First vero build adventure - Plecostomus

[fancypete]

Well I took the Plecostomus fuzz that I tested on my protoboard and made a layout using DIYLC. It was a super fun puzzle experience. I decided to make it challenging by fitting it all onto a 17x19 piece of strip board. After about a day of doing the layout ( I finally surrendered and just wired the Level pot off-board) I transferred the components onto the strip board. Everything went together smoothly. I boxed it up, plugged it in, and the dang thing sounded great! For five minutes...then it stopped working. But it DID work! Now I'm looking forward to tearing it apart and figuring out what the heck is going on. Anyway, at least I confirmed the layout works, even if it is a bit cramped. What a fun activity. Really makes me appreciate the great layouts PedalPCB provides with their pcbs.

 

[peccary]

That's rad, dude. Great work!

What an awesome accomplishment.

 

[BuddytheReow]

Vero/stripboard is not easy. Excellent work! Debugging is a necessary evil I’m afraid. The good news is that it worked so all the components are laid out properly. I’m currently going down the vero rabbit hole myself this winter. Keep at it!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Nice job!
There is something Zen about creating a Vero layout.
I've had trouble with pots stressing the Vero board and pulling the traces up. I've solved it two different ways:
1. Mount the pots on the component side. With that comes a whole new set of problems pertaining to clearances.
2. Mount the pots on the Cu side, then wrap some solid wire around the pot lead on the component side and feed it thru an adjacent hole (one that connects to the same trace) and solder everything down. Now the pot is retained very securely.

 

[fancypete]

Nice job!
There is something Zen about creating a Vero layout.
I've had trouble with pots stressing the Vero board and pulling the traces up. I've solved it two different ways:
1. Mount the pots on the component side. With that comes a whole new set of problems pertaining to clearances.
2. Mount the pots on the Cu side, then wrap some solid wire around the pot lead on the component side and feed it thru an adjacent hole (one that connects to the same trace) and solder everything down. Now the pot is retained very securely.

The pots were the issue. I found that they were a little askew going through the holes I drilled. When I tightened them down they flexed on the board and were shorting with other components/traces. I put some electrical tape down, and loosened the nuts on the pots a little. Voila: fuzzy goodness. Will have to watch out for this in the future.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Yep, had that shorting problem too. I found that if I spaced the pots leads up from the board a little so that the wide part of the pot lead is not in contact with the traces, then no shorts. But mostly I just mount the pots outboard and use solid wire to connect the pots to the board. That provides enough support.

 

[HamishR]

I'e never seen anyone mount the pots to the board on vero before so I was a bit confused! I try to get all of the connections to a particular pot as close together as possible and as close to that pot as possible. Then the wire from board to pot can be surprisingly short and you don't have to worry about board flex. It also means the board can be way smaller.

But you have done an amazing job for a first vero job. No way I could have ever done anything like that.