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Hi –
I am a retired electronics tech. with over 50 years experience working on basses and all sorts of ampification, but am new to the world of pedal building. I was on Reddit a few months ago and found a guy who was quitting building with lots of parts for sale, which I bought. That purchase included a LOT of circuit boards. I am making my way through them, ordering all the components that I didn’t already have.
I came across the Emexar and decided to add the Tone Tweq to it, and use the Buff N’Blend instead of a regular 3PDT breakout board. At first I was confused because when I pushed on the switch to enable it, the sound was crystal clear and none of the controls worked BUT when I pushed the switch again, the LED went out, but the effects started working.
It appears that the Buff N Blend works just backwards and I have no idea why. When the LED is on, no power reaches the Emexar board, and vice versa. Some help, advice, or ideas would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Bud
Could it be that the LED is simply wired incorrectly and comes on in bypass mode rather than effects mode if you’re using a standard LED the cathode should go to the solder pad without the white square and anode to the centre solder pad
Post an image of your pcb so that we can see all component values and orientation and trace your offboard wiring
Thanks for your quick response. I didn’t know it would even be possible to wire it like that, so I will have a look before I post up more info.
Thank you for raising this possibility.
Bud
It’s definitely possible Bud I know because I’ve done it many moons ago
From what you’re saying it sounds like your circuit is working and it’s just illuminating the LED in the wrong switch position
And just to emphasise how easy it is to mess it up you may have noticed I’ve edited my post if it’s a standard LED cathode pin should go to the pad without the white square, anode to the centre pad
Well, believe it or not, that was it! I looked over the circuit board build instructions and I see how I made my error. On my board, where the LED connects, there are three holes, one of which has the rectangle symbol and the other two do not. Seems to me, the logical (but incorrect) thing to do is to place one of the LED leads into the rectangle and the other lead to the unmarked hole next to it. That could have been correct, and if I were the board designer, it would have been.
How is anyone supposed to know that if you are using a mono-color LED that it goes into the two unmarked holes? I hate to figure out circuitry through a trial and error process. Sheesh.
Anyway, thanks for your help. Got it sorted and now the effect and LED work simultaneously.
Bud
The boards are designed for common anode bi colour or standard LEDs
The older build docs will have the information in the status led section newer ones it’s usually an image of the 3PDT pcb showing which pads to use for both a bi colour and standard LED
I see that now. Thanks for the guidance and quick response. For me this is one of those things that I only figure out after I do it wrong. At least it wasn’t a very costly error.
Thanks again for the assistance. I am very appreciative.
Bud
With your experience I can’t see you having many problems Bud aside from those things that are peculiar to guitar effects circuits but I’m sure you’ll suss them pretty quickly
I look forward to you being on this forum and hopefully learning a thing or 10 from you
Well, Billy, I enjoy helping others when I can. I regularly participate in various forums on Talkbass. I enjoy sharing my knowledge and will help anyone who need it, if I can.
On Reddit, I encountered a guy who was selling off his inventory and quitting pedal building. I bought all his stuff which included the first two I built (the STFU and Bloodstone referenced below) as well as the others I have since built with greater success.
So far, I have made about a dozen pedals including two each of two different pedals, the excellent STFU noise gate from lectrix-fx and the not so great Bloodstone also from them. I could not get either of the two Bloodstones to work. Once I have more time, I will go back and troubleshoot them further. They were the first pedals I built, so aside from installing the wrong component in the right hole I’m not sure what else I could have done incorrectly. It’s weird that both pedals fail to operate.
The other pedals all worked the first time I tried them, but I don’t care for the effects that some of them produce, so some might go for sale soon as I put them in better, prettier enclosures.
I also have been successfully marketing a clone of the original 70s Stingray onboard preamp, and am about to come out with a pedal version.
Bud
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