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DIY Effects


JackLondon

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1 minute ago, jimbobothy said:

… how does the lead free/vs lead solder interact with the components then? At the school I work at we only use lead free (for obvious reasons).

lead based solder melts at a lower temprature - so it's a lot more forgiving and easy to warm everything up enough. Lead free, it might be my cheaper soldering iron, and I find it harder to get the joints to flow together properly. (mind you I never learned to solder properly, but I did learn to weld and braise at uni, and it's similar right?) 

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32 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

How much you price the whole project up at? I got £150-180 odd 

Haven't yet, just ordered PCB, faceplate and pre-drilled enclosure. Gonna be cheaper than any decent tube pre you'd buy used either way! Transformer will be the pricey and variable bit!

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On 28/10/2023 at 03:35, jimbobothy said:

... on another note, has anybody had any experience of replacing SMT stuff? I've heard it's pretty hard, not that I need to though, just wondering how it's done.

I do it quite a bit with larger pitch SMDs and generally find it a little easier than through hole parts in a double sided board with plate-through pads. SMD desoldering tweezers or a hot air soldering/desoldering rig would often be the preferred tool, some ambidextrous people improvise with two soldering irons, and I just use a regular soldering iron with various tips to make things easier. For example, a 4mm screwdriver tip covers one side of an SO-8 opamp chip pretty much perfectly and for me well over half the parts are reusable.

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On 28/10/2023 at 11:35, jimbobothy said:

... on another note, has anybody had any experience of replacing SMT stuff? I've heard it's pretty hard, not that I need to though, just wondering how it's done.

 

As @Passinwind says the larger size SMD stuff isn't too hard. My method is to add some solder to one pad, let it cool. Using tweezers hold the component in place on the soldered pad and reheat the solder. Once that's done and cool you can do the other pad. ICs are a little trickier but a similar method. 
I have a hot air soldering station, but only used that for removing components at the moment. I have a ridiculous modular synth project I've been putting off for years. I'm going to attempt that over the winter.

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On 28/10/2023 at 12:44, jimbobothy said:

.. much lower temps involved with soldering. Probably more similar to brazing than welding. I’ll do some internet research at some point, cheers 👍🏼

 

Soft soldering very different skill set to brazing, although they both work similarly. Filler metal relies on a flux to creat the oxide free environment where filler metal can flow by capillary atteaction and form an intermetallic bond. Lead vs lead free is mostly just a higher temp needed in terms of making the joint.

 

A drop of leaded can help melt big, stubborn lead free joints by improving how iron contacts the joint and slightly dropping the melting point.

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5 hours ago, Bigwan said:

Ordered the lightning boy transformer. Should have a lot of the passives in my stash with any luck!

Where from? All I'm seeing is this one: https://www.lightningboyaudio.com/2020s.html

 

Edit - sorry, I wasn't looking right: https://lightningboyaudio.com/store/p69/mic_input_transformer.html

Edited by bloke_zero
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On 08/11/2023 at 09:03, Bigwan said:

Haven't yet, just ordered PCB, faceplate and pre-drilled enclosure. Gonna be cheaper than any decent tube pre you'd buy used either way! Transformer will be the pricey and variable bit!

That was quick. Enclosure, PCB and faceplate arrived today!

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But built up fine in a 1590b with top jacks … not masses of wiggle room though!!  
blue bits are tape on the back of pots and the input Jack. 
sounds great - I built a barbershop clone (v1) and the circuit is very similar - this is like it’s big heavier brother tonally, plus with eq IMG_0201.thumb.jpeg.e214319712f6e732c907483878290dd1.jpegIMG_0202.thumb.jpeg.aafc24c9bc48b13b3cfd0731a96a7877.jpegIMG_0203.thumb.jpeg.53ef0e98f599d2daec71753623230679.jpeg

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3 hours ago, DaleASmith said:

pretty much off topic, but I just bought a second hand EHX Bass Blogger and the first thing I did was plug it into a 12v supply.. It's knackered. Any use to anyone?

There’s two chips TLC2272 I think would be the likely suspects -  It looks all SMT? 

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