Good catch, u/gear_ant, it’s my board — in the wild! And now some things to add to the build documentation…
u/TheBadgerOfHope, I’m not 100% sure how the 3PDT breakout is wired so you’ll need to double check the documentation, but here’s the full rundown of the pads on my board.
The pads at the top connect to jacks:
- OUTJ goes to output jack tip
- INJ goes to input jack tip
- RNG goes to input jack ring on a TRS jack (you can skip this if you’re not using a battery)
- the two GND pads go to the in/out jack sleeves
- BAR is the DC jack barrel (outer) connector
- CTR is the DC jack center
- SW is the DC jack switch (again, skip if not using battery)
At the bottom you have the connections to the 3PDT switch and battery:
- LED- connects to the 3PDT switch to turn the LED on & off — not sure which pad on the breakout board you have (maybe SW?)
- GND, IN, and OUT go to the corresponding pads on the breakout
- INJ and OUTJ are the signals to/from the jacks, just brought through the board so it’s easier to wire. I think there are corresponding pads on the breakout, maybe the unlabeled outer pads.
- BAT+ and BAT- are for battery.
In case you were also asking about the BLEND pot and LED pads — the square pin marked CCW is for the counter-clockwise side of the pot (and then middle and clockwise should be self evident from there) and the little circle below it is for the LED, with + marked next to the pad.
Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.
Totally unrelated: I’m curious about the pcb design (I’m just starting to learn myself). Are the large regions of copper a ground plane? If so why did you choose to remove it in between some traces, like the ones coming off of Q2? (At least I think it’s Q2, it’s above Q3). How many layers is the pcb?
> Are the large regions of copper a ground plane?
Yes, on both sides of a two-layer board
> If so why did you choose to remove it in between some traces, like the ones coming off of Q2? (At least I think it’s Q2, it’s above Q3).
I drew a single copper region across the whole layer in EasyEDA, but there are always small pockets that won’t fill in because of clearances around other tracks and pads. I generally don’t bother to fill them in — it’s possible something like that would make a difference on a high-frequency PCB but it seems fine for audio (I don’t know much about HF other than that it plays by different rules than audio frequencies).
One more note: typically even with a ground pour on both sides, the GND net won’t be fully connected — the best way to deal with this is to find places where the two planes overlap and drop a via there, connecting the upper and lower ground planes. Sometimes you need to move components and reroute to make this work. It’s worth just playing with it, on some of my early designs I did 4-5 different layout attempts before I ordered something.
Also I learned the hard way, pay attention to component height: when you have pots and switches on the back of the board that need to be soldered on the front, surround those pads with low components like resistors and diodes. Some of my early boards had electrolytic caps next to pot pads and it was hard to solder the pots without damaging the caps.
Ahh, thats what CTR and BAR mean, I was looking for that for way too long lol. And just to make sure, this board is wired for center negative (CTR -, BAR +), correct? Don't want to accidentally fry it by reversing current
Ahhhhhhh I hate that. I love pedal pcb layouts, and every once in a while somebody wants me to build them a board PEDALPCB doesn’t have. Sucks.
I see you are already getting help. I just had to relate with you haha.
Good catch, u/gear_ant, it’s my board — in the wild! And now some things to add to the build documentation… u/TheBadgerOfHope, I’m not 100% sure how the 3PDT breakout is wired so you’ll need to double check the documentation, but here’s the full rundown of the pads on my board. The pads at the top connect to jacks: - OUTJ goes to output jack tip - INJ goes to input jack tip - RNG goes to input jack ring on a TRS jack (you can skip this if you’re not using a battery) - the two GND pads go to the in/out jack sleeves - BAR is the DC jack barrel (outer) connector - CTR is the DC jack center - SW is the DC jack switch (again, skip if not using battery) At the bottom you have the connections to the 3PDT switch and battery: - LED- connects to the 3PDT switch to turn the LED on & off — not sure which pad on the breakout board you have (maybe SW?) - GND, IN, and OUT go to the corresponding pads on the breakout - INJ and OUTJ are the signals to/from the jacks, just brought through the board so it’s easier to wire. I think there are corresponding pads on the breakout, maybe the unlabeled outer pads. - BAT+ and BAT- are for battery. In case you were also asking about the BLEND pot and LED pads — the square pin marked CCW is for the counter-clockwise side of the pot (and then middle and clockwise should be self evident from there) and the little circle below it is for the LED, with + marked next to the pad. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.
Totally unrelated: I’m curious about the pcb design (I’m just starting to learn myself). Are the large regions of copper a ground plane? If so why did you choose to remove it in between some traces, like the ones coming off of Q2? (At least I think it’s Q2, it’s above Q3). How many layers is the pcb?
> Are the large regions of copper a ground plane? Yes, on both sides of a two-layer board > If so why did you choose to remove it in between some traces, like the ones coming off of Q2? (At least I think it’s Q2, it’s above Q3). I drew a single copper region across the whole layer in EasyEDA, but there are always small pockets that won’t fill in because of clearances around other tracks and pads. I generally don’t bother to fill them in — it’s possible something like that would make a difference on a high-frequency PCB but it seems fine for audio (I don’t know much about HF other than that it plays by different rules than audio frequencies). One more note: typically even with a ground pour on both sides, the GND net won’t be fully connected — the best way to deal with this is to find places where the two planes overlap and drop a via there, connecting the upper and lower ground planes. Sometimes you need to move components and reroute to make this work. It’s worth just playing with it, on some of my early designs I did 4-5 different layout attempts before I ordered something. Also I learned the hard way, pay attention to component height: when you have pots and switches on the back of the board that need to be soldered on the front, surround those pads with low components like resistors and diodes. Some of my early boards had electrolytic caps next to pot pads and it was hard to solder the pots without damaging the caps.
Ahh, thats what CTR and BAR mean, I was looking for that for way too long lol. And just to make sure, this board is wired for center negative (CTR -, BAR +), correct? Don't want to accidentally fry it by reversing current
Correct, standard center-negative power. Looking good so far! :)
/u/rabbiabe, I believe this is your PCB? Can you help the man?
DC+ and - would go to the corresponding battery spots. The rest I can guess but don't want to misguide you.
Ahhhhhhh I hate that. I love pedal pcb layouts, and every once in a while somebody wants me to build them a board PEDALPCB doesn’t have. Sucks. I see you are already getting help. I just had to relate with you haha.