# Low Tide Mini



## digitalyeti (Mar 14, 2022)

Hey All,

Since I didn't see a build report for this pedal yet, I thought I would add one to maybe make life easier for the next person who comes along wanting to build this awesome circuit. This is an amazing pedal and I am so impressed and grateful that PedalPB figured out how to fit everything into a 125B enclosure. I love the original Low Tide, but never really wanted to give up that much space on my board. This mini version is the best of both worlds -- a huge thank you to making this board. Here are my notes:

First of all, for those who don't know, this pedal is two boards that stack on top of each of each other. The two boards connect to each other via three sets of header pins. The only way I would know this is that I built a Sagan Delay a while back with the same setup. This brings me to my first and most important note. THIS IS A TIGHT FIT. When I say tight fit, I think I have less than a millimeter of clearance to get the back onto the pedal. If I had not dry fitted everything together before soldering the header pins and capacitors, this would not have fit together. As is, I had to rework and shorten my header connectors to give the extra few millimeters so all would fit. I also had to bend and side mount a lot of capacitors so everything fit. Honestly, not a huge issue, but I did do a lot of test fitting before soldering to make sure it would work. I actually think the boards are laid out really well -- all of the larger value capacitors were somewhere that gave them space be bent into place.

Even with that said, I still had some capacitors from the bottom board hitting the top board. What I did to fix this was make a thin sheet of electrical tape, by taping two pieces together so that the sticky side faced each other. I then cut this sheet to size and placed this sheet between the two boards to prevent shorts. I probably could have just covered the bottom of the top board with electrical tape, but I wanted something easy to remove if I needed to troubleshoot. Plus, if it was stuck to the board it would break down into a gooey mess in a few years. I was surprised how well my jury rigged solution worked.

I did make one idiot error in assembling. I socketed all the ICs and accidentally installed the ICs upside down on the top board. I have built so many PedalPCB boards that having a board without the customary layout threw me. I noticed this when the pedal did not work properly and then flipped the ICs around. What I did not know was that powering up the pedal with the ICs reversed killed the LM258. It was not hard to figure out because after being installed in the proper alignment the dead LM258 ran HOT. Like burning my finger hot. Once I swapped it out for a new one, the pedal fired right up and worked great. 

I am happy that I built the original Low Tide because it takes a bit of practice to properly set the trimpots. Neither of the trimpots are hard to set, but on first try the pedal did not work -- I had to adjust the BBD trim first for it to work. If I did not know this was necessary, I might have gone far down the troubleshooting rabbit hole before I touched the trimpot. So if you are building this and it does not work on first try -- make sure to play with the trimpots before desoldering anything.

For those of you looking for parts I was able to find the A1M dual from LoveMySwitches. I could not find any V3207Ds. However, I could find some MN3207s. What I actually did was pull a V3207D from a Caesar build I had and replace it in the Caesar with the MN3207. I think I got the MN3207s from GuitarPCB a little while ago. That was also where I got some through hole J201s. 

Anyway, I just wanted to post to pay back you all for the good info you have given me over the last few years. I usually lurk and anything I would share has already been shared. However, since this is a new build, I thought I would give my experience and maybe save somebody some heartache. Attached are some photos, if you are interested:


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## andare (Mar 15, 2022)

Thanks, this is really helpful. Is there a 125B enclosure that is a bit taller?


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## Big Monk (Mar 15, 2022)

Did you use < 7mm height caps? I know that the Electrovibe Mini parts list calls this out.


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## szukalski (Mar 15, 2022)

Looks lovely. Got any pics of the PCBs stacked from the side?
Love the black theme.


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## Mentaltossflycoon (Mar 15, 2022)

Man....... Good thing I bought extra chips when I did the biggie.


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## digitalyeti (Mar 17, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> Did you use < 7mm height caps? I know that the Electrovibe Mini parts list calls this out.


No, I just used regular caps -- I did not know that low height caps were a thing until you just mentioned it. This is useful knowledge for future builds.


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## digitalyeti (Mar 17, 2022)

andare said:


> Thanks, this is really helpful. Is there a 125B enclosure that is a bit taller?



I do not think so -- the enclosure sizes are pretty much standardized by Hammond, and I have never come across taller ones. With that said, you can put this circuit in any enclosure you want, including some of the taller 1590 variants. Heck,my backup plan for this pedal if it did not fit in a 125B was to put it into a Girl Scout Cookie tin.

In terms of enclosure depth, I know some people had similar issues with their Duocast builds. A smart forum member came up with the idea to 3D print a spacer to make the enclosure just a bit taller. I am guessing the same could be done with 125B enclosures. Here is a forum link about the spacers:






						Adapter ring to make 1590BB enclosure deeper (STEP file download in thread)
					

I like that Tayda offers powder coated 1590BB enclosures but wish they were the slightly deeper BBM size. Decided to make up an adapter ring to sit between lid and box to give some extra room. It’s just 3D printed for now but maybe I’ll machine these on the mill especially to make a deeper...




					forum.pedalpcb.com
				




With that said, I really wanted this to fit into a 125B enclosure to match the rest of my board. Even without smaller height caps, I could do that without too much heartache or issues. In all honesty, my biggest concern was getting properly heighted header pins. Smaller caps would not have solved that issue.


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## digitalyeti (Mar 17, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Looks lovely. Got any pics of the PCBs stacked from the side?
> Love the black theme.



Unfortunately, I do not and do not really want to dissemble the pedal to take pictures. If you do this build and get stuck and ned those photos, let me know and I will do the disassembly and take some photos.


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## andare (Mar 17, 2022)

I think the description calls for a 125BB. Is that the taller version of the 125B?


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## digitalyeti (Mar 17, 2022)

andare said:


> I think the description calls for a 125BB. Is that the taller version of the 125B?



I don't think so. I think the 125BB is the same height as the 125B, just a bit wider:






						125B / 125BB
					

Pedal Parts Plus has the finest effect pedal parts available for the boutique builder or DIYer. Customize an aluminum enclosure to house your effect pedal with services such as drilling, powder coating, and UV printing.



					www.pedalpartsplus.com


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## Big Monk (Mar 18, 2022)

If you ever redo it or build it again, use the same precautions as the Electrovibe Mini and you should not have any clearance issues.


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## SYLV9ST9R (Mar 18, 2022)

digitalyeti said:


> I don't think so. I think the 125BB is the same height as the 125B, just a bit wider:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yep, the 125BB is the same footprint as a 1590BB, but with the height of a 125B


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## AlexB (Mar 23, 2022)

I have this PCB and have never worked with stacked circuit boards before; would any of you be able to recommend suitable header pins for this project?


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## Robert (Mar 23, 2022)

One 40-pin strip of male pinheaders (2.54mm)








						40 Pin 2.54mm Single Row Pin Header Strip
					

GTK - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping




					www.taydaelectronics.com
				




One three-pin female header








						3 Pin 2.54mm Single Row Female Pin Header
					

GTK - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping




					www.taydaelectronics.com
				




Two four-pin female headers








						4 Pin 2.54mm Single Row Female Pin Header
					

GTK - Get It Fast - Same Day Shipping




					www.taydaelectronics.com


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## 93ryans (Apr 29, 2022)

I don't suppose someone could point me in the right direction for caps to use in this? I'm seeing 100uF and 22uF electrolytics, and I think I've found some nice short ones of those on Mouser. But the 1uF caps are throwing me. Should I try to find a special box film cap for those or just go with MLCC's?

In the past I would have just said screw it and use MLCC's, but for this project I wanna make sure I'm doing the audio quality as right as I can, and some folks say MLCC's are bad for the audio pathway. There being no schematic for either this or the full-size version, I'm kind of at a loss.


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## fig (Apr 29, 2022)

These are what I use; just search the same series.



			https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/16SEPC100M?qs=OE1iw1LrrPGRx2gkoxhxNw%3D%3D&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD


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## delayed (Apr 29, 2022)

Are there some better headers?  I used the Tayda in the viib and they seemed a bit loose. Worked fine, but I would have liked a tighter fit.  (No silly comments please)


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## Bio77 (Apr 30, 2022)

delayed said:


> Are there some better headers?  I used the Tayda in the viib and they seemed a bit loose. Worked fine, but I would have liked a tighter fit.  (No silly comments please)


With stacked PCBs using headers, I always put a bit of foam on the bottom PCB to support it.  I built a couple Aion Dimension C builds for people and they both came back to me after a few months.  On both, the bottom PCB slipped out. With the foam, no trouble.


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## delayed (Apr 30, 2022)

Thanks for the reply. I added a bit of the ic foam when I put it together also.


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## szukalski (May 8, 2022)

fig said:


> These are what I use; just search the same series.
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Panasonic/16SEPC100M?qs=OE1iw1LrrPGRx2gkoxhxNw%3D%3D&countrycode=US&currencycode=USD


Thanks. They look great.


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## AlexB (May 9, 2022)




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## AlexB (May 9, 2022)

Thanks for all the help, guys
Alex


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