# Schem to layout...any easy way? ...or suggestions?



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I tried to build a Eurorack kit recently for my son-in-law's birthday and found that the solder pads were to too tiny for my eyes. He got the unfinished kit and built it in a few hours. 

I then tried a through hole board and it wasn't much better.

I am going to try a kit that uses terminal strips and this is what I'm considering at the moment.
Effects Pedal Kit - MOD® Kits, The Verb Deluxe, Digital Reverb

The construction looks something like this...









There appear to lots of vero board layouts but not as many terminal strip or tagboard, etc. layouts on the internet. Admittedly, I might need to spend more time searching

Is it difficult to go from a schematic to a layout as shown below? 
(this is just a visual sample)
















I know that this approach will seem regressive to some but my eyes and (subsequently) 'precision' soldering skills are not what they were in the past...sigh. 

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

What I do is study the schem to see what the common points are (grounds, power rail etc), remove pots and replace with wiper contact points, put all those at the edges and then redraw the schem to be optimised for that. For vero layouts I use excel to map it out from there and terminal strip it is a matter of just translating the 'optimised" schem to the terminals litterally.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Thanks Granny...much appreciated.

I should test myself by creating a layout for a simple schem and compare it to a known working layout.


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## tonewoody (Mar 29, 2017)

Essentially you are just 'connecting the dots'. How hard can it be? Lol!

Start simple, a one transister circuit. Spend time on how you will layout the parts, triple check everything. Look at how other builders do their builds, copy what you like. 

No harm in starting with a verified layout. The Geofex Dallas Rangemaster project is an excellent one.


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## tonewoody (Mar 29, 2017)

You may find more PTP pedal layouts if you substitute 'turret' instead of tagboard, terminal strip etc.

There is/was a dedicated guitar pedal PTP layout site online that had quite a few projects, I did a quick search but failed to find it. Many of the projects show up scattered around on Pinterest but if the site still exists, it is a good all in one collection. Surprising how many vero builds show up when you search for tagboard...

Once again, I would recommend starting with the simplest circuit, minimal parts count. An EH LPB-1 might be a good candidate. A simple circuit will make troubleshooting easier, less to worry about circuitwise, easier to figure out external wiring, ground, 3PDT switch, jacks etc.

diystompboxes.com is an excellent resource for this kind of info...


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## utuber paulj0557 (11 mo ago)

greco said:


> I tried to build a Eurorack kit recently for my son-in-law's birthday and found that the solder pads were to too tiny for my eyes. He got the unfinished kit and built it in a few hours.
> 
> I then tried a through hole board and it wasn't much better.
> 
> ...


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

Build it on a breadboard. It will help you understand what the heck is going on. Wampler has some great youtube vids on how to take a schematic and fit it to a breadboard. Then you can attempt to move it to vero or tagboard


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I hate stripboard, but am too lazy to come up with PCB layouts myself. If I don't have a layout that someone else has posted, I use perfboard. RG Keen sent me a copy of his book on how to make effects layouts some years back. I loaned it to a work buddy a half-dozen years ago and I think there it remains.


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