NPD - Lovetone

[electricstorm]

It has now been confirmed that the main board IC is a TL074 on the Lovetone Flanger.

Need confirmation on the following if someone wants to volunteer!

There are 17 transistors on the main board. Lacesensor has been kind enough to give me the following info (thanks Ian!!):

11 - BC549C

2 - BC307B

4 - J113

Version 1:

BC549C - Q3, Q4, Q5, Q7, Q8, Q9, Q10, Q12, Q15, Q16, Q17

BC307B - Q2, Q14

J113 - Q1, Q6, Q11, Q13

Version 2:

BC549 - Q1, Q2, Q4, Q6, Q8, Q9, Q11, Q12, Q13, Q16, Q17

BC307B - Q14, Q???

J113 - Q3, Q5, Q7, Q10, Q15 One of these is not correct, don't know which one.

He wasn't able to give me the locations. These locations were taken from DIYstompboxes ("A Gift" thread) for version 1.

Version 2 is a more educated guess based off the "A Gift" thread (the OP used two numbering schemes in the layout). I went with the layout that matches the actual layout of the transistors based off a clear shot of the board I have seen.

The only transistor I feel confident about is Q14 as the board is clearly marked "BC307B". The rest is a guess. Anyone care to clarify this info???

I am also making a hand drawn overhead transparency of the wires and wire colors that connect to the mail board. I will post more when I have it. If I get permission from the photo owner, I'll post clearer pix of the boards.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Jim

[electricstorm]

Corrected and updated daughter board schematic and picture for lovetone Flanger!

I am also including a link to some files and pictures of the board. Lacesensor provided them to me and gave permission to share them (thanks Ian!!). Another member from Freestompboxes provided some photos as well (Thanks playon!!). Hopefully this will be easier for sharing files. Here is the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3v4twi2sbs0l5p7/1Ep9NbRE2T

Now, for those serious about getting this traced out, I welcome your help! I'll post more to the file when i get more to share.


Edit: The manual has been added to the link above. I want to thank playon for sending it to me.

Jim

[electricstorm]

I have completed a wiring diagram of the Lovetone flanger based on various photos (available in my Dropbox folder). It is a bit
of a mess with all the wires but the wire colors should be easy to follow. I should have done it differently, but will re-draw it
after some verification.

Here's the drawing:



Better picture here:

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5646/wireconnections3.png

I have about 1/3 of the main board schematics drawn. I will post it when it is finished for verification. Where it says "Shielded Cable" you will see some grey
colored wires in the diagram that appear to connect to the red wires. These grey colored wires are the shielding wires inside the cable and are NOT connected
to the red wires as they are shown. This is merely to indicate the shielded part of the wire going to ground or where ever it connects to (such as at the Time switch through the resistor). Any feedback is appreciated!

Jim

[electricstorm]

For those interested, I have completed the main board schematics for the Lovetone Flanger. All files related to the project can be viewed here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3v4twi2sbs0l5p7/1Ep9NbRE2T

As files are corrected, older files are deleted. I didn't have the correct transformer symbol in Eagle but the part number is correct. I'll learn how to make custom parts later and will fix this at a later date. Just read all the notes on the schematics (both the daughter board and main board).

I'll make a seperate thread at a later date on this project.

I would like to thank Haberdasher for making a set of boards for this project for me to experiment with. He put in a lot of hard work and back and forth communication on it and thought he should be given proper credit for his efforts.

[electricstorm]

Got the boards yesterday! Haberdasher, you do beautiful work man!!! Love it.

Lovetone Flanger Boards


Lovetone Doppelganger Boards


Now, time to experiment with the Lovetone flanger boards!

Thanks again for the boards!!!!! 

Jim

[DutchMF]

Those are some epic boards... Good luck on the builds man!

[LaceSensor]

Echo that sentiment, good luck. Cant wait for the completed flanger project.

[TNblueshawk]

Can't wait to see what you think about he sound once done.

[LaceSensor]

Can't wait to see what you think about he sound once done.

The Dopp will sound great.
The Flanger, who knows

[electricstorm]

I'vs started ordering parts for both. Can't wait to start on them. As Ian said though, not sure how the flanger will sound.

[electricstorm]

OK, I have made some progress on the Lovetone Flanger. I've confirmed that the LFO is working. The Rate, Depth and Manual controls appear to be functioning as they should (don't have an Oscope, need to get one soon) by observing the LED's. I have a smooth transition from off to on (Traingle Wave) and a definate on/off (Square Wave) on the green led (LED6, "Time" on the schematic).

The Manual Control controls the H.B. Green LED on the daughter board (MN3102 and MN3207 connected to this board from "R" on the main board or collector of Q17). Fully CCW, the led is fully on. Fully CW, the LED is off. Settings in between adjust the brightness (this is with the Rate and Depth controls fully CCW or off). Now, when you add the Depth and Rate, interesting things start to happen. With Manual set fully CCW, the daughter board LED barely flickers. but the main board green LED flashes as it should. When the Manual control is fully CW, the daughter board LED and the main board LED (LED 6, green) alternately flash at an intensity and rate determined by the Depth and Rate controls. It should be noted that the main board LED is not as bright when the daughter board LED and main board LED are working together.

The only curious thing is that LED 2 (one of the LED/LDR combos) is dimly lit and is constantly on. No flashing or on/off is observed regardless of where the Rate, Depth, and Manual controls are set. However, I don't have the the rest of the associated circuitry set up either so this may or may not be the reason for this behaviour.

As far as the LFO section is concerned, it seems to be working. The only thing is connections "M", and "N" (main board schematic) are not yet connected. This includes the following, which have not been confirmed:

R55
C25
R56
R57
D2
Q13
R58

D2 I don't have a value for yet. I assmume it is a 1N4148, but upon reading the user manual, I'm beginning to think this might be a zener. Here's what the manual says about the Trig/Gate:

This is a dual-function socket which allows stop/start and continous synchronization of the LFO.

Gate: Connect a mono jack all the way in. A POSITIVE dc voltage of between 0.7v and 15v will "freeze" the LFO as long as it is applied.

Trig: Connect a mono jack in half-way. NEGATIVE going edges of a gate signal (square wave) will sync the LFO (and will only interrupt its motion while the transition is made). An audio signal of sufficient level (I.E line level) can also be used to sync the LFO (particularly in the bass region). Results, however, may be somewhat erratic compared to the GATE method and depends largely on the nature of the audio signal.

There are other details associated with both the TRIG and GATE, but what I listed above is what made me think it might be a zener (to clamp the max 15v).

So, there you have it for now. I'll continue to work on this project and keep you updated. Any thoughts on the progress so far or the possibility of D2 being a zener, let me know.

Cheers,

Jim

[electricstorm]

Still waiting on the LDR's, but here are pictures of the populated boards haberdasher made for me:



D2 (to the left of the top large capacitor) and the hand soldered components in the lower right hand corner (main board) have not yet been added to the board. Ignore the yellow wire in the picture. I added this to connect two different stages when I was checking out the LFO and tracing some signals. A switch will eventually connect these sections in the completed unit.

SLOWLY making progress....

Jim

[TNblueshawk]

 

[DutchMF]

You are a true hero!! Someday, I'll build this, just for the sake of building it!

Paul

[TNblueshawk]

You are a true hero!! Someday, I'll build this, just for the sake of building it!

Paul

He sure as hell gets the tenacity award that is for sure! Would love to build it myself one day.