I don't think this is directed at me, but I feel like I have to make it clear that this was not my intention when making this post. I recognized the bootstrapped design and was genuinely curious as to why it would be used, since there are more parts involved.This concept transcends the circuits though: It just seems to me that everyone is a flippin' expert these days about someone else's circuit.
This forum has had it's recent examples too.
I get it, if a tracer releases a schematic, suddenly everyone thinks they are an expert.
What I find disconcerting is that instead of NOT looking that gift horse in the mouth, everyone seems very content to hack the poor creatures head off with a broadsword and stomp on it.
That's good to know, I might give it a tryYeah, no idea about the Cornish pedals (I’ve never built one, but I’ve never heard a demo that I was crazy about of one), but I do quite enjoy the Cornish buffer. My go to buffer because it’s super transparent (as a buffer would hopefully be) and most pedals I’ve put after it react better to it than certain other popular buffer designs.
But definitely not worth telling a guy to go fuck himself over.
Either way, my personal opinion is to take these schematics we get for NOTHING and simply appreciate them for what they are. Slagging the builder ON TOP of getting to take a peek into their circuit seems unsavory.
What are everyone's thoughts on the Boss/Ibanez style JFET switching buffers?
I was bouncing around the idea of putting on in my Cephied Chorus when I build it.
I utilized great restraint.... it was tough at times.
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but I do feel this comment implies the builders are just handing over the schematics for us to peruse out of the kindness of their hearts.
This, however, generally is not the case. Some builders take extreme measures to prevent our peeks inside.
Purchasing a pedal, spending hours scraping away epoxy that has no purpose aside from obscuring a circuit, then more hours tracing the circuit, identifying components that have had their part numbers sanded away/painted over, etc is a bit more involved than "for nothing".
I’m 1000% in agreement that you have great investment in each project.
This.Most of the shit talk is often if
A) the marketing is clearly lying about the circuit or is (unironically) over the top with the claims
B) the circuit is clearly a clone of something with next to no innovation
C) ridiculously priced
D) overengineered (often to justify driving up the price)
E) a combination of any number of the 4 options above
Issues with the builders' personality, support/service, build quality, etc. all factor in why I personally hate on a couple of builders, but the points above are what I think are people's issues that lead them to hate on the designs.
This.
Re: that 29Pedals dude in particular, since apparently some people think it was the circuit design and not the designer douchebaggery that was being shat upon -
Were 29Pedals's claim to fame a $100-$150 buffer with a MAX1044 charge pump in a 125B, there'd be nothing really to shit talk because regardless of the complexity of the final design, that's an understandable price and form factor for an MIA pedal with a reasonable parts count (note how of all the things Chase Tone catches shit for around these parts, it's never for their circuit design or pricing) - but you don't get to be the "boutique buffer" guy with products like that nosiree.
It's a bit of an "I know it when I see it" thing sure, but you *know* when a dude over-designs and over-builds a BUFFER - a circuit that has absolutely *no* business being hooked up to an overkill power supply that solves no real-world issues and also apparently draws 144mA when it's idling???, housed in an enclosure that has *no* business being the size of a 1590BB, much less a *custom tooled* enclosure the size of a 1590BB - he's fleecing his customers.
He may not think he is because his margins, like his self-awareness, are low, but he's still trying to be the "you know my shit is boutique just look how expensive fancy my buffer is" guy. That's his *selling point* - that his shit's needlessly expensive so it *must* be good - like someone hocking designer handbags, or a guy who thinks he's clever to put a motorcycle engine in a car body and price it like a truck, assuming the people buying it aren't smart enough to look past the novelty to see the absurdity. That's both transparently obvious and very gross. It's disrespectful of his consumers, regardless of if he himself is even aware that's what he's doing.
I find that shit unsavory, and speaking for myself I feel no shame or guilt calling him or anybody else out on it - and should they come in loudly and rudely like 29Pedals dude did, I feel no shame or guilt being loud and rude right back (but moreso, because I'm pretty good at being loud and rude).
Don't come into a space (online or otherwise) with more bluster than sense and expect to be treated half as well as you think you deserve to be.
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(Also, I don't care how low your margins are, if you've somehow managed to fuck up designing a buffer *so* hard that you'd be losing money if you weren't charging $300, your design is indeed straight-up *bad*. You either did it by choice (because you want to be the "boutique buffer" guy), or by mistake (because you couldn't optimize either your design or your BoM to hit more reasonable price points, the way a *good* designer would (a good designer would've dropped that fucking 144mA-at-idle power supply *regardless* of its development time and cost, so leaving it in is either sunken-cost-fallacy hubris or I-need-to-justify-my-pricepoint malice)), but either way your design is *bad*.
This.
Re: that 29Pedals dude in particular, since apparently some people think it was the circuit design and not the designer douchebaggery that was being shat upon -
Were 29Pedals's claim to fame a $100-$150 buffer with a MAX1044 charge pump in a 125B, there'd be nothing really to shit talk because regardless of the complexity of the final design, that's an understandable price and form factor for an MIA pedal with a reasonable parts count (note how of all the things Chase Tone catches shit for around these parts, it's never for their circuit design or pricing) - but you don't get to be the "boutique buffer" guy with products like that nosiree.
It's a bit of an "I know it when I see it" thing sure, but you *know* when a dude over-designs and over-builds a BUFFER - a circuit that has absolutely *no* business being hooked up to an overkill power supply that solves no real-world issues and also apparently draws 144mA when it's idling???, housed in an enclosure that has *no* business being the size of a 1590BB, much less a *custom tooled* enclosure the size of a 1590BB - he's fleecing his customers.
He may not think he is because his margins, like his self-awareness, are low, but he's still trying to be the "you know my shit is boutique just look how expensive fancy my buffer is" guy. That's his *selling point* - that his shit's needlessly expensive so it *must* be good - like someone hocking designer handbags, or a guy who thinks he's clever to put a motorcycle engine in a car body and price it like a truck, assuming the people buying it aren't smart enough to look past the novelty to see the absurdity. That's both transparently obvious and very gross. It's disrespectful of his consumers, regardless of if he himself is even aware that's what he's doing.
I find that shit unsavory, and speaking for myself I feel no shame or guilt calling him or anybody else out on it - and should they come in loudly and rudely like 29Pedals dude did, I feel no shame or guilt being loud and rude right back (but moreso, because I'm pretty good at being loud and rude).
Don't come into a space (online or otherwise) with more bluster than sense and expect to be treated half as well as you think you deserve to be.
-----
(Also, I don't care how low your margins are, if you've somehow managed to fuck up designing a buffer *so* hard that you'd be losing money if you weren't charging $300, your design is indeed straight-up *bad*. You either did it by choice (because you want to be the "boutique buffer" guy), or by mistake (because you couldn't optimize either your design or your BoM to hit more reasonable price points, the way a *good* designer would (a good designer would've dropped that fucking 144mA-at-idle power supply *regardless* of its development time and cost, so leaving it in is either sunken-cost-fallacy hubris or I-need-to-justify-my-pricepoint malice)), but either way your design is *bad*.
You know what really cuts into margins? Explody times.Since the conversation has somewhat shifted over to 29 Pedals I want to point out something that has been bugging me lately.
Bear in mind I have not tested this theory, but here we go...
According to all of the marketing hype: "The WHATEVER power supply accepts 7.5 to 35 volts of AC or DC (either polarity) with absolutely no change in tone."
The WHATEVER power supply works by using a full wave bridge rectifier to convert AC to DC, or correct incorrect polarity DC.
Once we have a DC voltage it is regulated down to 5V, stepped back up to +/-15V by a PWM circuit, then regulated back down to the voltages required by the pedal it is paired with.
Here's what concerns me...
1) When powered by DC the bridge rectifier drops around 1 - 2 volts (give or take) and the 7805 regulator has a dropout voltage of 2V. This means when the pedal is powered by the advertised minimum (7.5V) the MAX743 IC is getting around 4.5VDC. According to the datasheet it needs 6V for proper operation. I can confirm that the pedal does function when powered at 7.5V, but this seems a bit borderline to me.
Now this is the big one...
2) When powered by AC a full-wave bridge rectifier outputs a DC voltage approximately 1.414 times the input voltage. This means if the pedal is powered on 35V AC the 7805 regulator is being blasted with 49VDC. The 7805 has an absolute maximum of 35V. I can not confirm that the pedal will function properly on 35V AC......
I want to believe 29 Pedals has actually tested the pedal at the advertised voltage ranges and didn't just assume that because the 7805 can handle 35VDC then the entire circuit can as well. Maybe we should find out what happens?
This is why the IDGAF power modules will list two different voltage ranges, one for AC and one for DC, because they are not the same.
Petition to do a livestream of just feeding a FLWR higher and higher voltages and seeing where it popsYou know what really cuts into margins? Explody times.
Yes.Petition to do a livestream of just feeding a FLWR higher and higher voltages and seeing where it pops
I think that's pretty well put, and the designer handbag comparison is reasonably apt.This.
Re: that 29Pedals dude in particular, since apparently some people think it was the circuit design and not the designer douchebaggery that was being shat upon -
Were 29Pedals's claim to fame a $100-$150 buffer with a MAX1044 charge pump in a 125B, there'd be nothing really to shit talk because regardless of the complexity of the final design, that's an understandable price and form factor for an MIA pedal with a reasonable parts count (note how of all the things Chase Tone catches shit for around these parts, it's never for their circuit design or pricing) - but you don't get to be the "boutique buffer" guy with products like that nosiree.
It's a bit of an "I know it when I see it" thing sure, but you *know* when a dude over-designs and over-builds a BUFFER - a circuit that has absolutely *no* business being hooked up to an overkill power supply that solves no real-world issues and also apparently draws 144mA when it's idling???, housed in an enclosure that has *no* business being the size of a 1590BB, much less a *custom tooled* enclosure the size of a 1590BB - he's fleecing his customers.
He may not think he is because his margins, like his self-awareness, are low, but he's still trying to be the "you know my shit is boutique just look how expensive fancy my buffer is" guy. That's his *selling point* - that his shit's needlessly expensive so it *must* be good - like someone hocking designer handbags, or a guy who thinks he's clever to put a motorcycle engine in a car body and price it like a truck, assuming the people buying it aren't smart enough to look past the novelty to see the absurdity. That's both transparently obvious and very gross. It's disrespectful of his consumers, regardless of if he himself is even aware that's what he's doing.
I find that shit unsavory, and speaking for myself I feel no shame or guilt calling him or anybody else out on it - and should they come in loudly and rudely like 29Pedals dude did, I feel no shame or guilt being loud and rude right back (but moreso, because I'm pretty good at being loud and rude).
Don't come into a space (online or otherwise) with more bluster than sense and expect to be treated half as well as you think you deserve to be.
-----
(Also, I don't care how low your margins are, if you've somehow managed to fuck up designing a buffer *so* hard that you'd be losing money if you weren't charging $300, your design is indeed straight-up *bad*. You either did it by choice (because you want to be the "boutique buffer" guy), or by mistake (because you couldn't optimize either your design or your BoM to hit more reasonable price points, the way a *good* designer would (a good designer would've dropped that fucking 144mA-at-idle power supply *regardless* of its development time and cost, so leaving it in is either sunken-cost-fallacy hubris or I-need-to-justify-my-pricepoint malice)), but either way your design is *bad*.
I think that's a very cynical view of things.Whenever I see discussions like this, I wonder if we are all just complaining about how capitalism works. There are no rules in the free market and we all know that private companies’ only goal is to make money and squeeze as much out of customers as they can. Intellectual honesty and integrity have no place in private industries I’m afraid (I don’t want to give examples because I don’t want this to turn political).
What do you guys think about that?
Whenever I see discussions like this, I wonder if we are all just complaining about how capitalism works. There are no rules in the free market and we all know that private companies’ only goal is to make money and squeeze as much out of customers as they can. Intellectual honesty and integrity have no place in private industries I’m afraid (I don’t want to give examples because I don’t want this to turn political).
What do you guys think about that?