Best Practices For Schematic To Vero

[Ginsly]

It took a while, but I'm at the point where I've been able to translate some schematics to breadboard with success. It's incredible fun, and has lead to learning a lot more about why things work the way they do.

Pedal PCB boards (as well as the boards of some members here!) are really the way to go, but there are times when something isn't available or I plan to make a bunch of ridiculous changes. I've found that I really like vero and perf too.

At some point I'd love to make my own vero/perf layouts, but I can't quite wrap my head around where to start. This guide was helpful, but uses an IC where I'll be using transistors for the most part: https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/09/vero-layout-guide.html. Still, it's a good start.

If anyone knows of other good tutorials or has some fairly specific tips/rules on how to think about the process, I'd love to learn more about this.

 

[BuddytheReow]

Stripboard is kind of like breadboarding. There are many ways to get the job done. When I first started making my own layouts the tag board link was helpful to an extent. At the time I wanted a fish without learning how to fish so I found it frustrating. The best advice I can give is to just do it. Practice. Pick a simple circuit like a LPB-1 or another one knobber and make a layout for it. Then do it again, but make it a more compact layout. Then do it again, but this time add another knob such as a gain control. It will force you to think differently how to lay it out.

Some general tips/advice:

In nearly every circuit you are building 2 separate paths simultaneously: power and guitar signal. With few exceptions, they shouldn’t overlap.

IN, OUT, 9V, and GND. Those are the bare minimum offboard wires for any circuit. I make my IN on the left side and OUT on the right. Power is a little trickier, but it comes down to trial and error. The more ground connections you have, the better.

Try to keep your component footprints to a minimum. 1/4w resistors use 4 holes, box caps use 3, electros and ceramics use 2. It makes a neater layout and a more compact board. This doesn’t always happen.

Use track cuts to your advantage. That big, long track that’s only good for 1 path (power or signal) can give you more options with a simple cut or two. You can lay any component horizontally as long as there’s a separation between the two leads with a cut. Cuts also allow you to carve out your board into multiple work areas besides just a single track.

Use jumpers to your advantage. If you’re running out of room, continue the circuit a few rows above or below with a jumper. The downside is that you lose the real estate the jumper is on top of. Many people including myself add jumpers to get extra grounding points.

Practice tracing other layouts online. Not necessarily against a schematic (though that would help), but just to see how others do it. Good practice would be to draw a schematic based solely on the layout.

Offboard wiring becomes a rats nest really fast if you’re not careful. Try to keep offboard connections for a single pot or switch to one side of the layout. Having multiple pots on both sides of the board is fine, but when lugs 1 and 2 are on the left side and lug 3 is on the right it can get messy fast. There are exceptions to this.

Use the right tool when designing layouts. Pencil and paper I gave up after 5 minutes from all the eraser marks. I recommend DIY Layout Creator. There’s no tutorial, but it’s pretty intuitive and you can alter components lengths and widths easily with a right click. Or is it a double click?

Keep in mind the maximum board dimensions you can work with. A google search will tell you how many rows/columns you CAN work with in a certain sized enclosure. Depending on the circuit you’re building and how experienced you are at layouts, you won’t need all that real estate. I tend to shorten my boards by 2-3 rows and columns so I can easily mount it in the enclosure and have room for wiring.

Don’t forget LED and CLR. I’ve had to get creative after making a layout using any free 9V and ground connections to offboard wire both of those components. Not a dealbreaker, but kind of annoying and I’ve kicked myself a bit for not thinking of that earlier.

ICs and trimmers take up more real estate than you think.

You can always make a daughterboard for certain sections in a pinch, such as a diode selector with a switch. Or simply wire the diodes to the switch.

You can add cuts and jumpers underneath ICs. Many layouts have cuts to separate the pins from one another.

Once you’re done with the layout, trace it. Make sure the power and signal paths aren’t overlapping. I usually forgot to add a cut or two when going through this step. Trace it again after a few hours or the next day with fresh eyes to make sure it works “on paper”.

Designing a layout isn’t easy, but it gets easiER the more you do it. It’s a giant game of problem solving and trial and error like most DIY projects.

Most importantly, have fun!

 

[Feral Feline]

THEE best practice is ...

... to skip vero and go directly to perf.​

At least perf skills can be transferred somewhat to laying out PCBs...​

I'll let myself out...​

 

[Ginsly]

Practice tracing other layouts online. Not necessarily against a schematic (though that would help), but just to see how others do it. Good practice would be to draw a schematic based solely on the layout.

WOW! @BuddytheReow thank you so much for taking the time to compose such a thorough response - it gives me a lot to think about, and it all makes sense.

I pulled this quote just because it happened to come up while I was breadboarding recently. There seemed to be some odd tweaks to the "Boss T-Bone" Bosstone variant from years ago (similar to Mini Bone, WTF, Fuzzly Bear), so I thought it would be quick and easy to plug in and try. I found the original forum thread from years ago and used (what I thought was) a reliable schematic someone had come up with. Problem is, there were too many cooks and I'm not sure the proper schematic was ever posted. Tried a few times and it didn't work.

But! Someone had put together a vero layout that was verified to work, so I zoomed in, started with the input and kinda just visually traced where things lead. From that, I was able to carefully populate the breadboard again - and it worked!

Your advice is going to be one of those "print it out and tack it next to your work stations" kind of post - I really, really appreciate it.

THEE best practice is ...

... to skip vero and go directly to perf.​

At least perf skills can be transferred somewhat to laying out PCBs...​

I'll let myself out...​

Hey, I like perf too! I can't even imagine laying out a pcb at this point in time, but I can see how perf would relate to that more closely. One day!

 

[Feral Feline]

Yeah, joking well aside...

BtR has some great advice here, and in many of his "how to ..." and "understanding..." TUTORIAL type threads in the TEST KITCHEN part of the forum.

His suggestion for drawing up your own schematics from VERO (and perf) is a great way to both understanding vero layouts and practicing clean easily-understood schematics.

I've found a few vero layouts without schematics that I wanted and drew my own — then compared some of my vero-derived schematics to other amateurs' and to the pros (Robert, Bean, Kevin@Aion, etc) and ... well, I still need lots more practice, but I've improved a bit.

 

[micmac]

I wanted to do the Pharmacist on Vero. There was a layout already, but the format wasn't to my liking. So I wanted to do my own. First time Vero layouting for me.

First I decided on the size I wanted. And then I said I wanted input on the lower left, because that's where you connect it to the foot switch. And I wanted the power section in the middle at the top, because that's where the DC adapter is. And I wanted raw 9V in the middle at the bottom for the LEDs.

So I kind of started with that, first power, then input. And then I went from input upwards, then to the top, then under the charge pump and up to the right, then all the way down.

Between all that I thought in general it'd be nice to have connects to the pots rather at the top. And also a few free ground slots at the top and at the bottom for pots, jacks, LEDs.

I just started and went with it. Some head scratching here and there, but it worked out fine and was pretty "Zen" indeed (quoting Chuck Bones). Fun, kindoff. Tedious at times, though . Took me a few days, always doing a few bits at a time.

 

[Ginsly]

So I kind of started with that, first power, then input. And then I went from input upwards, then to the top, then under the charge pump and up to the right, then all the way down.

Very cool to hear your process! I never really considered that I could start with where I would WANT to put 9v, Ground, In, and Out. It might change as the layout progresses of course, but it makes sense to at least start with them in the most ideal place.

When you say "under the charge pump" what do you mean by that? I think this is one of the things I'm most concerned with - crossing things that shouldn't be crossed or putting things too close together that will lead to more noise, etc etc... I have a VERY noisy environment and really try to focus on keeping it at bay.

 

[micmac]

Hi, with "under" I mean "going south" of the charge pump, not "underneath". Just to get from upper left to upper right.

BTW, I've posted some info at Musikding if you want to take a look:

Link

 

[BuddytheReow]

WOW! @BuddytheReow thank you so much for taking the time to compose such a thorough response - it gives me a lot to think about, and it all makes sense.

I pulled this quote just because it happened to come up while I was breadboarding recently. There seemed to be some odd tweaks to the "Boss T-Bone" Bosstone variant from years ago (similar to Mini Bone, WTF, Fuzzly Bear), so I thought it would be quick and easy to plug in and try. I found the original forum thread from years ago and used (what I thought was) a reliable schematic someone had come up with. Problem is, there were too many cooks and I'm not sure the proper schematic was ever posted. Tried a few times and it didn't work.

But! Someone had put together a vero layout that was verified to work, so I zoomed in, started with the input and kinda just visually traced where things lead. From that, I was able to carefully populate the breadboard again - and it worked!

Your advice is going to be one of those "print it out and tack it next to your work stations" kind of post - I really, really appreciate it.

Hey, I like perf too! I can't even imagine laying out a pcb at this point in time, but I can see how perf would relate to that more closely. One day!

You're welcome. Stripboard and perf doesn't get as much love as it deserves. At least on this forum. IMO, this is true DIY!!!!

 

[HamishR]

I wanted to do the Pharmacist on Vero. There was a layout already, but the format wasn't to my liking. So I wanted to do my own. First time Vero layouting for me.

First I decided on the size I wanted. And then I said I wanted input on the lower left, because that's where you connect it to the foot switch. And I wanted the power section in the middle at the top, because that's where the DC adapter is. And I wanted raw 9V in the middle at the bottom for the LEDs.

So I kind of started with that, first power, then input. And then I went from input upwards, then to the top, then under the charge pump and up to the right, then all the way down.

Between all that I thought in general it'd be nice to have connects to the pots rather at the top. And also a few free ground slots at the top and at the bottom for pots, jacks, LEDs.

I just started and went with it. Some head scratching here and there, but it worked out fine and was pretty "Zen" indeed (quoting Chuck Bones). Fun, kindoff. Tedious at times, though . Took me a few days, always doing a few bits at a time.

This is pretty much what I do. After building a few Tagboard Layouts Veros various things would annoy me about them at first I just changed a few things around. Then it occurred to me that I could just draw out the whole thing myself. I too like to put IN at lower left on the board. I like GAIN to be top left, because I always have the GAIN pot top right on my pedals. That way it needs the shortest possible wiring. POWER and GROUND go top right usually. And if I can get the BASS and TREBLE wiring connections to all be next to each other I'm happy.

Drawing a Vero layout reminds me of those puzzles we used to get which were a picture made up of sliding squares, and you had to slide the squares around until you made the picture. DIYLC makes it easy to make these circuits fit onto a Vero.