DIY Pedalboard - 3d printed & Aluminium Extrustions 400mm x 300mm

[rwillett]

Hi

 

This isn't so much a build diary as its dead easy and quick, but it might help other people thinking of making their own pedalboard.

 

I stumbled on this modular pedalboard. I think @SamIAm might have suggested it in another thread.

 

https://github.com/indifferentengine/ModularPedalboard/blob/main/STL/Components/Handles/3 Rail Handle/Handle.stl

 

I liked it and downloaded the STL and Fusion 360 and put a new roll of eSun Fire Engine Red PLA+ and printed it up. It took nearly 30 hours as the printed elements need to be strong and so had an infill of 60%. However I just left it on the printer for a day or so.

 

 

I got some cheap aluminium 2040 (that's 20mm x 40mm) V-slot extrusion off Amazon and simply assembled it together using T-Nuts (supplied with the 2040 pieces) and some M5 8mm bolts. Top tip, 8mm bolts are not long enough despite what the website says. M5 10mm bolts are needed as you can only get perhaps half a turn on the T-nuts. I had M5 8mm on the shelf and stupidly assumed that the designers knew what they were talking about. I also printed two handles, they come in halves and need to be glued together, that's why there is a slight gap in the picture below as I hadn't glued them. That's a job for later today.

 

It measures 400mm x 300mm so will fit into any number of 3rd party bags on Fleabay.

 

 

This is what it looks like from the side. I have ordered some plastic end stops in black. I did print some but they were a nightmare to fit so decided to buy some to cover the ends up.

 

 

This is it with the pedals I have. A Peterson tuner into a Mod Dwarf and then into a Tonex amp sim.I deliberately keep this minimal otherwise I'd end up with loads of pedals that I liked but don't really use. I have space for 2-3 more pedals (if I took the handles off). Not sure if I'm keeping the handles or not yet.

 

#

 

As the whole design is modular, I can change this as needed into something else.I could split the four rails into two small pedal boards. There are lots of other options on the website so I can't take any credit for any work here at all.

 

The next problem I do have and would welcome input, is the PSU for this lot. There's quite a lot of space under the top and there are designs for a PSU. However the Mod Dwarf needs at least 1.5A at 12V and preferably 2A at 12V. I can't find a single pedalboard PSU that can put anything like this out. I was hoping if I mentioned @LukeFRC @LukeFRC @LukeFRC three times, he'd come in with some clever electric ideas

 

Thanks

 

Rob

 

 

Edited November 9 by rwillett

[SpondonBassed]

Is the 20x40 aluminium also 2040 high temperature alloy?  Or is it a coincidence that the dimensions make it look like that?

 

2040 Aluminium Alloy

 

There are so many different alloys of aluminium.  It's a very interesting metal to work with  There are many flavours of alloy to play with.  It gets really interesting when you get into the various heat treatments.

 

Great pedal board.  I like the red bits especially.  I don't think it will fit on my tricycle though.

[rwillett]

@SpondonBassed

 

The name is just a coincidence. There is a "modular" aluminium extrusion system that comes in 10mm chunks. The 2020 aluminium is common in 3d printers, but you can get 10 x 10, 20 x 20, 30 x 30 and 40 x 4mm0 and various permutations. The general principle is that's easy to bolt together as the slots and depth are all the same size, lightweight and fairly rigid.  The 2040 high temperature aluminium you referenced is a coincidence in name only. The aluminium is fairly soft (relatively speaking) and fairly cheap.

 

There are T-Slot and V-Slot variants and that refers to the edge of the slot. The t-slot has a vertical edge and the V slot has an 45o angle to run a wheel in. Somebody tried to claim licensing rights for the v-slot design a few years and was run out of town.

 

2020 and 2040 are a bit like Lego bricks. Bolt them together in strange and unusual ways. T-Nuts are dirt cheap as are bolts. They are easily cut (I do not have a powered mitre saw so I don't cut), and people use them for market stalls, CNC machines, 3d printers, photography booths. Whatever you fancy

 

I did look at anodising aluminium for the guitar, but thought that was a bit too much to take on. My Chemistry A Level is from before Newton so suspect things have changed a bit.

 

The pedalboard looks good and took an hour to screw together and because I had a roll of filament spare and all the other stuff, it was just a case of costing the 2040 aluminium, the end caps and the velcro. £30 or so. It's a good and cheap way to have a pedalboard exactly the right size and if it needs to change, I'll simply print some more stuff and get some different extrusion and fit it together.

 

I do need to sort out a single power supply for the pedals and thats vexing me, there's some eye wateringly expensive PSU's out there but they still don't do 12V 2A. I'll have to think about this a bit more

 

Thanks

Rob

Edited October 20 by rwillett

[SamIAm]

18 minutes ago, rwillett said:

there's some eye wateringly expensive PSU's out there but they still don't do 12V 2A. I'll have to think about this a bit more

I've seen folks on the MOD forum who use various multi-pedal PSUs, the general thinking is that a Dwarf does not actually pull 2A, 1A is sufficient.

https://forum.mod.audio/t/best-power-supply-for-multiple-pedals/8938

Sam x

Edited October 20 by SamIAm

[rwillett]

People claim that you can power the Mod Dwarf at 450mA at 12V. I'll try and if that works, it opens up lots of options for PSU's. The Vitoos stuff doesn't seem to be in the UK now and the Fame isn't around either. There's no desperate rush,  got the guitar to finish off first.

[rwillett]

End caps and velcro came, I've glued the handles together and put velcro and end caps on and it all looks nice.

 

 

The end caps are bit cheap, but not to worry. The pictures make the handles look like sh1t. They're not!

 

 

The velcro blends in fine.

 

 

I'll look for a PSU to put underneath in slow time. Am trying to find a 12V/500mA PSU with a +ve centre pole. Struggling a bit through old ones.

Rob

[MichaelDean]

That looks great! I actually forwarded on the project to one of the guitarists in my band. He wants a wide pedalboard but his current one is super deep, so he's thinking of maybe printing some ends to make something that fits better. 

[rwillett]

It's easy to make a wide but shallow one with just two rails or three rails. If it's wider than say 700mm I'd probably print an extra support block underneath. 

 

Pretty simple stuff. If he does make one, tell him to get M5 10mm bolts not 8mm bolts. Ignore what the website says. 8mm is too short and it's a nightmare to work with. 10mm makes the job easy. 

 

Rob

[LukeFRC]

looks good. 

If I wasn't buying cioks Harley Benton tends to be cheap but good for most things - 1.5A at 12v ... sounds like a pain though! is there something where you can use current doubling cables? Or space to run power to the board and split it between Mods own plug and a 9v Power supply underneath? 

[rwillett]

Looked at Cioks and thought wow, thats expensive stuff. I can get away with 1A at 12V so that might make it easier.

 

There's a reasonable amount of space under the pedalboard, not sure if I can split the power in that small a space. but that might work. Also cable doubling might work as well.

 

I might give Cioks another look and see if looks like it might a solution, otherwise I'll probably go with the Vitoos Ad10s-sv4 (if I can find one). The view seems to be that the 450mA 12V ports aren't actually limited and so if you aren't drawing too much current, it can supply more. 12V is a pain for pedals

 

Thanks for the input.

Rob

[LukeFRC]

14 minutes ago, rwillett said:

Looked at Cioks and thought wow, thats expensive stuff. I can get away with 1A at 12V so that might make it easier.

 

There's a reasonable amount of space under the pedalboard, not sure if I can split the power in that small a space. but that might work. Also cable doubling might work as well.

 

I might give Cioks another look and see if looks like it might a solution, otherwise I'll probably go with the Vitoos Ad10s-sv4 (if I can find one). The view seems to be that the 450mA 12V ports aren't actually limited and so if you aren't drawing too much current, it can supply more. 12V is a pain for pedals

 

Thanks for the input.

Rob

I bet this is the same as the vitoos in a different box https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_10ac_pro.htm?__cTr=d530aa79-340e-4666-8bde-232cd626daaf 

I got my Cioks secondhand for not much different in price. I based it on I would buy once and never need to change. 

 

 

 

[rwillett]

@LukeFRC

 

I normally take that policy, buy once and cry at the price and never cry again vs keep buying cheaper ones and regret not buying the good quality one. I tried that technique on t'other half and suggested I buy a 59 Bassman and matching Precision. Oddly enough she didn't understand the logic.

 

I think that you re right re the ISO 10 from Thomann.

 

Whether I use the ISO10 or get a Cioks, I then need to work out a cable current doubler with +ve centre tip. Why is everything so similar yet so different 😢

 

Thanks

Rob

[LukeFRC]

36 minutes ago, rwillett said:

@LukeFRC

 

I normally take that policy, buy once and cry at the price and never cry again vs keep buying cheaper ones and regret not buying the good quality one. I tried that technique on t'other half and suggested I buy a 59 Bassman and matching Precision. Oddly enough she didn't understand the logic.

 

I think that you re right re the ISO 10 from Thomann.

 

Whether I use the ISO10 or get a Cioks, I then need to work out a cable current doubler with +ve centre tip. Why is everything so similar yet so different 😢

 

Thanks

Rob

to be fair to your other half amp technology has moved on a lot since the 1950's - a precision and matching jazz bass however would make more sense.

 

If you did end up with a cioks I can post you a current doubler

 

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

to be fair to your other half amp technology has moved on a lot since the 1950's - a precision and matching jazz bass however would make more sense.

 

If you did end up with a cioks I can post you a current doubler

 

I like the idea of a matched jazz and precision basses. Didn;t think of it like that I'll ask her tonight. If I'm not on Basschat later, you'll know why.

 

Might take you up on the Cioks offer. Let me dig more into them first though. Thanks very much. for the offer. Would they convert from -ve centre tip to +ve?

 

Thanks

 

Rob

[LukeFRC]

12 minutes ago, rwillett said:

I like the idea of a matched jazz and precision basses. Didn;t think of it like that I'll ask her tonight. If I'm not on Basschat later, you'll know why.

 

Might take you up on the Cioks offer. Let me dig more into them first though. Thanks very much. for the offer. Would they convert from -ve centre tip to +ve?

 

Thanks

 

Rob

nah - its like two outputs down to one output and then you use the red plug to switch polarity. Cables all colour co-ordinated

[rwillett]

Ah! It does sound like Cioks have this sort of thing worked out which is nice.

[rwillett]

One Cioks DC7 3d printed, (may not be 100% working ) to see how it would fit under the pedalboard. It's in white PETG as that was on the printer.

 

 

As the cables for the DC7 come out of the side, it needs quite a lot of space left to right. Looks like it would fit though. I would need to design a mounting bracket for it. the DC7 comes with a miserly two screw holes on one side only. It has an optional "grip" bracket but thats for Pedaltrain boards, clearly this is not. Easiest to make two simple U shaped  brackets (a very rectangular U shape in reality) and screw into the extrusions. Thats the nice thing about extrusions, no drilling, no tapping, a simple M5 bolt and associated t-nut

 

 

I still might look at the Harley Benton as that has the cables coming out the front as that might be neater. The Cioks does look very good kit.

 

Rob

[rwillett]

Have ordered the Cioks DC7. I think it'll do everything I need. Hope so at the price 😁

 

I can't find those colour coordinated cables that @LukeFRC talks about so any pointers welcomed. 

 

Thanks

 

Rob

[LukeFRC]

8 hours ago, rwillett said:

Have ordered the Cioks DC7. I think it'll do everything I need. Hope so at the price 😁

 

I can't find those colour coordinated cables that @LukeFRC talks about so any pointers welcomed. 

 

Thanks

 

Rob

They will be in the box!  I’ll post you the current doubler one  

[rwillett]

@LukeFRC Thats very kind of you. 

[jimbobothy]

... surprised no one has mentioned this add on:

 

https://cioks.com/power-supplies/future-power-generation/cioks-crux/

 

it's uses the 24v outlet on the DC7 to give 9V@2700mA or 12V@2000mA.

[rwillett]

@jimbobothy

 

I've ordered the DC7 but the Crux is another £70 and for the cost of a current doubler I'll try that first

 

I've also printed a pole so I can attach an iPad to the pedalboard. The pole is too high and it wobbles if the iPad is at the top, so putting it at the bottom is better. I'll reprint the pole and make it smaller. That's the nice thing about 3d printing, you can easily test out ideas, if they don't work, discard it and design something else. Using the 2040 aluminium extrusion allows easy ways to attach things like this. Its a great test bed.

 

The white box below is going to be an Electro Harmonix Tri Parallel Mixer which should arrive next week along with the DC7. I wanted to check size, placement and spacing for cables as it has side input and output. I do note the small space between the tuner and Mod Dwarf Mmmm......

 

 

 

[rwillett]

Now got the Ciorks power supply. Very, very nice. Quite a dense brick, dead easy to use, glanced at the instructions but it's dead simple.

 

Printed out the clamps for the Cioks, took about an hour from thinking about the design to having the power supply fastened in. Using aluminium extrusion means this is really trivial to do.

 

 

Wired up the various boxes with the shortest cables I could find in the box. Cioks supply an awful lot of cables so no need to buy any. @LukeFRC kinfly sent me a current doubler cable (Thx mate) and I used that to power the Mod Drawf so it's got 12V and 1A. Seems OK to me.

 

 

Put some Velcro strips on a little 3d printed riser on the mixer. That has little rubber feet and rather than take them off, I printed some 3mm risers and attached them to the back of the mixer with double sided carpet tape and then put velcro on that so I don;t have to take the feet off. The carpet tape is strong but will come off and a little methylated spirits will remove the adhesive if I want to.

 

I need to cable tie stuff down once I've got it wired the way I want it to. The Cioks supply is really, really dull and just works, and I only have one plug for all of the above.

 

Am looking at the iPad mount again and just checking that all of the Tri Mix cables will fit and not interfere with the iPad.

 

Pleased with this to be honest, but also need to try and find a bag for it as well.

 

Rob

 

[LukeFRC]

ipad power from the Cioks too!

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

ipad power from the Cioks too!

Yep, the issue is now finding another location to put it. It can't be too high otherwise it resonates/vibrates.

 

After opening the Cioks box, all my worries over the cost (not bloody cosy) just faded away. A quality piece of kit indeed. Good advice to buy it.

Edited October 30 by rwillett