Alternative Wah controllers?

[gmoon]

Hadn't seen that thread before - very cool. I take it you're our resident MacGyver?

OH--F___ no  . There are so many others here much more capable and plugged-in than me.

Also, I mis-remembered--the inductor in those tests is about 550mH to 70mH. I have one that's 700-100mH that's physically identical...but I never got around to using it. Too bad I didn't reread the thread.

[wavley]

ooor ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSsl1h8RhqU

Honestly this would be the best thing I've seen all month if I hadn't seen that they're making a squier Bass VI today.

[haveyouseenhim]

I have always wanted to use a micro controller with an accelerometer and digital pot so I can mount the whole circuit in my guitar so when you rock/tilt your guitar it wahs.

Sadly, I tried to learn how to write really simple code for arduino and failed miserably

[wavley]

I have always wanted to use a micro controller with an accelerometer and digital pot so I can mount the whole circuit in my guitar so when you rock/tilt your guitar it wahs.

Sadly, I tried to learn how to write really simple code for arduino and failed miserably

I'm gonna guess that's what's going on with the EHX Next Step stuff.

[fuzzo]

A pressur sensor could be nice for controlling a filter. I also saw a "windcontroller" that can be mutated into a month or breath controller 

[mistahead]

With the advent of cheap bathroom scales in Aldi, dime stores, etc. I'm going a different way entirely.

[psychedelicfish]

I have been using a magnet and a Hall effect detector in my Wah's Volumes and expression pedals.
The Hall effect detector has a stationary voltage of 2.5V and varies up to almost 5 or down to almost zero depending on the polarity. Hook up a led driver system after that and LDR's. you can do inverting led drivers to simulate a pot as voltage divider

Not familiar with different hall effect sensors... What did you use? would this be suitable?

[drolo]

I have been using a magnet and a Hall effect detector in my Wah's Volumes and expression pedals.
The Hall effect detector has a stationary voltage of 2.5V and varies up to almost 5 or down to almost zero depending on the polarity. Hook up a led driver system after that and LDR's. you can do inverting led drivers to simulate a pot as voltage divider

Not familiar with different hall effect sensors... What did you use? would this be suitable?

That's exactly the one I use ;-)
I was going to post a topic about it with schematics etc but i never get to it ... plus i'm constantly trying to perfect the out of phase LED driver system ....
I will try to find some time to do it.

[DiscoFreq]

There's a version of the old Top Gear Wahs that uses a slider and something like a bike's brake cable:

Top Gear Wah

[psychedelicfish]

Could you do it with a movable core transformer, generating a control voltage by applying a constant AC to one winding, and rectifying the AC from the second winding? It would mean more circuitry, but a physically smaller inductor.

[deadastronaut]

With the advent of cheap bathroom scales in Aldi, dime stores, etc. I'm going a different way entirely.

interesting....could weigh yourself as you wah too..
................................................................................


FSR's...force sensitive resistors?.

[drolo]

With the advent of cheap bathroom scales in Aldi, dime stores, etc. I'm going a different way entirely.

interesting....could weigh yourself as you wah too..
................................................................................


FSR's...force sensitive resistors?.

Want more bass response? Eat more potato chips !! :-)

[DiscoFreq]

With the advent of cheap bathroom scales in Aldi, dime stores, etc. I'm going a different way entirely.

"can someone jump on my back? I can't get high enough with my wah..."

[deadastronaut]

^ eat more chips then..

[drolo]

I just wrote a post about the Magnet/Hall effect controller, if it anyone is interrested:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=103364.0

[mac]

LDR/LED
I'd use one moving LED and 2 LDRs to mimic a wah pot.
By placing one LDR over the other and moving the LED up and down you have something "similar" to a pot.
Easy to say, hard to calibrate, and who knows how the resistance curve is...

MOVING CORE
Wire resistance must be small, and L>500mH.
LTSpice sims of a variable inductor in a classic circuit and in the Kay wah show different peaks than the std wah.

mac

[mistahead]

With the advent of cheap bathroom scales in Aldi, dime stores, etc. I'm going a different way entirely.

"can someone jump on my back? I can't get high enough with my wah..."

Have a look at some of the pyrex scales - plenty of room to strip out most of their circuitry and drop in an effect and who doesn't want a pitch bender that can deal with literally JUMPING on the expression pedal to bend it a little more (sorry Zvex but trampoline trumps theremin). 

[earthtonesaudio]

You can also digitize the wah's physical position through various methods. Codestrips and codewheels come to mind.  I recall seeing at least one expression pedal (I think it was part of a multi-effect Boss or Zoom thing) that used an optical codestrip to detect the wah-ing.

[deadastronaut]

shine a torch in your face with an ldr in your mouth...wow...wow..

[DiscoFreq]

shine a torch in your face with an ldr in your mouth...wow...wow..

That's what this does:

Mike Matthews' Soul Kiss