Topics

1

Open Discussion / EMS synthi Hi-Fli repair

« on: February 03, 2019, 01:35:45 PM »

My friend just got his hands on one of these and it works but sounds pretty bad.  Asked me to take a look at it to see if I could get it working better.  Thought you guys might enjoy the pics of how big this beast is.  To learn more about the product.  http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=77.  Apparently designed by a guy who designed a lot of electro harmonix pedals.  I have no idea where to start.  I'm guessing recapping the whole thing

My hand on it is a reference for how big it is



Look at all those diodes

2

General Questions / Headtrip spincad files

« on: January 23, 2019, 06:02:35 AM »

I juste started platine round with spincad designer and trying to wrap my head around it. I've downloaded as many shares files as possible to try and learn how it works by nodding other people work. I downloaded the headtrip zip (thanks for sharing brian!). Anyway. I can get the two other patches to work but the starfield patch has no sound output. I've also tried saving it to asm and using spinasm it passes with no errors. Same problem using the supplied hex file.  Am I the only person with this problem? Or does the file have a problem? I am using this on a pedalpcb board.

Thanks in advance

3

Build Reports / Bi-phase from pedalpcb

« on: June 19, 2018, 12:10:26 PM »

I normally don't post build reports because my pedals look like crap compared to everything else on here, and I kinda like it that way.  I  only do them when I think I've done something I haven't seen here before or a mod to something that could be useful for others.

Anywhere here is the bi-phase. https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/duophase/ The mutron phaser ii has been my favorite phaser for a long time and I really wanted to build one of these and it did not disapoint.  I built it so that it can have either mono in and mono out with switching jacks (can be two pedals in series with the same lfo a 12 stage phaser or two pedals with with independent lfo's).  Or stereo in, stereo out.  I normally use a lovetone wobulator clone that i'll put before this with stereo out to ping pong between two amps.  Stereo mode is why I really wanted to build this.  (Can either be two independent phasers with different speeds that go out to the amps.  Or completely synced together.  But my favorite is when the lfo's are inverted.  As one side sweeps up the other sweeps down and vice versa.

I had to flip the pots around so that it would fit the way I wanted into a 1590xx.  Anyway real awesome pedal and a pretty easy build especially for the size.  I used yellow diffused leds and tayda ldrs.

4

Open Discussion / True bypass for xlr.

« on: April 18, 2018, 04:33:52 AM »

I'm in the process of building a pedal for a friend. A balanced mic preamp that has an effect loop. And the output is balanced xlr. He wants to be able to be able to bypass the preamp.

What is the best way to do true bypass with xlr? For the moment have a momentary footswitch that activates 2 dpdt relays. One for the plus the other for the negative(phase inverted).  It works fine but takes up a bit of room. I had no luck finding mini 4pdt relays. Anyone have a better/easier way to do this?

I thought about using a normal sized din rail mountable 4pdt type relay but those take up a lot of room too

5

Build Reports / Pedalpcb Octagon with expression jack

« on: March 07, 2018, 01:46:37 PM »

I normally don't post my builds here because I like them to look diy and crappy but this one might take the cake.  I mounted the pedal and left the painters tape that I used to mark the holes.  Afterwards, I thought, who gives a f#ck. If there was an award for ugliest pedal of the year this might win.   Anyways, I'm posting because I added a 3p4t rotary switch and an expression jack so that I can choose from no expression jack and controlling pot 1, 2 or 3.  I will explain what I did so that in case anyone wants to do this.  I already posted this in the pedal pcb demos thread but this might be easier to find for interested folks.





Some of the highlights for me with the expression jack.  Controlling the delay time in normal delay mode.  Controlling the pitch shift in pitch delay mode.  Controlling the crush in bit crush mode.  Controlling the filter in bit crush mode, a sort of bit crush wah sound.  Controlling the pitch shift in pitch shift mode.  Controlling the mix switch in dual pitch shift mode to ping pong between a bassy and trebly pitch shift (this will make the girlfriends run out of the room).  It works well controlling all pots in the tremolo.

If you wanna know what I did.

Pad 2 of pot 1 on PCB to A on rotary
Pad2 of pot 2 on PCB to B on rotary
Pad 2 of pot 3 on PCB to C on rorary

Lug 2 of pot 1 to 1,3 and 4 on rotary.
Lug 2 of pot 2 to 5,6 and 8 on rotary
Lug 2 of pot 3 to 9,10 and 11 on rotary

Pin 2, 7 and 12 to middle lug of expression jack.

Take the 3v3 from lug 3 of the nearest pot to one of the outer lugs of the expression jack. Take ground from pin 1 from from same pot to other outer expression lug.

It's probably obvious but don't connect lug 2 of the 3 pots to the PCB

Hope this helps anyone who may be interested

This will probably work with any other pedalpcb fv1 pedals as long as the pots are just voltage dividers between 3v3 and ground

6

General Questions / Mr Multi question. LFO and modulation experts needed.

« on: February 08, 2018, 01:45:57 PM »

So I've been playing around with the mr multi effect from deadendfx.  It is a pedal in a wah type shell that can do phaser, wah and phaser/wah.  There are two modes, pedal (like a normal wah rocker changes a wah) and auto (the rocker changes the speed of the lfo)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QbppBPfFKRl6m2rRbaT0r3LOu_Ug9XWB/view.  I'm a bit lost in the schematic with all the switching and need your help.

I've gotten this to work with many different jfets that I have matched (2n5952, 2n5485, BF245c, J211) which sometimes requires changing the zener diode and rebiasing.  I get the phaser to work pretty good with all of them.  But when I switch to the wah, phase/wah mode it is really trebly.  Obviously this is only a problem in lfo mode because in the other mode I changed the sweep with the rocker.  The wah mode also has a bit of a volume drop, phaser/wah also a bit of volume drop but less.  Any idea of things to try, parts to substitute, or maybe something I messed up? 

How do I make the lfo peak to peak voltage bigger, what parts should I change?  In lfo mode I would like to get as deep a phase as possible.  In manual mode the resistance between the drain and sources goes from 39k to about 250 ohms.  And it works great.  In lfo mode it swings between about 450 ohms and 2.2k obviously this changes a bit due to biasing. Maybe the orignal jfets (2sk30a-gr) have a much better or quicker sweep in the ohmic region?  The lfo swings about 960mv.  In pedal mode I get the voltage changing about 1.8 volts from heel down to toe down.

Is there a way to add a depth pot for the fast lfo speeds?  This pedal has a pot labeled depth but it just turn the lfo from a triangle wave of 960 mv peak to peak to a 2.25v swing with a sort of saw tooth wave? (real slow rise, then a sharp drop) and slows down the lfo speed in the process.  The phasing is nice and deep when playing with the depth knob but the wave form gives it a real wonky sound which can be cool in certain moments.

Which leads to my last question.  What parts would I changed to play around with the lfo speed?

I've built many phasers before but never really tweeked them much.  I've had fun with this one learning about jfets as variable resistors but my lfo skills are lacking.  Well, there is enough info on the web about lfo's and tweaking phasers, but I'm a bit lost with all the switches on the schematic and what exactly is happening in wah and phaser/wah modes. I've tried to figure all this stuff on my own by reading (getting lost in too much info), switching parts, etc and I've hit my limit on what I can do on my own.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

7

Build Reports / Laika Fuzz by DeadEndFX

« on: January 30, 2018, 10:21:31 AM »

This is the Laika Fuzz by Deadendfx.  A clone of the spaceman sputnik ii.  Never heard of this pedal but it is really cool.  Check out the video for an idea of what this thing can do. 

.  Mine sounds a bit meaner than in the video.  There is a lot of sounds in this box.  Being able to activate and deactivate the oscillation mode is definately a plus (compared to the fuzz factory). Two different oscillation modes too.  The knobs are really interactive with each other.  With certain settings this thing cleans up pretty nicely with the guitars volume. I need more playing with this to really nail down all the knobs and switches.  http://www.deadendfx.com/product/laika-fuzz

I normally don't do build reports because my builds can't touch most of what I see people post here but figured it would be a good shout out to the guys at deadendfx who have a ton of cool and different pcbs to offer.

The build doc calls for a 1590bbs but I couldn't be bothered to order one so I stuffed it in a 1590bb.  Had to solder some of the capacitors on the bottom of the board to clear room for the jack.

For the transistors I followed roughly the hfe's from the build doc
I used
Q2 MP16b  56hfe
Q3 MP20b  90 hfe
Q4 MP20b  88 hfe

I tried a few transistors but didn't notice a huge difference and used the trimpots to bias the transistors according to the build doc.

For the diode, I used a D9E with a forward voltage of about .285 volts.  I tried a few others and didn't hear much difference.



I'm not very artistic so no artwork for me.  Just some crappy writing




I also have their mr multi pedal to build which looks cool.  Based on the korg mr multi.  A wah-phaser-phaser/wah in a wah enclosure.  Harder to source the parts though

8

VFE Projects / Choral Reef Oscillation

« on: January 29, 2018, 08:11:05 AM »

I just finished the choral reef and it is oscillating like a synth.  All the controls work.  speed, depth mix, etc all change the sound.  The switch completely changes the sound in all 3 positions.  If I set the speed slower it sounds kinda like a police siren.  My guitar signal is there also but the sound of the oscillation is much louder so I only really hear the guitar if I turn the mix pot all the way down.  I seems as I play with knobs and the switches that the signal is chorusing and flanging.

I have a mn3008 that I bought off here, but it is badged as a mn3005.  I have tried repacing all the ic's except the 3008.  I built another choral reef recently and a friend begged me to sell it to him.  So I could always ask to borrow that one to try another 3008 if need be.  But it seems to me that the 3008 is working.  If I play with the bias trimmer it seems to have some chorusing.  I have a signal on pin 10 that oscillates between 150khz-200khz

with an audio probe I never hear the guitar get to the 3008

Here are the voltages.  build doc on the left.  Mine on the right

8.7volts at the dc jack

TL2074
1  4.88      4.58
2  4.88      4.58
3  4.86      4.53
4   8.9         8.36
5  4.88       4.58
6  4.88       4.58
7  4.88       4.58
8  6.1         5.0
9  6.1         5.0
10 6.06       5.0
11  0            0
12  3.86       3.6
13  4.88       4.58
14   4.88       4.58

4047

1 8.11    7.3
2 0.115   0.04
3  7.06   6.4
4  8.26  7.35
5  8.26  7.35
6  8.26  7.35
7  0       0
8  0       0
9  0       0
10  4.16    3.7
11  4.16     3.7
12  0          0
13 8.14     7.3
14  8.25     7.4

mn3008
1 8.25   7.35
2  4.16  3.66
6  6.09  5.00
7  3.09  5.00
8  0       0
9 4.16    3.56
13  5.99  4.7
14  0       0

358
1 varies    varies
2 4.02      3.8
3 4.00      3.7
4 0           0
5 varies    varies
6 2.18      2.0
7 varies    varies
8 8.9        8.36

5087
c 0   0
b 4.88  3.5
e5.49   4.1

5088
c 8.9   8.35
b 8.86  8.32
e 8.25  7.74 





Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.

9

Build Reports / Echo Base Build

« on: December 07, 2017, 05:15:04 AM »

I don't post many build reports here, in fact this might be my first.  I'm not very good with graphics so I normally just scribble stuff on the enclosure with a sharpie.  My builds look nowhere near as good as the stuff I see posted on here.  Doesn't bother my I like my stuff looking diy.

I figured I would post this to show a little trick I came up with that could work for any delay pedal with buffer bypass.

I built a friend an echo base a few years ago and since numerous people have asked me to build them one after hearing them.  Anyway built this for a friend and he wanted it to look as crappy and cheap as possible on the outside (no knobs, too expensive for him).  This thing aint winning any beauty contests, inside or outside.  Done from the sabrotone layout.  http://www.sabrotone.com/?p=979

I really dig this pedal.  It is suprisingly quiet for all the wiring on it.  Added the mod to change the wave shape from square to triangle on the modulation.  The square wave has some real crazy sounds.  Also changed r36 to a higher value so that the feedback oscillation is a little slower.





Anyway what I came up with is a way to use the same momentary switch when the pedal is off and on for two different things.  I'm no genius and I imagine somebody has already come up with this but I've never seen it.  So I'll explain it and how to do it incase anyone wants to use this.

When the pedal is on, stepping on the momentary switch goes into runaway oscillation.  When pedal is off, it adds the delays in only when you step on the switch.  This requires a 3pdt.  Hopefully this helps someone who wants to do the same thing.

To wire it. 

3pdt
1 4 7
2 5 8
3 6 9

pin 1 - jumpers to pin 8 and connects to one of the momentary lugs
pin 2 - The bypass wire
Pin 3 - Jumper to pin 4
Pin 4 - Ground, jumper to pin 3
Pin 5 - To other lug on momentary switch
Pin 6 - One of the wires for the runaway oscillation
pin 7 - nothing
pin 8 - jumper to pin 1
pin 9 - The other wire for runaway oscillation.

Works great for me.  I normally don't use a delay at all times but like to just add some noisy delays in at the end of songs or at random points in the song but also have the chance to use it as a normal delay pedal.

10

Open Discussion / Need your guys help for a new project (for a good cause)

« on: December 01, 2017, 05:28:09 AM »

Sorry this might be a bit long winded but stick with me.

I was approached by a friend of a friend who works for an association/fablab here in Paris to start doing pedal related things for them. And I'm gonna need some help from you guys who are much more knowledgeable than me.

A little background.  It will be done by two associations which are actually the same people. Sonic Lab https://www.facebook.com/events/154011541862156/.  Which will be doing workshops on making pedals, noise makers, basic synths, etc.  And the other is Brutpop. http://brutpop.blogspot.fr/p/blog-page_15.html  .  They do workshops with handcaped people mostly kids with instruments adapted to their handicaps.  Often they work with autistic kids and make a bunch of noise with them.  They travel around France and do workshops and leave the instruments with them.  Sometimes they have workshops also with non handicapped kids just to get them into making noise.

The building they are in is really cool.  It is an abandoned train station and they have a stage for concerts and many other charitable groups are based there also. Also a practice space for bands.  Looks a bit like a squat. If anyone is in Paris you should check it out.  https://www.mu.asso.fr/station/

So the goal will be to start doing workshops on building guitar pedals.  These will be open to anyone who wants to take part and some junior high schools have asked about some classes too.  Most of the people will be people who have never touched a solder iron in their life. The projects at the start are gonna be pretty simple.  When we do workshops I will also build extra pedals that will be used to leave with the instruments so that the kids have some pedals to play with too.  Hence, simple pedals with giant knobs to make it as easy as possible for someone with a handicap to manipulate.

Also.  Money is tight so things will be almost as cheap as possible.  They get a bit of funding from the government and private donors.

So this is the part that I need your help with. 

First is any suggestions for pedals?  A few prerequisites.  They want to document every project so that other fablabs in the French speaking world can use them. So no clones of pedals currently in production. They will be on pcb because working with vero/perfboard and 13 year olds or complete beginners sound like a mess.

I was thinking the first one would be a bazz fuss maybe a fuzz face after.  They also seemed interested in a tremolo and eventually a pt2399 based delay.  Any ideas on a really simple tremolo or delay circuit?  Any other ideas of pedals that are really simple?

Most of my builds have been on vero or pcb bought from here.  So I have no idea how to make a pcb. 

So, anyone willing to share their pcb designs for us to fabricate would be greatly appreciated or point me in the right direction. 

Or if anyone is willing to design a pcb for instance a bazz fuss.  They are willing to pay for services but  it probably won't be to much more than you being able to buy a few beers from the bar.  Or out of the kindness of your heart and leave the money for the kids.

Or if anyone has some old prototypes that are just collecting dust.  Even more complicated ones. Feel free to donate them.  Not so much for the workshops but for me to build for the kids.

Next question.  What is your favorite place to get pcbs made from?

What is a good place to buy in bulk?  They are looking to buy about 100 enclosures and 3pdt switches.  Ive never searched buying in bulk like that before.

With the workshops I would like to give them some resources for further learning.  If any French speakers have some good resources to share with me.  Also I'll be putting links to all the pcb providers here (and elsewhere) so they can continue on their own if interested.

Anyway I'm excited about this project.  It will feel good to give back to people instead of just building another pedal for me and my friends that we don't really need.

We are looking to start the end of January and I'd like to get the ball rolling soon.  I'm off work now with a work related injury but will probably be going back soon and am looking to do the initial leg work now that I have a lot of free time.

I think those are all the questions I have for now.  I'll probably have more in the future.  Thanks in advance for any help.

11

Open Discussion / LFO help/suggestions

« on: November 14, 2017, 11:50:44 AM »

So a friend of a friend asked me if I could make him a tremolo that goes from about 15-30 seconds to really fast ring mod type sounds.  I showed him a tremulus lune that I have and he said he didn't need as many knobs. The tremulus lune doesnt go that slow either  So anyway.  I figured I would try with a shoot the moon.

Any time I look at lfo schematics I have no idea what I am looking at.  So I figured this is a good way to learn about it. 

Heres the schematic  http://www.forrestwhitesides.com/files/up/img/STM_V1_Schematic.png

First question, is this even possible.  Messing around with c2 (10uf) and r5 (2k2) I can get it either really slow.  Ive gotten to about 15 seconds.  or really fast but can get both at the same time.

Second question.  Anyone have any good links that explain lfo's? I feel like im just plugging components in hoping to get lucky. I feel like I need to understand what the 220k resistors feeding back to the opamp and the other parts already mentioned

thanks in advance for any help

12

General Questions / Any Fender Blender experts out there?

« on: October 13, 2017, 01:17:20 PM »

My friend asked me to build him a fender blender.  Which I did from a verified vero layout on the tagboards site.  The pedal works as it should.  Getting a nice stong octave except there is a really weird crackling background noise that is always there but really noticable as the notes decay and become less strong.  When not strumming the noise is not there. I even put jumpers across the diodes that create the octave and with just fuzz it is still there.

I am not using the original transistors but have tried transistors of varying hfe from 2n3904 to 2n5088 to 2n5089 to mpsa18. I have also tried putting low gain trannys at the begining and high gain at the end and vice versa and the problem is the same.   I have tried numerous different diodes, both rectifying ones and clipping ones and it is the same.  LEDs as clippers tame it just slightly.

My friend basically wants it to just make a ton of noise so he might not mind but a few beers deep its peaked my curiosity for future learning and I'm really trying to figure this out now.

Here is the schematic  http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/blender.php

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

13

Tech Help - Projects Page / Aquaboy Calibration and a few other questions

« on: February 14, 2017, 12:53:32 PM »

Hello, 

So I just built the aquaboy pedal.  Pretty easy build and the calibration was actually pretty easy.  Sounds great.  My question is it says leave the cancel trimmer in the center position unless you are calibrating with an oscilloscope.  I have an old techtronix that someone gifted me and I jump at any occasion to use it.   But I am far from an expert with analog delays.  To set the cancel trimmer what would I do/look for with the oscilloscope?

Another question.  I get runaway oscillation with the feedback at around 2/3. Anyway to get it closer to 100%?

Last question.  I've populated the mod board except the ldr and look forward to hook that up. Anyone know where to get a 9203 in Europe or a good replacement? Smallbear's site says that it is 5-20k light and 20m dark.  I can't find anything like that here.  I have some that are 100k light to 10m dark that I will try. I'll see how it works out.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

14

Open Discussion / Electric Druid Delay

« on: December 20, 2016, 03:08:07 PM »

Anyone checked out this delay that they are coming out with.  Should be out in the next month.  http://electricdruid.net/diy-digital-delay/  Up to 4 second delay. I built his flanger which I thought was pretty good.  Can go from mild to wild.  I've been building a bunch of lofi pt2399 based delays for my friends in the noise scene.  Might be nice to have something a little more hifi if it turns out to be.  Echo splashes is a pretty cool feature as well as tap tempo

Here are the features.

    0 → 4 Seconds of digital delay
    12 bit/32KHz input, 16 bit/32KHz output
    Delay trails (tails) on/off
    Noiseless effect in/out bypass switching
    Momentary/latching feature on bypass switch for “echo splashes”
    Tap tempo
    Tempo LED to indicate echo rate
    Dry audio path is entirely analog
    Delay Time, Repeats, and Delay Level controls
    High and Low tone filter controls