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ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:44 am
by ural
FYI - Dwarfcraft Devices ECT have super fragile PCB - not recommended for modification ...

Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:58 am
by counterdestroy
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:12 pm
by aen
Always seemed prety tough to me, those PCBs have put up with a lot of twists and fights in the past...
WHAT'D YOU DO?
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:28 pm
by Jero
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:22 pm
by aen
EXAKLY
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:13 pm
by ural
30W soldering iron - too hot for this kind of PCB (honestly I never saw this particular kind of PCB)
once i managed desolder with this iron even RAT's IC and put another IC in without damaging RAT's PCB.
yesterday I have tried to change several capacitors of ECT. uh it was game of nerves.
good news - pedal still working

Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:34 pm
by tuffteef
lol how the hell did u ruin a pcb
are you throwing it in a fire to melt the solder
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:57 pm
by McSpunckle
tuffteef wrote:lol how the hell did u ruin a pcb
are you throwing it in a fire to melt the solder
You've obviously never modded a newer EHX. -shiver-
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 7:46 pm
by Teej212
old ehx arent too great either. ive never seen such thin traces!
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:02 pm
by McSpunckle
Teej212 wrote:old ehx arent too great either. ive never seen such thin traces!
My only experience is with one of those green/black russian hybrid ones (Green style enclosure, but painted black-- green circuit, I think).
It seemed OK. But the modern EHX stuff... I dunno. The traces seem to lift off reallllly easy. You have to be really careful when soldering. I think most mass-produced PCBs are about like that, though. I think it's just that the copper is pretty thin?
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:03 am
by ural
tuffteef wrote:lol how the hell did u ruin a pcb
are you throwing it in a fire to melt the solder
PCB is colored black and traces are very thin. that's it.
ECT is great pedal! but not very friendly to mod.
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 12:47 pm
by Jero
What mod/s are you doing exactly?
Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:13 am
by ural
Jero wrote:What mod/s are you doing exactly?
Schematic of ECT on the basic level is very similar to Big Muff and my goal was to increase value of coupling capacitors and that capacitor in HPF section for more bass - traditional Big Muff mod. But I did it only for two of them because of those fragile PCB's tracks.
However now I have feeling - there is more bass already

Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:44 am
by multi_s
if you are INCREASING the capacitance why bother taking out the old one. 2 caps in parallel give value C1 + C2. Just solder the legs of the new one onto the old one while it is still in place. you dont have to touch the board at all

Re: ECT PCB warning
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:46 pm
by ural
multi_s wrote:if you are INCREASING the capacitance why bother taking out the old one. 2 caps in parallel give value C1 + C2. Just solder the legs of the new one onto the old one while it is still in place. you dont have to touch the board at all

yes - this could be solution.
what capacity I'll get if plug one 1mF in parallel with another 0.5 mF? 1.5 mF?