hello
just finished another build from pedalPCB - i've tried messing around with the FV-1 before including on breadboard but this is the first time i've made a proper build with it. great pedal! the included reverbs are very nice. having 8 possible effects in the one box is pretty amazing.
also first time trying tamiya model paint underneath, and a full face laser waterslide decal wrapping around the top of the box. it was fun, the paint is intense. too impatient to get it perfect, the decal broke in a couple of spots, but it seems pretty durable under the clear coat.
next step is buying some EEPROMs, copying some more existing programs and trying to program my own. i love the OBNE dark star so i'm going to try and copy that (possibly by.. just copying the EEPROM)
(https://i.imgur.com/pBrrOkf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3z7Kt64.jpg)
with its buddy
(https://i.imgur.com/oOXZaKy.jpg)
Nice! Clean builds and Love the artwork.
Nice!
Anybody know about the pedalPCB Module 8? I'm considering the Octagon vs Module 8.
How do you like the Octagon? Seems like an awesome project
Quote from: junkemail86 on April 08, 2018, 02:28:55 PM
Nice!
Anybody know about the pedalPCB Module 8? I'm considering the Octagon vs Module 8.
How do you like the Octagon? Seems like an awesome project
I believe the Module 8 is focused on modulation effects and the Octagon has a variety of modulation, reverb, and delay.
thanks guys!
Quote from: junkemail86 on April 08, 2018, 02:28:55 PM
Anybody know about the pedalPCB Module 8? I'm considering the Octagon vs Module 8.
How do you like the Octagon? Seems like an awesome project
just looking at it now they appear to be the same board, but different programs on the EEPROM. so it depends whether you prefer modulation or reverb/delay. the EEPROM is socketed so if you get a pickit or similar programmer you can always put both types of effects on there (that's what i'm going to be doing).
as a standalone the octagon is great though, a lot of variety in the effects. expression pedal mod is on another thread here and having played around with the effects, it would be worth it.
That looks so cool! Love the wiring too
How is the mix working out for you. I haven't done the octagon but have don the DMD-2. I found that with the mix at 12:00, the dry signal was lower than unity gain. The signal is stronger coming from the FV-1 than from the first op amp. I used a 150k resistor across legs 1 and 2 of the mix control to allow more clean signal pass and leave the FV-1 signal untouched. I found this much more balanced. I may drop the 150k just a tad, more, but to me this was much improved on balancing the levels
Those are hand-painted? They look great! I've done some acrylic painting on enclosures before with some success, but mostly just end up doing abstract spray painting/splatter.
thanks!
Quote from: Scottosan on April 10, 2018, 11:02:56 AM
How is the mix working out for you. I haven't done the octagon but have don the DMD-2. I found that with the mix at 12:00, the dry signal was lower than unity gain. The signal is stronger coming from the FV-1 than from the first op amp. I used a 150k resistor across legs 1 and 2 of the mix control to allow more clean signal pass and leave the FV-1 signal untouched. I found this much more balanced. I may drop the 150k just a tad, more, but to me this was much improved on balancing the levels
interesting, i haven't really tried to fine tune the mix but it wouldn't surprise me if noon isn't unity gain. i've been adjusting with the volume to suit depending on the patch and settings, it's definitely nice to have an overall volume control.
Quote from: p_wats on April 10, 2018, 01:32:04 PM
Those are hand-painted? They look great! I've done some acrylic painting on enclosures before with some success, but mostly just end up doing abstract spray painting/splatter.
aha i wish! they are art by stacey rozich, i used waterslide decal for this one and paper for the BE-OD. i would love to try hand painting acrylic like the zvex originals but have very limited skills (ie: no skills) so haven't wanted to buy a paint set.
These builds look great. The graphic design is spectacular. Even if you didn't do the illustrations, the lettering and knob choice is perfect. You've definitely inspired me to dig through children's books for pedal artwork.
thanks so much! i have a love/hate relationship with pedal artwork, it's so fiddly and always a bottleneck in finishing builds. still trying different methods.
currently waiting on signup for the spinCAD forums to start programming some eeproms
Quote from: Scottosan on April 10, 2018, 11:02:56 AM
How is the mix working out for you. I haven't done the octagon but have don the DMD-2. I found that with the mix at 12:00, the dry signal was lower than unity gain. The signal is stronger coming from the FV-1 than from the first op amp. I used a 150k resistor across legs 1 and 2 of the mix control to allow more clean signal pass and leave the FV-1 signal untouched. I found this much more balanced. I may drop the 150k just a tad, more, but to me this was much improved on balancing the levels
Do you get unity gain somewhere roughly around noon though? It could be pot tolerance. I'm getting ready to build the Octagon so I'm curious.
hmm lemme check when i get home. as i said, been leaning on the volume pot mostly and dialling it in by feel. i *think* that with both volume and mix at noon it will be close to unity but wouldn't be surprised if the wet signal is louder than the dry.
Quote from: sonnyboy27 on April 12, 2018, 12:41:28 PM
Quote from: Scottosan on April 10, 2018, 11:02:56 AM
How is the mix working out for you. I haven't done the octagon but have don the DMD-2. I found that with the mix at 12:00, the dry signal was lower than unity gain. The signal is stronger coming from the FV-1 than from the first op amp. I used a 150k resistor across legs 1 and 2 of the mix control to allow more clean signal pass and leave the FV-1 signal untouched. I found this much more balanced. I may drop the 150k just a tad, more, but to me this was much improved on balancing the levels
Do you get unity gain somewhere roughly around noon though? It could be pot tolerance. I'm getting ready to build the Octagon so I'm curious.
my mix pot measured at 96.7k. Keep in mind my comment is around the DMD2 although the topologies are similar. I get unity on my dry at 10:00 which doesn’t allow for much effect signal as the FV-1 signal is at 70k resistance at this point. That may be fine for some obscure algorithms but for most time based effects, the clean signal should be unity throughout the sweep and mix shoul introduce or remove effect signal. I cannot speak to the octagon but looking at the schematic it likely suffers from the same design flaw. Probably a fun pedal but not ideal for serious studio or gigging use. I have since redesigned the mix so that clean is unity throughout and effect level is mixed in. I think a generic topology is used for these boards but not ideal for all algorithms without treaking. I did the hypernova Reverb as well a it is honestly a noise pedal. Clean is processed through the FV-1 instead of mixed. The second half of the IC is configured for 6db gain boost only to have to turn down the 100kb volume to get unity. This adds unnecessary non-linear noise. I redid it for unity gain which significantly removed unessasarry noise but the noise floor is still evident especially with clean guitar signal. It can easily hide behind the noise floor of a stomp box ahead of it but overall both builds have left me underwhelmed. I feel like a vanilla dev board type schematic was used for these with no effort to optimize for the given effects
the analogs around the FV-1 in all the DIY builds i've seen, as well as numerous commercial pedals, are definitely generic. i don't know enough about circuit design to improve them, but i'm interested in builds like catalinbread echorec using more specific preamp structures, and eventually have some goal of combining the SDD3000 preamp (as in the aion eclipse) and an FV-1 circuit.
How is the decay/travel on the reverbs? Im looking for something to replace my hall of fame and just want to make sure that I can get the really looong reverb trails that I like. I usually use the "Big room with a view" toneprint and will sometimes bump up the time up to 7-10 seconds.
you can definitely get long/big reverbs, that's also how i use it. however the two reverbs on this eeprom are shimmer and modulated, so to use them as straight reverbs you have to discard most of the settings - if you wanted a straight up reverb effect i'd suggest one the other eeproms, pretty sure there are dedicated reverb projects. unless you want to code your own chip.
This looks great! Really like the artwork on it! Got an Octagon board on my list of stuff to build so seeing yours all finished is good motivation!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
thanks! yeah it's an easy build and so far a lot of fun. got a bunch of ideas for different circuits around the FV-1 after playing around with this.
also as there are no onboard programming pads i made a little interface for the pickit 2 to program EEPROMs running off a 9v battery and some parts lying around. have successfully copied and written a few EEPROMs.
(https://i.imgur.com/svdZ1be.jpg)
now to, uh, learn spinASM
I personally approve any pedal with Stacey Rozich artwork on it.
Quote from: oip on April 21, 2018, 03:03:49 AM
... have successfully copied and written a few EEPROMs.
(https://i.imgur.com/svdZ1be.jpg)
now to, uh, learn spinASM
Did you happen to copy the Darkstar hex files? I'd be curious to know how that went!
Got this one soldered up, but the nothings getting past the fv-1 chip. The Analog mix and anything up until the fv1 sounds fine, but Im getting nothing out of the outputs of the fv1 when I probe pin 28. Any chance I could get some voltages from someone who has completed their build? ;D
Quote from: amcmann95 on May 07, 2018, 09:15:38 PM
Got this one soldered up, but the nothings getting past the fv-1 chip. The Analog mix and anything up until the fv1 sounds fine, but Im getting nothing out of the outputs of the fv1 when I probe pin 28. Any chance I could get some voltages from someone who has completed their build? ;D
The first thing I would do is test with continuity all the fv-1 pins to something they should be connected to by looking at the schematic
Quote from: bsoncini on May 07, 2018, 11:27:52 PM
Quote from: amcmann95 on May 07, 2018, 09:15:38 PM
Got this one soldered up, but the nothings getting past the fv-1 chip. The Analog mix and anything up until the fv1 sounds fine, but Im getting nothing out of the outputs of the fv1 when I probe pin 28. Any chance I could get some voltages from someone who has completed their build? ;D
The first thing I would do is test with continuity all the fv-1 pins to something they should be connected to by looking at the schematic
This would be my suggestion. I had a similar problem with my build, and it turned out I needed to re-flow 2 pins on the FV-1. They looked good with my hand lens, but in reality there was no continuity.
As such, make sure you're reading from the pin to some component, and not the pad the pin sits on.
yeah i agree with bsoncini and somnif - very easy to lift or bridge a leg of the FV-1, they are so tiny. then maybe the regulator and the crystal?
i can try and check the voltages next time i pop the pedal open.
implementing algorithms from other places and forums is interesting - although the analog circuitry is usually similar there are a number of important variables that aren't constant across different FV-1 builds. summing the input, using one or both output pins, gain of the analog circuit, presence of analog mix, presence of feedback pot. algorithms will all be designed to take these into account.
i've played around quite a bit with spinCAD now and it's very interesting, trying to get my head around spinASM but that's a whole other ballgame.
also looking to design a PCB and nice analog preamp circuit but that's gonna take a while. basic improvements would be onboard eeprom programming header and also rotary switch for program selection (pot works and is fine for set and forget but is moderately annoying to change on the fly). also would maybe like to lose the volume pot for an internal trimpot.
oh i forgot: decided to try learning eagle too so made up a little PCB for the eeprom/pickit 2 adapter. was fun and super fast/cheap to get fabricated. unfortunately after the excitement of receiving and opening the package it didn't work and after a lot of head scratching and frustration i realised i had mixed up two header pins. learning experience...
Thanks for all the help guys! I got it working with the help of Robert from pedalpcb and a friend with a hot air station. Despite the fact that i had reflowed with my soldering iron, it still didnt work until we hit it with the air. Im getting sounds out of it, but a fair bit of white noise and some nasty clipping when I strum too hard. Gotta experiment more. Im gonna test out some different op amps and see what that does for me.
Im loving the sounds im getting out of this pedal. Dont think it will be able to kick my hall of fame off quite yet, but would be quite nice in the effects loop of a delay Im planning on building in the near future--if I can solve the current issues with it.
Cant recommend pedalpcb enough though! Robert was a huge help with his support.