Friedman BE-OD Pedal  [traced]

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
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rmroza
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Post by rmroza »

"Yeah, obviously. If we value our time at all, we would just go buy it. What's the fun in that though?"

EXACTLY!

"I have serious doubts that any of these schematics are correct. I know you are an engineer, so I figured you could trace all connections on the pedal."

Sure, I can do it or confirm it if need be. I just thought already done. Having money does not suck! lol I'll take mine completely apart if need be! That's what I bought it for in the first place!! lol

The question is...."Do I need to trace it also and confirm or not??"

bugg's build looks very nice and he kept it contained in a standard 125-like unit! :)

I want to pull the trimmer out and have it as a Gain Trim on the outside.

Yes, the tone of the original pedal is very nice and massive sounding. I agree, but seemed like lacking something. I'll have to play with it more and identify what the pitfalls are. I's like to like I said, add a MID control and make the pedal BETTER. It is a great base. It's 80% there, but I would also like to see it improved and get to that 100% level and that's it and have it as a keeper on my pedal board...but not in it's current state.

Right now, I just want to get the clone unit working and A-B it. Who knows, with the slight alterations, maybe its...BETTER than the original?!??

p.s. - Here's my original pedal pics (before I take it apart) - https://s1253.photobucket.com/user/equi ... show/BE-OD
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alltrax
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Post by alltrax »

@bugg, would you mind sharing your pcb ?
Thanks

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roberttomasz
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Post by roberttomasz »

rmroza wrote:Soo, this is the latest schematic link?!? https://www.freestompboxes.org/download/ ... &mode=view

I got the new amp design working and done yesterday! Wow! Funking amazing! 20 amps....best in the house!

Now I can work on trying and getting this pedal complete tonight after work and A-B it...I hope.
Error , C18-220nF

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HamishR
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Post by HamishR »

I built this using Alex's layout at FX Layouts. While I'm not really into 80s hair metal it is a very impressive pedal. The feel is remarkable. I think I will swap my gain pot to audio taper as I agree that the gain all comes on too soon. I would love to be able to use lower gain than it currently allows but I suspect the magic might not be there. Some dirt pedals just need a certain amount of dirt to sound any good. FWIW I have the internal trimmer at zero!

I am intrigued with having bass control effectively before and after distortion - the tight and bass pots. You get a huge amount of control over the sound with those two controls and i don't think I have seen that before. You do get quite a bit of control over the mids with these controls, but some kind of midrange control would be nice. For my styles of playing I would like a little more midrange and possibly less of the raspy top-end.

Rmroza has some good points - smoother gain and midrange control could potentially make this a killer pedal for more than just hair metal. There is an awful lot to like. Maybe we don't even need a mid pot but some way of just incresing the mid response a little. If someone could point me at which cap or resistor to swap I'd be all over it.

Well done guys.

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bool
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Post by bool »

I guess you can improvize a boost-only type mid-control from the existing circuit/layout.

Basically, you can re-use the circuit fragment around the trimmer (the small 100p cap parallel to the trimmer) to basically act like a mid-boost. What you need is to drop the corner frequency to your preference (for modern I guess cca 1.2-1.5kHz, 80s cca 900Hz and retro cca 500-700Hz). You will need to up the size of the 100pF cap to do that; but the resulting cut frequency will depend on the trimmer position (actual resistance).

So it will be an iterative process, if you'll go that route.

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HamishR
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Post by HamishR »

Interesting idea! Thanks.

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rmroza
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Post by rmroza »

"Interesting idea! Thanks."

This is why I like to propose improvement ideas, throw it out there and then collaboratively come up with ways to solve the problem or come up with a solution(s) for the idea.

It's Friday and I don't work weekends! Looking forward to trying again to get this thing working an A-B. I'm sure the not working part is on me. I'm sure it works. What I'd like to understand is how does it compare to the original??!?

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bajaman
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Post by bajaman »

A big thank you to bugg :thumbsup
I used his overlay to create my version of the pedal.
I have shared the board at OSH PARK for anyone who is interested in building it - it is called Weedman BEE ODD pedal :wink:
Here are some pictures and the gerber and drill data zip file.
The off board wiring is shown in the picture posted previously in this thread by bugg :)
enjoy
bajaman
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Weedman BEE ODD pedal top.JPG
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alltrax
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Post by alltrax »

That's great, thank you very much bajaman
I built it from Alex vero layout, it sounds great but a lot of squealing with the gain passed half. I'll try to fix it but will order the pcb :thumbsup

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Post by bajaman »

I have stopped the OSH PARK share for the meantime - the many schematic /s are all wrong as is my layout trace - i need to run some serious circuit simulations to determine the CORRECT component values and topology to allow a proper working pedal - sorry for the delay - stay tuned.
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alltrax
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Post by alltrax »

No problem man thanks

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rmroza
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Post by rmroza »

"the many schematic /s are all wrong as is my layout trace"

That's what I was trying to say when I was trying to audit it to the Layout. Is the schematic right and 100% or layout or nothing?!?

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alltrax
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Post by alltrax »

alltrax wrote:That's great, thank you very much bajaman
I built it from Alex vero layout, it sounds great but a lot of squealing with the gain passed half. I'll try to fix it but will order the pcb :thumbsup
Squealing fixed with a Klon buffer in front of the pedal. Sounds awesome :thumbsup

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bugg
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Post by bugg »

The most recent schematic (as well as the layout/build info) is available at the bottom of this page:
http://www.buggfx.com/product/thermioni ... rtion-pcb/

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bajaman
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Post by bajaman »

Thanks bugg - just ordered a pcb from you - very nice work ! :D
cheers
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bugg
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Post by bugg »

bajaman wrote:Thanks bugg - just ordered a pcb from you - very nice work ! :D
cheers
bajaman
Hey cool, thanks! Just out of curiosity, what PCB layout software do you use? Those footprints aren't familiar.

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Post by bajaman »

Hey cool, thanks! Just out of curiosity, what PCB layout software do you use? Those footprints aren't familiar.
I use Sprint Layout 6.0 - a very easy to use and reasonably cheap piece of software that has one very useful feature: the ability to load scanned bitmaps to both or either layer of the double sided pcb. I scaled your image in CorelDraw and then imported it into Sprint - it was easy to place components over the image, the hardest part was connecting the dots, but unfortunately I was using an incorrect schematic to work from. I only had difficulty connecting the 470k resistor near the input so renamed the 1M as 470k and moved the 470k as 1M next to the led indicator pads.

I have subsequently corrected my pcb layout with the help of your schematic with a couple of minor changes: i am using an 1N4007 for input polarity protection and 1N5817 schottky diodes in place of your 1N4148 diodes in the clipping section.

I will not be reposting my corrected layout nor sharing it on OSH PARK because there seems little point in reinventing the wheel so to speak - US$8.00 for your pcb and US$4.00 postage to me in new Zealand is a very fair price - I would strongly urge forum members interested in building this pedal to purchase their pcb from you.

Once again, thanks for all your (and other forum members) good work in finally bringing this project to fruition
cheers :thumbsup
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Post by jalmonsalmon »

Why I kept my stuff in the test area... :horsey:
Don't want to beat this to death and Bugg has what I am after LOL
will be ordering a couple boards as well... Thank YOU!

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alltrax
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Post by alltrax »

Board ordered, thanks Bugg !
As Bajaman said, 12$ including postage (to France for me) is a very fair price :thumbsup

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Post by bmxguitarsbmx »

bugg wrote:The most recent schematic (as well as the layout/build info) is available at the bottom of this page:
http://www.buggfx.com/product/thermioni ... rtion-pcb/
That is a very fair price bugg! you tha man! :)

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