Crybaby LED without drilling?

[MrStab]

hi,

i'm not opposed to drilling at all, but i plan to give Millennium Bypass a go in a coupla days, and in this particular circumstance, it seems more logical to me to have an LED poking out of the hole for the treadle on the Crybaby. to create an effect like you see with blacklights underneath cars - that kinda thing. why? well, even if i have to put some kind of reflective material on the underside of the pedal, i think it would be more uniform (i can never straighten picture frames) than having an LED either side, a "glow" as it were, as opposed to seeing the actual light source.a potentially-cool effect but above all, easier to figure out on stage without any reorientation required. higher functioning isn't really my strong point on stage.

so long as i make sure the LED goes nowhere near the pot etc., are there any foreseeable problems with this? i figure the wah circuit itself is already exposed to the elements via. that opening as it is. i'd be taking the LED directly off the Millennium board, as per this example http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/millenium/milboard.gif , so should remain fairly sturdy, no?

cheers!
(btw, i searched the forum for other threads with Crybaby in the title first, so i'm at least making an effort not to further pollute the forum! lol)

[CodeMonk]

Adapt this for your needs?

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=66840.0
Plates are also available here : http://www.diystompboxes.com/wpress/

[greaser_au]

Like this?      http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=93036.msg876076#msg876076

david

[digi2t]

I place the LED on the base, heel end, of the casing. I find it's easy to see, since you're usually going to be looking at that end of the pedal, and it's not in the way of anything internal.

[MrStab]

that looks pretty damn cool, and definitely has the gears turning in my head, but i was thinking underneath the actual pedal as opposed to the base. thought maybe i could experiment with some simple way to make a reflected pattern using foil & a permanent marker, but there doesn't seem to be much room for that if the light's coming out around the pot mechanism.
is the link with the Crybaby underlight essentially just using risers & longer screws on the backplate? as the other link appears to assume a thicker metal. my GCB-95 stock plate is thin as hell and i think it's already slightly warped.

[Paul Marossy]

I did an LED thru the hole in the treadle in an old Vox I didn't want to drill holes in. Worked out pretty good actually.

[MrStab]

I did an LED thru the hole in the treadle in an old Vox I didn't want to drill holes in. Worked out pretty good actually.

sweet! how'd you mount it? as i mentioned, i think the Millennium board would at least save me having to try & secure wired terminals. in fact, i'd probably just give in & drill if i were using a 3PDT. thinking i should put the board (or the LED terminals) at a slight angle on one side of the DPDT switch, stuck upside-down with foam tape. i'm guessing so long as it's angled and centred right, the glow shouldn't look uneven.

good call on the location, digi2t - so much space goes unused in that whole end of the pedal! i've considered adding an output buffer just for the f*** of it, but i'm unsure whether or not that would really be worth it as i kept the input buffer intact & i prefer burning tubes for distortion (although i do prefer my wah further towards the front of the stage...) and it's probably a whole other thread.

[greaser_au]

I don't have a crybaby to hand and I'm going by web images.

Is your baseplate a flat panel? if so,  the perpex lightplate (and longer screws) would possibly help support a thin base.  

I'd suggest if you shine the LED (especially a water clear type) out of a hole in the main case towards the treadle, you might add a bit of black tubing a bit longer than the LED  (a 'snoot'*) to control side spill, and put some silver or white  tape underneath the treadle as a reflector*. However, I'd imagine this will tend to softly light up the top of the main case instead of the bottom of the treadle... I picture a complicated piece of perspex mounted to the bottom of the treadle otherwise, partially drilled to receive the light from the LED & carry it to the edges

david

*I've been playing with photography a little bit  

[Paul Marossy]

Here is how I did mine: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=89741.0
All I had to to was stick a 5mm LED in there and add a couple drops of superglue, it fit pretty snug.

[MrStab]

cool idea there, David - gonna experiment a bunch with positions & that'll definitely be one of them, especially if it's from the photography field! what the hell do musicians know! lol. there's a pair of interests you wouldn't expect to have transferable knowledge between.

cheers for the link, Paul, goes to show how pro i am at searching. getting ideas for routing here, main difference between my idea and your sweet-ass looking pedal (besides mine looking a bit crap lol) is probably the distance the LED will be coming out of that hole (not that hole).

kinda off-topic, but do people build buffers inside those 1/4" splitter adaptors you can get (or something like that), so you can just plug it into pedals as needed and be more flexible without having to perma-mod FX & minimal footprint? they should. lol

[MrStab]

well, i came to a trade-off: current draw when using batteries vs. cool glow effect, and i concluded that i'll be better off drilling. the main point was just stylistic if anything, so it's no biggie (and also because it's sometimes hard to see wee lights when you're rocking out like a moron with hair sweat-glued to your face). so a less-necessary reason than preserving a vintage wah.

here're pics anyway! used a 10K resistor in the Millennium circuit - was more or less the brightness i was aiming for, but clearly i wasn't sure about how the reflections would work out. my camera sucks balls, by the way.




on the plus side, i'm more of a Nintendo guy. the original idea would've made the wah look too much like a Playstation, and we can't have that. lol

thanks again for the suggestions, guys. hopefully this thread will help someone someday. probably not, but it's the thought that counts