Test Rig - WHo uses them?

[BarnabyHooge]

I'm thinking about putting together a test board similar to the one on the BeavisAudio site. How many of you use these? Do you find them helpful? I'd like to have one that I can connect my breadboard to as well as a spot to hold a circuit board for testing/debugging before it gets soldered into the enclosure.. If you have pics I'd love to see what you've cooked up.

[brett]

Hi
I keep a spare box with a stompswitch, DC socket, in and out sockets, and holes for 3 pots.  Unless it's a classic circuit (e.g. Rat, BMP, etc), I drop it in the test box for a couple of weeks and see how much I like it.  It took me at least 20 boxed and beautifully finished, but unused pedals to learn to be patient and evaluate a circuit before commiting particular component values and a box.
cheers

[earthtonesaudio]

There are tons of options... just build what you need.  Personally I use a box with just in/out and a bypass switch, but it's desperately in need of an upgrade.

Some ideas by various folks...
Paul: http://www.diyguitarist.com/DIYStompboxes/GEPB.htm
GEO: http://www.geofex.com/FX_images/protofx6.gif
A company called "killer tone": http://www.killertone.com/nu.jpg

[Rodgre]

I've had a few different setups that I've used as a test rig over the years.

Currently, I have a breadboard with a DC power connector going to dedicated +9vdc and ground strips. It also has a bypass toggle switch, input and output jacks (the input is connected to a 1/4" jack on the metal underside frame of my workbench) and there is a small aluminum panel with a couple of open holes for pots, and an uncommitted 100K pot that is usually normalled between the breadboard and the output jack.

It can get messy with bigger circuits, but it has been very handy when I want to test something out to see if it works, and if it sounds any good!

Roger

[John Lyons]

Highly recommended.
Anything that enables you to test a circuit and plug parts in and out without solder...as well as holding your pots and switches is a good thing.
Makes things simpler/faster/less likely to break or stress leads, short out against each other etc etc.

I just take a piece of aluminum about 2" tall and bend it at a right angle so I can mount it on the breadboard. I drill one of two rows of pot/switch/jack holes and wire up true bypass on a toggle. I keep various pots wired up to 3" leads so I can plug them in wherever I need them. Just mount them in the holes near where they will go. 5K, 10K, 50K, 100K, and maybe a couple 500K pots.
Remember that a pot across the outer two legs of another pot will allow you to taper the pots total resistance to whatever you need.
Example: It you need a 5K liner pot and only have (2) 10Ks, them just put either a 10K fixed resistot across the outer lugs of the 10K pot (which will make the pot a 5K) or wire a 10K pot across the control pot to make 5K.
When you are testing out a circuit and want to experiment with different values you just pick an appropriate pot and twiddle it to see what you get just as you do with a trim pot.
You can also taper a lin pot to make an audio taper or super log taper pot.

Pots with alligator clips soldered to short leads are always handy as well

I need to cobble up a few FET tester/Germanuim tester and power distribution and in/out boxes to go with my bread boards.
I also need to make a sinple LED tester box to test LEDs and different current liniting resistors. DIfferent brands and color LEDs need certain values. Tired of holding parts together with 5 fingers!

Brett, yeah, knobs always act different when in the box... er... once you get the everything in the box you see ways to make changes with pot tapers or different caps values here and there.
This is also a good reason for the mouted pots on the breadboard. You get a sense where the knobs tend to sound good and if you need more of this or that.

John

[petemoore]

  Just a metal box [with 2 mono jacks in it] with a cardboard 'slant open' top [diagonal cut top keeps 1 upright end for sticking pots in holes.
 Jacks share ground with a testclip, each tip gets a testclip, this way if the circuit has battery clip on it [which I generally pre-test circuits and boxes with], I'm 3 testclips away from test procedures [in/out/gnd]. To hear what bypas [and unity] sounds like I just connect 2 testclips.
 Definitely saved my time. Nothing worse than trying to debug 2 circuit and 1 jack/bypass problem at the same time..course now that I'm a little better at it...not so much. Hafta say for something that takes a little extra working on to get going or modify or tweek or...whatever...saves trying to twist around the many more offboard wires to keep them from shorting without...er...twisting them around so much, can make for a 'fresher' build...after having a few wires fail, a test-jig to get the thing boxed up with the least amount of wire stressing is worth it...a relatively cheep 15 minutes.. built.

[earthtonesaudio]

I'm thinking my next, improved proto-rig would be this:

Amp chassis; a row of 1M pots (can parallel them to any value) with solid-core leads attached (easier to insert into breadboard); a stomp switch on one end; dedicated +9V power, along with adjustable +/- voltages up to about 18V; sinewave generator; scope output; and a built-in Noisy Cricket with speaker.

[newfish]

Not a test rig as such, but I've recently discovered how useful a couple of sockets and (1/4" jack plug) wired to breadboard jumpers.

Also - a CD Walkman and an audio probbe - I can't believe how useful that probe is - and it's so simple!

[Pushtone]

I fashioned mine like the diyguitarist version. A combination bread and debugging board.
I added a $10.00 tone generator which I find super handy while debugging.
Leads with alligator clips are indispensable.




Posted this before in a thread with several photos of others boards.
Do a search for "test rigs". There are a few threads like this.

Dave

[JasonG]

There are a lot of ways to go about it. I may redo mine soon there are some good ideas going around. Do it!

[BarnabyHooge]

Thanks for all the help. i think I searched for everything except "Test rig" before I posted this one...sorry about that.

I'm going to give it a few days before I commit to a design. I want to make sure I cover everything the first time.

[Jered]

  This is what I use for pedal circuits.



  This one for tube circuits. Right now I'm trying to come up with a med/high gain, low watt amp, using only sub mini tubes.