squidward/tentacle 1590a build

jspake

Member
i sort of thought this build was going to give me some trouble just because of its simplicity... you know. LUCK. and it did give me trouble, but it was trouble that i learned from. fortunately i just completed a test rig so i was able to go through everything systematically and get to the bottom of things. unfortunately, "the thing" that i did was super duper stupid and nothing the test rig offered was able to help me isolate the issue. after a lot of back and forth (rewired the entire box at least 3 times, changed out the 100uf cap, changed out the transistors) i discovered that the tip contact from the input jack was touching the metal "stalk" of the LED bezel housing... just a little bit of rotation and now it works a charm.

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as you can see i killed part of the switch board while wiring and rewiring and had to go direct on one one of the tabs there. live and learn. the box is a powder coated one from tayda. i think it looks pretty cool for the extra dollar or so. of course i had to match it with the pink LED. the plate/badge is aluminum sheet with a toner transfer/ferric etch followed by a paint fill and waxing. no clear coat on this one.

weird little effect. i played a green ringer something like 25 years ago and all i could remember was that it sounded crazy. i put this in front of the 2 sticks of derm i finished a couple of weeks ago and it really came to life.

and since i mentioned it, here is my test rig. the etch turned out pretty bad considering how little i actually needed to transfer, but i didn't care enough to try it again. its just a little tester for the bench!

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Ha! Yup, one lesson I learnt early on was check the board for ground contacts, whether against the sockets, enclosure or the lid when screwed down. Sometimes the pedal will work fine until you put the lid on and it hits the switch.

Love the enclosure - nice work!
 
thanks for the compliment!

you know i thought i’d done my due diligence with all that by gorilla taping the inside of the bottom plate and also the inside top of the enclose where the badge capture screws come through. i never even considered the plug hitting that shaft/stem thing. i like those bezel things, but i’ve got to figure out a way to shorten them on future builds.
 
i hear you loud and clear on that... but i was married to this pink LED/integral bezel that i already bought!
 
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