Hi, a friend asked me to have a look at his tremolo in his Rafferty Timepiece. I was surprised to find the PCB's taped down inside the unit. Is this normal? I could not see anyway to mount the PCB's.
The tremolo had a thump on its output so I found a way to tame it. I would be interested to find out if any one else has come across this.
Quote from: RNA on Yesterday at 10:37:22 AMHi, a friend asked me to have a look at his tremolo in his Rafferty Timepiece. I was surprised to find the PCB's taped down inside the unit. Is this normal? I could not see anyway to mount the PCB's.
It's a common beginner's mistake for laying out PCBs. The first step in laying out a PCB is always to lay out the things that have to be on it in certain spots, like any onboard controls and jacks (to match the enclosure holes if you do that) and any mounting holes/spaces. Only then can you do the rest of the layout and still have ways to make the off-board stuff fit.
I discovered this early on - while taping down boards that I hadn't thought about first. :icon_biggrin:
Velcro spots and so on are acceptable substitutes, but it takes a while to learn to put in mounting holes, switches, jacks, etc. first.
The next step before laying down the first tracks is to figure where on the edge of the board, not in the middle, that any wires or connectors come out so the wires can be arrange for easy attachment to any off-board things. These things were well known to the pros in PCB layout but a mystery to me when I was learning. I did a lot of rushing to lay down tracks and then finding out it made boxing it up harder.
For such a beautiful enclosure, that's some really ugly guts! :icon_eek:
You'd have thought they'd take as much care with the inside, especially since that's the bit that does the work.
Good work getting it sorted out.
Looks familiar (https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?msg=1161979)? To be fair to Steve regarding the mounting, I think the PCBs (not the vero) were sourced elsewhere.
Quote from: bluebunny on Yesterday at 11:41:19 AMLooks familiar (https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?msg=1161979)? To be fair to Steve regarding the mounting, I think the PCBs (not the vero) were sourced elsewhere.
That makes sense. It's really hard to just do a board that might be used anywhere. About all you can do is guess at what might be needed. At least a triangle of holes, if not a hole in each corner of a rectangle is about all you can do. That still leaves the velcro option open.
Quote from: bluebunny on Yesterday at 11:41:19 AMLooks familiar (https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?msg=1161979)? To be fair to Steve regarding the mounting, I think the PCBs (not the vero) were sourced elsewhere.
Aaah! I see! Thanks for the reminder.
I note Steve didn't show us a gut shot originally. :icon_lol:
I agree that affixing those boards would be pretty difficult given they didn't provide any visible mounting holes and they're clearly designed for wired pots. What are you supposed to do? Some sort of 3D-printed plastic bracket might be about the only way to make a neat job of it, but that sounds pretty involved and not all of us have access to those sort of toys anyway.
Quote from: ElectricDruid on Yesterday at 02:45:52 PMWhat are you supposed to do? Some sort of 3D-printed plastic bracket might be about the only way to make a neat job of it, but that sounds pretty involved and not all of us have access to those sort of toys anyway.
Maybe potting into a block of resin, or even paraffin. I've inserted threaded brass fittings into blocks of epoxy encased stuff before and it makes for a usable mounting setup. Hard to repair or rewire, though.
I've made plenty of pedals where there were no mounting holes on the PCBs and without board-mounted pots, but usually as single pedals. So relatively easy to "hold" (not "secure") in place by the wiring and the confined space involved. The few multi-pedals I've done (with loads of fresh air inside) have relied on double-sided sticky pads.
Great responses! Such a nice case as well. The other circuits are pt2399 based. I made circuit using this chip. I ran the feed back through hi and lowpass filters as well a a ring modulator. I wish I had taken it beyond prototype now.