DSOTM Transistor Confusion

[Anonymous]

Hello! New builder with some noob confusion for the DSOTM v3. Here is the state of my build:

I was just about to add the transistors when I got a little lost. This version of the DSOTM board has the Q1, Q2, and Q3 holes at right angles. But the included sockets with my transistors and either 3-in-a-line or individual. So in reading the DSOTM guide, it mentions that “You simply cut the number of sockets required with an Exacto Stanley knife or by gripping and rocking with pliers.” So my guess is that I will have to cut these 3-in-line sockets. Is it best to cut a 3-in-line into 3 individual parts, or should I keep two together then add a floater in the third part?

And here’s where the true beginner questions start: once I’ve soldered these cut-up sockets onto the board, what do I do with the transistor? Do I just push it in? Do I trim the legs first? Or do I melt solder into the socket with the transistor in it? My gut says not to do this. But I’ve been googling and searching youtube and CTRL+F searching the PDFs and can’t seem to figure out what the correct search terms are to find an answer. I can’t even find an example of someone soldering sockets and transistors like this.

Thank you for your patience!

[Barry]

Hi and welcome.

In this case cut 1 piece of the 3 piece of socket. Solder the 2 piece in place and then solder the single. TIP: It is always easier to solder sockets before you get to the much higher capacitors as you will discover.

Just push the transistors into the sockets, do not trim. The legs will touch the metal in the socket in turn will then be connected to the circuit via the socket solder joint.

Typically you would use a round socket but these are expensive and not always easy to find so this is the next best solution.

Once your build works then you can trim your transistor legs down some. It won’t change anything circuit wise but it will put the transistors a little closer to the board so that they are not hitting anything else. They do not need to be flush with the board and in fact it is better that they are not.

There is a lot of good beginner info on the Guides Page list of Documents such as The Beginners Guide

Also if you use our Forum Search Bar and use DSOTM as a filter you will get to this helpful DSOTM Build Analysis.

I hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info! This all makes sense. Yep, I now realize that it would have been better to get the sockets on, but I was comparing the heights of the transistors to everything else- sadly not the sockets. I will let you know how things go after my next session!

[Anonymous]

Made some good progress tonight. Got the sockets and transistors on the board. Then, I soldered the potentiometers onto the reverse side and they line up nicely with the enclosure holes. I then began on the 3PDT when I ran into another roadblock- how can I tell which pin of the footswitch is #1 and which is #9? I don’t see any markings on the footswitch nor on the 3PDT board.

Am I missing something? I don’t want to solder the footswitch onto the 3PDT in reverse.

Then once I get there, the actual wiring begins. I’m confused by Step 11 of the Beginner guide. It mentions testing the circuit before wiring into the enclosure. But how do you test it without wiring first? Or do you wire once to test outside, desolder, place in the enclosure, then rewire with the correct length wires?

[Barry]

The 3PDT board as well as the 3PDT switch is six and one half dozen.

So the 3PDT board only goes on one of 2 ways. Orientation does not matter. Lug 1 is whatever is in the top left.

Our wiring layout is symmetrical so it does not matter. I hope that helps.

As for testing first many of us have a testing rig we build up to allow us to just test the board for functionality. It is not required of course and many folks don’t bother., Where it does come in handy is when building a Combo Special so you would save a lot of troubleshooting buy testing each board before wiring it all up together.

I would also keep referring back to Cybercow’s DSOTM Build Essay

[Author]

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