What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

1)
breadboarded the expandora today.
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wish i had time to do a capture of this thing, cos heck me dead, it’s so sick.
was surprised, it really is that versatile.
‘forbidden mode’ (lol) is awesome. satisfyingly thicc blistering distortion/fuzz.
drop G# was fun.
it also takes a boost/drive quite nicely.
and i gotta say its pretty dang handy you can just grab a H11F1 from the local PCB monger..

yep, looks like i’m gonna have to build one of these (Pandora's Box) and so should you.

2)
last night i had an urge to try out some 1N277 Ge diodes that I picked up real cheap on ebay.
it occurred to me that I'd never bothered to try out the DOD250 circuit with Ge diodes before..
so i plonked them into one of my very first vero builds (altoids tin) and paired it up with a Schu-Tone DM-3.
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turns out, it's awesome.
i liked these a lot better than 4148 or red or green LED. and still plenty of volume (these were about 350mV fv)

while i was at it, i also made an attempt to figure out how to use a Boss RC-2 i picked up not long ago.
had some fun layering up various levels of gain
 
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I acquired a Vitus 979 frame that I spent quite some time stripping off anodization and polishing the bare aluminum frame.

I could post this in the what's my current headache but my decision to use Campagnolo for the groupset was not a good one.

I bought the hype on forums but I suspect a lot of it brand snobbery. There is a reason Sram and Shimano and Chinese brands are doing OK but Campy is failing.

The feel of the shifters is very fiddly and cheap. Also the thumb shifters are not well placed at all requiring me to shift my hands each time to shift.

I did do a chainstay repair on a Trek 5500 Team USPS.
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Yeah to be honest I don't understand the love some people have for Campy control ergonomics. I get the "one lever per function" philosophy but the thumb lever is just not it and I don't get it. For me it's the same as the old Shimano Sora which was godawful and why would you make this a deliberate choice on your high-end products? So much potential and the execution is just not there IMO.
 
I had the FumeClear FC2001S delivered today so I after the weekend off, this evening I was back in business.
I can say that it works great for fume extraction on the highest setting and my old-fashion vice style PCB holder also makes a good rest for the nozzle. I couldn't smell a whiff of anything while building the p45 PCB that @MichaelW sent me (and which Dave @szukalski designed).

BUT - the FC2001S is way too loud for my space / taste. I worked wearing noise-cancelling AirPods that definitely cover the noise, but the noise level defeats the purpose of working in a common space where I can also talk with family members while I am working. I am not going to drill a hole in my bar counter, but I am definitely going to find the right size hose so I can route the ducting under the counter top and put the fan/filters inside some kind of enclosure.

And (no longer on the board) the p45 works great. I'll follow with a build report when I clean it up but the matched JFETs Michael sent me work perfectly well - it biased easily by ear with a seriously deep notch possible. P90 is next.

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Silver Blues said:
Yeah to be honest I don't understand the love some people have for Campy control ergonomics. I get the "one lever per function" philosophy but the thumb lever is just not it and I don't get it. For me it's the same as the old Shimano Sora which was godawful and why would you make this a deliberate choice on your high-end products? So much potential and the execution is just not there IMO.
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The funny thing is I did try the LTWOO RX 12 speed mechanical shifters before Campy and it influenced my decision. The LTWOO's use thumb shifters and they are placed perfectly. You can control the thumb switch, lever, brake lever from the hoods or drops without moving your hand at all.

With the Sora's, the thumb shifter is placed correctly laterally but way too high when in the drops.
 
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