GuitarMonky55
07-19-2005, 08:13 PM
ok so ive been getting alot of inquiries here about pedalmaking and such, so i figured id make a thread to hand out some resources and tips to anyone on these boards looking to get into this very fun, relatively easy, and cheap DIY hobby.
ok first off ill say if you want to get into electronics you need these:
-a soldering iron. nothing fancy if youre a newbie, just keep it about 30 watts or below and make sure it has a nice pointy tip.
-60/40 or 63/37 electronics solder(rosin core, DONT BUY ACID CORE)
-if youre making pedals, a digital multimeter is a REQUIRED TOOL! i tried building my first without one and it was a mess to debug. you can get a cheap one at radio shack, just make sure it measures dc voltage, dc resistance, and has beep mode(soemtimes called audible continuity test)
-either perfboard, veroboard, or copper board(ill explain these later).
ok before i go further, the following sites are the resources from which myself and pretty much everyone in the DIY community get their knowledge, schematics etc.
www.generalguitargadgets.com good for pcbs for just about everything.
www.diystompboxes.com awesome awesome AWESOME forums
www.runoffgroove.com killer pedals with stupidly easy perfboard layouts.
www.geofex.com the 'technology of' articles are the best way to learn how this stuff works
for parts, the number 1 place to go is www.smallbearelec.com if its used in stompboxes and you need it, steve has it.
ok to get your feet wet, try building a very simple circuit. i built the easy face from www.generalguitargadgets.com. the easy drive is of comparable skill requirement. both sound fantastic too! the easy face nails that black sabbath tone every time.
if you want to etch a circuit board, which makes construction a paint by numbers task, all you need is some copper board from radio shack, some etchant, and either a sharpie or some photo paper and a laser printer.
the basic idea with etching a board is that you are condensing all of the wires and connections of a circuit to be little copper traces on a piece of fiberglass board. you want to cover up the parts that you want to keep by either drawing them with a sharpie according to a pcb transfer(available at GGG or similar) or printing the pcb transfer onto GLOSSY photo paper, ironing onto the copper. then this is dropped into etchant in a plastic container, which is seated in a warm water bath for about 10 minutes. agitate gently. check periodically until all the unwanted copper has dissolved and then clean off by flushing with cool water and wiping with acetone.
perfboard and veroboard(called stripboard) are easier to prepare but require a bit of thinking and attention to detail. perfboard is a fiberglass board with a grid of holes with a small copper pad around each. the idea is to either follow a schematic or a perfboard layout, place the pieces through the holes, bend the leads to connect where they should and solder in place. the downside of this is that you have to count out/layout everything yourself(unless you go somewhere like www.runoffgroove.com that gives perfboard layouds).
veroboard is harder to find, but quite agreeable to work with. it looks like perfboard, except it has long lines of copper strips connecting rows of holes as opposed to each hole being isolated. these id suggest either avoiding for now or going to somewhere like the layouts gallery on the forum of diystompboxes and copying someone elses layout.
ok onto the good stuff. the basic parts you will be using in just about any circuit.
transistors-come in either the silicon or the germanium variety. germaniums are avoided usually unless fuzz faces or treble boosts, in which case they are ideal. germaniums are expensive, hard to find, obsolete, noisy, finnicky, and imperfect. you have to buy matched or tested ones so as to not get a dud. they can cost up to 10 dollars a piece. silicon transistors are a dime a dozen and can even be had free as samples from some companies.
-transistors come in 2 polarities, NPN and PNP. dont worry about what these mean, just know that 99% of everything outside of a fuzzface uses NPN and PNP useage requires its own independent power supply(you cant put it on a chain with several other pedals that are opposite polarity)
-also available are FETS(field effect transistors), take these as boiler plate and just use them where they are called for.
diodes-LEDS or silicons either used in power supplies or to create clipping. if used in power supplies or such, use the exact part number called for. when theyre used for clipping, you can go wild. try LED's, old germanium ones, anything you can get your hands on thats a diode go for it.
op-amps and other chips-come in a package, you dont need to understand the workings of as of right now, just know how to orient them in place. theres a little notch or a circle that tells the direction to put them in. just follow the layout diagram. always use a socket, these things overheat easily and also its fun to swap them out for different sounds.
resistors-just about the cheapest part used, and most plentiful. check out the pdfs at GGG for a rundown on the color code system to identify values. no orientation here, just put them in and go.
capacitors-same thing as resistors, cheap and no orientation(for the regular kind)
electrolytic capacitors-these do have an orientation. a little arrow or such points to the negative side. see schematic or layout for how to fit them in the circuit.
thats about it, occasionally you will find a specialized need for a transformer or such, but you can get your head around it easily.
as for construction. find a guide on how to solder. learn it well. remember the key is heat hte parts not the solder, and be in and out as fast as possible.
once you have your parts and your board, wire up the onboard components first. once youre finished, wire in the pots jacks and switch(and LED if you have it). always ALWAYS test your circuit with a 9v battery, as if theres something wrong the current from a wallwart can easily kill you.
ive far from covered even the inclusive basics here, ive just given a rundown of some common things and laid out the resources for YOU to learn it. read through the pages i listed and you should be able to get some sweet effects fired up with relative ease.
ok first off ill say if you want to get into electronics you need these:
-a soldering iron. nothing fancy if youre a newbie, just keep it about 30 watts or below and make sure it has a nice pointy tip.
-60/40 or 63/37 electronics solder(rosin core, DONT BUY ACID CORE)
-if youre making pedals, a digital multimeter is a REQUIRED TOOL! i tried building my first without one and it was a mess to debug. you can get a cheap one at radio shack, just make sure it measures dc voltage, dc resistance, and has beep mode(soemtimes called audible continuity test)
-either perfboard, veroboard, or copper board(ill explain these later).
ok before i go further, the following sites are the resources from which myself and pretty much everyone in the DIY community get their knowledge, schematics etc.
www.generalguitargadgets.com good for pcbs for just about everything.
www.diystompboxes.com awesome awesome AWESOME forums
www.runoffgroove.com killer pedals with stupidly easy perfboard layouts.
www.geofex.com the 'technology of' articles are the best way to learn how this stuff works
for parts, the number 1 place to go is www.smallbearelec.com if its used in stompboxes and you need it, steve has it.
ok to get your feet wet, try building a very simple circuit. i built the easy face from www.generalguitargadgets.com. the easy drive is of comparable skill requirement. both sound fantastic too! the easy face nails that black sabbath tone every time.
if you want to etch a circuit board, which makes construction a paint by numbers task, all you need is some copper board from radio shack, some etchant, and either a sharpie or some photo paper and a laser printer.
the basic idea with etching a board is that you are condensing all of the wires and connections of a circuit to be little copper traces on a piece of fiberglass board. you want to cover up the parts that you want to keep by either drawing them with a sharpie according to a pcb transfer(available at GGG or similar) or printing the pcb transfer onto GLOSSY photo paper, ironing onto the copper. then this is dropped into etchant in a plastic container, which is seated in a warm water bath for about 10 minutes. agitate gently. check periodically until all the unwanted copper has dissolved and then clean off by flushing with cool water and wiping with acetone.
perfboard and veroboard(called stripboard) are easier to prepare but require a bit of thinking and attention to detail. perfboard is a fiberglass board with a grid of holes with a small copper pad around each. the idea is to either follow a schematic or a perfboard layout, place the pieces through the holes, bend the leads to connect where they should and solder in place. the downside of this is that you have to count out/layout everything yourself(unless you go somewhere like www.runoffgroove.com that gives perfboard layouds).
veroboard is harder to find, but quite agreeable to work with. it looks like perfboard, except it has long lines of copper strips connecting rows of holes as opposed to each hole being isolated. these id suggest either avoiding for now or going to somewhere like the layouts gallery on the forum of diystompboxes and copying someone elses layout.
ok onto the good stuff. the basic parts you will be using in just about any circuit.
transistors-come in either the silicon or the germanium variety. germaniums are avoided usually unless fuzz faces or treble boosts, in which case they are ideal. germaniums are expensive, hard to find, obsolete, noisy, finnicky, and imperfect. you have to buy matched or tested ones so as to not get a dud. they can cost up to 10 dollars a piece. silicon transistors are a dime a dozen and can even be had free as samples from some companies.
-transistors come in 2 polarities, NPN and PNP. dont worry about what these mean, just know that 99% of everything outside of a fuzzface uses NPN and PNP useage requires its own independent power supply(you cant put it on a chain with several other pedals that are opposite polarity)
-also available are FETS(field effect transistors), take these as boiler plate and just use them where they are called for.
diodes-LEDS or silicons either used in power supplies or to create clipping. if used in power supplies or such, use the exact part number called for. when theyre used for clipping, you can go wild. try LED's, old germanium ones, anything you can get your hands on thats a diode go for it.
op-amps and other chips-come in a package, you dont need to understand the workings of as of right now, just know how to orient them in place. theres a little notch or a circle that tells the direction to put them in. just follow the layout diagram. always use a socket, these things overheat easily and also its fun to swap them out for different sounds.
resistors-just about the cheapest part used, and most plentiful. check out the pdfs at GGG for a rundown on the color code system to identify values. no orientation here, just put them in and go.
capacitors-same thing as resistors, cheap and no orientation(for the regular kind)
electrolytic capacitors-these do have an orientation. a little arrow or such points to the negative side. see schematic or layout for how to fit them in the circuit.
thats about it, occasionally you will find a specialized need for a transformer or such, but you can get your head around it easily.
as for construction. find a guide on how to solder. learn it well. remember the key is heat hte parts not the solder, and be in and out as fast as possible.
once you have your parts and your board, wire up the onboard components first. once youre finished, wire in the pots jacks and switch(and LED if you have it). always ALWAYS test your circuit with a 9v battery, as if theres something wrong the current from a wallwart can easily kill you.
ive far from covered even the inclusive basics here, ive just given a rundown of some common things and laid out the resources for YOU to learn it. read through the pages i listed and you should be able to get some sweet effects fired up with relative ease.