What would take this site from 'Good' to 'Great'

If you can just pick 1, what would you like?

  • Day 1 Build Docs

    Votes: 17 68.0%

  • Substitues Listed in Build Docs

    Votes: 6 24.0%

  • More Thurough Instructions/Setup

    Votes: 2 8.0%

  • Beginner Friendly Instructions

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    25
nate433

nate433

Active member
Well I was going to say 'Great to Awesome', but i couldn't give up the alliteration. Fuck me I guess though. The response from PedalPCB is great and well appreciated. Most of the rest of you are WAY too defensive about a suggestions post, christ. As a small business owner I welcome anything like this. Other people have other points of view and I never know what I could have missed or where to prioritize during periods of growth.

a) I had no idea this was a 1 man operation. So what you're doing now is outstanding. Plus if you're doing commission work on the side. Since I heard that you do the layouts for Tom Cram at Spiral Electric FX.

b) I don't even remotely expect all of these to be enacted. Just some thoughts. Most are 'nice to haves'. When I first started this hobby I did a few kits from the sites that are more beginner friendly. Which goes with their bussiness model of offering kits. Since those are far more targeted at beginners than standalone PCBs. Although it doesn't really directly effect me, not having build docs for a while is the only one that irks me way too much than it should.

c) Sure it says "new member" but i've been building pedals for over 2 years now and (embarssingly) have spent 3k+ on boards for myself and friends. So believe me, I love this place and the product they put out.

✌️
 
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In a perfect world, what you have listed is Great but this is a One Man Operation & to do this would mean less PCB's would be available to be purchased by the Masses.
.
Yes, Build Docs would be great at the Release but are available if you have purchased the Product & request a Temp BOM sheet.

The Parts listed are most accurate to the Pedal to function as designed, not a ''should be near enough'' mod or alternative!
 
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Barry said:
It's already great, maybe geared more towards seasoned builders than beginners, but that's a decision for Robert to make as to his market
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To add to this, even if you are a beginner just like me there’s enough info and people giving advice for you to be successful. You just have to be willing to look for it and if it comes to it, just ask. There’s always someone here willing to lead you in the right direction.
 
I would love to see all these ideas implemented, but at the same time I feel like it would take a LOT of time to complete, and that would come at the expense of new projects, etc. I think this has been mentioned before, but what if there were a section of this message board with one permanent thread for every PCB, and we can all contribute notes from our builds, including substitute parts, biasing transistors, mods etc?
 
music6000 said:
Coming up to 2 years & it was only a only to embrace some positive ideas to the Members.
I hope he is Cool with our responses as we all have different Levels of Building these Circuits!
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I see that. I think there are better, more tactful ways of going about this than saying “do X like competitor Y does it.” Many of these things have been also been discussed at length during those two years.
 
I appreciate this type of feedback, let me see if I can address some of this. (if I miss something forgive me, it's late)

Right now my primary concern is on making the build docs exist, improving them is a whole different project.

There is definitely room for improvement, no argument there, however there are probably no more than one or two projects here that require any information that can't already be found elsewhere in original service manuals, factory schematics, etc. The newer projects specify bias voltages directly on the PCB, right below the respective trim pot.

Aion's build documentation is beautiful, but I have no plans to go to that length of in-depth information. One should already know how to bend and clip component leads, insert through-hole ICs, and solder before attempting a build.

I do think a method of finding component substitutes and sources is useful, but I don't think individual project build documentation is necessarily the best place... The number of possible component substitutes could be never ending, and with through-hole components being depreciated every day it would be a constant task of revising hundreds of docs for this weeks best substitute. Who would have ever thought TL072's would be considered scarce?


Most importantly though, there is no shame in waiting for the documentation to become available before ordering a project if you think it will be crucial to successfully building it. There is no rush, if they sell out they will be restocked.
 
Wow. This is good! I'll do this next time I go to buy a car, in my case usually a reliable but inexpensive car like a Honda Civic. I will type up a list of likes, and tell them that this will make a boring car like a Honda Civic a great one that I may wish to purchase.

1. Other cars have spoilers. I want a spoiler.
2. Other cars have V8 engines. I want a V8 because other cars go faster than mine.
3. Other cars have leather interiors. I want a leather interior.
4. Other cars have a 3' wheel clearance for going off-road. Why doesn't your Civic have 3' clearance? I want 3' clearance, then it will be great.

Man, I haven't even started yet!

Just maybe Pedal PCB isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn great. It sells, for a very reasonable price, some killer PCBs which generally help us build fantastic pedals with little fuss. What more can you want? It has this handy dandy forum for everything else, including marital advice, very very bad jokes and paint schemes. And the rate at which new PCBs are added is phenomenal. For a one-man-with-a-beard show that's amazing.
 
Robert said:
I appreciate this type of feedback, let me see if I can address some of this. (if I miss something forgive me, it's late)

Right now my primary concern is on making the build docs exist, improving them is a whole different project.

There is definitely room for improvement, no argument there, however there are probably no more than one or two projects here that require any information that can't already be found elsewhere in original service manuals, factory schematics, etc. The newer projects specify bias voltages directly on the PCB, right below the respective trim pot.

Aion's build documentation is beautiful, but I have no plans to go to that length of in-depth information. One should already know how to bend and clip component leads, insert through-hole ICs, and solder before attempting a build.

I do think a method of finding component substitutes and sources is useful, but I don't think individual project build documentation is necessarily the best place... The number of possible component substitutes could be never ending, and with through-hole components being depreciated every day it would be a constant task of revising hundreds of docs for this weeks best substitute. Who would have ever thought TL072's would be considered scarce?


Most importantly though, there is no shame in waiting for the documentation to become available before ordering a project if you think it will be crucial to successfully building it. There is no rush, if they sell out they will be restocked.
Click to expand...
Good god, tell me about TL072s. I was looking at old pricing sheets i made and i cried a little bit when I saw that they used to be only like 26 cents are now are like $2. And holy shit I had no idea about adding bias voltages to the PCB, that's great! I've built so many fuzzes at this point I haven't bought many fuzz boards lately.

I don't expect or need yours to be as extensive as Aion, it was just the place to point to specific examples.

Again just want to say I appreciate everything you do and this place is the shit (even if so many of these responses are weirdly cult-like....). I tried my hardest to word it in a way that didn't come off as shitty or whine-y. Tone is hard over text and I've always been terrible at writing.
 
scheffehcs said:
I would love to see all these ideas implemented, but at the same time I feel like it would take a LOT of time to complete, and that would come at the expense of new projects, etc. I think this has been mentioned before, but what if there were a section of this message board with one permanent thread for every PCB, and we can all contribute notes from our builds, including substitute parts, biasing transistors, mods etc?
Click to expand...
I would love to contribute is any way I can. I have a help desk job with a ton of downtime and sadly can't exactly build pedals at my desk. Logistical nightmare aside of coordinating something that is community sourced. I like the idea of a new message board section. Would add minimal burden to Robert (right?) and it already sort of acts as a change log as certain parts become scarse and people mention new subs.
 
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