It's time to make sure you have everything you need.
- the PCB
- the BOM
- the enclosure
- some wires
- soldering iron
- solder
- wire stripper
- wire cutter
I highly recommend that you mount the potentiometer and toggle switch in the enclosure and check the fit with the board before soldering.
If you solder the potentiomer first, you might find that there's not enough room under the board to fit the toggle switches (because they can be taller).
I personally solder the toggle switch first, then mount everything in the enclose and solder the potentiometers.
Note that the toggle switches should be mounted without any washer or bolt, the potentiometers will hold the board in place.
I recommend soldering components by order of height, starting witht the lower components.
In practice, this means doing the following steps in this order:
- solder resistors and diodes
- solder capacitors (except electrolytics), trimpots and sockets
- solder transistors
- solder electrolytic capacitors if any
- solder toggle switches
- mount in enclosure and solder potentiometers
- wire power and audio jacks
- wire footswitch
- test the pedal
- mount the LED with the lens in the enclosure and solder it.
Avoid heating any component for more than 3 sec, especially transistors and diodes. If you're worried about overheating a part, you can attach a crocodile clip to it, hence deviating some of the heat to the clip instead of the component.
Jacks can generally take more heat because there's more surface to heat up and solder.
You can use sockets for transistors and diodes in order to be able to try different parts.
Diodes are fragile ! Hold the base of the lead with pliers before bending, do not hold them by their glass body.
