Mc Meat switches

[Radamus]

I'm pretty new to pedal building, but I'm ordering a couple ahead of where  I am. One is the McMeat. Right now, I can barely understand that schematic because there are so many switches. What switches should I be using for this? I need as much information as you can give me. Switch 1 connects to one of three places from one place. Switch two connects three different points to two different each. Switch 3 seems to connect two points to three different points each. Switch four connects one point to 3 others. Am I reading that correctly? How would I order these parts, for example, on futurlec.com?

Also, what do letters a-n, attached to little bubbles, mean?

I'm coming from http://notinteractive.com/stuff/guitar/fx/mc-meat.pdf

Thanks in advance

[daverdave]

You can use 3 x 3 way 4 pole rotary switchs and 1 x 4 way 3 pole switch, that's what I used. There's a lot of info on the pisotones site:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.pisotones.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpisotones%26hl%3Den
Hope this helps.
Dave

[daverdave]

Sorry I just read the last bit of your post, the letters are reference points from the circuit to offboard components, like the switches and jacks.

[Morocotopo]

Switch 1 connects to one of three places from one place.

3 position 1 pole

Switch two connects three different points to two different each.

3 position 2 pole
Get it?
Switches are labeled SW1, SW2, etc. SW1A / SW1B / etc. means they are the same physical thing, e.g. two/three/etc. switches (poles) combined into one.

The letters are where the PCB connects to non PCB mounted parts with wire (pots, switches, jacks, etc.). Find the same letters in the layout and compare to the schem for better understanding.


Hope it helps.

Morocotopo

[alex frias]

There was a little mistake in one of the graphics. So the recomendation for recheck with the schem is of great importance.

[Radamus]

Are those off board components on the schematic anyway? Like, they correspond to potentiometers? The letters basically let me know on the board layout that the potentiometer connects at that point? I'm confused still.

And there's a mistake in the layout? Or in the schematic? Does anyone happen to remember what it is?

Thanks again.

[daverdave]

I can't remember a mistake on the schematic but there was a couple of errors on the pisotones diagrams. I think the offboard components are drawn on the schematic, the letters are there just to connect one point to another without the schematic getting messy, I think anyway.
You're better off googling rotary switches and reading how they work properly, it's not that complicated to understand, but once you know how they operate it's easy to avoid mistake. I built this pedal recently and had to spend a couple of days debugging it when I found that I'd wired the jack sockets wrong.

[Radamus]

I have another question. The title here doesn't really fit this, but I'll ask anyway.  I'm looking to make my entire purchase on futurlec (with the exception of a few  parts). http://www.futurlec.com/LEDOpto.shtml This is their opto-isolator page. Which one will work in place of the VTL5C3's, if any?

[marmora]

I found this picture of a Meatball clone:
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showpost.php?p=18293484&postcount=54
It seems the rotary switches were replaced with toggle switches and a stomp switch.  This seems like a good way to go about this if rotary switches are hard to find.

[Radamus]

Futurlec has the rotary switches. So that should be fine. How about the opto-isolator? It's really outside of my electronics knowledge (which only started around two or three months ago).

Edit: would a TLP521-1 work in place? I found its tech sheet, but it didn't have resistance values. I don't trust myself to make one of these things, but five dollars is tough, considering I need more than one (I'm also making an ugly face).

[alex frias]

Just put a LDR and a LED face-to-face, cover it with something to insulate it from light and it's done!

[Radamus]

What do the values of the LED and LDR have to be? Are there any other words for LDR? Would the large photocell on http://www.futurlec.com/Photocells.shtml work?

[dxm1]

Something like this:

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G15175

face to face with a green LED, wrapped in black shrink tubing.

[Radamus]

What does the maximum resistance have to be? I don't want to pay seven dollars of shipping on a single item. So if Futurlec has something that will work (if you don't mind clicking on the link I included above), I would like to get one of those. They have one that goes from 300k to 3k. If that won't work, is there any place that will sell me one of those without the huge shipping cost?

They also have 500k down to 5k, 1000k down to 10k, and 5000k down to 50k. Would any of those work?