesome

[slacker]

You don't need a separate led for the modulation switch. The main led flashes when the modulation is on and just acts like a normal bypass led when it's off, so that gives a visual indication already.

[ambulancevoice]

hi, the pnp transistor for the lfo, does it need to be the one specified or can it be any standard pnp transistor??

[slacker]

Any PNP should work, people have sucessfully used 2N3906 which should be easy to find anywhere.

[sgmezei]

Finally finished mine up. Thought I would post some pics. Taylors PCBs are fantastic as usual.

[Taylor]

Cool, the cloth wrap looks great. 

[Colonel Angus]

Okay, heres a weird one... I want to trick this thing out and I need some help implementing an idea. I have a buddha machine on the way :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BUDDHA-MACHINE-III-CLEAR-DRONE-BOX-FM3-SUNN-0-/320921488125?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab8694afd

It is a drone generator with meditative sounds recorded on a chip. AFAIK the box itself has two controls : Play and Pitch. I want to take the board from this box and have it wired to play the loops through the effect. I'm thinking a parallel set of switches, a latching and momentary so you can either stomp it and just have the drone play continuously or hold the momentary for a bit of drone here and there. I guess it would also be desirable to have a toggle to select whether the drone plays through the delay or just goes straight through. The pitch control stays, I'm going to side mount the pot with a big knob so you can adjust it with your foot. Also the drone will need its own volume, that should be the easy part.

Anyways, thats my idea. It is an incredibly specific to the request of the guitar player in my band, he will create droning loops with his boss delay but it takes a bit to get something interesting going. We started playing with the Buddha Machine app on iphone and came up with the idea to have some way to really integrate a drone generator to the pedal chain. We had a few drinks

[Achtane]

Hey guys, I know this has been asked before in the other Echo Base thread, but I haven't found any info regarding adding the effects loops to the circuit when using this PCB.
I want to add two loops, each with individual send/returns. The ones I'm aiming for are "A" and "B" as seen here: http://i.imgur.com/XXFXY.png
The PCB itself doesn't support option "C" without still having to make some buffers, right?

I've got the funky jacks with shunt switches, but I'm having a hard time figuring out where physically to put the connections for send and return 
Uh, so for example, for loop "A", where one end of the 100n cap connects to the middle lug of the LEVEL pot...would I run the SEND wire to that leg of the 100n, and the RETURN wire to the middle lug of the pot...?
And then loop "B" would be running the SEND wire to the 20k resistor and RETURN to the middle lug of the FEEDBACK pot?
Maybe I got that wrong.

To make it even more complicated, is it even possible to have both loops in addition to the clean signal kill and dub madness mods from the PCB documentation? I can't seem to wrap my head around making that work since they move the components.

(also, I swear that I read about adding a tone pot to this circuit, but no matter how I search it doesn't seem to show up)

Anyway, thanks in advance.

[Taylor]

Uh, so for example, for loop "A", where one end of the 100n cap connects to the middle lug of the LEVEL pot...would I run the SEND wire to that leg of the 100n, and the RETURN wire to the middle lug of the pot...?

No, you'd want to do it the other way around. The wiper of the Level pot can be considered the output of the delay path, so this loop would be giving your echoes whatever effect is in the loop, but it won't stack up more and more of the effect with each echo.

And then loop "B" would be running the SEND wire to the 20k resistor and RETURN to the middle lug of the FEEDBACK pot?
Maybe I got that wrong.

No, the other way again.

To make it even more complicated, is it even possible to have both loops in addition to the clean signal kill and dub madness mods from the PCB documentation? I can't seem to wrap my head around making that work since they move the components.

(also, I swear that I read about adding a tone pot to this circuit, but no matter how I search it doesn't seem to show up)

Anyway, thanks in advance.

There's no reason that that all couldn't be possible, but if you're just starting out with DIY effects (don't know if you're new to the hobby or just to the forum - welcome, by the way) I always worry when people try too many mods when they haven't built many effects before. Mods are not complicated on their own, but the more of them you do, and the more you step off the documented trail, things get complicated quickly, and building something well-documented is tricky enough when you're still getting used to good solder joints and wiring practices. My first project was too complicated for me, and I added mods on top of that. The frustration of getting it built put me off the hobby for years.

My advice would be to cut back on the mods, get it working, and then evaluate whether you still feel you need those particular mods now that you've heard it and used it in your music. Once you've got the pedal working, adding those mods will be easy if you decide you still want to.

[Achtane]

Ahh okay, thanks for the reply (and welcome). I think you're right -- just get the pedal going first. I've only built a few, but with those and other projects I have a tendency to bite off a little more than I can chew.
So I'll just make the not-so-modified Echo Base first and see what happens.

[angrykoko]

My echo base is sick.  I'm not sure where to start looking though.
Here are the symptoms:
- The repeats have a very mild "fizz" quality almost as background noise to the main repeat sound (the diode lift switch does not affect this at all).
- The LFO when engaged will speed up until the pot is turned to 12:00 then slows back down again as you continue on over to full on (it used to work fine).
- There is background noise when by-passed & tails engaged (almost like the computer sounds from old 80's movies)*
- Echo's can be heard when the pedal is by-passed *

* these are noticeable when the amp gains are up.

So for the most part the pedal is working.. it's just flaked out on me.
Any hints where to start poking around?

[edd29]

i have a very nice smooth blingking led by adding two transistor trimmer and three resistor
the trimmer is control the amount of light you want
Im thingking this is good mod  for tremolo  using led + ldr i just need  a little help hooking up the ldr
where in a good place.

[slacker]

You could try the LDR in parallel with the 10k resistor in the feedback loop of the output mixer opamp. That will give a trem that gets quieter as the LED gets brighter.

[edd29]

thanks Ian, I try when i get  home and see what it goes.

[edd29]

finish echo base for my friend.
                                                                                                             

[slacker]

Very nice, what does Room/Hall do?