Lone Wolf Audio - Endless Blockade  [traced]

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
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bromoform
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Post by bromoform »

Greetings, it's my first post here! So if I did something wrong about this post or did something tabooed, please let me know :)

I was pretty curious about this pedal since the builder advertised it as "The Best Noise gate on market" or "Original design" or "Zuulkiller" or something. The reviews were quite positive too. Seemed like most of them ditched Zuul after the purchase. One of my friends got one too, and he let me borrow it to see what's inside.

Long story short: It was another Zuul clone with some controls added [smilie=a_doh.gif]
I took pedalpcb's Muzzle build doc as referance, and noticed they have exact same amount of each components. I have thought of tracing the PCB with CAD, but I decided to do it by hand since.
It's almost direct copy of Zuul with two resistors replaced by potentiometers. One is a variable version of Fortin's "Range" internal switch, and one controls the key input signal. Utter disappointment :( .
I attached the pictures of PCB and schematic(drawn on pedalpcb schem of Zuul). Sorry for the hand drawn schematic, but really it's not that amazing happening here...
Attachments
pcb_back.jpg
pcb_front.jpg
LWA_endless_blockade_sd.jpg
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bmxguitarsbmx
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Post by bmxguitarsbmx »

So, lone wolf is copying PedalPCB here looks like. He even copied the Q1 buffer that ignores the dual supply and sets up its bias between Vcc and Gnd. Not a huge deal of course, but the circuit could be simplified and given full headroom. Thanks for posting!
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Lani
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Post by Lani »

It's funny how they couldnt even get the copy right and needed to kludge two mod wires to get it to work. Unless they are so bad at PCB design that they couldnt fit all the tracks on two layers.... And by the looks of the routing on the board (lots of right angle turns) could be the case. :slap:
Nice first post by the way! :thumbsup
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DevouredDeth
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Post by DevouredDeth »

That PCB layout looks interesting.
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Jack Deville
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Post by Jack Deville »

That PCB.

Yikes!!
I'm a "professional."
Buy my products and make me rich.

www.jackdeville.com
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bmxguitarsbmx
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Post by bmxguitarsbmx »

At least it's not one of those magic "Symmetrical" layouts.
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Whoismarykelly
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Post by Whoismarykelly »

DevouredDeth wrote: ↑07 Jun 2021, 10:37 That PCB layout looks interesting.
That's what happens when you use the autorouter in Eagle instead of laying out components effectively and drawing the traces yourself. This design could very easily be laid out without vias but Eagle's solution to most problems is to just bounce the signal around with vias as much as possible.
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