Human Gear Animato

[matthijs]

aye

[haze015]

Considering it. See how things work out.

[Crowella]

Thank you so far to the few of you that have bought one on pre-sale. Really chuffed with the support and that alone has helped secure it financially for me, hence making the actual process of building quicker.

 

Everything is being ordered today for building so it'll go well. Parts should be arriving whilst I am sitting exams (17th to 21st of November, hence the early pre-sale end date). If everything arrives when it should, it allows me roughly two weeks to get them ready, which is plenty of time.

[james90]

Hello James,

 

(Genuinely chuffed you're getting one. Don't you own a real one too? Either way...)

 

The plan is to sell the real one while it's still worth something, but I'm going to A/B them first.

 

Actually, did you make a demo A/B'ing them? I only heard the demos of the clone.

[matthijs]

James you sly dog

[Crowella]

The plan is to sell the real one while it's still worth something, but I'm going to A/B them first.

 

Actually, did you make a demo A/B'ing them? I only heard the demos of the clone.

 

Lololololol. I'm feeling pretty bad that could happen. Then again, it affects me too.

 

Yeah, I did A/B them. Also, the youtube video actually has when I switched between each.

[soundcloud]

[/soundcloud]

[james90]

It can only be a good thing. $750 to sound like some famous guy.

 

It never works anyway.

 

Also, you're not actually a girl, are you? Because if you were and you built pedals, that would be... unusual

 

Neil, back off.

[Crowella]

Lol. That disclaimer is because my username sounds significantly more girly than it should, lel.

[Arny]

Do you have posted somewhere the informations about what you have changed in the last version to make it works?

I'm looking for the last PCB, electric plan, layout, partlist and every informations needed to prepare my shopping list.

[haze015]

Also, you're not actually a girl, are you? Because if you were and you built pedals, that would be... unusual

 

Neil, back off.

 

Frantone, Devi Ever...

[Don'tPostThePear]

Devi Ever...

 

that's pushing it

[james90]

that's pushing it

 

 

But yeah, even if you did count them, that's still only two that are (sort of) really well known

 

In which case, I should consider becoming a peddle builder. I already built a fuzz face after only four attempts... how difficult could it be?

 

Now I just need to secure something as hipster as a domino sugar factory in brooklyn or something, and hire Niel to do all the work.

[Crowella]

Do you have posted somewhere the informations about what you have changed in the last version to make it works?

I'm looking for the last PCB, electric plan, layout, partlist and every informations needed to prepare my shopping list.

 

I continually update this folder if I have any changes here. It's at revision 1.10 which I can probably say will be the last since it works as intended.

http://imgur.com/gallery/zLnM9

 

This has the parts list and the schematic with what you need to build the board to original spec.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Lx-E88bAtET1ViT3J2UEFpYUk/view

 

I don't have a PCB for the complete build, only the one I am selling and it's a very tight fitting one which I probably wouldn't recommend at all. I can PM you the ExpressPCB file if you would like that. I didn't order an excess of PCB's to give away because I maxed out the quantity this company allows on their first run.

 

that's pushing it

 

Strangely I can say I'm far too familiar with a situation like that but that's a story that requires some drinks.

 

Now I just need to secure something as hipster as a domino sugar factory in brooklyn or something, and hire Niel to do all the work.

 

You can fly me over to do all the work. It's the typical Sydney* thing to want to make it big in New York. For now, I'll stick to doing the builds in my bedroom/garage.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGidlMZg8g

 

* Happily lives outside of Sydney

 

Anyway... it begins.

 

Edited November 11, 2014 by Crowella

[Crowella]

Let the builds commence!

 

 

This shows how much I hate doing the PCB's by hand. At least I was able to get 5 boards out of all the copper I had left. Also drilling was fun. I bet the boards will just improve substantially as I go along too.

 

Also, USPS has a horrible tracking service. Not sure whether to expect the enclosures, jacks and the dual gang pots tomorrow or Wednesday or even Thursday. Beats the company that I ordered the PCB's from still not shipping them considering I ordered on the 11th and they said they would be shipped express on the 21st.

 

EDIT: I'm using heat shrink more often now too. That stuff looks divine on potentiometers!

Edited December 1, 2014 by Crowella

[cheddatom]

can't wait to hear it for myself!

[Crowella]

Can't wait either. People who ordered some off the other guy that has been building them have liked it so it's a very good start.

 

I have the next build lined up too. I've sorted a clean blend to go with it that includes a phase switcher for the clean signal. Not sure if that'll be 100% useful but lets see when I get to it. Also working on a tone mod to make the booster stage a bit more useful for lows.

 

Got all the promotional kind of material sorted in the mean time. The next model will be the bitmap, lel. For them though, I'm going to try and build the cases here. Just looking for a toaster oven for baking the paint and a large drill press. Doing the enclosures will mean a day or two in my dad's garage where we have a compressor and a lot of painting equipment from when we've painted several cars. It just cost way too much to have them produced externally and shipped here. The cost for that alone was around $550. Building them here will be half that excluding time, but I have way too much of that these holidays.

 

[Crowella]

Boards arrived. One typo which was my fault but for some reason, the board is reversed despite what my design document had. Hmm. Wiring ahoy.

 

[Neil.]

where did you get your boards printed?

[Crowella]

Futurlec. Granted, my fault for using Express PCB software which doesn't seem friendly in their hands but great for at home builds. They were also a bit iffy with postage date. Fortunately, they responded extremely well to my email asking for express shipping even if they didn't email me notifying they had shipped it.

 

That said, I never want to work with home printed boards if I have to. These are just so much easier to solder on to with the solder mask.

[Neil.]

That's very interesting. All the pedals I have lined up to build now are all prototypes. If one turns out to be good, I'd love to make a short run of 10 of them and try to sell them. I'm very interested to see how this pans out for you. Best of luck with it all! It's coming together very nicely, and the quality looks to be exactly what I'd expect from a boutique pedal.

[Crowella]

Thank you heaps. I'm trying to make it all as presentable as possible at a price that isn't overkill which I find too much of the boutique market is.

 

Sure, backfired a little bit with the boards being flipped but I can work around that. It's a very tight design and not one I'd like to repeat either. Things like the caps and transistors not having the same orientation actually irks me a bit but was just the price I had to pay to put a board in neatly with the components.

 

I mean all my previous pedals were drilled with a hand drill. That includes enclosures and PCB's which is a nerving thing to do considering I actually shake like a leaf constantly (thanks panic disorder!)

 

Outsourcing the board making to me just makes the most sense financially and time wise after I confirmed the layout. I cannot for the life of me get a board that nice and also it is so easy to solder on these professionally made boards, especially when you order the solder mask which really makes the project tidy. Firsts for the boards too are solvent cleaners to remove all the flux residue and also shrink wrap on external connections which looks neat and tidy. Little things but anything to help the construction.

 

Only one other error with the boards is that I didn't change the size of the holes to meet the change of wire gauge so it's proving a little difficult to squeeze the AWG22 stranded wires into the holes on the printed boards. Best wire I've used though that seem to have enough flex and strength for me. Better than anything I can get locally, which is a huge issue for actually doing anything like this here.

 

This is all an experience. Granted, if this goes well, I might have to do a few more but most likely the next version I have planned as well as other things (planning digital effects too now I have cutting tools for a display). I've learned that boards take way longer to produce/ship than I expected from suppliers. I haven't received the enclosures yet from the manufacturer as they're still on the way so I'm not too sure how they'll turn out but it's likely better than anything I can do at home en masse. Fingers crossed they arrive tomorrow. USPS/Aus Post EMS tracking isn't great.

 

Also learned that DHL has to be the best shipping company I've ever dealt with, they must have invented teleportation.

 

This is also very expensive too. On the financial side, selling 10-11 from 20 will put me at break-even, excluding time which in all honesty, isn't a concern to me and also excluding the original pedal cost. Would have been a lot less if I had a lot of the tools prior, supply and insider knowledge for shopping around before hand. I was so shocked that the pre-orders went so well. The parents are giving me a lot of support too, kind of hinting that I should do a lot more other builds. Soon.

[Neil.]

I think using perfboard/padboard or other prototype board only really works if it's going to be a tiny tiny circuit. I remember when I had a look at my old ohnoho blowing up, it was REALLY tiny, so perfboard made sense. But right now, I'm working on two projects that would both need printed circuit boards realistically. The first is a PNP based big muff (as you may know, this usually means positive ground PSU, unless you flip the polarity of the whole circuit, which I'm doing. Sounds good on breadboard!) and the second is 3 different reverbs (spring type, with a sort of built in compressor, so even if only some frequencies go a bit overboard, you wont get clipping).

 

It's a very interesting exercise. I'm at an odd stage in my life/career where I'm just on the cusp of being able to have all my professional training done, and I'd love to have something music related as a side hobby. I've a few ideas for pedals, and I'm looking at 3d printing circuit boards and/or guitars. PM me if you're interested in having a chat about that. it might be something to interest you, but it'll be early february before my printer has the necessary mods done for the boards.

[Crowella]

I'll have to send another email out. There might be a week or so delay since the enclosures hadn't actually left the US yet, despite being shipped out express on the 26th of November.

[Dave.]

What silicon transistors are you using? They only place I can find nte102 and nte103 transistors is in the US for $7 for one (and I'd have to buy a few to match them up) so it looks like I'll have to go with silicon transistors.

I have all the other components ordered (came out at <€45 including a pre-drilled enclosure!). These two transistors are the only things left to order.

[Crowella]

2N5087/2N5088. They are bog standard (but can't buy them locally...) in the effects industry because they work very, very well. It probably makes the sound a little harsher but it is by no means terrible, I like it. The prototype has an AC128/2N5088 combination at the moment. The difference is minimal and honestly, no point going completely audiophile over it, either is awesome.

 

€45 is a very good price for a build by the way. My builds are costing about half the selling price but things like the knobs, enclosures ($17 each before shipping for drilled/painted) and odd tools like a thicker paper for the manual covers ($6 for 50 sheets) and a long arm stapler ($40!!!) for manuals add to the cost far more than the actual components.