Question: PCB's for verified layouts

[Chris60601]

I was going to add this to another thread but as I typed it, I noted that it would have high-jacked the original thread - So.

While I have now built some 20 or 30 pedals (nowhere near what some folks here have done) I have on occasion used a PCB (case in point, 1776's PCB for Britannia).

I am getting the itch to start tinkering into the PCB world and I'm not too thrilled about it. So the question I would like to pose; are there folks here that produce PCB's for the layouts that get verified?

Obviously, the thought would be that anyone that would prefer to use a PCB but not wanting to get involved with the production of them, might have the opportunity to pay for them assuming the PCBers are willing  to creating them would also be willing to sell them to those of us that would like the occasional PCB.

I know - the idea of user created PCB's for sale may get away from the art of creating a pedal from next
to nothing (from Vero, painting, drilling, etc) to a completely hand built, finished product and almost seems blasphemous - but it seems like a "next-step" in the evolution.

Just a thought I guess.

Cheers
Chris

[Beaker]

I'm in two minds about this one - I've etched a few myself, bought a few from Pedalparts, and some of us like Geiri have already made the jump to producing their own beautiful looking PCBs when they turned full time pro.

There already exists a thriving market for PCBs around the world, with many sellers - Tonepad in the USA and Pedalparts here in the UK sell literally dozens of pedal PCBs. A lot of common favourites and some rare ones - they don't cost a lot either.

And that's my point - someone, (or a few people) on here is going to end up spending a LOT of time designing a board, verifying it, sending it away for fabrication, verifying it again on completion, ordering x amount (ten, a hundred, a thousand?) before posting them out to everyone that want's one. That seems like a lot of time, work, responsibility and especially financiable liability and responsibility, to dump on a couple of guys shoulders.

Who is giong to own the design? Who is going to be able to build it? Personal use only, or commercial use allowed?

Just my immediate thoughts anyway.

[Chris60601]

All great points! I suppose that had I taken the time to think it out, I would have come up with much the same.

So to save some face  perhaps the appropriate question might have been something like this;

Are there any folks here that DO produce these PCB's and might be willing to sell them.

I think that would remove much of the unknowns that are presented. And, to be honest, I guess I never really considered looking at Tonepad for PCB's (shame on me).

I am curious, I would like some feedback if anyone has gotten PCB's from GuitarPCB.
It seems that whenever I happen to see something that interests me, a PCB is either tagged as Soon or Out of Stock - LOL

[Beaker]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea in principle, and I'd love to be able to get some of these builds on PCB.

After all, if you look in the Friend's Market page, there are already a few guys selling 3PDT wiring PCBs.

Someone might be perfectly willing to take it on - it if they did, I would certainly tip my hat to them.

Can't help you with GuitarPCB - all my PCB builds so far have used boards from http://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/

For what it's worth they are excellent IMO.

[Frank_NH]

For those who would like to purchase PCBs, here are some sites I have ordered from, and ALL have been top notch:

Aion Electronics
Cerulean, Refractor, Stratus

1776 Effects
Brittania, Multiplex Jr., Rub-a-dub Reverb

TH Custom Effects
Umble, Thor

I'm currently working on the Britannia.  Hope to start on the others soon.

[Lee Oswald]

I've ordered several PCB's from GuitarPCB. They are quality, but Barry makes weird design choices that
don't work well.

Case in point: He did a tweaked version of the Peppermill. He added a tone control to it, and the tone control's sweep is all wrong, and works very poorly. When I asked him about it, he said that I must have made a mistake. So I took it to a friend is a professional pedal builder, and has an education in electronics.
He did confirm that implemented the SWTC into the TODD in a very poor fashion, and it needed to be modified to work as a tone control ought to.

Not trying to dog the guy, but that was my experience.

[Jopn]

Really, the madbean forum is probably the best place to look if you're looking for PCBs.  There's a large community of builders both pro and amateur mostly dedicated to PCB design, and often doing small runs through OshPark or even posting up single sided layouts to etch your own.

Brian from madbean also is working on launching a "etcher's paradise" soon, which will have a HUGE number of single sided layouts.  Even if you can't/don't etch, you can always post up that you're looking for someone to etch you a board and pay another DIYer to do it for you.