How to BIAS a Transistor
You'll need a multimeter for this - we've been using Amazons own "Amazon Commercial 6000 Count Compact Digital Multimeter" which you can buy through the link - we can't say its better than any other but we like it and it's not let us down yet. Now you have a...
Laying out a guitar pedal using Five Cats Pedals Free SVG’s and Illustrator
Laying out a pedal, especially when you're on your first few builds can be a pain in the … yeah… and even now the pro's still make mistakes! We've created a series of Free SVG files to help you layout your pedal in Illustrator (or any software that can open SVG). The...
Replacing the baffle in a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue
I'd been thinking about getting a custom grille for my Blues Deluxe for some time and got in touch with Fender who kindly supplied the below diagram for cutting my own baffle. After weighing up the cost...and quite frankly effort of getting the board, cutting it,...
Adding a toggle on/off and LED indicator to our Ruby Amp Board
We've had quite a few customers get in touch asking how to add an LED and/or a toggle power switch to the Ruby Amp board so we thought we should create a post, with a high res printable image to help anyone out. It's a simple addition and only requires: 1 x 4k7...
Rehousing a Dunlop JH-F1, adding an LED and True-Bypass with 3PDT Footswitch
This was my very first venture into pedal building / pedal repair - and quite frankly...I didn't have a clue what I was getting into! However, with some (a alot) of help from the folks over at DIYStompBoxes.com (you can see the original post here) I got there. The...
KiCad Series: Vias – What are they & how do they work?
Sometimes, no matter how neatly and hard you try...there's no-way to get everything on your board laid out without using a Via. What is a Via? Simply put it connects the top layer of your board another layer, using a tiny copper plated hole allowing you to continue...
KiCad Series: Importing Graphics using Bitmap to Component Convertor
You want to have nice graphics on your board right? We sure do - and it's not hard to make that happen!Firstly - It makes sense to create a library before you import any graphics or make your own custom footprints for parts (if you already have this done, skip this...
KiCad Series: Importing .DXF files to PCBNew
Schematic done, it's time to get those components laid out - but...you want to make sure you lay them out in a space that's going to fit the enclouse it's going in right? Well - you can draw it out in PCBNew (see our guide to this here) - or if you want to add some...
KiCad Series: Changing Track Width in PCBNew
You've got your Schematic done, imported your DXF edge layout (see here) and laid out your components - now you need to connect them up! One key thing to remember is to change your trace width. By default KiCad (as of version 5.1.8) defaults trace width to 0.250mm /...