Leprechaun construction question

[DarkJjay]

Hi everyone,

This is the first time that I'm building a pedal on something other than vero, and after looking at the build guide for the Leprechaun PCB I had some questions.

- I can't find a picture on how to do the off-board wiring for the LEDs, should I just follow existing guides on how to wire (for example) 3PDT true bypass?
- a large number of the capacitors are labeled as MLCC; those are just ceramics, right?
- the PCB suggests that I need to add electrolytic caps in a number of places, but the parts list only specifies one. Can/should I still use electrolytic caps in those spaces without breaking anything? (C3, C6, C17, C22, C31 and C36 respectively).

Thank you kindly!

 

[chongmagic]

If you look at page four of the build doc you will see an offboard wiring diagram for the 3pdt switches. The 3pdt on the left is wired in true bypass, the other is basically to turn the Magic function on/off.

MLCC is monolithic ceramic caps, you can use ceramics, I recommend using the 1uf MLCCs. I believe 13 are needed.

C3, C6, C17, C22, C31, and C36 are all electrolytic caps. Page 1 of the build docs has the locations shown, you can see the 6 electrolytic cap spots on the PCB.

 

[phi1]

I think you'll enjoy working on PCB! (Unless you have to desolder..., which is harder than vero). I have and still continue to build a lot on vero, but board mounting the pots and not having to count so much is very nice.

-You can follow existing guides for how to wire 3PDT switches for the bypass switch. (The magic switch will be different, but the principle behind the wiring the LED will be the same). The thing is, PedalPCB always includes a CLR (current limiting resistor) for the LED on the board. Since we don't have a schem, use a multimeter to figure out which resistor is the CLR (one side of the resistor will connect to the A of the LED). PedalPCB always uses 4k7, but you can experiment and use whatever value you like for the brightness (stay above 1k). So, if you solder your LEDs to the A & K spots on the board, then all you need to do is wire it up like shown on the wiring diagram page. Looking at pg 4 or 5, for the bypass switch, the voltage flow is 9V -> CLR -> LED -> Red wire -> Ground (if stomp switch is in ON position). For the magic LED, the voltage flow is 9V -> CLR -> LED -> purple wire (the left one) -> Ground (if stomp switch is in ON position). Check out schems of other projects on here since they will show the CLR and LED and switch.
-MLCC - Chong beat me to it! PedalPCB often uses MLCC 1uF on pedals with lots of components to save space. There's also been some discussion that the MLCC may be better suited for capacitors in the signal path, since electrolytics can leak DC.
-Caps 1uF and higher are always assumed to be electrolytic unless otherwise stated. That's why he didn't specify electrolytic for all those higher ones. He did specify electrolytic for C31 just because it's the only 1uF in this build that's electrolytic.

 

[DarkJjay]

Thank you both! I'll try and figure it out from here.

I do admit that I haven't worked with a multimeter before (mostly building from schematics on tagboardeffects), so I like the fact that I'll have to do it here. Always good to learn a new skill.