Guitar FX Development Board

[Macro_Ninjaneer]

Nice idea. A couple of recommendations - I hope you don't mind.

A -9V supply is probably a lot more useful than a -15V supply (maybe even more useful than +15V). The most supremely classic DIY pedal is after all the Fuzz Face, which in it's most original form is a -9V supply pedal. Ideally you'd have all the flavors +/- 9, 12, 15, 18, and maybe even 24, but minimally I'd suggest +/- 9, 18. Also, make the 1/2Vin rail tied to or available for whatever Vin is being used, not just with 9V.

Having up to six pots is fantastic, but I'd guess most of the time you'll want at least one pot that isn't included. No B10k? No C1k for the fuzz fanatics? No C taper at all for all those LFO projects? Make sockets of some sort for the six pots (so they stay in place) and let the user plug in whatever they want.

Otherwise - great project - and it looks fantastic. What is the ballpark projected sell price? I need something like this.

The hardest part of this project was probably defining what features would make it into the design. Believe me there was a lot of time devoted to deciding what power supplies go into it. Unfortunately its not as easy as just picking power supplies as the complexity and therefore cost starts to climb quickly with each added feature.

I know that no matter what I chose I could not make everyone happy so I took a stab at what I thought would be the best compromise between features, cost, and functionality.

The +/-15 supply was chosen for three reasons. The added cost of doing +/-18V was a bit of a jump from the 15V. Many synth designs work on +/- 15 and I wanted to accommodate that. The added power dissipation for generating the 9V rail did not sit too well with me although it would probably be fine.

I like the idea of making the 1/2V rail selectable from any of the rails. This could be easily done with a jumper. I will consider adding that to the next rev.

I am still ironing things out on the cost of the board, but I want to keep it in the same general range as a standard pedal would cost.

Nice job. Here's some food for thought if you're looking for add-ons:

Second set of in/out jacks, for stereo or FX Loop.
+5v for microcontroller projects.
A few momentary switches, and maybe a few on/on, on/off/on dpdt (could be slide switches or toggles)
An LED bank

Funny. In my first rev I had a lot of this stuff, but cut them for cost reasons. I suppose if eveyone wants the ultimate super board we can add all of these features and jam pack every inch with stuff hahaha.

[samhay]

OP - Are the breadbords easily replaceable?

The breadboards are soldered directly to the PCB so no they are not easily removable.

Bummer. Breadboards tend to wear out - at least when I use them - so it would a shame to have to throw this all away when the breadboard become unreliable.

[Macro_Ninjaneer]

OP - Are the breadbords easily replaceable?

The breadboards are soldered directly to the PCB so no they are not easily removable.

Bummer. Breadboards tend to wear out - at least when I use them - so it would a shame to have to throw this all away when the breadboard become unreliable.

The breadboards we use have little solder legs for each strip that are solder into holes on the board. I suppose it is possible to unsolder and replace the boards. The downside is this would mean unsoldering 150+ joints per board...

[terryrocks]

You could easily sell 100 of these in Seattle and Portland alone.

[lethargytartare]

Anything ever come of this?

[Macro_Ninjaneer]

The project is live now. Here is the new thread:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=116556.0