Well, it's probably about time to let the cat out of the bag. (This is what I had hoped to enter into the contest. Silly newborn... and Mammoth was a week late.)
I've been working with numerous folks since September to try and design a looper that could at least semi-rival some of the commercial products. I had a few goals in mind:
* Beat the price of the BYOC Super 8
* 8 loops
* Allow for more banks (99 banks, 4 patches each. 396 presets)
* MIDI In and Out
* Reduce off board wiring
* Offer more features
* Much better display than a simple RGB LED
* Eventual open source!
Other features:
* Buffered or bypass input
* Buffered tuner out
* Hard mute, available with external footswitch
* Soft mute occurs before patch changes to reduce click/pop
* Bank up / Bank down available with external footswitch
* Tap tempo to send to MIDI devices (hopefully in a future software update)
* External Aux footswitch. Not sure of purpose yet, but probably allows immediate manual control of loops
* ENIG PCB
What you see here is a prototype. It is awfully close to what the final will be. I had to learn a metric schlock ton of stuff to get to this point.
I have two issues that I'm still working out.
* If anyone knows how to get rid of noise from the OLED, please oh please help.
* I get some click/pop noises from the optofet. Probably need to tweak cap values.
I will be offering this as a kit.
* Aiming for $175ish + S&H
* Includes everything but wire
* INCLUDES ENCLOSURE!!!!
* International shipping will _probably_ be cost prohibitive.
There will be a patch editor available, eventually, for use in Windows, OS X, and Linux (I hope?) to assist in managing patches and MIDI commands.
Who's in? Here's the pre-order form: https://goo.gl/forms/mfqwBJfCbjLxwiLA2
(http://i.imgur.com/VLtZdjE.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/qMFM8ci.png)
(http://imgur.com/KB5cUDI.png)
Oh my. She's... beautiful. :'(
GOOD LORD! Talk about starting 2017 with a BANG! New kid, new guitar, and bad ass looper! Great job man! You really knocked this one out of the park.
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Looks very promising! Can't wait to see some more.
Quote from: madbean on January 08, 2017, 12:57:34 AM
Looks very promising! Can't wait to see some more.
+1 (http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/masonry/000/692/664/fef.jpg)
this is all kinds of cool. you've definitely outdone yourself.
Looks fantastic. I'm in!
That SO looks like something I could have used, before my Axe. I still might be interested. Could you daisy chain two of them together? For even more loops?
Quote from: Muadzin on January 08, 2017, 12:30:37 PM
That SO looks like something I could have used, before my Axe. I still might be interested. Could you daisy chain two of them together? For even more loops?
I have thought about this and theoretically, yes. I'm 99% sure we can with MIDI. I designed it so we could, at least.
In your mind, set one as the master controller, then the other as the slave.
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Yikes!!!
That's an impressive piece of work!
Awesome to see this come to fruition. Looks great!
Cody
Looks good, very similar to something I'm finalizing however I'm using a LED alphanumeric display.
I guess this is what was being discussed here?: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=24225
Whats this issue with noise from the OLED? separate GND plane for AGND & DGND? is there only noise when data is being written to the display or is it constant? I'm guessing with the display removed its noise free so it isn't the I2C bus in general
Wowzers. 8)
Quote from: sturgeo on January 09, 2017, 10:20:30 AM
Looks good, very similar to something I'm finalizing however I'm using a LED alphanumeric display.
I guess this is what was being discussed here?: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=24225
Whats this issue with noise from the OLED? separate GND plane for AGND & DGND? is there only noise when data is being written to the display or is it constant? I'm guessing with the display removed its noise free so it isn't the I2C bus in general
All of that is 100% accurate.
I will probably have to switch to LCD. That's fine with me, but I don't know which to use. It will take longer, since I'll have to redesign the enclosure and PCBs.
The noise is when any pixel is lit. Just a static text, you get noise. I don't think it's the I2C lines.
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Awesome! This might be my 2017 BOTY ;)
Building a looper was one of my 2 pedal resolutions for 2017 :).
So cool. Well done :D
Quote from: daleykd on January 09, 2017, 01:21:49 PM
I will probably have to switch to LCD. That's fine with me, but I don't know which to use. It will take longer, since I'll have to redesign the enclosure and PCBs.
The noise is when any pixel is lit. Just a static text, you get noise. I don't think it's the I2C lines.
I looked at either the 16x2 or 20x2 but gave up trying to find a neat mounting solution.
With the Opto mute are you driving it straight from the IC or through a 1k resistor still, also are you muting with a delay before & after the relay switches?
Quote from: sturgeo on January 10, 2017, 12:12:32 PM
I looked at either the 16x2 or 20x2 but gave up trying to find a neat mounting solution.
I'm having to figure that out as we speak. I have an idea, but don't want to share yet. :)
Quote from: sturgeo on January 10, 2017, 12:12:32 PM
With the Opto mute are you driving it straight from the IC or through a 1k resistor still, also are you muting with a delay before & after the relay switches?
(http://i.imgur.com/F9qdqwz.png)
I also have a 100k resistor in series with the audio straight off the input jack tip.
When I get the soft muting to work, I'll do it before/after the relay switch. Right now, if I just use a button to toggle it (testing), I get the pop.
Quote from: Timko on January 09, 2017, 10:06:57 PM
Building a looper was one of my 2 pedal resolutions for 2017 :).
Good! Hold tight and I'll hopefully get this remedied ASAP.
Quote from: daleykd on January 09, 2017, 01:21:49 PM
The noise is when any pixel is lit. Just a static text, you get noise. I don't think it's the I2C lines.
Just had a closer look, you've got the AGND & GND connected in the pic, does it still have noise with them disconnected?
Quote from: sturgeo on January 12, 2017, 08:31:39 AM
Quote from: daleykd on January 09, 2017, 01:21:49 PM
The noise is when any pixel is lit. Just a static text, you get noise. I don't think it's the I2C lines.
Just had a closer look, you've got the AGND & GND connected in the pic, does it still have noise with them disconnected?
Yup.
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OK, what about the buffer circuitry? I guess that is sharing the normal GND? can you bypass that to rule it out?
Edit: come to think of it, in my thread here: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=21665 (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=21665) I was trying to accomplish what you have, in the end I gave up including the buffer as it was causing issues, I never did get to the route of the problem.
Quote from: sturgeo on January 12, 2017, 03:10:45 PM
OK, what about the buffer circuitry? I guess that is sharing the normal GND? can you bypass that to rule it out?
I popped out the opamp and set the switch to bypass. No change. ;)
At this point, I'm going to redesign a few things to get rid of the OLED. A friend of a friend said that OLEDs are "just noisy."
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Hey Delyk,
What's the progress of this Looper?
Cheers raffa