Lithium Grim Cabulator Instruction Manual

Cabulator
Building instructions
v1.0

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
2
Table of contents
PCB layout ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Components ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Build sequence ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Drill template........................................................................................................................................... 6
Off board wiring ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Switches................................................................................................................................................... 8
SW1 ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Hardwired........................................................................................................................................ 8
DP3T switch..................................................................................................................................... 8
XLR Out and SW2................................................................................................................................. 9
Modifications......................................................................................................................................... 10
Modded version ................................................................................................................................ 10
Optimized version ............................................................................................................................. 11
Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................................... 12
Schematics............................................................................................................................................. 13
Read this entire manual thoroughly before you start building the effect! There are a lot of available
mods and you should choose which one you want to incorporate before starting your build.
Last update: 18-02-2019

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
3
PCB layout
Dimensions: 75 mm x 54,6 mm
2.95 inch x 2.15 inch

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
4
Components
Name
Value
Comment
Name
Value
Comment
C1
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
Q1
2N2222A
C2
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R1
1M
1% metalfilm
C3
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R2
1M
1% metalfilm
C4
470p
MLCC
R3
10k
1% metalfilm
C5
4n7
SMF/MKT/Wima
R6
1k
1% metalfilm
C6
8n2
SMF/MKT/Wima
R7
22k
1% metalfilm
C7
10n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R8
10k
1% metalfilm
C8
47n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R9
4k7
1% metalfilm
C9
47n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R10
10k
1% metalfilm
C10
5n6
SMF/MKT/Wima
R11
1k
1% metalfilm
C11
18n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R12
4k7
1% metalfilm
C12
3n3
SMF/MKT/Wima
R13
100k
1% metalfilm
C13
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R14
15k
1% metalfilm
C14
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R15
10k
1% metalfilm
C15
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R16
10k
1% metalfilm
C16
100u
Electrolytic 16V+
R17
100k
1% metalfilm
C17
47u
Electrolytic 16V+
R19
10k
1% metalfilm
C18
1n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R20
10k
1% metalfilm
C19
10u
Electrolytic 16V+
R21
10k
1% metalfilm
C20
1u
Electrolytic 16V+
R22
10k
1% metalfilm
C21
1u
Electrolytic 16V+
R23
10k
1% metalfilm
C22
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R24
1M
1% metalfilm
IC1
TL074CN
R25
1M
1% metalfilm
IC2
TL074CN
R26
10R
1% metalfilm
J1
XLR Out
Male Chassis
R27
10k
1% metalfilm
P1
B100k
Mid Response
R28*
jumper
1% metalfilm
P2a
B100k
Resonance
R29*
NC
1% metalfilm
P2b*
NC
Jumper 2-3
SW1
DP3T (on-on-on)
Output select
P3
B100k
High Response
SW2
SPDT
Ground lift
P4
A500k
Cabsize
VR1
B200k
XLR pad
P5
B100k
Punch
P6
A100k
Gain
D1
1N5817
* Optional parts (see modifications section)
All parts need to be 16V+ rated
A=Log, B=Lin, C=Rev. Log

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
5
Build sequence
Soldering this board can be very complicated for some people since the solder pads are very close
together. Use a magnifying glass to make the job easier.
The trick to soldering a PCB is to work from small to big components. My building sequence
suggestions in this section are based on the parts I used myself. Sometimes some components are
smaller (or bigger) so always use your own common sense and change the order accordingly. Usually
capacitors can differ a lot in size depending on their rating and value.
Note: Do not blow on your solder in an attempt to cool it down. That can result in a bad join that
might corrode! Also take extra care not to short components.
Start by soldering the jumpers (if needed) and resistors. If you are building the default configuration
(as mentioned in the component section on p4) you will need to place a jumper for R28 and between
pad 2 and 3 (the round pads, not the square pad!) of P2b. You can create a jumper using a spare
piece of lead from a resistor or diode. Next comes the diode.
If you want to experiment with another transistor for Q1 then you could socket it instead of soldering
it to the board. You’ll need a some 20 SIL sockets, break off the sockets and solder them to the
board. Now is the time to solder the sockets for the ICs. Place the transistor and ICs not before you
are finished with all soldering and off board wiring!
Now continue by soldering the SMF and MKT capacitors then solder the internal trimpot (VR1). Finish
with soldering the transistor (if not socketed) and the Electrolytics. Note that the orientation of the
transistor (2N2222A) on the PCB is 180 degrees reversed!
I suggest you now drill the holes in your enclosure so you can use it during the off board wiring and
to correctly fit the pots to the backside of the PCB.
Note: Really take some time to determine where to place the pots, switches, jacks and PCB in the
enclosure before you start drilling. Measure twice, drill once.
You are almost ready to rock, well… not really. The difficult part starts now.

Cabulator v1.0
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property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
6
Besides the components mentioned in the components table, you will need:
•1 mono input jack, 1 stereo output jack.
•3PDT footswitch (9 pins)
•2,1mm DC jack (isolated).
•22 gage stranded hook-up wire.
•LED holder. This enables you to mount the LEDs in the enclosure.
•LED (3mm or 5mm depending on your taste). This will be the status LEDs
•Hammond 1590BB case (or similar) in your favorite color. This case will fit tightly and leaves
no room for error! If you need more room you could consider using a Hammond 1590XX.
Drill template
29,6 mm 29,6 mm
Resonance Cabsize High
Response 42,8mm
Footswitch
15mm
29,6 mm 29,6 mm
Gain Punch Mid
Response
27,8mm
After drilling the holes, insert the potentiometers in the enclosure and then insert them in the back
of the PCB.
You can break off the pin I marked with the yellow circle with a small
pair of pliers. The rectangle pad marks the pad for pin 1.
If all fits well you can solder the potentiometers to the board.
Pots drill holes 7mm
Switch drill holes 6mm
Footswitch drill hole 13 mm

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
7
Off board wiring
Ring
Sleeve
Tip
Cathode (short leg)
Input
R led
Anode (long leg)
Tip
Sleeve
Output
R led is a 3k3/4k7 resistors. You can change the value depending on the type of LED you use but 4k7
is safe enough for almost all LEDs @9V.
Note that the diagram is using star wiring for the ground connection. This requires that the output
jack makes very good contact to the enclosure! If this is not possible, you can connect a wire to the
sleeve of the output jack and the sleeve of the input jack.
VR1 (XLR Padding) is by default a PCB mounted potentiometer as it is mostly used as set and forget.
If you want to, you can make it and externally controllable potentiometer using a 16mm Alpha pot
B250k, The pins configuration is marked on the PCB and correspond to the pinout as shown on the
potentiometer on the previous page.

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
8
Switches
SW1
SW1 determines the output of the PCB. You can choose to attach a switch or to hardwire it. If you
attach a DP3T on-Z-on switch, you can choose between normal out via the output jack, output via
both XLR and normal out and XLR out only.
Hardwired
Normal out XLR out Normal and XLR out
DP3T switch
When you are using a DP3T on-Z-on, you must test which pins are connected in the middle position.
There are 2 types of switches which are shown below in the middle position:
3 2 1
4 5 6
3 2 1 4 5 6
3 2 1
4 5 6
Find out which one you have and wire accordingly. To prevent a floating output, I would advise to
reverse pin 1 and 2 (either on the PCB or on the switch). Also connect pin 3 and 6 on the switch to
ground. This way you ground the effect output and/or XLR output when it is not in use. You could use
the spare ground next to the output on the PCB. It will look like this:
3 1 2
4 5 6
To Ground

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
9
XLR Out and SW2
You can use the XLR out with or without a ground lift switch (SW2).
If you do not want to use the ground lift then you can leave out C22 and R26.
Turning VR1 will pad the output of the XLR if it is too loud.
The XLR chassis is shown upside down and looking at it from the rear.
Ground lift No ground lift
X
X

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
10
Modifications
The PCB was designed to enable you to make several different mods. There were a lot of
experiments with making the effect sound even better, mainly by Bajaman. All these versions have
their good sides so you can build any of them by using only this single board. The only thing you will
have to do is choose. I personally like the optimized version the best.
The components section on page 4 reflects the traced original. The following paragraphs reflect the
modded version of the original followed by an optimized version.
Modded version
Name
Value
Comment
Name
Value
Comment
C1
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
Q1
2N2222A
C2
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R1
1M
1% metalfilm
C3
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R2
1M
1% metalfilm
C4
470p
MLCC/Ceramic
R3
10k
1% metalfilm
C5
4n7
SMF/MKT/Wima
R6
1k
1% metalfilm
C6
8n2
SMF/MKT/Wima
R7
22k
1% metalfilm
C7
4n7
SMF/MKT/Wima
R8
10k
1% metalfilm
C8
47n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R9
10k
1% metalfilm
C9
47n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R10
10k
1% metalfilm
C10
4n7
SMF/MKT/Wima
R11
470R
1% metalfilm
C11
4n7
SMF/MKT/Wima
R12
4k7
1% metalfilm
C12
680p
MLCC/Ceramic
R13
100k
1% metalfilm
C13
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R14
18k
1% metalfilm
C14
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R15
39k
1% metalfilm
C15
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R16
10k
1% metalfilm
C16
100u
Electrolytic 16V+
R17
100k
1% metalfilm
C17
47u
Electrolytic 16V+
R19
10k
1% metalfilm
C18
1n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R20
10k
1% metalfilm
C19
10u
Electrolytic 16V+
R21
10k
1% metalfilm
C20
1u
Electrolytic 16V+
R22
10k
1% metalfilm
C21
1u
Electrolytic 16V+
R23
10k
1% metalfilm
C22
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R24
1M
1% metalfilm
IC1
TL074CN
R25
1M
1% metalfilm
IC2
TL074CN
R26
10R
1% metalfilm
J1
XLR Out
Male Chassis
R27
10k
1% metalfilm
P1
A10k
Mid Response
R28
1k5
1% metalfilm
P2a
B100k
Resonance
R29
2M2
1% metalfilm
P2b
NC
Jumper 2-3
SW1
DP3T (on-on-on)
Output select
P3
B100k
High Response
SW2
SPDT
Ground lift
P4
A500k
Cabsize
VR1
B200k
XLR pad
P5
B100k
Punch
P6
A100k
Gain
D1
1N5817

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
11
Optimized version
Name
Value
Comment
Name
Value
Comment
C1
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
Q1
2N2222A
C2
120n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R1
1M
1% metalfilm
C3
120n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R2
1M
1% metalfilm
C4
4n7
SMF/MKT/Wima
R3
10k
1% metalfilm
C5
47n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R6
1k
1% metalfilm
C6
39n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R7
2k2
1% metalfilm
C7
68n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R8
1k
1% metalfilm
C8
330n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R9
1k
1% metalfilm
C9
330n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R10
1k
1% metalfilm
C10
39n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R11
jumper
1% metalfilm
C11
39n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R12
470R
1% metalfilm
C12
22n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R13
22k
1% metalfilm
C13
4u7
Electrolytic 16V+
R14
1k8
1% metalfilm
C14
470n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R15
3k9
1% metalfilm
C15
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R16
10k
1% metalfilm
C16
100u
Electrolytic 16V+
R17
100k
1% metalfilm
C17
47u
Electrolytic 16V+
R19
10k
1% metalfilm
C18
3n3
SMF/MKT/Wima
R20
10k
1% metalfilm
C19
10u
Electrolytic 16V+
R21
10k
1% metalfilm
C20
1u
Electrolytic 16V+
R22
10k
1% metalfilm
C21
1u
Electrolytic 16V+
R23
10k
1% metalfilm
C22
100n
SMF/MKT/Wima
R24
1M
1% metalfilm
IC1
TL074CN
R25
1M
1% metalfilm
IC2
TL074CN
R26
10R
1% metalfilm
J1
XLR Out
Male Chassis
R27
10k
1% metalfilm
P1
A10k
Mid Response
R28
470R
1% metalfilm
P2a*
B10k
Resonance
R29
NC
1% metalfilm
P2b*
B10k
Resonance
SW1
DP3T (on-on-on)
Output select
P3
B10k
High Response
SW2
SPDT
Ground lift
P4
A50k
Cabsize
VR1
B200k
XLR pad
P5
B10k
Punch
P6
A10k
Gain
D1
1N5817
* P2a/b are formed by a single stereo B10k potentiometer

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
12
Troubleshooting
All PCB’s have been 100% factory e-tested and out of every batch I receive I build an effect to double
check, so there should not be a connection problem on the PCB itself.
The board is not working (at all), what now?
•Check if your 9V is plugged in correctly (and/or soldered correctly on the board). Pay special
attention to the polarity.
•Check that you oriented the capacitors, IC’s ,transistors and diodes the right way. SMF, MKT
and ceramic capacitors as well as resistors do not need to be oriented. A likely sign of
incorrect capacitors and/or orientation is when an effect is sputtering, rumbling or
“motorboating”.
•Check if you used the correct values of the components. For resistors you can look here:
http://www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Electronics/Color/
•Double and triple check your soldering! A loose or cold solder can be really bad for your
board.
•Replace the IC and/or transistors, one might be defective. Before doing that first unplug the
9V and wait for 5 seconds.
•Check that you have good/high grade components. A lot of Chinese sourced parts are fakes
(especially high end opamps, audio capacitors, vintage diodes and transistors) so be careful
that you source your parts from reliable suppliers.

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
13
Schematics

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
14

Cabulator v1.0
Manufacturers and product names are mentioned solely for circuit identification, and where applicable their trademarks are the
property of their respective owners who are in no way associated or affiliated with the author. No cooperation or endorsement
is implied.
15