Time saving tips?

[IvIark]

The PCB pin pots from Futurlec are great for that, because you can stick the pot in a breadboard to test

[Peter Venkman]

This right here is pretty close to what my parts drawers look like.

When i order 1/4 jacks I open up the bag, scuff up the solder lugs, cut about 7-10 inches of two different colors of wire, one color for the tip, one for the sleeve, cut a bunch of little chunks of heat shrink, strip both ends of all the wires, tin the jacks, then solder up a wire to each solder point. When thats done, I heat shrink each solder point and a little bit of the wire, take the two wires and start to twist them until ive got a nice braid of wire in two colors. I usually do Blue for Tip and White for Sleeve. I wrote that on my work bench right in the spot where i Solder in permanent marker. Then i through them all in a drawer.

When I use them in a pedal, I know that Blue is Tip and White is the Sleeve. To keep things nice and neat Ill trim the excess wire I don't use and save the scraps to use as jumpers. To make space and keep things in the box even cleaner, Ill put a piece of heat shrink around the two braided wires between the jack and the foot switch or where ever else Im wiring the 1/4 jack.

For 3PDT foot switches I scuff them up when they show up, and if i'm not using a foot switch pcb, I use a piece of rigid foam that has a bunch of holes in it to put the foot switches in to hold them so the solder pads are facing up on the bench. Then I can wire up about 2 at a time. I do the same if I get a bunch of foot switch PCBs. Just solder them to the foot switch, solder in the LED resistor, and chuck them in a drawer until i'm ready to use them.

i know most people don't have this luxury, but I work in an electronics components store, so i get everything for cost from the manufacturers, so if the pedal i'm going to be building uses four 100k Ohm resistors, i order 400, 1 LED, i order 100. That way Ive always got back ups and extras that i can check the values of to make sure im putting in the right components.

Alot of these component retailers like Tayda, are getting their components from the manufacturers and marking them up to sell on their online stores. I know a resistor is only $0.012 from Tayda, but thats marked up 400% from the manufacture. If you live in the US and set up a wholesale TAX ID with the secretary of the state (its free in most states) you can order components directly from the manufacturers who are supplying Tayda. I don't get anything through my employer, I order everything myself and pay for everything out of my own pocket, but I use her knowledge of who manufactures what, how to contact them, and the best practices for bulk ordering.


Another thing to take notice of on Geiri's component drawers is how the capacitors are labeled, pF, nF, and uF. I made the mistake of putting all my components together based on the value not the ferrad rating,So I had drawers just marked 22. That meant any cap with a 22, wether it was .0022 or 2200, it didn't matter they were all in the same drawer, so i ended up building tons of pedals that didn't work. because I used a 10uF cap in place of a 10nF. Print out conversion charts. Download a resistor color code app and the EE Tool Kit App I went pro on the tool kit app for a dollar and its great for designing circuits, figuring out what diode to use for a specific color of LED, its been really helpful and makes me look like I know way more than i do when i use it to help customers., I use both apps everyday at work and while building pedals and synths in my spare time.

Sorry for rambling but i hope some of the stuff makes sense.