Enclosure and layout advice sought for a new fuzz factory clone.

[cthulhudarren]

I am ordering parts for a fuzz factory clone, right now named "Tentacle Fuzz". It has Joe Gagan's mods for a gain control and a switchable Q1, one a Si NPN and one a Ge NPN. I drew up a schematic (only on paper so far, yeah I'm a heathen) and I'd love some advice on a few things.

Some general facts about the project:

I have never made a PCB and don't want to use the Zombii pcb, so I was planning to use vero/strip board (will purchase from Aron's store).
When laying this circuit out on vero board, are there any certain circuit node spacings that are important to avoid or use for noise?

I have a black & white laser printer, and plan to attempt to use one decal (black text/graphics on clear) for the entire front of the pedal.

It will have seven (!) 9mm knobs  and a switch (slide or toggle, not sure yet, probably slide as I think I already have the correct one).

I don't want to do a "horizontal" enclosure as is typical for these clones, I'm thinking of something like this for knob and switch layout:

 O O O O
   O O O
      S

      S

The bottom 'S' would be the 3PDT stompswitch.

I need advice as to what size enclosure to get. Given the amount of controls and the use of vero/strip board, is a "BB" size too small?

I want to do a lightplate for this build, and depending on what Q1 is selected it would show a different color. So this one switch to change Q1 will need to be 4PDT. As I said, I have a slide switch, but should consider toggle or stompswitch. The problem with the stompswitch for this would be that you can't label it for Si and Ge Q1 like you can if the switch is a toggle or slide. Then again, I have a black and white printer so I have no cool way of labeling the Si or Ge modes to show the what color the lightplate will show. Thoughts on this?

I'm thinking I'll need to get a plain enclosure and paint it some sick green color scheme (suitable for a tentacle theme), but not so dark that you cannot see black label text. I have no experience with painting enclosures or decals, by the way, but have read threads on this site and buildyourownclone that explain them.

I am planning to wire it up so that you can use a battery or a 9v supply, and the battery should not drain when you are not plugged in and when you are using a wallwart.

Thanks for reading and for any suggestions and/or advice!

[joegagan]

a bb is gonna be tight, might be possible but you will have to be very careful in your planning. you would definitely need those tiny alpha pots like the real fuzzfact uses.

also, i am not a fan of mini-switches on stompboxes , so your ge/si switch location draws my attention. there is a very stubby microswitch that keeley and others use that might avoid getting broken off, but i don't have a part number.

don't have any thoughts on the lightplate. out of my experience. sounds fun, tho.

for the layout, this might require a little bit of back and forth to keep wire runs as neat as possible. for inspiration, look at john lyons' interiors. back and forth meaning , be flexible about actual knob locations to keep things orderly. don't abandon your overall knob layout, simply be flexible about which control goes where.

i would suggest mimicking the existing fuzzfact layouts, and adding the modded runs external to the board ( which may be helpful in getting your knob layout to work).  if you have high gain traces adjacent on the board, trace to trace capacitance can cause squeal in such a high gain circuit. it has happened to me. using the tried and true fuzzfact layouts is a good step in avoiding this.

[nocentelli]

Joe is right about the "B" enclosure being tight: You mention using 16mm pots: this is the diameter of the body of the pot, so 4x16mm pots in a row = 64mm; 1590B enclosures are 60mm wide, so it won't fit. As Joe states, the original uses smaller pots (9mm), and these will fit.

I'd suggest using a 1590BB, these are 90mm-ish wide in "potrait" orientation, easily enough to fit four 16mm pots side by side, with extra room to make wiring up a bit easier.

[cthulhudarren]

a bb is gonna be tight, might be possible but you will have to be very careful in your planning. you would definitely need those tiny alpha pots like the real fuzzfact uses.

also, i am not a fan of mini-switches on stompboxes , so your ge/si switch location draws my attention. there is a very stubby microswitch that keeley and others use that might avoid getting broken off, but i don't have a part number.

don't have any thoughts on the lightplate. out of my experience. sounds fun, tho.

for the layout, this might require a little bit of back and forth to keep wire runs as neat as possible. for inspiration, look at john lyons' interiors. back and forth meaning , be flexible about actual knob locations to keep things orderly. don't abandon your overall knob layout, simply be flexible about which control goes where.

i would suggest mimicking the existing fuzzfact layouts, and adding the modded runs external to the board ( which may be helpful in getting your knob layout to work).  if you have high gain traces adjacent on the board, trace to trace capacitance can cause squeal in such a high gain circuit. it has happened to me. using the tried and true fuzzfact layouts is a good step in avoiding this.

So first you'd say use 9mm pots and a bigger enclosure? I'm definitely not good at getting stuff in tight spots. Lightplates are only for B and BB sizes from what I've seen. What size enclosure would you recommend?

[joegagan]

nocentelli, he mentioned BB in his original post . my comments were based on this.  

i used 400+ BBs, the highest # of pots i put on them was 5 or 6, using a mix of 20mm and others.

[cthulhudarren]

Joe is right about the "B" enclosure being tight: You mention using 16mm pots: this is the diameter of the body of the pot, so 4x16mm pots in a row = 64mm; 1590B enclosures are 60mm wide, so it won't fit. As Joe states, the original uses smaller pots (9mm), and these will fit.

I'd suggest using a 1590BB, these are 90mm-ish wide in "potrait" orientation, easily enough to fit four 16mm pots side by side, with extra room to make wiring up a bit easier.

Thanks. So I suppose I could switch to those 9mm pots AND use a BB. That was what I was intending. I suppose that they are deep enough? If the BB will work then I can also get the lightplate in that size. Thanks,

[joegagan]

this will be do-able but still be tight. the 9mms are a little difficult to solder to, but do-able.

[cthulhudarren]

nocentelli, he mentioned BB in his original post . my comments were based on this.  

i used 400+ BBs, the highest # of pots i put on them was 5 or 6, using a mix of 20mm and others.

So if I go with 9mm pots and a BB, that's still pretty tight since I have the Si/Ge switch. I don't know if I want that to be a footswitch or something that is done by hand.

But the tight space scares me. I think my weakest skill is fitting stuff in tight spaces.

[cthulhudarren]

this will be do-able but still be tight. the 9mms are a little difficult to solder to, but do-able.

How far apart are the pins? I wouldn't call myself a world class solderer, but I do okay. I am getting to be better as far as neatness and always using heatshrink tubing, etc.

Using vero board basically prevents one from mounting the pots directly to the board, yes?

[nocentelli]

Sorry, don't know where I got "B, from... I've done a few 1590BBs with 4x16mm pots in a row, it's tight but possible.

[joegagan]

How far apart are the pins? I wouldn't call myself a world class solderer, but I do okay. I am getting to be better as far as neatness and always using heatshrink tubing, etc.

Using vero board basically prevents one from mounting the pots directly to the board, yes?

they are close together, but you can do it.

vero does not preclude the use of board mount pots. one approach would be to use one of the tried and true Ffact layouts, ( all 'normal' FF pots intact), with flying leads coming off the vero for the mod controls/switch. your layout diagram seems to be amenable to this.

[cthulhudarren]

How far apart are the pins? I wouldn't call myself a world class solderer, but I do okay. I am getting to be better as far as neatness and always using heatshrink tubing, etc.

Using vero board basically prevents one from mounting the pots directly to the board, yes?

they are close together, but you can do it.

vero does not preclude the use of board mount pots. one approach would be to use one of the tried and true Ffact layouts, ( all 'normal' FF pots intact), with flying leads coming off the vero for the mod controls/switch. your layout diagram seems to be amenable to this.

True. Then I have to figure out if there is enough room to vertically mount the board in the BB enclosure, or if not I'd have to lay the board down. This determines whether I need right angle or straight PC mounts for the 9mm pots.

[cthulhudarren]

How far apart are the pins? I wouldn't call myself a world class solderer, but I do okay. I am getting to be better as far as neatness and always using heatshrink tubing, etc.

Using vero board basically prevents one from mounting the pots directly to the board, yes?

they are close together, but you can do it.

vero does not preclude the use of board mount pots. one approach would be to use one of the tried and true Ffact layouts, ( all 'normal' FF pots intact), with flying leads coming off the vero for the mod controls/switch. your layout diagram seems to be amenable to this.

True. Then I have to figure out if there is enough room to vertically mount the board in the BB enclosure, or if not I'd have to lay the board down. This determines whether I need right angle or straight PC mounts for the 9mm pots.

I have a vero layout (from a German site) for the fuzz factory, but I'm not sure if it is verified. And I have the zombii layout which is a PCB.

[Pyr0]

You should take a look at Haralds pot mounted vero layout over at www.sabrotone.com. It would fit very easily into a BB with plenty of room for the extra mods.
http://www.sabrotone.com/?p=2235

[cthulhudarren]

You should take a look at Haralds pot mounted vero layout over at www.sabrotone.com. It would fit very easily into a BB with plenty of room for the extra mods.
http://www.sabrotone.com/?p=2235

Thank you! It does look like this is wired to be long and mount the pots at 90 degrees from the way I need it. I suppose I could break this into TWO seperate boards and then run them the way I want.

The vero boards are 3"x2" and smallbear has a taller 125-BB that is 4.7" x 3.7" x 1.4". So I could just cut 1/2 inch off one end and it would mount vertically in the case.