What's on the workbench?

I might have to go back and visit it sometime.

The one I built was unpredictable junk (and I like unpredictable).
 
I never made any promises nor signed any NDA's, but I'd never take advantage of a situation like that. There are lines I won't cross.
Totally understandable. How about situations like.. Hey, would you be so kind and let go off this or that.. and you say - well.. ok.
 
Hundreds. I've done a lot more tracing than I have layouts.

I have a WIP folder on my desktop that has several levels of nested WIP folders, things get crowded so I toss it in there. :ROFLMAO:

I don't think I've condemned a trace yet, although I have pushed a few to the side indefinitely. One or two because of the complexity, but others because of difficulty finding the correct parts. I dread working with rotary switches (aside from the little 16mm mini ones) because they are so bulky and force a layout to be larger than it really has to be.

So far I've only abandoned one circuit, the Mellowtone Wolf Computer. I don't know if the schematic going around is incorrect or if it's just an awful pedal. I built the prototype and it was just hopelessly unusable.

EDIT: I did recently trace one that turned out to be an EXACT clone of the Zendrive.... that was disappointing. That one obviously won't become a new project.

They didn’t even bother making one component change to go along with the marketing blurb, huh? 😂
 
Totally understandable. How about situations like.. Hey, would you be so kind and let go off this or that.. and you say - well.. ok.
I generally try to avoid situations like that... If you remove one project where does it end?

Several years ago Adrian Thorpy contacted me, right after the Pyrocumulus Fuzz project was released. He was polite and respectful, and I can appreciate that. Removing the project wasn't an option, but I offered to not post the schematic. (This is the only time I have intentionally not released a schematic) He agreed that would be fair enough, and we've been on decent talking terms ever since.

A couple years later someone traced the PCB and the schematic was eventually released, so I in turn added it to the build doc. (There was no longer any reason to withhold it)

Another builder contacted me about a different project. Again, he was a nice guy and didn't bother threatening legal action or to stomp on my puppy, so I offered to only release an older version of that particular project and not touch the more recent version until some time had passed. We've also been on good terms ever since and he's ordered a few PCBs from here since then.

I would never do anything to intentionally harm someones business or livelihood, and I'm not convinced that "clones" or DIY projects have any impact on sales of an original product. Interest in the BuGGFX Daydream and Raincoat spiked after I released the PCBs for both of them, so there's that.

I'm not a complete monster and am always willing to hear someone out and hopefully find a resolution we're both happy with, just don't email me with legal threats and ridiculous demands. My spam folder is already full enough. :ROFLMAO:

Also... if your design is just another Tubescreamer or Muff clone, save us both the trouble and don't bother reaching out at all... pot and kettle and all that.


I have a lot of respect for the folks who are reasonable because there are plenty enough who aren't.
 
On the opposite extreme, one particular builder contacted me almost distraught because they couldn't understand why I had never offered a PCB for any of their projects. "What's wrong with our pedals? You don't like them?" Mindblown, but okay. :ROFLMAO:

Unfortunately I can't say who that was (by their request) because of possible fallout from their distributors.
 
It also doesn't help that I am not even remotely happy with the current build doc content or format... layouts come naturally to me, but documentation is much more of a difficult task. Lets not even get into any form of "literature" included in the docs, I'm the worst at getting points across clearly which is why they're basically the bare minimum technical info (at best).
You could always crowdsource it, people here are crazy knowledgable & are kind of doing it anyways in help threads. Just throw up a PCB pic or schematic with values & part numbers and have people aggregate the info into something usable. Most trimpots are pretty easy to understand, a schematic would give us the voltage ratings for caps + the PCB their sizes.

Might also be a good use for the wiki?
 
On the opposite extreme, one particular builder contacted me almost distraught because they couldn't understand why I had never offered a PCB for any of their projects. "What's wrong with our pedals? You don't like them?" Mindblown, but okay. :ROFLMAO:

Unfortunately I can't say who that was (by their request) because of possible fallout from their distributors.
You can’t say who it was, but can you say if you have done/will do one of their projects at some point?
 
I think you can somehow subscribe to updates on the main shop page but I'm not sure if it notifies you when a product page is updated or not.

There used to be a "New Build Documentation" thread here that you could Watch and get updates when they were added. It just depends on me actually remembering to post that it has been updated.
 
I used a 5mm red diffused LED and the GL-5528 LDR from Tayda for the prototype of the trem.

I haven't build the wah prototype yet, but I'm planning to use similar when they arrive.

The RingTone uses an H11F3 optoisolator.
 
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