B.I.Y. (Boutique it yourself) guitar pedal PCB & kits
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What and why the b.i.y. idea?The B.I.Y. P.C.B. and kits are designed to allow anyone to easily create professional quality, reliable versions of their favourite (or personally designed) guitar pedals at home.
The P.C.B. requires no off-board wiring greatly reducing the potential for failure while vastly reducing build time. The board also features dedicated space for a voltage regulator, reverse-polarity protection, filtering capacitors, on/off indicator LED, and creating 1/2Vcc. Trace cuts are made on the same side of the board that the components are placed to reduce confusion! Off-board wiring is boring and unreliable, just make your circuit. Check out our B.I.Y. guide |
lATEST news[05/05] 1950BB BIY PCB and Bare-bones kit now available.
[29/04] Added video demos for Bazz Fuss and SHO Boost [14/04] 1st Larger BIY boards prototype sent to board house [14/04] v1.1 .brd file added to Resources page. [14/04] v1.1 of BIY board sent to board house [14/04] DIY Layout Creator Template Updated [14/04] Graphic overlays added. Broken links fixed [25/02] Orange Squeezer Compressor added to Layouts [24/02] BIY PCBs and Kits now shipping! |
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Background to the project
When we started the design process for this project we had the following objectives:
Let's look at how we tackled each of these objectives...
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INCREASING LONG-TERM BUILD RELIABILITY
For us, this was the most important objective. We all want our projects to be as close to "gig-safe" as possible. As exciting as it is to build something and hear it working; if it stops working after a week/month/year, or even on stage, you are just going to get pissed off and perhaps abandon DIY electronics altogether.
To try and solve this issue we created a single PCB that fits neatly into a 1590B (Hammond - in the USA)/27134PSLA (Eddystone - EU/UK) that requires no off-board wiring. All components (shrouded inputs, stomp, pots, etc...) are soldered directly to the board. There is virtually nothing to come loose from tossing it in your gig bag and it removes any pressure on the wiring from the pots, inputs or stompswitch from over use. The only wiring required is board-to-board (for jumper wires and connecting to potentiometer inputs).
MINIMISE OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUILD ERROR
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Our design has been heavily inspired by the vibrant vero/stipboard community and the flexibility the medium offers.
However there is one huge headache with stripboard; having to cut on the reverse of the board and place components on the front. I can't tell you the amount of times I've made a trace cut in the wrong place only to realise later in the build, or worse, frying an IC because of some messy off board wiring mistake or jangly piece of stripboard shorting against the enclosure. |
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Trying to read from a printout or screen can also easily lead to a mistake that can in turn lead to hours of head scratching followed by frustrating desoldering. This is where we think we have made a huge leap over stripboard while maintaining all its benefits:
- On B.I.Y. PCBs, all trace-cuts are made on the front of the board; the same side you are placing the components!
- All wiring to pots, switches and jacks is taken care of by the board; no more jungle of wires crammed into a tiny stomp pedal!
- We will provide component ''maps'' for each project, made to scale that can be printed and stuck/taped to the front of the board
- We are developing an augmented reality app that will show you exactly how each project should look in 3D when completed and at each stage of the build (resistors, capacitors, ICs, wiring, etc...)
- All wiring to pots, switches and jacks is taken care of by the board; no more jungle of wires crammed into a tiny stomp pedal!
- We will provide component ''maps'' for each project, made to scale that can be printed and stuck/taped to the front of the board
- We are developing an augmented reality app that will show you exactly how each project should look in 3D when completed and at each stage of the build (resistors, capacitors, ICs, wiring, etc...)
reduce build time
The biggest savings in build time will most likely come from:
- Reduced troubleshooting
- No off-board wiring
- Component maps remove the need for referencing screen or printout.
- Pre-drilled enclosures available
- Reduced troubleshooting
- No off-board wiring
- Component maps remove the need for referencing screen or printout.
- Pre-drilled enclosures available
MAXIMISE FLEXIBILITY/MOD-ABility
The free build area of the board is designed like strip/veroboard with tracks of connected holes through which to insert components for soldering. This provides the same level of flexibility and customisation that strip/veroboard offers and leaves the user free to draw from the huge wealth of designs and modifications created by the amazing stripboard community.
We have introduced a number of innovations onto the B.I.Y. PCB that offer the builder previously unseen flexibility and convenience:
- A dedicated area on the board for creating 1/2Vcc (or another reference voltage) for biasing opamps and transistors.
- Dedicated ground and power rails. These are split in the middle and fed from two different points. Trace cuts can be made to free up the rest of the track. On the ground plane this minimises the return path of the signal and on the power rail it, well, you'll see in a second....
- Space for a Voltage Regulator which is selectable by making specific tracecuts. This provides for 3 options:
We have introduced a number of innovations onto the B.I.Y. PCB that offer the builder previously unseen flexibility and convenience:
- A dedicated area on the board for creating 1/2Vcc (or another reference voltage) for biasing opamps and transistors.
- Dedicated ground and power rails. These are split in the middle and fed from two different points. Trace cuts can be made to free up the rest of the track. On the ground plane this minimises the return path of the signal and on the power rail it, well, you'll see in a second....
- Space for a Voltage Regulator which is selectable by making specific tracecuts. This provides for 3 options:
- Do nothing - DC power comes in and goes to the power rail.
- Make a trace cut and now regulated (cleaner) positive voltage goes to your power trace
- Make a 2nd trace cut and now you have regulated power to half your power rail, and DC input to the other half. This is great if you are using a digital chip (3.3V or 5V) alongside opamps for example.
minimise cost
By using the same board we can purchase the PCBs in bulk dramatically reducing costs. This same principle also applies to the components (electrical and mechanical) which we will have available through kits should you wish to shop with us.
STIMULATE COMMUNITY-LED DESIGN INNOVATION
We want our platform to help stimulate innovation and experimentation within the guitar pedal design/modification community. Our PCB designs are released under an open hardware licence (our learning material is all Creative Commons) and we will be making the photoshop files for creating your own scaled component maps freely available.
We also want to reward innovation within the community and are proposing the introduction of quarterly design competitions. As well as winning prizes in these competitions, other ideas include offering winning original designs a 15% Licence Fee for the sale of kits of their design. We are still toying with this idea and would love the community's feedback on it.
We also want to reward innovation within the community and are proposing the introduction of quarterly design competitions. As well as winning prizes in these competitions, other ideas include offering winning original designs a 15% Licence Fee for the sale of kits of their design. We are still toying with this idea and would love the community's feedback on it.
moving forward with the project
As we move forward with the project we will continue to work with the community to to try and solve design challenges and make creating DIY guitar pedals simpler and more enjoyable.
design challenges
One design challenge we have struggled to solve is soldering the pots directly to the board. We feel this is important in order to keep build reliability high to match the height of shrouded jacks, and the stomp switch. Soldering to the board directly means the spindle of most common 9mm potentiometers does not reach high enough above the surface of the enclosure to attach a control knob. There are apparently long spindle 9mm pots out there, but we have had trouble sourcing them and they are inevitably going to be reasonably expensive (and remember we are trying to minimise cost), and we want these boards to be as accessible as possible.
One solution we have come-up with is to use male/female pcb connectors to raise the physical level of the pot above the board, while still keeping all soldering to the PCB. This means a little extra soldering which maybe isn't ideal, although there is no off board wiring. If anyone out there thinks they have a solution to this that doesn't significantly increase cost or build time we would love to hear from you!
One solution we have come-up with is to use male/female pcb connectors to raise the physical level of the pot above the board, while still keeping all soldering to the PCB. This means a little extra soldering which maybe isn't ideal, although there is no off board wiring. If anyone out there thinks they have a solution to this that doesn't significantly increase cost or build time we would love to hear from you!
Next Steps
We will continue to improve our design as we get feedback from the community. We are already working on a larger version for a larger enclosure design (see early prototype below).
We will also be designing a version of the large board with 2 stomp switches for selecting between multiple effects on one board.
We will also be designing a version of the large board with 2 stomp switches for selecting between multiple effects on one board.
VERY EARLY PROTOTYPE FOR LARGER BIY PCB
We are also keen to finish our augmented reality app. If there is anyone out there with experience in Unity we would be interested in hearing from you.
Getting in touch
This project has been born out of our love for DIY audio electronics, the amazing community around it and our desire to see more people get involved in this very rewarding and creatively freeing pursuit. If you have any suggestions of ideas or feel you can contribute to the project, please get in touch with us at info@maker.ie
