Bomb Idea (Dying Battery Pedal) Circuit

This circuit requires a digital voltmeter panel, you can get them on ebay for around £4-8, depending on where you get them from and what you want. Bear in mind you will want to mount it in an enclosure, so getting a panel with a bezel is a good idea as it will sit nicely. Otherwise you may have to mount it inside the enclosure, in which case you will probably want a window, which can be done using some thin transparent perspex, but is a right P.I.T.A.

The output is around 1.6v-9v depending on your input supply, the minimum voltage set by R2. On the pedals I’ve produced I used a 680r as R1, which is fine, but 2.2k cover you better. You could put caps on the input and output of the 7805, something like a 0.33uF tying the input to ground and a 0.1uF tying the output to ground should work OK, and just helps to stabilize the voltage, but it will work well without it.

Make sure you use a linear pot for the VR1, as an audio taper would be very strange here! For the output I used a jack rather than a socket, mainly because it stops people plugging into the wrong side. If you want reverse polarity protection then you could put a 1N4001 or similar in series with the input voltage, but this will reduce the output voltage by around 0.6v (off the top of my head), so bear this in mind. Depending what voltmeter panel you choose it may have reverse polarity protection built into it. You shouldn’t need a heat sink on your 7805, but if you find it getting too hot then you can connect it to you enclosure to help dissipate the heat, providing you’re using a Hammond style enclosure. I used a 1590A, and it is a tight fit, but you can get everything in there, even if you have to use a shoe horn!

Parts:

D1      3mm LED
R1       2.2k 0.25w
R2      2.2k 1w
SW1     3PDT
U1      7805
U2      Digital Voltmeter Panel
VR1     10k Lin

As you can see, it’s a pretty basic circuit, even if you add the mods I have described above. The hard part is firstly sourcing a good panel, and then squeezing it into the enclosure. I’m probably not going to make any more of these, at least for the foreseeable future, as I don’t have the facilities to cut the rectangular hole required for the panel efficiently enough to be covered by the price I charge for each unit.

Enjoy!

Pedals in stock!

There are currently 3 Bomb Idea’s in stock after a bit of a weekend build, and a batch of 5 Morse Device currently having a paint job.

I’m really not sure how many of the Bomb Idea I am going to make as they take a massive amount of time and effort for the price I charge. I do enjoy making them though, and they look awesome on a board! There are only 2 remaining from this batch of 3  so check the Order page if you want to grab one while they are available.

Bomb Idea videos on youtube

I posted some videos on youtube last night of the Bomb Idea in action, check them out!

 

 

 

 

 

And this (Digitech Bad Monkey) one that won’t link for some reason!

Bomb Idea #1 ready to ship

Here’s a snap of the first Bomb Idea, ready to ship this week! Videos coming soon

 

Final Bomb Idea (Dying Battery Simulator Pedal) Artwork

Here is the finished Bomb Idea artwork ready for printing

Bomb Idea Logo

Here’s the logo for the Bomb Idea, formally known as “The Leech”. The artwork for this pedal is still in progress, but it is going to have an industrial kind of theme, and will look somewhat like a patchy x-ray, as if there is a pseudo bomb inside the pedal. Hard to explain but should look cool, and is a million miles away from the leeches organic theme.

Update: And here’s the artwork:

“The Leech” is Finished!

“The Leech” is finally finished! I am going to make a batch of 3 of these, £55 delivered in the UK. One of these is already gone. However the pedal you receive will be called “Bomb Idea” and have a whole new paint job. All functions will remain the same though.  Unfortunately there will be about a months wait for the pedal due to other commitments. If you want to order 1 of the remaining 2 of the first batch please check the ‘Order’ page.

0xd FX The Leech – dying battery simulator prototype

“The Leech” > Bomb Idea (Dying Battery Pedal)

When I started researching and designing “The Leech” I had no intention of ever selling it, or producing more than one, so I didn’t really research the name. Now that things may be swinging that way I started poking around on the web, and I found 2 references to a sag pedal called Leech. The first, and least important, is this one, where someone is suggesting EHX make a sag pedal called “The Leech” (yes, even with the “”!), no biggy, but this one is much more pedal changing.

Bill at Griffin Effects has made this bad boy for 6 years, and look at it – it is fantastic! Great design, great price. He has even used a DC socket for the output, which was my original intention until I decided on the cable. The reason I didn’t go with the DC output socket on my pedal was because of the screen – I didn’t want someone plugging the input in there. I could have used a diode to prevent the screen from being damaged, but this would have caused a voltage drop so the output voltage would always be lower than the displayed voltage, which would be a crazy way of doing things!

Anyway, I spoke to Bill and he turned out to be a really cool guy, and to prevent confusion I am renaming “The Leech” to Bomb Idea. That means the artwork is all void and will have to be redone, and only the finished prototype will appear with it. However I actually think the Bomb Idea is going to look better as a pedal when it is finished. Within the next week all three prototypes, will be completed and there should be photos/videos up. The name Bomb Idea itself comes partly from the song “Bomb Idea” by the band Mad Capsule Markets, which is track 3 on the album Cistm Konfliqt…, but mainly from the look of the pedal.

I highly recommend checking out Griffin Effects, support an excellent builder making great pedals at an awesome price.

Volume War, “The Leech” and Morse Device update

I have been busy the last few evenings sanding, cleaning and priming the enclosures for this trio of bad boys, and also preparing the overlays. All is going well so far, just waiting on the colours to arrive now so that next week the pedals can all be coloured, decals applied, lacquered and then populated. Pretty exiting times! I also got in a few more bits from Doctor Tweek, check him out if your from the UK and looking to buy some pedal parts. His site is great for buying the gear for one-off pedal builds, and he has thought of a hell of a lot, from components to finishers and tools! So the plan is to hopefully have working finished versions of all three pedals within the next 10 days or so, that is if Skyward Sword doesn’ take up too much time!

Edit  – 17/11/11: Well the postman has been to work and I’m STILL waiting for the paints to arrive! As they are coming to my work address that means all prgress is off until next Wednesday, when I’m next in. This takes the record for slowest enclosure paint job in history!

“The Leech” (Dying Battery Pedal) Enclosed!

Here is a quick snapshot of the Leech in its enclosure. It is going to be in pieces again tonight – as it was a prototype which I was using with a bread board (the power jack and output cables need to be soldered when in the enclosure for good) the wires were way to long, and the veroboard that houses the voltage regulator for the display was awkward to fit in. This also prevented the LED reaching the mount as it was mounted on the veroboard. When I say there is no space in this enclosure belive me – everything is literally shoehorned in. It’s pretty awkward, there is only a few mm between the 3pdt and the voltage pot.  I also have to take it apart to give it a paint job, so the next pics of it will be bright and shiny! But the main thing is – it works! And it works well. It fits in a diddy package and makes a huge sonic impact. I’m simply loving playing my Devi Ever 90 through it.

Things left to do:

• Paint
• Redesign veroboard for a better layout
• Change to right-angled output jack and have a longer cable
• Correct LED so that it can sit in the mount
• Add heat sink to 7805 regulator
• Hunt down soe kind of strain relief bushing for output cable

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos – the LED display is so bright that it makes it hard to photo when it’s on