my biggest project - programmable footcontroller with effects

[Nikolay]

Hi guys, let me show you my biggest project. This is programmable footcontroller with all effects inside. Similar to Pete Cornish's pedalboards. The guy who order me this project give me all pedals except booster. Almost all of them are BOSS. You can see one Crybaby, and one Ernie Ball volume pedal. I must made all in one footcontroller including all pedals wired in specific order with programmable presets, send-return, external effect with supply output and headphone amp. For switching system I use my 6 channel programmable footcontroller:

This unit can control also external amplifier, and can store up to 16 different presets.

First I need to make a sketch for this project. Here was my design. The guy like it very much:


I wish to make all pedals with similar colors like the original ones. In this case I use different sheets for each pedal. The labels of this sheets are made using laser engraving /see pictures below/.

Ok. now I start with making. First the box:


For the fontpannel labels is used silkscreen.



For flexible project like this it's better to have a place where you can write with permanent marker the preset's names. For this I install small stainless sheet at the bottom, below the buttons. Because this is stainless, it's easy to clean with any type of cleaning stuff.

Ok, I got the box and some of color panels for the pedals Other ones was not ready, and I start with the solder.



After a lot of time, I was ready with everything inside the board:


For the supply I use swithcing mode power supply unit, shielded with iron sheet and copper foil. The supply was division by consumption of the pedals by 4 power supply circles.

If you look carefully, you will see 2 small boards at the back of the tuner and noise gate. All pedals, without wah and booster, have the same ones. I use it for startup. The guy like when the footcontroller start, some of the boss pedals to be in working mode - ON. This small board turn on the pedal after 2 seconds. This boards are based over pic10F200 microcontroller and turn on the pedal using small mosfet. The small blue board at the top is headphone amplifier. There is no volume control pot, but the volume is controlled by volume pedal. I can't find good place for this pot and this is why I use volume pedal for headphone volume control.


And finally all pedals are placed inside the pedalboard:




I spend about 3 months to do this project....


PS: sorry for my bad english...

Niki.

[Slade]

Beautiful, Nikolay!

Congrats... that's amazing

[Taylor]

!!!!

[Ben N]

That, sir, is effin' amazing. I confess I didn't quite get the switching options, though. Still, looks like an amazing board. I hope you were well-paid for all that work, skill and ingenuity.

[slacker]

That's amazing nice work.

[davent]

That's a super job Nikolay!! The inside is as neat and tidy as the exterior and that's got to be a major accomplishment considering evrything you've got going on in there. You deserve a holiday after all that!

dave

[richon]

Nikolay,

could you please explain how did you do the letters and graphics, they are awesome.

[askwho69]

I envy you!

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[John Lyons]

Very very nice!! Clean work inside and out.

[askwho69]

how you made that enlays? itsvery nice

[Nikolay]

Thanks guys!!
I'm tired, because I spend a lot of time with this, but I have a lot of work this month. I need to finish some other project too.


The labels at the front panel are made using silkscreen technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen-printing
Actually I don't make this. A local company made my silkscreen paintings.

The labels of color sheet pannels are made with laser engraving. This burns a top layer of the paint and make it darker.

[Thomeeque]

 Very impressive, Nikolay, as always!

Did you always used relays in your loopers or did you try FET/CMOS switches first? I was planning to try CMOS switching for my modulation multi(7)-fx, but I have not tried so many CMOS switches in row yet, I'm looking for opinions and experiences of people who did try it before.. mainly what it does to signal, if there is some audible impact etc.

Cheers, T.

[Nikolay]

Thanks, Thomeeque. I use small relays from sunhold: http://www.sunhold.com/mp.html
Consumation is 11mA@12V for each relay. With this I have true bypass and led indication only with one signal control. Actually I don't use cmos switching.

[wavley]

Absolutely beautiful!!!

[tuckster]

This is so amazing!

[diydave]

I'm feeling such a novice right now  .
Very, very nice.

[ambulancevoice]

im a little confused by the switching

obviously the foot switches on the effects themselves are for bypassing the individual effects themselves

what about the row of switches below them??

[Taylor]

I assume it has to do with the programmable presets.

[Greenmachine]

 

Very impressive!  Really enjoyed the thread.  Thanks.

[Nikolay]

im a little confused by the switching

obviously the foot switches on the effects themselves are for bypassing the individual effects themselves

what about the row of switches below them??

The row at the bottom control different presets. If you like to play solo, you need probably booster and reverb. But if you like to turn off the reverb after the solo you can make a different preset or just turn off reverb by his own footswitch. In other worlds you have independent control of presets and pedals.