'SPITFIRE' Metal 'n' Blues Pedal...

[deadastronaut]

hi,

C/ 1/6/16 are electros..polarized.


the only ceramic is the 470pf  C5

the 1uf C12..is a non polar cap.

swap the tone pot for  25/22k instead of 47/50k...better range ok.

rob.

[BoogiemanX]

Thanks for the info on the caps Rob. And sorry for the stupid question. I just learned how to properly read a schematic today that clearly told me that. I me extremely busy now with Soccer season and starting a side buisness that my research time is very limited. So I will in advance apologize for my future stupid questions and will try and ask as a last resort not to waste anyone's time.
Hopefully this isn't a stupid one but here goes. I'm looking at Fairchild j201's on mammoth and saw small bear has National Semi and Vishay for a fraction of cost. I found a post that said Vishay sounded like muffled crap.
The price doesn't really matter but if one is equal to the other I'd rather save and buy extras for later. So question is what brand is best for this project so It spits fire and not water?

[deadastronaut]

no questions are dumb...no worries,

as for vishay, no idea, but i'm sure steve at smallbear wouldn't ever sell naff stuff..

i would give them a go...

(unless others have bad experience with them?)

[Cozybuilder]

Everything I've bought from Small Bear has been top quality- Steve gives an accurate description of the items he sells.

[duck_arse]

don't let RG see this :

I'm looking at Fairchild j201's on mammoth and saw small bear has National Semi and Vishay for a fraction of cost. I found a post that said Vishay sounded like muffled crap.

whoever said that (after double-blind tests?) is talking muffled crap, imo. Nat Semi is as good as you'll get. Vishay is as good. motorola is their equal. half these companies are no longer, having been bought and sold by the next company. and then they all stopped w/ the thu-hole j201, so the best parts are now the ones you have on hand.

[BoogiemanX]

Sorry, I was extremely tired when I wrote the last post. The word "crap" was not mentioned in the column I read. Not sure why I added it, but reading back it did change the whole context of what I wrote. Bashing the quality of a product or seller was not my intention. I will now bow my head in shame.

[deadastronaut]

 

[BoogiemanX]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=57022.10;wap2

3rd to last post is what I where I found it. Wondering if it muffled sound because of the configuration they were using it for. Or maybe it was just a bad transistor.
Anyone ever noticed any sound difference between brands?

[blackieNYC]

DA - I'm still watching and waiting....

[deadastronaut]

sorry...been busy...i still have it on breadboards though ok...a little more tinkering etc...

[BoogiemanX]

+9V will be the square pad 2nd from the right at the top, or the top left pad. By mode do you mean bypassed, or modern/classic? If you mean bypassed, wire it as shown here:

You have extra pads on the PCB for ground (2nd from bottom on the right) and +9V, which are probably intended for an LED indicator.
If you mean Modern/Classic,  you'll need a DPDT switch instead of the SPDT in the layout. Then you just wire the extra pole like the three leftmost pads in the 3PDT in the diagram above.

image not showing up for me. just want to make sure I got this right.
On layout the +9v goes on the top right square in between D1 and C16. Is this correct?
And what are the top left corner and bottom right for? are they just to have an extra + and ground for modding or testing?

[deadastronaut]

yep. thats it... i always add a couple of extra ground holes just for wiring planning  options...

[BoogiemanX]

Made my Pcb last night. What a pain in the butt that was. Got all my supplies free from work (photo paper, laser printing, acetone, and ferric chloride hydroxide rocks) so that was good thing. Etching sucked. Photo paper must have been s#!+ because it had some kind of film on the back that kept sticking to iron. Ironed it for almost 7 minutes to be sure. Had to soak it in hot soapy water for over an hour and paper was so thick it never dissolved. Didn't transfer like expected.  Fine tip sharpies are my new best friend.  Lol used 2 table spoons of Ferric in almost boiling hot water for over an hour. Etched side finally dissolved but back did not. Had to sand it off. I flipped the pcb and stirred it periodically like all guides said.
All guides made it look so easy.  Anyone have any tips they learned to make this process easier?  I know next time I will get my own photo paper. Lol

[BoogiemanX]

Now off to Harbor Freight for those tiny drill bits.

[stringsthings]

Made my Pcb last night. What a pain in the butt that was. Got all my supplies free from work (photo paper, laser printing, acetone, and ferric chloride hydroxide rocks) so that was good thing. Etching sucked. Photo paper must have been s#!+ because it had some kind of film on the back that kept sticking to iron. Ironed it for almost 7 minutes to be sure. Had to soak it in hot soapy water for over an hour and paper was so thick it never dissolved. Didn't transfer like expected.  Fine tip sharpies are my new best friend.  Lol used 2 table spoons of Ferric in almost boiling hot water for over an hour. Etched side finally dissolved but back did not. Had to sand it off. I flipped the pcb and stirred it periodically like all guides said.
All guides made it look so easy.  Anyone have any tips they learned to make this process easier?  I know next time I will get my own photo paper. Lol

I tried several types of paper for toner transfer and settled on Pulsar Toner Transfer Paper.  I get the 10 sheet pack from Mouser.  It's foolproof to use with an iron.
First, I cut the copper-clad to size and then clean it with a scour pad and some steel wool.  Then clean with some iso alcohol.
I usually preheat the copper-clad ( 1-sided copper-clad saves money and there's much less copper to etch ) and then place the transfer on the copper.  Next, put the heated iron on top and let it sit for about a minute.  Then apply pressure for about 2-3 minutes.

Pop the board/transfer in some room temp water and after a minute or two, the paper will come right off.  I usually agitate the pan until the paper literally comes off.

I used to use ferric chloride until I came across the HCL/H202 method.   It's very cost effective and etches a board in under 5 minutes.  I bought the acid from the hardware store ( Muriatic Acid in the pool chemical section ) and hydrogen peroxide is readily available from any drug store or super grocery store.
I've been using 1 part acid to 3 parts H202 and have had very good results.  A little agitation works well.

I've made at least 20 boards with this method with excellent results.

Now off to Harbor Freight for those tiny drill bits.

A very good investment is a drill press.  I use the Dremel drill press which I also got from the hardware store ( Menard's )
A drill press will make your life a lot easier if you plan on making more than a few PCB's.  (Drilling PCBs by hand is a pain)

[J0K3RX]

HP Premium Presentation 120g Laser Paper, Glossy 8.5x11... Works great and many here will attest to it.

Some toner brands don't re-transfer well.. I us genuine HP toner, have tried the cheap refilled toner but no luck with them. Would be nice if the cheap refilled ones would work because toner ain't cheap! I have a HP laserjet 1122n that is dedicated for toner transfer/etch so, my toner lasts a long long time. I have a cheap $29.00 laminator that I bought at walmart, modded the temp sensor to get a bit hotter. I tape the paper to the board using cheap masking tape and run it through a couple times. Then just to be safe I set a clothes iron on it for a minute and then let them cool for a couple minutes. Stick the board in some mildly warm to hot'ish water and the paper comes right off after about 1 minute.

I use about 50/50 ferric chloride powder and water mix, I don't measure it, eyeball it. I make about enough to fill a shot glass, heat it up a little bit in the microwave then dump it into a heavy duty ziplock bag with the board and agitate by hand. After it has been in there for about 30 seconds I put on some cheap rubber gloves that I get in bulk pack from harbor freight and start lightly scrubbing with a soft dish sponge. This takes about another 30 seconds and presto... completely done in about 1 minute total. 

[bloxstompboxes]

Jokerx, apparently you saw the same video on youtube that i did. i used a 1.1k resistor on that Scotch brand laminator myself. Works a treat.

[BoogiemanX]

Noooo!!!! Finished soldering pcb and realized I don't have the a 470 nf for C8. I looked everywhere and and the only thing I have is a .47 MFD Tantalum 35w. Can I use this instead of the non polar box type I thought I had?

[BoogiemanX]

Aw never mind. I was looking at layout list. I'll go by schematic c8 4.7nf I have (.0047uf) box. Thank god I added sockets for C8, C10, and C11

[BoogiemanX]

Finished boxing pedal last night. 
most horrible thing I have ever heard. Squealing like crazy, Gain has horrid, and strings made an awful sound when struck with a pic.
Today I had a look over and I shielded the input and outputs grounding only to jacks but I did not for pcb input. I replaced input wire with shielded one. made no difference. I did finally find the culprit. I mounted the spdt switch on the right side of enclosure where it sat right behind the gain pot.
I pulled it outside the box away from all other components and all the squealing interference disappeared. Im still not getting the earth shattering distortion that this pedal has become so popular for. I plugged my old boss DS-1 to compare and it destroyed the spitfire.
WTF is going on here? Ill do some more tinkering and report back.