VFE Distortion 3 ("cubed") layout

[Sphere80]

http://vfepedals.com/distortion3.html

     Hey everyone, this is my second layout so all advice and corrections are appreciated. This is a Ross/DOD250/MXR+ type drive pedal with switchable soft and hard clipping, "fat" knob and a tone control.

my layout:


my build:


     There is an older version with switchable op amp and internal switches for LED clipping and fat boost. However, this is based on the final version (schematic drawn by member Bugg) VFE has hosted on their site:
http://vfepedals.com/schematics/distortion3.pdf
      All of their pedals have a relay switching system and charge pump, but based on what I gather from VFE head Peter Rutter's comments on the Alpha Dog (Rat clone) layout on the main page, it's straightforward.   http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2016/08/vfe-pedals-alpha-dog.html 
     The clipping switches use W-taper pots for smooth transition, but I'm fine with the older method of toggle switches – as has been covered on  the other VFE builds. It should work either way.
     The protection diode, 100R and 100uf I added based on what I've picked up here, but please let me know if there's a better way, since they recommend using 18v on the original if you want.
     Here is a clip of me playing into a clean amp and trying out some of the settings.  It works the way you would expect silicon/germanium/bypass- hard/soft clipping to work with resulting level loss in some settings. I was able to get some heavy sounds, but it shines at carefully dialing in very smooth overdrive tones.

https://soundcloud.com/user-562468024/alexsez-vfe-dist3-clone-2017-03-13a

[tinkercreek]

Are legs 5 and 8 of the opamp inserted into cuts so that they are not attached to anything?

Thanks

[Sphere80]

YES, or you can remove the legs from the socket before soldering it in.

[tinkercreek]

Great. I really liked the sounds on the clip. Think I'm going to give this one a go.

Thanks for the reply and the layout

[roseblood11]

You should solder pins 5 and 8 and make cuts on both sides. Even better: use a socket

[Mulekicker]

Just built this layout and it's great! As a long time lover of the dod250/ D+, I can attest that this sounds killer! Thanks for this one.

[Sphere80]

I'm just glad to be able to share. Did you use switches or pots?   For some of the other VFE projects, it's been suggested to try linear pots of 10th the value, so a B100k if you don't have a W1M. I've had to experiment to find the values that gave me the smoothest transition.  

I prefer just the switches though.

[Mulekicker]

I saw that but I just went with switches. I would just use those same extreme settings anyway. I just spent an hour playing with it and it really sounds great! I always have some type of 250 on my board and I don't see anything bumping this.

[Mulekicker]

So, I've run into a strange problem with this pedal that has me stumped. It's been working great but then last week the led went out but the pedal still worked. I figured it was just a bad led so I took it apart and put in a new one. Then the pedal didn't work at all. After banging my head against the wall I found that it would come back on if the spdt that switches between the 3 modes wasn't screwed down tight. So I figured the switch was bad and changed it out. New switch, same issue. It's really weird because if the screw is loosely tightened it works fine but if I tighten it enough to hold it securely it totally shuts down. WTF! I've never had something like this happen. I guess something is grounding out but I dont know what, I dont see anything that should be an issue. Guess I should post this in debugging.

[Sphere80]

I was messaged asking for the schematic. It can be found at Madbean, who is currently selling a board.

I'm also posting an updated layout where I cleaned up the power filtering and made the cuts around the op amp clearer.

The Madbean board comes with a custom W200K. I got a hold of one to experiment, and was able to get similar results with more common 50k and 100k pots.