ilovefuzz.com

I think the power supply on this thing needs work. It takes 9V and doubles it with a MAX1044 to ~17V. Then it uses a regulator (3mA) to bring it back down to 5V for the PT2399 (15mA-30mA). It uses another regulator (3mA) to bring it down to 12V, which is used for the SA571 (4.2mA), the opamp (2.8mA), and LED (~10mA in the design!), plus some other stuff. There is also a 1k/1k voltage divider to ground on the 12V, which uses 6mA. Add it all up and it is 44+mA. All the charts in the MAX1044 datasheet stop at 40mA, where the ripple is highest and voltage drop the greatest. I might be missing something, but that can't be good-- especially on a delay where noise can add up with the repeats.

I'm switching it over so the MAX1044 provides a bipolar +/-12V supply for the opamp and + 12V for the SA571. I'm pulling the voltage for the 5V regulator straight from the 9V supply, and running the LEDs straight off the unregulated 9V supply. I don't know if it will be a noticeable improvement, but it makes more sense to me.

My wife's will be pretty much stock, with some minor mods because she plays bass. It is going in an etched 1590BB, and she has chosen an hourglass theme. I'm going to use the epoxy method I have been working on to make the sand in the hourglass glow when she is using it.

Mine is far from stock. It has three footswitches, two slide switches, and five knobs. The bypass footswitch can operate in tails or true bypass mode (from the Small Time delay), selectable with a slide switch. The modulation (from the Echo Base) is enabled with a footswitch. It has a buffered effects loop that uses the third footswitch and a slide switch, and is of my own making. If it works the way I intend, the slide switch will be a "once" or "every" feature. On once, the delayed signal goes through the effects loop once only. On every, every repeat goes through the effects loop. I can't wait to try an octave up in "every" mode with a short delay time.

The layout for mine is 95% done. I am using board-mounted mini potentiometers, and I am waiting for them to arrive so I can finish the layout and build the prototype. The mini pots limit component height to 1cm, so I am using ceramic caps for anything up to 10uF, and a couple of mini electrolytics.

It is going in a 1590TRPC, which is a trapezoid. There are a lot of components, so it is a tight fit, even in a big enclosure. I'm not sure of the design yet, but the solid machined aluminum knobs (for both pedals) arrived today. They are very high quality, and look great. I haven't seen anyone use these particular knobs.

This is gonna be fun.