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Nice, and very elegant looking. I find that every time I build for someone else, I end up building another one for myself. Kind of a, "I want one!."

Thanks Jimi. I suffer that same "me too" syndrome.

I was able to obtain a couple MadBean 2015 "Honey Dripper" (Colorsound Dipthonizer) PCBs for a custom commission request and got it built out with the requested modifications.

This is a sweet, versitile auto-wah sort of circuit from the 70's. Instead of a single, fixed filter, it has a 'formant' selector switch for generating (simulating) four different vowel formants with a sweep rate adjustment and a fuzz blend control. And while the "fuzz" is actually just a a pair of soft clipping diodes on a parallel drive circuit (opamp), the OD it provides adds some nice grit to the effect when desired.

Originally designed to fit into a 125B enclosure, the requested mods demanded a larger box, so I was able to get it all stuffed into a 1590BB enclosure.

The added modifications were a Low, High (EQ) and Volume circuit after the Dipthinizer circuit.

At the Volume midpoint, the pedal is at unity gain and gets a good bit louder after the Volume is turned up from the 'noon' position. The Lo & Hi controls give an exaggerated range of bass & treble. I selected a GuitarPCB "Tone TwEQ" for the added EQ/Volume mod.

This turned out to be one of the better auto-wah circuits I've ever had the opportunity to play with. When I started this project, I was unaware how rare the original Dipthonizer pedals are. Glad I acquired a second PCB to build one for my rig.

Video demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSSLvyh_174

So enough of the babble . . . . onto the circuit porn . . . .

Had a first shipment of LT1054s arrive (from a seller on Amazon). I removed the jumper between legs 1 and 8 but still the same issue.

I have another batch from Mouser on order coming soon.

Did you check to see if the 15v is fluctuating with the Speed pot setting changes? IF it does not, then something may be wrong with the LFO section.

Hey there Cybercow, good to see you on the Madbean forums as well.

Unfortunately, firmly seating the transistors had no effect I'm afraid. The lamp does work and dim (very slightly) only when the gain trim pot is cranked all the way up which the user guide states to be wary of so as not to blow the lamp.

OK, it sounds like the lamp voltage is insufficient to me. So that 1044 may not be providing enough output to properly drive the LFO and lamp sections. I'd wait for the correct LT1054 charge pumps to arrive.

Good evening,

This may be a very stupid post. I have some LT1054 IC chips on order but my impatience got the better of me. I used an SPCA1044 and jumpered pins 1 and 8.

The board fired up fine. The bypass signal is working and I do get signal when the effectis engaged. I don't get any vibrato modulation however. The lamp lights up pretty well when the gain trim control is turned up almost all the way. It does fade in and out like it should when the speed control is adjusted though this is faint. The offset trim pot seems to have no effect.

Barring that IC1 is not the proper part, is it possible anybody else sees something obviously wrong with my board?

If the lamp is glowing and dimming accordingly, then the chargepump may not be the issue. I'd check all of those socketed transistors and ensure they are all seated firmly with no wiggling or looseness. When I socket TO-92 BJTs, I always slightly 'wrinkle' the ends of the pins to ensure they seat firmly.

Hey everybody! Was really wanting to build the aqua baby. Would I have to change the values of any other components if I were to use a mn3008 instead of the 3005?

Doubtful. You will get shorter delay times due the point that the MN3008 is a 2048-stage (~10 - 102 ms) BBD and the MN3005 is a 4096-stage (~20 - 204 ms) BBD. The only other difference in the datasheet specs is that the MN3008 is 3db better in the S/N ratio.

I'm wondering if anyone has a spare 2015 version (or later) of MadBean's 'HoneyDripper' PCB available? Please contact me.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I'm wondering if anyone has a spare 2015 version of MadBean's 'HoneyDripper' PCB available? Please contact me.

Another trick is to lift one leg of a resistor. That way a DMM measure will not be fooled by parallel resistances on the PCB.

Have you resolved this yet? I'm beginning three different Robot circuits (just to note the differences) and was wondering where you are on the "static". My first build used the Robot Voice kit using the HT8950A (16-pin version), and it seems to be noisy as well. I've got three HT8950 (18-pin version) builds I'm about to begin and hoping to share some info.

Coupe of points . . . .

1) eBay specialized IC purchases, (especially from China), are a crap-shoot at best. They could very well be fakes or bad pulls and cleaned up. China sellers have been known to sand off the markings and re-ink them for whatever they want.

2) But let's assume they are good and\or genuine MN3102 + MN3207 chips . . . . if they are the real deal and in working order, those trims pots for setting the bias each have a very narrow sweet-spot. And according to the Aion BlueShift builddocs, an o-scope is needed to get those trimmers dialed in correct. Kevin also states that it can be done (near-passably) by ear, recommends an o-scope. I didn't see in your post that you had tried setting them in any fashion, so I have to ask: Did you try adjusting the trimmers to acquire a proper bias for each chorus section? He has a full description of biasing with your ear and o-scope on page #7 of the build docs.

Short of a biasing issue, when the new chips arrive, they will need to be re-biased when you swap them. If the new one(s) work, at least you can request a refund on the ones you got from China.

Good luck!

1 & 5 are fine (power is switched for the MN3207 vs. MN3007) pin 6 should be the same as pin 2, there's a problem with your 3102.

As Scruffie said, Pin 6 of the 3207 is tied directly to Pin 2 of the 3102. If Pin 2 of the 3102 is good (as you mentioned in your post) then you need to find out what is causing that voltage to drop at the 3207.

Thanks guys. I didn't have another V3102 handy, so I swapped out both the clock chip and the BBD for an MN3102 & MN3207 and the chorus came to life. A little trimpot tweak and it sparkled just like a great chorus pedal ought.

I then got curious and swapped out the working MN3102 & MN3207 for the original V3102 & V3207 and it worked just as well with the 'MN' chips. (After another quick tweak of the trimpot.) The best guess I can make of what the original "problem" was, is that the clock IC was not seated well enough and . I poked and prodded around with a plastic chopstick and could not get any faults or intermittents.

Played thru it for a good hour (with original 'V' chips) whilst fiddling with the controls & bypassing \ re-engaging several times and it seems solid now. Electronics truly is a fickle mistress.

On further consideration, (while I've not yet tried it), I'm guessing the CoolAudio V3102 & V3207 are interchangeable with their counterpart MN3102 & MN3207 versions. (?) Based on their respective datasheets, it looks like one chip can be the CoolAudio 'V' and the other chip can be the 'MN' version. Conversely, the MN3101 & MN3007 are NOT equally compatible with the MN3102 & MN3207 or the CoolAudio versions. (Following the schematic more carefully and noting the orientation of the jumper requirement differences.)

Thank you for your suggestions, time and consideration.

Thanks for the helpful posts already, and any other help will be icing on the cake!!

Thanks for the kind words. You're welcome.

1) The LDR's are oriented at a 90 degree angle from the board. Is this how they are supposed to go? I initially just assumed they were tacked down straight to the board and would catch ambient light within the light shield.

The positioning of the LDRs was just a choice. They work fine either way. The light shroud is important.

2) This is more out of curiosity, but is there a reason you left C33 open? You may have just been waiting for a part to make it through the mail, but maybe you have discovered some mod that I should know about.

I noted in the build docs that no value for C33 was given in the BOM. In fact C33 was not even listed in the BOM - but it is shown in the schematic. Also, the build document shows a photo of a 9v build that excluded C33 as well. Also, I know the LT1054 charge pump is pretty stable and the datasheet for it demonstrated no need for that 100nF cap in that position. The final result of my build sounds great with no chargepump buzz and the 15v supply is clean. So I just followed the build document. I also don't believe it would be harmful to use it.

May I ask what brand it is and where you got that resistor?

That's an extremely good catch

Don't remember the brand - but I know I got it from Mouser. When I do VFE builds I get all my parts from Mouser and SmallBear.

Daaaaamn nice job.
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Thanks JimiLee !