Ryan H Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Discovered Google Sketchup through a Youtube tutorial on drilling effects pedal enclosures...and I've found it to be immensely useful. In case some of you haven't visited the DIY Thread in a little while, I've started building effects pedals recently. Not in large numbers (don't have the time or funds, particularly with some of the more complex circuits), just on-request and as I have time. I'm not building my own circuits...i'm not an electronic engineer or whatever...just a guy in his 20's with a soldering iron and access to hundreds of layouts on the internet. This isn't PCB stuff, no paint-by-numbers here. I'm building on vero (or stripboard), which takes a bit more patience to work with but is a great alternative if you don't want to handle dangerous chemicals required to etch PCB's. Anyways...i'm building a Chorus pedal for a friend (modified Boss CE-2 circuit) and the board is...quite large. It'll still fit in a 125B enclosure (think Wampler single sized pedals), but I have to be careful how I position the jacks, pots and switches. Google Sketchup allowed me to model every intricacy of the pedal (besides the actual details of the board) in 3D 1:1 scale. I modeled the enclosure, made all the holes (using guides to center everything), then modeled the footswitch, the board, and then Downloaded models for the pots, knobs, jacks and such...and using an X-ray mode in the program, was able to determine that everything will fit perfectly. Here's the pedal modeled: An added bonus...I can "hide" all the components (they're on separate layers), add centerlines to each hole, and print it out to use as a perfect drilling template! I'll be using this for every pedal I build from now on...this only took me 2 hours after just learning to use the program this morning. Finally a CAD-esque program that's easy to use... -Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 <sigh> <looks off dreamily> <sigh> rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Good tip, thanks! Here's one for you... Because of the nature of Vero board you can end up wasting space. Try making your own turret boards, far more flexibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Good tip, thanks! Here's one for you... Because of the nature of Vero board you can end up wasting space. Try making your own turret boards, far more flexibility. Think you could fit this in a 125B using turret board (with 3 pots, 3 SPDT mini toggles, DC jack, enclosed stereo jacks and a separate buffer board, plus the footswitch)? :P -Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I think I probably could, simply because I wouldn't have to have my main pos and neg lines run parallel but can turn them through 90 degrees ( or any arbitrary amount) as often and wherever I like. That said, I guess there will be times when Verobboard would make better sense. That said (double that said?) I would never make an overly tight layout just to make a circuit fit, I'd use a larger enclosure so that kind of nulls my point any way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 I think I probably could, simply because I would have to have my main pos and neg lines run parallel but can turn them through 90 degrees ( or any arbitrary amount) as often and wherever I like. That said, I guess there will be times when Verobboard would make better sense. That said (double that said?) I would never make an overly tight layout just to make a circuit fit, I'd use a larger enclosure so that kind of nulls my point any way. Well, Vero works pretty well for me, and I enjoy working with it for the most part. Not to mention the number of layouts available for it is insane...I'll stick with it for now :P -Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Well, Vero works pretty well for me, and I enjoy working with it for the most part. Not to mention the number of layouts available for it is insane...I'll stick with it for now :P -Ryan Well, what you're happy with is the most important thing. Do post pics of the pedal when it's done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Well, what you're happy with is the most important thing. Do post pics of the pedal when it's done! Will definitely do so! And possibly a little sound sample too.. -Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 Since Farns asked for a pic... Will put up a quick sound clip soon... From left to right: Knobs: Speed, Mix, Depth Toggles: Slower/Faster switch, Vibrato switch (The switch on the side was meant to be for a switchable buffer, but space constraints prevented that) Sounds great...with Speed on minimum and Depth on Maximum, it's a Flanger. Max out the speed in the Faster switch position, move the depth to about halfway, and you've got a decent faux-leslie. The mix knob is really effective...makes the pedal sound more like it's in an effects loop. Vibrato switch can give a nice subtle warble or crazy seasick tones... -Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Since Farns asked for a pic... Will put up a quick sound clip soon... From left to right: Knobs: Speed, Mix, Depth Toggles: Slower/Faster switch, Vibrato switch (The switch on the side was meant to be for a switchable buffer, but space constraints prevented that) Sounds great...with Speed on minimum and Depth on Maximum, it's a Flanger. Max out the speed in the Faster switch position, move the depth to about halfway, and you've got a decent faux-leslie. The mix knob is really effective...makes the pedal sound more like it's in an effects loop. Vibrato switch can give a nice subtle warble or crazy seasick tones... -Ryan Nice! Thanks, any shots of the inside? I look forward to sound clips! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 Nice! Thanks, any shots of the inside? I look forward to sound clips! No shots of the inside sadly...to be honest it's a pretty crammed box, so there isn't anything pretty to look at...not to mention I mount the board components-down (when looking at the back of the pedal) so all you'd see is solder joints and copper strips, and a few wires for the switch/jacks/LED... I do have a quick and fairly crappy video demoing some of the tones...i'll post that a little later, but he's giving it back next week so I can address a slightly annoying grounding issue (how do you guys ground your enclosures when using enclosed frame jacks?) so I'll have the opportunity to do a better and more thorough demo then. He loves it, says "everyone should have one of these on their pedalboard". He's doing an 80's gig on Friday so this came just in time... -Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 ... a decent faux-leslie. Not a fan of chorus generally, but everyone needs a decent faux Leslie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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