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After the last thread about the AB switch, could somebody give me a quick rundown of the sort of shit I need for an effect loop box? I'm on the Maplin site now, I'll probably pick up the enclosure tomorrow, and grab a 3DPT switch off of eBay. Ideally, I'd like to stick an LED into it, but if that's too much work for my woefully inadequate solder/DIY skills, then I'll probably leave that until later. I'm thinking along the lines of the sort of wire to use, and how to mount all the stuff into the enclosure. This will be my FIRST EVER foray into electronics for the last five years, so I'm jumping into this pretty blind.

Four jacks. Three mono one stereo.

One 3pdt stomperswitch.

battery snap and clip.

LED and small resistor.

Box.

Mounting it all up, I would just hot-glue the LED into the casing, wrap the lead for the resistor to one of the diode legs, and run that back to the switch. You ought to have enough lead to not need any board or wire.

I normally use 20-22 gauge stranded copper wire. you may opt for solid core if you wish.

Do you need a diagram to wire it all up?

PenPen wrote:Do you need a diagram to wire it all up?

That would be awesome.

How come a stereo jack is needed?

battery life, like normal.

Yep, to keep the battery from draining while it is not in use.

Gimme some time, work just got busy again so I'll get something drawn and posted as soon as I can.

You don't need a battery or stereo jack if you don't want an LED.

PenPen wrote:Yep, to keep the battery from draining while it is not in use.

Gimme some time, work just got busy again so I'll get something drawn and posted as soon as I can.

Cheers PenPen, you darling. For things like the resistor, could you give me an idea what I'm looking for? Resistor usually means a particularly difficult victim to me.

Doog wrote:You don't need a battery or stereo jack if you don't want an LED.

But I do.

Would these be ok for the resistor?

Yeah those will do, although you only need one. The exact value you need will depend on the LED you want. If you want to get that massive pack I suppose you will have a big selection to choose from, but you will only be needing some value between 1k and 10k, I have to look at the calc to determine the exact one. Can you post a link to the LED you want to use? I can get the specs from that.

I was looking at one of these. I like the way they look.

Get blue, they're brightest.

Malik wrote:Get blue, they're brightest.

I was thinking of white or blue anyway. Maybe white.

Hrmm. Calc says roughly 470 ohms. Get some 470, 680, and 1k ohm resistors. Or, just get that pack, it will have the 470 and 1k's. Most likely you'll be using the 470. If it is too bright or if you can live with it being less go with 1k. Personally I'd start with 1k (my default value) and I lower it from there if it needs to be brighter. Remember, less light = less power used.

EDIT: OH wait, white or blue are brighter but they use more current, so I need to recalc that.

We're talking about a 9v battery doing just a light here, it's going to be using way less current than an effect would, so it's going to last hours and hours and hours, and even if it does run out it won't do any harm to the circuit.

You are correct. They use about 20mA. EK, it says in the calc that you should use 300 ohms for those white LEDs, the max voltage is 3.5V at 20mA. I will still suggest going with 470 to start with, if it is too dim you can lower it down.

PenPen wrote:You are correct. They use about 20mA. EK, it says in the calc that you should use 300 ohms for those white LEDs, the max voltage is 3.5V at 20mA. I will still suggest going with 470 to start with, if it is too dim you can lower it down.

Will do.

Oh yeah, and just FYI in case anyone else wants to calc these things:

LED Resistor Calc

BUMP. I still owe you a diagram for this.

Yep, I'm not impatient though.

Have you done it yet?