Power
BOSS: DC Power Filtering
While I was looking at a few Boss circuits recently, I was reminded of some of the DC filtering they use. I thought I might try it in LTspice for a look, as my oscilloscope is pretty basic, so I can’t test it properly on the bench. So if you are ever having trouble with … Read more
POWER: DC Power Filtering
REDUCING NOISE ON DC POWER FOR FX PEDALS When looking at a guitar pedal schematic, you’re really looking at two circuits that overlay each other, sharing resources, and working together. There’s one for the AC signal and one for DC power. We use capacitors to block DC, and let AC signals pass – this is … Read more
POWER: Polarity Protection
POLARITY PROTECTION FOR GUITAR EFFECTS PEDALS Guitar pedals are full of components, some of which are so sensitive to voltages of the wrong polarity that they will explode – electrolytic capacitors in particular. Exploding caps is not good. And to really start at the beginning, the wrong polarity means V+ and ground (or V-) have … Read more
Bench Power Supply
Perhaps not often talked about in the world of guitar pedal building, as they’re kind of boring as all hell – the humble bench power supply. So why am I bothering you with this? Apart from being able to dial in most voltages that I need, a bench power supply is actually a handy … Read more
POWER: MAX1044 Charge Pumps and Inverter
Note: Normal power ripple filtering can be added to these. Probably better to add filtering after the IC rather than before (or both ends if you are really keen).
POWER UTILITY: Power Filter / Capacitance Multiplier, Point to Point and Vero Layouts
Power your fuzz / high gain circuits with noise problems from this. Like most things, it’s not a silver bullet for your problems, but it will probably help. Here’s a better technical explanation than I will ever manage. There’s a few variations of this circuit – google is your friend if you want to find out more. TLDR: … Read more