POLL - Do you use 3PDT breakout boards?

[Feral Feline]

In the era BP (before PedalPCB) I bought a "few" *(hundred) GuitarPCB ones, Barry had a group-buy/sale so I went a little nuts and ordered a bunch, a BIG BUNCH.

Lots of extra ground-pads, and the 2-colour LED option can be useful for some builds, such as dual-circuit builds or dual-control builds.

I like to mod them, like if thrown in the middle of a circuit for whatever reason, you can cut the bypass trace easily (below lug 6) and throw in a resistor between pins 3<>9.

I tend to cram when building 1590A (well, any size enclosure), so GPCB's actually not that great for that application — the bottom corners are angled, but they really need to be curved to fully get around the screw channels of the 1590A and utilise that last 1/2 a millimeter that I all too often need.

So for 1590A I use other 3PDT boards that have that curvature in the corners or none at all (unless there's plenty of room for one of GPCB's). I kind of collect breakout boards from various suppliers, just to see what they do differently and to see what I like. Haven't come across a need for a dimmer-trimmer in any builds, but I might, and even then, could just wire up a trimmer. Some have weird extensions off to one side to accommodate the trimmer or some other thingermajigger, but the more compact, the better for me.



Most breakout boards I've seen have the standard in/out ala the GPCB breakout boards, whereby:

POLE 1
Pin 1 to board
Pin 2 input from jack
Pin 3 bypass to pin 9

POLE 2 — for LED switching

POLE 3
Pin 7 from effect
Pin 8 out
Pin 9 hardwired to pin 3



WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE...

...Is a breakout board that has the curved corners, a few extra ground pads, CLR & LED capability and WIRED AS PER MARC SKREDDY does it, as shown in MadBean's 3PDT wiring doc. It's Fig 13 in this PDF: https://www.madbeanpedals.com/tutorials/downloads/MBP_FootswitchWiring.pdf

POLE 1
Pin 1 to LED+
Pin 2 Ground AND hardwired to pin 3
Pin 3 Hardwired to pin 2 and pin 6

POLE 2
Pin 4 Input from jack and jumpered to pin 9
Pin 5 to circuit-board's input
Pin 6 hardwired to pin 3 (Ground)

POLE 3
Pin 7 from effect circuit
Pin 8 out
Pin 9 hardwired to pin 4


Anyone know of any breakout 3PDT boards wired like that? Althought I've got a few Madbean breakouts (IIRC), I don't even know how they're wired. Does Madbean do the Skreddy method on his own breakout boards?


When I get better at this game and can wire a 3PDT tidily, and I run out of my stash of breakouts ... I won't need them anymore?

Cheers,
FF

 

[Robert]

I've personally never used that method because it puts the circuit input / output in closer proximity to each other than the "other" way.... high gain circuits sometimes don't like that.

 

[jhford]

The first kit I tried to put together resulted in me melting my 3pdt switch due to having to use leadfree solder and not realising how hot the switches got. The 3pdt boards were really helpful, also for kits which didn't have an LED space on their board. Now I don't find them at all hard to do by hand, but I still prefer the 3pdt, especially if the main PCB makes it annoying to wire things without a special one.

I just received a bunch of boards from you expecting them to include the 3pdt boards because the kits I buy with your boards in Europe (Musikding) include your 3pdt, but it's not a big deal. Now that I know they aren't there, I'd either order with them or I would just continue to not use them.

I say this because "Sometimes, if they're included or handy, but I like the option to not pay for it if I don't need it, but I'd like it more visible that they aren't included" isnt' an option

 

[Jonnytexas]

I personally almost never use them. I got my start building BYOC kits, and they have you wire direct to the footswitch, so I got plenty of practice. The boards look nice, but take me longer. The wires can be run neatly either way IMHO. I would suggest an clickable option to buy the board so those who want it can get it.
EDIT: I wrote this, then voted and looked at the poll results. It seems I am in the minority. What am I missing?

 

[Feral Feline]

I've personally never used that method because it puts the circuit input / output in closer proximity to each other than the "other" way.... high gain circuits sometimes don't like that.

Thanks for the tip!

It was my understanding it was good for high-gain circuits because any bleed on bypass went to ground — vague recollection of reading something like that.

Proximity I get.

 

[guitarfreak2105]

I used one on my first build. Worked very well and was easy enough to use.

 

[Robert]

It was my understanding it was good for high-gain circuits because any bleed on bypass went to ground — vague recollection of reading something like that.

The standard 3PDT breakout boards ground the circuit input when the effect is bypassed for that very reason.

 

[Feral Feline]

I really like the PPCB boards, very compact with just what's necessary.
Since I tend to cram too much into too small of enclosures, the PPCB Standards are perfect for me. I will order some when I've exhausted my stash of other breakout boards. Might have to order some before then, for reasons already given — sometimes a 1/2-mm is literally the tipping point of failure or success.