Triple Pedal Build #2

[TucsonSean]

Greetings everyone!

Since my last triple pedal build, I have gone on to build a few different versions of the Revv clones (dual pedal of the Tyrian with Sanguine tone controls and Sanguine with Malachite drive levels, a stand-alone Malachite modded to clean and bright, a triad fuzz and a few other unmentionables). These pedals have been great but I was always looking for something a little different. Since I use my triple pedal as an amp emulator into my Line 6 HX StompXL, I thought "why not build another triple pedal amp emulator setup with a fender clean type tone, a marshally type drive and something a little different. That something different came in the form of the Sunn Model-T, ala the Mofeta. I built a stand-alone Mofeta to see how close its tone came to the new Helix Moo)))n model (Model-T amp model for those unfamiliar with the Helix). I was very pleased with its sound but before I could put it in the pedal, my bass player asked to use it and well, I had to wait for a new batch of boards to be in stock again since he didn't want to give it up. So, when the new board finally arrived, the new triple pedal build commenced. And after too many weeks of waiting for various parts and AVR programming, I am proud to say it is finally here:

the SMF, the Su Ma Fen, the SuMarFend,

or whatever cool name you want to come up with . This pedal is a nice change from the Triple Threat. A really nice clean to light breakup via the Doxie, the variuos marshally flavors of the Bobby, and the really clean to crazy thick Mofeta. I am working on getting everything dialed in but I can tell you it is shaping up to be a nice setup for my weekly gigs. Very versatile and fun to boot.

I did my standard enclosure milling and engraving for the control layout and text on my cnc mill. Once I decide on a name, I may mill a new enclosure and engrave a proper name on it. Until then, at the very least I will not be embarrassed by this enclosure.

I'll post more pics and build notes soon, after I get it on my pedal board and tweaked to my delight.

-Sean

 

[szukalski]

Noice!!! Love it. Classy design.

 

[steviejr92]

Great build!

 

[KR Sound]

Three classic tones. Awesome.

 

[iamjackslackof]

Gorgeous! Any tips on drilling for multiple pedals in one box? About to embark on my own first multi-pedal build, and drilling seems like the hardest part. Also, can you go into detail on the 3PDT daughterboard you're using? Looks handy, but I've not seen anyone use something like that for a multi-pedal build.

 

[TucsonSean]

All,
Thanks for the kind words. It is nice when a plan actually comes together in a surprisingly good way.

iamjackslackof,
I tried drilling my first few enclosures by hand and I wasn't happy with how accurate my drilling was. Now I don't drill the enclosures. I mill them on my cnc mill. I take the enclosure model that Hammond kindly provides and import that into Solidworks to do the control layout and any text/engraving that I want. I try to model the complete pedal so I know if there is room for everything. Once I am happy with the layout, I then generate the holes and then its off to the mill after I generate the g-code for everything. I attached an image of my model for this build.

With regards to the daughterboard, that is my own design. It uses an ATTiny84 to control 3 relays with 3 push buttons. I took inspiration from the Intelligent Relay Board and similar designs. It has a 5V regulator for power and uses onboard transistors to control the LEDs. I could optimize the code a little bit better but it works and seems reliable. The last triple pedal I made I had a similar board but used 3 separate ATTiny85 devices each controlling their own relay. It has worked flawlessly for over a year so I don't expect this one to be any different. I also milled the pcb on my cncmill.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I'm happy to answer them.

-Sean

 

[iamjackslackof]

@TucsonSean Super cool! I was expecting you're just handy at drilling and not a full-on CNC setup. And same with the MCU relay board. I've been meaning to try making my own MCU-controlled relay 3PDT but haven't got around to it.

 

[TucsonSean]

@iamjackslackof My cnc setup for pedals is just a small taig mill. It has a large enough work envelope that I was able to mill out all of the holes on both the front and top mount jacks/power. When I drilled by hand, I noticed my drill bit wandering ever so slightly and that caused the knobs to be out of alignment. This drove me crazy so I decided to use the mill to bore the holes.

The relay board is pretty straight forward. I sized the pcb to just fit in the enclosure and use the 3 footswitches to hold it in place. The ring leds I use support the board so it doesn't touch the enclosure. The ATTiny84 is programmed with an Arduino Uno and coded in the Arduino IDE.

 

[iamjackslackof]

Woah, that is small. Pretty great size for a garage. I may have to pick something like that up when I move to a place with a garage So Solidworks is like the 3D modeling app for it, which generates g-code or whatever the mill understands to do the actual milling?

 

[iamjackslackof]

Also what resources did you use for developing the code for the ATTiny? I see Coda has an implementation, but I've not had a chance to play with it.

 

[TucsonSean]

@iamjackslackof Solidworks is the 3D modeling (CAD) software that generates the models. Then you need a CAM software to generate the toolpaths that are used to ultimately generate g-code (what the CNC controller uses to run the mill).

I used the Arduino IDE to write the code for programming the ATTiny84 and used an Arduino Uno set up as a programmer for the ATTiny84. There is a ton of information online on how to accomplish this. I used the Coda example as well as the pedalpcb Intelligent Relay Bypass for a starting point for the hardware. The code was fairly straight forward as well.

 

[mikl]

Hello @TucsonSean

Since my last triple pedal build, I have gone on to build a few different versions of the Revv clones (dual pedal of the Tyrian with Sanguine tone controls and Sanguine with Malachite drive levels, a stand-alone Malachite modded to clean and bright, a triad fuzz and a few other unmentionables). These pedals have been great but I was always looking for something a little different. Since I use my triple pedal as an amp emulator into my Line 6 HX StompXL, I thought "why not build another triple pedal amp emulator setup with a fender clean type tone, a marshally type drive and something a little different.

If you have few minutes to develop two small point about your choices :

1. what did you modify on the Malachite to make it clean and bright ? (I assume by removing the 2 clipping diodes and reduce the amplification of the gain AOP ... and probably tweaking the brightness filter around the SW1.2)
2. in your second project, you mentioned a clean channel with a fender clean type tone.. Can you provide more info on this one ? (I was looking through a kinda tone stack 3 band EQ.. http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/)
Thanks in advance

MiKL

 

[lrgaraujo]

Nice job!! Have you had any noise issues running the 3 charge pumps from the same power inlet?

 

[peachsoju]

I wanna build a noval trichorus pedal using 3 chorus pedals in one box with a compressor and expander like the Roland SDD-320. So 5 pedals in one box. Can't find a Dytronics schematic but got lot's of gut shots. I got all the SDD-320 info with schems, guts and block diagrams.

 

[TucsonSean]

Hello MiKL

The Malachite was modded to have less gain in the previous stages so that I was not clipping the signal into the LEDs if the gain was turned down, even on the blue mode. I also socketed the LEDs so I could remove them to ensure no clipping but I found that I liked to have a little bit of clipping to the sound. I adjusted the cap values in the final stages (EQ) for a brighter sound ala the Sanguine. It turned out pretty good.

With regards to the fendery clean type tone, I used the Doxie for this. It does have a nice clean sound when you turn the gain down to about 9 o'clock. Since I am using these pedals as my amp sims and using my helix as the cab emulator and FX processor, I wanted the classic Fender and Marshall sounds available. I added the Sunn sound to throw something a little different into the mix and I'm really liking what it does.

Since I have released the Mofeta into Plexfeta mod (see here) I am really liking the clean sound from this modified pedal more so than the Doxie, which I am now running with the gain around 1 o'clock to get a more pushed/driven fender sound.

-Sean

 

[TucsonSean]

Hello Irgaraujo

Thank you for the compliment.

I have not noticed any issues with the three charge pumps running from the same supply. I am also running the arduino based switching system from the same supply that supplies the three pedal boards. Still no issues with noise, even with the pedals set to maximum gain.

-Sean