A short video describing a hardware hack that I made to my BeatBuddy that I think makes it a bit unique 
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Not too shabby at all, sir!
Nicely done! Whenāre you coming to Bermuda to hack mine? 
Brilliant! Of all the things on my wish list, a heads-up-display is at the top: I canāt sing into a mic and be staring down at the silly thing, trying to time a transition
Thanks guys, If I were to do it over, a better way to parallel tap it and keep solder off the BB parts would be to build a āYā jumper cable by splicing the existing switch cable vs. soldering the back of the switch board. At the time I was just testing to see if the long switch cable would be a problem so didnāt want to rip into the switch cable and ended up just leaving the switch solder leads. Drilling for a 1/8" jack also would be smaller and easier to maybe locate with other jacks but not as sturdy as 1/4". Aluminum chips are bad for electronics but I wasnāt wanting to tear it all apart so put several layers of masking tape behind the drill spot it to keep the chips out of the box, also used a stereo jack and only wired tip and ring to keep any possible ground issues with the other switches isolated.
The footswitch was a Digitech FS3VX, could be any, that uses normally open momentary contact SPST. That switch spacing is same as BB switch and is low profile so is nice and portable. Regular BB Jack1 rewired for ground to left-tip and ground to right-sleeve. Jack2 Tip to Ring for the main switch, then run the BB switch detect.
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Iāve researched building a new jumper for this external main footswitch modification and I believe I have the connectors identified. This would allow you to build a jumper that requires no soldering to install into the pedal. Just jumper unplugging and plugging. Because I was also looking at building the new jumper to hook up to the 1/8" headphone jack. It is the only jack that is not soldered to the board. So give up headphone and use that jack to get out of the pedal without drilling any holes. All in all a modification that can be undone to return the BB pedal to its original condition.
For the love of god!!! Why wasnāt this simple inexpensive addition included in the original concept that went to production. It literally would have cost less than 50c in the the production stage. I know the idea of the beatbuddy is to be included on your pedal board, but what if we choose to stand mount it so we can actually read it and adjust on the fly!!! This will be a mod I can see Iāll be doing as soon as i get a chance. Still, an awesome product that leaves all others in itās wake. Thanks Norbert.
Hi Norbert and Hi Pineear , itās a nice plan and it works. Please look at the picture. Now i can connect a footswitch on the headphones jack with a small 3.5mm to 6.3mm cable. The main task was, to detect the manufacturer of the parts.
(Partlist - orderd in Germany / JST Parts B3B-PH-K-S and B2B-PH-K-S )
http://shop.taja-elektronik.de/JST-Stecker-PH-2-polig-mit-30cm-Kabel-SR
http://shop.taja-elektronik.de/JST-Buchse-PH-2-polig-gerade-Printmontage
http://shop.taja-elektronik.de/JST-Buchse-PH-3-polig-gerade-Printmontage
mg Ninan
[ATTACH]860[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]861[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]862[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]863[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]864[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]865[/ATTACH]
GREAT JOB ninan!!!
The 3 pin connector seems like a PC motherboard fan connector. itās correct?
Thanks Tore, i think itās not correct.
Fan connector has a dimesion of around 2.5mm between the pins. The parts inside beatbuddy are exactly 2mm between the pins. Look at the partlist or parts from JST . RM (Rastermeasure?) = 2mm (http://www.jst.com/home2.html)
:(o_O DAMN Connector!
Nice job on the cable split, locating the connectors can be a pain. My pref would be to not kill the headphone for when Iām not at an amp with it though so would probably still opt for a drill for additional jack with no intention of needing to return it for a warranty repair. A tap kit pre-wired to a jack so that it just needed a hole could be an interesting option.
My Beatbuddy is just one week old. I donāt wanne drill a hole within the next 6 month. Later iāve no problem. But iām looking forward to full midi support with start/stop / fillin / trans / pause / part1 / part2.
Wow awesome ideas man looks sweet well done
It would be great if the creators of BB would assemble this as a kit that we could buy to just plug in without having everyone research to find the parts. Open it up, plug it in and away you go. Finding these parts on JST Parts is still tough. The parts listed here arenāt quite the right ones (as shown in the parts photos on the JST website).
Hi Shawno814, here is the Data-Sheet from JST http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/pdf/eng/ePH.pdf (search for B2B-PH-K-S). In my case, the connectors fit. There are a lot sellers out there. (look here : https://solarbotics.com/product/14183/)
Damn, now I have to have this. I had already been researching how to do this with my tc-helicon h1 harmony pedal. itās just not feasible to keep bending to the floor with a guitar on, in a limited space, and you trying to read those miniscule letters and symbols to change the harmony and key for each song. my gosh, not everything is midi, as well. I guess the future is to have two pedal boardsā¦ one at waist level, and one at foot level! Manufacturers, adapt to the future! We are The Edge or Eddie who can hire guys full time to Just Make It So for us!
Why arenāt you running your instrument through the H-1 and setting it to āGuitarā, where it reads it automatically based on what youāre playing?
I am, but sometimes you want to adjust it, just to be sure. More often, what I want to adjust are the harmony voicings, though. One up close or far, vs two up, or one down one up, etc.
So the middle pedal is for the transitions ?
Wonderful, it is so hard to switch from a fill to a transition on the pedal,
(egā¦sultans of swing) this must be easier ā¦
Hiya. Good idea and hack. I was thinking about this a bit as I donāt own a BB, but I was looking at them and reading about them. I have an old Gallien Krueger amp from the 70s that has a foot switch with a DIN connector to flip between the two amp channels. Itās a 5 pin connector built into the front of amp. Why not use the same to replace the footswitch jack and you can use a single 5 conductor cable and a female DIN jack in place of the 1/4" jack on the pedal. Then two male 5 pin DIN jacks for the cable.
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/din-5c/5-pin-din-jack-chassis-mount-180-deg./1.html
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/din-5/5-pin-male-din-plug/1.html
Actually, looking at a similar GK switch on the web, it reminded me that the switch side is simply hard wired through a grommet and it only has the DIN connector at one end:
http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/moV6iYxJkqHzJBc38FG2kXA.jpg
