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Topics - Bio77

#1
Build Reports / Custom Aquaboy + Boost
December 10, 2023, 11:17:06 AM
This was a special build for me.  I few years back, Spotify turned me onto the band Plague Vendor and I became a big fan.  I haven't been a fan of a band to this degree since I was in high school in the 90s.  So, it's been a lot of fun.  Anyways, I got the opportunity to meet the band after their show a few months back.  Talking with the guitarist I offered to make him a pedal. 

He currently uses a MXR Carbon Copy for a slap back delay on lead parts.  He said that the CC was a little clean for his taste.  Also, he used to use a boost at the same time but ditched it because it was difficult to turn both on at the same time.   So, I thought a DM-2 with a boost would be a good alternative.   

Luckily, I had two built up Aquaboys in my stash.  I chose the JFET boost Barry had GPCB. I just had to move the feedback pot with some offboard wiring.  Needed to shoehorn everything, but it worked.  I might want to do a layout for a utility board at some point but this worked well.  The graphic are no-film but I used a paint marker on the label to block in the white.  Enclosure is mint green from Tayda.




#2
General Questions / Kingmaker - Flange Clock Mechanics
November 26, 2023, 02:04:42 PM
I spent a lot of time messing around with the Kingmaker, recently.  The info I found online said that the clock should sweep from 1.8 ms- 20 ms, so, 284 kHz - 25.6 kHz.  Initially, I set the clock trim so that without the LFO the two extremes of the Manual knob were close to these values.  But when I added in the LFO, the clock was only sweeping across the range when the Manual knob was at one extreme.  It also sounded like trash, so, I just went with Bean's recommended settings.

This made me think that I am wrong about my basic understanding of how the clock is working.  I thought that the manual knob set the base voltage into the control pin of the 3201, and the LFO voltage would add or subtract from that.  So that the manual voltage would set the center frequency that is swept up and down by the LFO.  Is this correct?  If not how should should I set the frequency of the clock to achieve a sweep between 1.8 and 20 ms? I have a frequency counter and scope.


#3
I recently got to meet the guitarist of a band I'm super into, and offered to make him a pedal.  So, he is currently using a MXR Carbon Copy set with a short slap-back delay.  He uses it for lead sections of songs.   He mentioned that it was a too clean sounding.  The other ask was that he used to have a MXR Micro Amp and would turn on both for leads.  He ditched the micro amp because hitting both pedals was distracting. 

My plan was to build an Aqua Baby (DM-2) and add the micro amp or other clean boost inline so both are activated by one foot switch.  So, since the clean sound was a problem, I'm wondering if a preamp would be a better choice?  Or maybe a transistor based boost?  What do you guys think?
#4
Build Reports / Lace Sensor - Lizard Queef
August 16, 2023, 03:59:41 PM
So, I've been following the Lizard Queen cloning efforts on the inter-webs  ;D  Lace Sensor posted this vero layout a  few months back:
https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=34700.msg331453#msg331453

I've only tried vero once before; I made a modulation board for an Aquaboy that didn't work.  So I was curious about this circuit but not motivated enough to order a PCB.  Anyway, this turned out to be really fun.  I used a bunch of recycled or spare parts I had laying around.  The box was a pre-drilled box from Small Bear I got in a in one of those grab boxes. 

Came out really nice.  Only down side is the circuit sounds awful to my ears, but that's not the veros fault ;D  This is not the fuzz for me.




#5
General Questions / Current Lover 1024 stage to 512??
August 12, 2023, 10:46:04 AM
I was toying with the idea of substituting a MN3204 (512 stages) into my 3207 (1024 stage) Current Lover.  I know the clock is buffered and there isn't a big win to be had by this substitution.  But what I was wondering is when the original SAD Electric Mistress was redesigned for 1024 stages of the Panasonic BBDs, was the clock noise filtering in the circuit also redesigned? 

I've already subbed in the 3204 into the existing circuit but the range of the clock frequency can't get below 50kHz to adjust to the classic frequency range.  Meaning I have to do some surgery if I want to adjust it down.  I'd hate to do that if the filtering isn't set up to take out the ~35kHz clock noise.   
#6
My Fraudhacker build was working.  Biased perfectly, clock freq good.  Played through my amp and it sounded good.  Started messing with the T1 trim to set the upper feedback limit and started getting weird clicks at different spots on the Manual knob.  The clicks got worse and flanging stopped.

My first thought was that I had a bad T1 trim.  I took it apart today and replaced the T1 trim.  Voltages all look good except maybe the TL022 where I get:

1 Varies
2 2.84
3 2.83
4 0
5 Varies
6 2.81
7 5 or 0.63 (switches)
8 5.66

I'm not sure if I was in the working or non-working mode when I got these voltages (see below).

I tried a few different TL022s and a TL062.  While switching the LFO chips I noticed that it starts to work and then reverts back to the clicking and loses flanging.  Now I realize that if I unplug the effect and/or twiddle the knobs a bunch I can sometimes get it fired up.  My last experiment I had a working pedal again and it only started clicking when I messed with the knobs a lot. 

Any ideas would be much appreciated  8)


#7
Whew!  Been cooking this up for two years now.  I think Chris (thewintersoldier) built a Dizzy and gave me the FOMO.  Anyway, he helped me with the specs for the tranies and the decision to pair it with the Tentacle.  Bret (Bret608) sent me the transistor set. Thanks Bret! 

It took so long because I has this concept in mind and I was never satisfied with the execution.  It always needed something.  The horn idea was something I was keeping my eye out.  Even schemed with Dawson to 3D print some, but it didn't work out.  Eric (EBK) gave me the idea for the clay in one of his PFUK builds.  So these are brass inserts from SB with Fimo clay.  Maxwell's Demon is a physics nerd thing, means chaos. 





#8
Open Discussion / Aion has BBDs
March 16, 2023, 12:57:09 PM
Just noticed this.  The V3005SDs are $8  :o
#9
Build Reports / Echo Fuzz - MB Splunker
March 13, 2023, 06:00:29 PM
Just wanted to show some love to the Splunker.  I haven't seen any build reports, yet.  I think it's cool when the Jedi's of the pedal game do originals.   This is a fun pedal, gives an instant lead tone. 

I used some low Hfe 3904s for the fuzz side, nothing fancy.  The no-film gods were kind to me and I got a pretty good transfer  8)  It's been rough on the no-film front the past year or so.   






#10
Build Reports / Lectric-FX Celeste2
December 11, 2022, 02:38:11 PM
EHX Clone Theory.  I went for the obvious graphics on this one ;D Joy Division is one of my favorite bands. 

I tried and failed to get a charge pump working. I tried 20-100p caps at both the 2 to 7 pins of the CP and dafrank's 7 to ground.  Nothing took out enough noise.  But at 18V it sounds amazing.  I'm going have to rig up 18V on my board.  I'm getting a pretty big collection of really great sounding 18V pedals.





#11
Build Reports / Aion Monolith – Love Tone Big Cheese
November 25, 2022, 03:51:28 PM
My cheesy idea was to have an ugly box but the cleanest guts I could manage.  Beauty on the inside vibe. Really dig this fuzz, lots of options between the different modes. 






#12
Open Discussion / Mouser has NSL Photo-couplers Now
October 10, 2022, 07:43:02 AM
Saw this the other day on another forum.  Thought others might be interested to know.  8)

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/846-NSL-32SR3
#13
General Questions / LM78L05 at 18V
August 06, 2022, 08:36:12 PM
Anybody ever use a 78L05 to regulate 18V down to 5V?  Data sheet says the maximum is 35V but the data sheet is generalized for the whole 78L series so I'm wondering.  I'd like to add relay switching to an 18V build.
#14
Build Reports / Sludge Hammer – Bass Driver
July 31, 2022, 11:40:25 AM
This one came out super nice, very stoked on it.  It's going on my board. Enclosure is a Tayda UV print.

I decided to skip the DI because I have a DI on my bass head, but I added the components for that section in case I want to add it down the road.  Word to the wise on this build: Be careful with the placement of the jacks.  I placed mine too close to the lid and had to do some bending and add some electrical tape to the lid so it wasn't making contact.





#15
Build Reports / Charlatan - The Worm
July 17, 2022, 05:33:03 PM
Finished the Worm.  I had a bunch of hiccups but it finally worked out. 

The zebra effect on my graphic was not intentional, but I thought it looked okay.  My no-film transfers have been unreliable, lately.  I think they might have reformulated the glue.  Anybody else having issues?  I might just go full UV print from here on out.  Those things look perfect.



#16
General Questions / Charlatan Zener
July 16, 2022, 06:50:51 PM
The universe is definitely telling me that I shouldn't own the Worm, lol.  ;D  Lots of obstacles in this build. 

Anyways, I don't have 10V zener on hand.  Would it be okay to sub a 9.1V zener?? Should I just wait and order the 10Vs?
#17
Build Reports / Collosalus 2022
July 10, 2022, 11:29:48 AM
Finish this one up this weekend.  Sounds great and noise free.  8)  I'm going to have to incorporate some 18V power into my pedal board with all the new awesome projects coming out, recently. I goofed putting in the foot switch and got some wires crossed, which is why there is that weird wire.  I had to do some surgery in the box to flip the output and LED wires.  :P

When I did the set up I used my DMM  to set the clock. I got 30kHz on the low end of the manual knob and 1MHz on the high. But when I played it there was a bit to much sproing on the low end of the sweep, so, I adjusted by ear and wound up at 45kHz, but that was too dead.  So I split the difference and set it to 38kHz. My point here is that setting the clock requires some tweaking.  ;D

I recycled my ~2018 Collosaulus graphic for this version.  Enclosure is no-film on a Tayda powder coat.





#18
VFE Projects / VFE SPS 125B Drill Template?
July 08, 2022, 01:54:12 PM
Does anyone have a drill template or a graphic they have used for a VFE SPS build? I have a Woodchipper with 6 knobs, looks like it goes in a 125B. 
#19
Build Reports / Ibanez CS9
June 27, 2022, 11:15:42 AM
So, after my recent success with the Ibanez BC9 Bi-mode Chorus, I decided to revisit my original CS9 project and resolve some mistakes I made in the first design.  This version is just a simple CS9 clone with an added vibrato mod (dry kill).   This is the 6th CS9 derived circuit I've built, so, I think I'm good on this one for the rest of my life  ;D

I repurposed the box from my version 1 build.  It's a no-film on a Tayda powder coat.






#20
General Questions / CODA Relay Bypass Help
June 20, 2022, 05:04:06 PM
I've been trying to implement a CODA relay bypass  for awhile.

https://www.coda-effects.com/2016/04/relay-bypass-conception-and-relay.html

I think I have the microcontroller programmed correctly.  I can set everything up on a breadboard and get it to work. The only difference is that on the BB I use the 5V regulated bus.   However, when I populate the PCB the relay won't switch.  The LED is working and I measure 3V or 0V across the diode, depending on which state the MC is in.  I'm stumped. 

Can anyone spot anything wrong with my schematic or layout?  I know the silkscreen for regulator is backwards, I installed it correctly on the PCB.