Why do you post a 'Build Report'?

I think it's sweet if anyone's wife is enthusiastic about their husband's pedal build. My wife can muster a bewildered "well it's very neat" before swiftly changing the subject.

She does appreciate some of the things I make though. Very soon she will appreciate the Friday night margarita I make her.
 
Alright, no more jokes from me. (Maybe a few at myself)

I was impressed by the work a lot of members did/do, and I wanted to do my own things; put my graphics design degree to use (pivoted career in the last 5+ years), so why not?

I feel a lot of indirect shade because I use UV to get my designs out (and let's not lie, the LLM generated images that have accompanied some of them), but getting the idea onto the pedal by hand doesn't net me the result I want.

I don't begrudge anyone who's doing their best, whatever the production medium they choose. Heck, my favorite builds on here don't even have any graphics but the beautiful color finish they choose!

In my mind, the LLM graphics (apart from the ethical ramifications—can of worms I'm not commenting on here) or otherwise gotten stock photos/art are assets. And just like in my marketing graphic design days I edit and transform them before I even start. The concept and execution change while I'm working on it, too, and I'm just doing what I did on that life; only the target has changed.

Okay enough about my process, but it's intertwined with why I do things. I have an idea and think "yeah that's what I want."

I'm not gonna deny for one minute that I don't get off on the validation; the intersection of multiple hobbies/skills was like "yeah, I finally am getting closer to something on the road to 'ikigai' " got me going. But it's not the only reason, even though it might seem that way.

I've slowed down a bit because of reasons, but mostly because I don't want to appear doing it only for the validation. I'm doing it because I want to do it.
 
- I like to document the way I build stuff to refer to it later (for myself)
- give a (counter)example of how to do it
- hopefully get constructive feedback because I am still very fresh
- get encouragements from other people because the way my wife says "good job!" when she sees a new pedal and "good job!" when my son builds a lego sounds dreadfully similar.

Also:
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What ever the reason for the posts, build reports are more than half of what I'm looking at when I come here. I appreciate them and derive a lot of inspiration from them.

Also, I tend to think of build reports a part of a repository. I usually check them out before I start a new project when to answer questions. Just did it last week to know how to orient an SMD chip.
 
jessenator said:
Alright, no more jokes from me. (Maybe a few at myself)

I was impressed by the work a lot of members did/do, and I wanted to do my own things; put my graphics design degree to use (pivoted career in the last 5+ years), so why not?

I feel a lot of indirect shade because I use UV to get my designs out (and let's not lie, the LLM generated images that have accompanied some of them), but getting the idea onto the pedal by hand doesn't net me the result I want.
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Word. Some people fabricate their own enclosures and etch their own PCBs too. And then many here only build clones and/or other people's circuit designs. I can usually find something to like about any of those things, or not. When it's a nope I see little value in broadcasting that overtly though, personally.
 
It is interesting seeing why people build. I guess a lot of the time the Build Report inadvertently tells you why someone has built a pedal. It seems a lot of us like to build just for the sake of building and having a pedal that they have built and decorated in their own way. And that is as worthy a goal as any. Maybe you build because the original pedal is unavailable, maybe it's because you want top mounted jacks. Maybe it's even because the original is ugly or comes in a huge box and you want to save space. And a lot of us here make beautiful pedals that I would be proud to own.

But for me it's all about getting the thing to make the sounds I want. So the aesthetics are less important than whatever it is that I've done to it. I still value neatness, perhaps to an anal degree(!). If I build a stock circuit it's to evaluate it and see if I think I can make it suit me better. So I don't really spend any time on graphics - I might gut the thing and turn it into something completely different. Hence I don't post many build reports unless I'm particularly happy with the result. As a non-technical person often I have no real idea of what I'm doing but damn I enjoy doing it!
 
Something I always enjoy(ed) seeing is tweaks people made to circuits when they built their own versions. When I post a build report I always try to note anything disappointing about the circuit and if I did any modding to fix it for my use. It also helps me remember what the hell I did down months the road lol.

Like on the Bluesbreaker I used a linear volume pot instead of the logarithmic pot it calls for which IMO should 100% be the way it came from the factory instead of the logarithmic pot they used. That plus swapping the 220k resistor for a 470k resistor for higher gain potential. I know there's been at least one person that's benefited from that because they mentioned me in the review on the blue breaker pcb listing. On the flip side there's another person that thought the linear volume pot took something away from the circuit, but that's total bullshit (imo).

It's just an easy way to give a little back to the community and the attaboys are a bonus.
 
I only started building in October last year, I had some soldering experience from my previous hobby extreme overclocking, which involves simple stuff like trimmers for voltage increases for graphics cards, to full blown replacement of power delivery systems for graphics cards which involves cutting the PCB to deliver power directly to the copper. Check out an epower graphics card to see what I mean. (https://xdevs.com/guide/epower_v/)

I posted a thread after I'd done some builds, all have been for myself, as mostly to remember what I'd made and what I'd modded, and I've sold off the pedals I didn't like, and so the thread reminds me of them and what I learned, I like having a single thread so it's all in one place, which is probably annoying to everyone else now that I consider it
 
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jcpst said:
I would forget too. I use a kanban board to keep track of my builds.

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I really hate this kind of corporate project flair. I really hate it at work but for pedals it seems quite nice. Something is always better when you are not forced.

I seldom write build reports here, the pictures with a little text are mostly posted at the musikding forum. Back when I started I spend my non efficient hours during night shifts to inhale the picture thread of diystompboxes. This was so crazy! Nowadays I feel like a bragging dick when I post something here, at musikding and reddit. But it’s not bragging, it’s just spreading stuff that someone else might enjoy or be inspired as I was while looking at the diysb pictures thread. Bragging would be the same post on diystompboxes, freestompboxes, pedalpcb, musikding, reddit, tgp and harmony central.
I am already confused on where to post a question because there are so many places. Are the guys at musikding pissed because I post pictures there but ask stuff at diystompboxes?
We should start a thread „where do you ask your diy questions and why?“
 
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