Bring out yer Diptrace
- Thread starter Grubb
- Start date
falco_femoralis
Well-known member
I just sent this into production. It's an MXR Il Diavolo meant for a 125b with all components board mounted. I spent some time dialing in the pad dimensions. Power and ground is on the top layer, and the bottom is signal path. It's meant to mount like a boss pedal, with the components facing toward the top of the pedal.
I made the audio jacks so that they can either be mounted on the top or bottom, such that all 3 jacks can either be in plane, or the DC jack can be closer to the top. You can use either long leg or short leg pots to accommodate. The way the board is meant to be populated is components first, then fit to enclosure with jacks and footswitch loose, then solder in at the appropriate angle. I'll elongate the audio jack and footswitch/pot holes to allow for removal. The elongations will be disguised by washers etc. I'm not quite sure what the cleanest way to approach the toggle switch will be, but I'll work that out in situ.
I kept the length just shy of 100mm. This brings the footswitch closer to the knobs than I usually do but we'll see how it works. Maybe there will be room for a battery, but I didn't bother making it part of the schematic for this one.
I made the audio jacks so that they can either be mounted on the top or bottom, such that all 3 jacks can either be in plane, or the DC jack can be closer to the top. You can use either long leg or short leg pots to accommodate. The way the board is meant to be populated is components first, then fit to enclosure with jacks and footswitch loose, then solder in at the appropriate angle. I'll elongate the audio jack and footswitch/pot holes to allow for removal. The elongations will be disguised by washers etc. I'm not quite sure what the cleanest way to approach the toggle switch will be, but I'll work that out in situ.
I kept the length just shy of 100mm. This brings the footswitch closer to the knobs than I usually do but we'll see how it works. Maybe there will be room for a battery, but I didn't bother making it part of the schematic for this one.
Nostradoomus
Well-known member
Hopefully you have no crosstalk between the in and out traces. 
Don’t think it’s high gain enough it will matter tho. Time will tell.
Don’t think it’s high gain enough it will matter tho. Time will tell.
falco_femoralis
Well-known member
I'm okay with this being an experiment. A few months ago I made another version of this circuit but in a much more condensed form factor. I'm going to use this circuit as a control as I learn about PCB design, so I can have something constant to compare different layouts.Hopefully you have no crosstalk between the in and out traces.
Don’t think it’s high gain enough it will matter tho. Time will tell.
Almost everything I watch on youtube about PCB design is aimed at high frequency switching applications, like in the MHz and GHz range, and there's less info about what's in the audio range, so I'm not quite sure what design practices are directly applicable to our circuits.
I spaced out their long traces to be equidistant from each other and the edge of the board. At the footswitch, their close proximity is unavoidable, so I'm not so much worried about that.
Looking back on it, I could move the outer trace closer to the outer edge of the board and get more separation. Originally I had a ground plane on both sides and I set this one inward from the edge to allow for space for the ground pour, but I decided to just go with the single ground plane up top just before sending this in. After sending this to JLC I moved around some of the components in the middle to get better flow in the traces that I didn't see before so I'll be able to apply those changes as well as whatever I learn from this in future versions.
leadfoot
Well-known member
If anything you can run the input and output on different edges of the pcb.
I've noticed that even with my worst designs (aka first ones) I haven't had any problems with the traces causing oscillation or interference. I suppose I could go dig out my engineering books and look it up.. but where is the fun in that?
falco_femoralis
Well-known member
yeah it's hard bc I want the footswitch hanging off the end of the board because I like it as far down as possible, so space is limited. If i ran the in/out traces on either side, then the trace connecting the bottom left and bottom right lugs would interfere with the bottom center lug of the footswitch's ability to connect to the IN of the circuit. Because I put all the signal traces on one side for some reason idk. For this, I redid the pinout of the switch to allow the traces better access to the lug pads, but the result is both in/out on the same side.If anything you can run the input and output on different edges of the pcb.
I've noticed that even with my worst designs (aka first ones) I haven't had any problems with the traces causing oscillation or interference. I suppose I could go dig out my engineering books and look it up.. but where is the fun in that?
Maybe I'll make another design on a board to fit a 1590xx with trace spacing of 1 inch and we'll compare findings
would you not just stick the LED switch in the middle?
Feral Feline
Well-known member
A few different grounding options...
This is what I usually do when I'm not using a daughterboard:
The following method may be able to be extrapolated for accommodating Falco's needs with minimal rejigging; should enable the run of the OUTPUT JACK trace on the opposite side of the board from the INPUT JACK's trace:
*All diagrams in this post were found online.
This is what I usually do when I'm not using a daughterboard:
The following method may be able to be extrapolated for accommodating Falco's needs with minimal rejigging; should enable the run of the OUTPUT JACK trace on the opposite side of the board from the INPUT JACK's trace:
*All diagrams in this post were found online.
falco_femoralis
Well-known member
The LED switch could go in the middle, but check out the trace that grounds the input of the pedal when the circuit is bypassed.