True Bypass Strip Construction Questions

[tourettes5139]

Hey all,

I am planning on building my own pedal board, and I saw the true-bypass strip idea at http://www.pedalboards.com (scroll down a bit, it is there) and I would really like to build one of those to go onto the pedal board.

I am planning on including LED's for each bypass loop, and will probably end up using this plan for the actual switch wiring, except that instead of the input and output jacks shown on the board, they would go to the previous footswitch and next footswitch, respectively, and instead of the board input and output, they will go to 1/4" jacks for each of the individual bypass loops for each pedal. Oh, also, I will ditch the battery in there, and run it straight off of the DC jack.

First of all, would this plan work? And secondly, I am just not sure how to get the power to all of the LED's. I plan on having about 10 of these loops, with an LED for each, and I just plain don't know how to daisy chain the power to each of the led's with this footswitch schematic, if it is possible at all. I assume that I would be able to run 10 LED's off of a 9v power source, but again, I really don't know.

Thank you for your time. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, ideas, criticisms or whatever , I would really appreciate them.

-JM

 

[mshilarious]

First of all, would this plan work? And secondly, I am just not sure how to get the power to all of the LED's. I plan on having about 10 of these loops, with an LED for each, and I just plain don't know how to daisy chain the power to each of the led's with this footswitch schematic, if it is possible at all. I assume that I would be able to run 10 LED's off of a 9v power source, but again, I really don't know.

That depends on how much power the supply can provide, and how bright you want the LEDs to be

Figure 25mA gets you a really bright LED. In fact I usually feed my LEDs 10mA or less. But anyway, 250mA would be more than enough to supply 10 LEDs. Add that to whatever power requirement your pedals have, and that's the size of the supply you need.

Try using a 1K ohm resistor on each LED and see if you like that, it's a good starting point.

If you are using special LEDs, especially the blue/clear ones, they can be a bit hungrier, so adjust accordingly.

 

[Outlaws]

So you just want one switch to bypass your whole effects board?

You link to the one diagram doesn't work so I can't see tht one, but if I get you correctly, then ya, you can just have one small footswitch with the guitar going in, the out to the effects board and then all effects, then back to the footswitch and then out to the amp very easily. Using a DC is the same as a 9v battery, just swap out the connection spots with the DC instead of the battery leads.

If you use DC, then I like 1/4 watt resistors around 2.2k or 2.7k for a decently bright LED. 4.7k isn't that bad either...but with DC power, battery life i9sn't an issue so....2.2k And for LEDs, I like SuperBrights....but thats just me.

 

[gcapel]

Hey all,

I am planning on building my own pedal board, and I saw the true-bypass strip idea at http://www.pedalboards.com (scroll down a bit, it is there) and I would really like to build one of those to go onto the pedal board.

I am planning on including LED's for each bypass loop, and will probably end up using this plan for the actual switch wiring, except that instead of the input and output jacks shown on the board, they would go to the previous footswitch and next footswitch, respectively, and instead of the board input and output, they will go to 1/4" jacks for each of the individual bypass loops for each pedal. Oh, also, I will ditch the battery in there, and run it straight off of the DC jack.

First of all, would this plan work? And secondly, I am just not sure how to get the power to all of the LED's. I plan on having about 10 of these loops, with an LED for each, and I just plain don't know how to daisy chain the power to each of the led's with this footswitch schematic, if it is possible at all. I assume that I would be able to run 10 LED's off of a 9v power source, but again, I really don't know.

Thank you for your time. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements, ideas, criticisms or whatever , I would really appreciate them.

-JM

I have built a true bypass box with led's and use it. Your going to have to spend some cash to do 10 effects loops. The one I made was for 3. One other consideration I wish I would have done was adding a tuner switch send and have silent tuning. I will show you a schematic.

here;s mine: http://users.vnet.net/garrock/pb.jpg

 

[gcapel]

heres a pdf of the schematic again which you can read better.

http://users.vnet.net/garrock/true bypass 3p3t.pdf

This took some effort. You may need a current limiting resistor on the led, depending on what type led you use.

It works.

 

[Outlaws]

I have built a true bypass box with led's and use it. Your going to have to spend some cash to do 10 effects loops. The one I made was for 3. One other consideration I wish I would have done was adding a tuner switch send and have silent tuning. I will show you a schematic.

here;s mine: http://users.vnet.net/garrock/pb.jpg

What kind of LED do you use that doesn't need a resistor between it and the battery? Most LEDs will blow up.

 

[tourettes5139]

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

heres a pdf of the schematic again which you can read better.

http://users.vnet.net/garrock/true bypass 3p3t.pdf

This took some effort. You may need a current limiting resistor on the led, depending on what type led you use.

It works.

Thanks for the schematic. That is just what I was looking for. It is more applicable than the one that I found (link fixed, btw) which was for converting a pedal to true bypass. I think I will add a resistor there before the LED.

So you just want one switch to bypass your whole effects board?

You link to the one diagram doesn't work so I can't see tht one, but if I get you correctly, then ya, you can just have one small footswitch with the guitar going in, the out to the effects board and then all effects, then back to the footswitch and then out to the amp very easily. Using a DC is the same as a 9v battery, just swap out the connection spots with the DC instead of the battery leads.

If you use DC, then I like 1/4 watt resistors around 2.2k or 2.7k for a decently bright LED. 4.7k isn't that bad either...but with DC power, battery life i9sn't an issue so....2.2k And for LEDs, I like SuperBrights....but thats just me.

Sorry if I misled you, I want to have a footswitch for each individual effect, mainly so that I can just use the bank of footswitches for switching instead of reaching all over for the individual switches on the pedals themselves.

Thanks for the info about the resistors.

That depends on how much power the supply can provide, and how bright you want the LEDs to be.

Figure 25mA gets you a really bright LED. In fact I usually feed my LEDs 10mA or less. But anyway, 250mA would be more than enough to supply 10 LEDs. Add that to whatever power requirement your pedals have, and that's the size of the supply you need.

Try using a 1K ohm resistor on each LED and see if you like that, it's a good starting point.

If you are using special LEDs, especially the blue/clear ones, they can be a bit hungrier, so adjust accordingly.

Thanks for the advice. I'm still not quite sure how I would actually get the power from the jack to each of the LED's. So would I just daisy chain them, like the attached picture?



Once again, thanks!

 

[Outlaws]

Thanks to everyone for the replies.



Thanks for the schematic. That is just what I was looking for. It is more applicable than the one that I found (link fixed, btw) which was for converting a pedal to true bypass. I think I will add a resistor there before the LED.



Sorry if I misled you, I want to have a footswitch for each individual effect, mainly so that I can just use the bank of footswitches for switching instead of reaching all over for the individual switches on the pedals themselves.

Thanks for the info about the resistors.



Thanks for the advice. I'm still not quite sure how I would actually get the power from the jack to each of the LED's. So would I just daisy chain them, like the attached picture?



Once again, thanks!

Well......you could daisy chain like that, but you would generally (from my understandings) want a seperate resistor connected to each LED + lead because you want the uninterupted 9v going to all the LED resistors, other wise if you just use one resistor, then daisy chain all 10 LEDs, you will have the 9v power reduced by the resistor, then FURTHER reduced since it will be trying to power 10 LEDs with that already reduced current...which is already reduced enough for just one LED. YOu could always do the math and figure out what resistor valuve would be good for reducing the 9v down to enough for 10 LEDs, but what if you only have one on at a time....then you now have way too much current going to that one LED.

 

[mshilarious]

Like this:

 

[gcapel]

Thanks to everyone for the replies.



Thanks for the schematic. That is just what I was looking for. It is more applicable than the one that I found (link fixed, btw) which was for converting a pedal to true bypass. I think I will add a resistor there before the LED.
Once again, thanks!

I used ultrabright blue 5v leds for my box. Ordered them from digikey. I didn't use current limiting resistors, but I use a 1amp powersupply to power my pedal board which is more than enough. I've had the box for 1 year or two and the led's havn't gone out since. You can find those blue electro harmonix 3p2t switches from pedalpartsplus on ebay for cheap. I think 4 dollars or so. I don't know where to get a super long skinny enclosure though. For the tuner I would do the same type switching but only have a fx send not a return, so you could use just a dpdt switch for that one.

I was going to try and build a switching box which you could assign effects to a single push button using single pole switches, dip switches, and relays. I realized i didn't need all that, and i get by with what I have.

 

[gcapel]

What kind of LED do you use that doesn't need a resistor between it and the battery? Most LEDs will blow up.

Man i drew that schematic on the fly give me a break. An some leds will work without the resistor. And I don't use batteries on pedals. But if I were too yes, use a current limiting resistor to save battery juice. And would not advise it unless you had a an older boss pedal that uses a unregulated supply(ACA). I know I have the ce-2 but it has the Keeley mod which makes it usable for a modern regulated supply(PSA).

Should I take a picture of the guts of my bypass box to show you?

 

[tourettes5139]

Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarifications, ms & outlaws. I get it now. I did mean to use resistors on the LED's, I just didn't draw them. oops.

Thanks!

 

[Outlaws]

Man i drew that schematic on the fly give me a break. An some leds will work without the resistor. And I don't use batteries on pedals. But if I were too yes, use a current limiting resistor to save battery juice. And would not advise it unless you had a an older boss pedal that uses a unregulated supply(ACA). I know I have the ce-2 but it has the Keeley mod which makes it usable for a modern regulated supply(PSA).

Should I take a picture of the guts of my bypass box to show you?

Well I wasn't being snide, I was just asking.

But take pics if you want, its always nice to see other peoples work. I have seen my share from my own work bench. But I an sure other people would liek to see it.

Here is my A/B B/A pedal. It lets me keep two guitars plugged in at once and switch between them. The outs side lets me keep plugged into my amp and a tuner. Wham bam thank you ma'am. (I am cheap and hate batteries) Notice I ground the outputs when they are not supposed to be outputing. Kind of shuts things up when I use the tuner.

 

[gcapel]

Well I wasn't being snide, I was just asking.

But take pics if you want, its always nice to see other peoples work. I have seen my share from my own work bench. But I an sure other people would liek to see it.

Here is my A/B B/A pedal. It lets me keep two guitars plugged in at once and switch between them. The outs side lets me keep plugged into my amp and a tuner. Wham bam thank you ma'am. (I am cheap and hate batteries) Notice I ground the outputs when they are not supposed to be outputing. Kind of shuts things up when I use the tuner.

my bad man for the snideness, Your box paint job is awesome. Poweder coated? On some paint jobs I primer, spraypaint and then put it in a small toster oven (that youll never use for food again) for 200 degrees F for 20 minuites and makes and even coated finish.

I gotcha on the going to ground thing. I'f seen that wiring before on a lot of fuzz pedals. I do get some bleed through using the tuner on my bypass box. I should make another.

Making these type pedals does save some cash. There are a slew of internet stores selling these type boxs for like double what you can build one for. Building effects is another story though.

 

[Outlaws]

my bad man for the snideness, Your box paint job is awesome. Poweder coated? On some paint jobs I primer, spraypaint and then put it in a small toster oven (that youll never use for food again) for 200 degrees F for 20 minuites and makes and even coated finish.

I gotcha on the going to ground thing. I'f seen that wiring before on a lot of fuzz pedals. I do get some bleed through using the tuner on my bypass box. I should make another.

Making these type pedals does save some cash. There are a slew of internet stores selling these type boxs for like double what you can build one for. Building effects is another story though.

Ya I used to bake my pedals. Forget if I baked the AB BA one or not. Its not powder coated, its Rust-O-leum Hammer-something (not Hammerite, but I have used that too). I got it at home depot.

I really want to used some Internation Harvester Red implement paint but Home Depot only sells it by the gallon I think....I don't need anywhere near that much lol.

But Hammond makes a nice black powder coat box. I had a friends uncle laser etch some of the powder coat off for me.

 

[Creamyapples1]

EDIT - Disregard, I read/looked at it wrong lol