Fuzzbox, Distortion, Phaser, Chorus, Echo and other Guitar Effects Info

I picked up these heavy-duty momentary footswitches at a good price for an upcoming project. The pc boards for this circuit should arrive by the end of the week. Stay tuned…

This is a simple method to control two LEDs with one output pin on a microprocessor. I breadboarded this recently to test the concept for a project that I have in the works.

When the output pin 6 of the ATtiny11 micro is in the ON (or high) state, the bottom (green) LED will be active and lit up. The red LED will be off at this point.

If the output pin is toggled to the OFF (low) state, the green LED goes off and the red LED comes on. Toggling the output pin alternates between the two LEDs.

Here is a preview of an upcoming project – the AMZ Multi-Fuzz
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This is an old power supply that I salvaged from an HP inkjet that has gone to the tech graveyard. It puts out 18v at 2.23 amps and is perfect for use as the power supply for a pedalboard when coupled with the AMZ Power Supply PCB. I would limit current by using a 1A or 1.5A fuse.

I have added some items to the builder page for the power pcb so if you have bought one, you may want to check back on the page occasionally for the latest updates.

This is the AMZ Power Supply pc board. It filters and regulates a DC voltage input and provides multiple 9v outputs that are suitable to power a full pedalboard.

It can also provide a negative 9v power supply for PNP devices, and has an 18v and multiple 9v connections. Read more about this pcb that can be used as the heart of your pedalboard power supply.

Convert the noisy voltage from your wall-wart into a smooth clean source of power for your pedals!

There are a limited number of these pc boards available.

Shown above are three pedal boxes I bought for prototyping some new designs, with a Boss SD-1 included for size comparison. They came from Pedalenclosures.com and are solid and well constructed. I plan to buy a few more for some of my projects as an alternative to the ubiquitous Hammond 1590 boxes.

Here is a stripboard layout for a simple opamp buffer.

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The AMZ Super Buffer was never meant to be used with a footswitch, but was intended as a line driver that was always left on and therefore did not need the pulldown resistor on the output. The R7 output pulldown resistor was left off the original pcb layout but it has been requested numerous times, so I finally got around to revising the layout to provide a place for it on the etched board.

The links in the article now have the revised artwork. The old pcb etch and parts placement are still available for those who need them.

I have revised the page with the LED resistor calculator by adding a chart below the calculator with forward voltage measurements of selected LEDs. You will see on the chart that the red, green and yellow voltage drops are all similar while the other LEDs have a higher Vf.

I was surprised that the pink’s voltage was so high as I thought it was a modified red, but it turns out that it is apparently more closely related to the blue and white devices.

The UV is also a modified blue, as would be expected. I did not have an infrared pair to test but if I find some I will add them to the chart.

Update: I have modified the calculator so that it is more versatile. Enter the current at which the LED is to operate and the calculator will find the resistor value. Alternately, you can leave the LED current field empty and the calculator will report the milliamps being used by the LED. The Voltage Supply and LED forward voltage values must always be entered into the form.

I have revised the R-C filter calculator in the Lab Notebook so that it can work out the value of any of the 3 parameters if you input the other two. For example, enter the resistor and capacitor values and it will tell you the cutoff frequency, or put in the resistor value and the frequency that you want, and it will calculate what capacitor to use.

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