Cartridge Pedal Survey

What is this, in short?

Base console pedal (pic) with a variety of knobs and switches, plus volume control and a wet/dry blend
Effects cartridges (pic) to do the audio processing
Cartridge kits for a variety of effects, as well as "blanks" (vero/strip/bread/perf board) for making your own layouts
Design and sell your own cartridge PCBs too?

The cartridge has an edge connector with many pads that carry the basic signals like: IN, OUT, GND, and POWER, but they offer a lot more. Here are some examples:

The base console pedal has a buffered wet/dry blend that the cartridge PCB can either utilize or not based on how a few SEND/RETURN/IN/OUT pads are wired. i.e. each cartridge can decide if it utilizes the blend.
The LEDs on the pedal are also controlled by conditionally grounding a connector pad for each of them. This helps you see, at a glance, which console controls are active. To make it even easier, we print the controls on the cartridge sticker too.
One of the connector pads indicates bypass status, in case a cartridge needs to conditionally display a tempo LED or other similar features.

Other interesting or useful tid-bits:

The pedal currently has the following pots: 2k, 10k, 50k, 1M, and two 100k
It has 2 switches: DPDT on-off-on, DPDT on-on
But you can add more controls because...
There are extra, unused connectors so there's no reason you can't and shouldn't add new awesome features:
- Tap tempo (e.g. with tapflo in the base console)
- a "havoc" momentary foot switch
- additional pots/switches/etc
- or....
You can add switches and knobs to the cartridge itself, but note they don't sit will when PCB mounted so you'll probably need to hand wire them.
The fingers (pads) on the PCB connectors are 2µm ENIG (gold). These are more conductive and better suited for the connectors than HASL (tin/lead). However over time and extreme use, either HASL or ENIG can wear away leaving exposed copper. If this ever happens you may need to use an eraser to remove the corrosion just like we did in the good ol' days with NES cartridges. If you design your own PCBs you can use electroplated hard gold to reduce this issue, but for 99.8% of pedal hobbiests the cost is prohibitively high so we go with a more reasonable compromise.
Random fun fact: We're working on a cartridge with an OLED screen and a few fun games to play.... with your guitar.

What does it look like?

This is my prototype with a few rough edges, and my beloved NES style - but your graphics can vary of course. The layout of controls is probably very close to what the final version will be, unless I get feedback recommending otherwise.

Why would I want this?

This is for people who build a lot of pedals.

$$$ SAVINGS $$$ - low-cost way to build many pedals without repeatedly buying the most costly parts: enclosures, foot switches, potentiometers, jacks, toggle switches, and knobs. Decorating stickers for the cartridges is also more straightforward and inexpensive than decorating enclosures.
EASY, RELAXING builds - Cartridges are much simpler to build since they have no offboard wiring. Great projects for beginners to the DIY pedal hobby
LESS CLUTTER - I'd bet many of you, like me, have way too many pedals cluttering up your house. These cartridges are really space-efficient, and easy to stack.
Fun and silly - and of course there's just some fun and novelty in working within a new platform, designing stickers, adapting circuits to work with the provided knobs and switches, and more.
You can design your own cartridges! Either with specially shaped vero/strip/perf/breadboard style "blanks" we'll sell, or you can take the PCB outline into your own CAD and design ones to be fabricated. (You can also sell your new ones yourself, of course, or we're also considering stocking customer-contributed PCBs and giving you a cut of each sale)

But, but, but... (common objections)

AKA "Why would I NOT want this?". In short, if you're not building a lot of pedals this probably isn't for you.

Q: "Won't it be easy to kick over or trip on? Seems impractical for gigging, no?"
A: Yes, it's a terribly impractical pedal. Don't gig with it.
Q: "Is that a plastic shell? What about shielding? Seems impractical for gigging, no?"
A: Yes, it's a a terribly impractical pedal. Don't gig with it. That said, shielding is very frequently less necessary than you think.
Q: "What if I like multiple cartridges and want to keep them on my board? Do I have to build multiple consoles?"
A: You would, but instead I'd recommending building a standalone pedal for any "mainstay" effects. This isn't for permament fixtures on your board.
Q: "Console pedals have been tried and they always fail. Seems impractical, no?"
A: Yes, because they always market to guitar players who need and want practical pedals. This isn't that, and isn't for those players. It is for people who like building and tinkering with many pedals. It's a platform for hacking, experimentation, and DIY pedal building fun.

Would you buy DIY cartridge & console kits?

Thank you!

Thank you for the feedback.

Want to be notified when it's available?

Have another minute or two?

Fill out the form below and get details on all the offerings we have planned, while also providing valuable feedback.

What would you buy?

When this is available, what do you think you'd want? This info will help us plan what to offer, and give you more details on what to expect. Prices are estimates.

Part 1: Console Pedal

Console pedal kit

Includes a Bazz Fuss cartridge kit, plus all parts to build the base console: enclosure, connector, PCB, switches, pots, knobs, jacks, etc.

[$79] Complete console pedal kit

Plain enclosure

Powder coated and printed

Console pedal parts

Source common parts for the console pedal yourself, and get the unique parts here...

[$10] PCBs for console (main and foot switch PCBs):

[$49] Enclosure (decorated): Milled, printed, powder coated

[$34] Enclosure (plain): Milled, raw aluminum enclosure:

[$8] Connector for cartridge slot:

Part 2: Cartridges

Full kits include dust cover, cartridge sticker, cartridge shell, PCB, all parts, and printed instructions

Effect	Full Kit	PCB + Cartridge shell
Bazz Fuss Promo / starter project. This is included with the console pedal kit.	$19	$7
RAT	$29	$12
Dual: Ringer - Big Muff Pi Fuzz	$29	$14
Muff Fuzz	$29	$12
Acapulco Gold	$29	$12
Distortion+	$29	$12
Shoe Pixel 8-bit gated fuzz	$29	$12
Boost specific options TBD. Perhaps Black Tiger or 9V Nirvana (lofi)	$29	$12
PT2399 Delay	$34	$14
Green ringer (octave up)	$29	$12
Dyna Compressor	$34	$14
Digital Reverb (FV-1) all options include EEPROM	$59 (w/ pre-soldered FV-1)	$14 $39 (w/ FV-1 presoldered)
Digital Delay (FV-1) all options include EEPROM	$59 (w/ pre-soldered FV-1)	$14 $39 (w/ FV-1 presoldered)
Digital Chorus (FV-1) all options include EEPROM	$59 (w/ pre-soldered FV-1)	$14 $39 (w/ FV-1 presoldered)
Digital Flanger / phaser (FV-1) all options include EEPROM	$59 (w/ pre-soldered FV-1)	$14 $39 (w/ FV-1 presoldered)
Digital octave / pitch (FV-1) all options include EEPROM	$59 (w/ pre-soldered FV-1)	$14 $39 (w/ FV-1 presoldered)
Digital mixed effects (FV-1) Details TBD - e.g. harmonic trem + delay all options include EEPROM	$59 (w/ pre-soldered FV-1)	$14 $39 (w/ FV-1 presoldered)

Part 3: DIY / Design your own Cartridges

If you want to design and build custom layouts for other effects, you just need a PCB and a Shell (technically you don't need the shell and can plug in the bare PCB)...

[$5] Cartridge shell

Qty

[$10] Blank PCB for DIY layouts.
With bottom connector, and specially shaped to fit the cartridge shell

Strip/Vero board

Perf board

Breadboard style traces

[$2.50] Dust covers for cartridges.
(pic for reference. Not functionally necessary, but provides a nostalgic storage option)

Qty

Part 4: Last thoughts

Would you want to design new cartridge PCBs for a royalty on each sale?

Unknown

Yes

Anything else to add?

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DIY Cartridge Pedal System

Prototype: Looking for your feedback

Should We Make These Kits?