FV-1 Multi effect full forum project ready to go. (ShimmerVerb Also)

[cliffsp8]

Just received a set of 3 pcbs from OSH park, and looking forward to building them over the next week or three...

This is my first experience with SMDs and I have a lot to learn

I unintentionally ordered SM sized memory soic, rather than SN and they don't fit. Luckily they are cheap, Farnell has oodles of them and hopefully I'll get some before xmas.

Seeing as I can build three I might put two in a box in series.

What do you guys use for flux? I have a pen type liquid flux dispenser which is OK. But I've seen mainly gel flux being used you tube instructional videos.

regards

Cliff

[Ice-9]

Cliff, If your using a normal hand soldering iron for the SMD chips then the pen flux is great. Look forward to seeing your build.

Note the PIC chip needs to be programmed before soldering in place while the eeprom can be programmed/updated on the pcb.

[cliffsp8]

Great. I've already programmed the PICs, and I'm waiting for the replacement memory chips to arrive then I'm ready to get soldering.

There seems to be a short between pins 16 and 17 of the FV-1 on the pcbs. I've buzzed it out and looked with a magnifying glass and it looks like a bridge between the tracks. Is this a known condition? - I don't remember reading about it here, but it was a few months since I read the full thread. I guess I need to lift a pin on FV-1 and one on the PIC.

Cheers

Cliff

[Ice-9]

Pins 16 and 17 shouldn't have a short, they are S0, S1 , can you take a close up picture of the pcb to show these pins. You may need to use a blade to make sure the connection is cut. I have never had this problem with the PCB fabs I use.

Like I mentioned post a picture and I will check for a solution on the PCB.

[cliffsp8]

Sorry, not worked out how to post images. Here's a dropbox link

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ncsdbfz5ypho9ls/AADzxC4O0mJtATq6HyrdUw4-a?dl=0

There's a semicircular area of "land" between pins 16,17 of FV-1 and pins 6,7 of the PIC. Easy to see with magnifying glass, not so easy to photograph.

Cheers

Cliff

[Ice-9]

That should not be there, it looks like it must be a manufacturing fault/error. At least it is an easy fix and can be cut with a Stanley knife (box cutter if your American). I will try and check the file on OSH Park. I never used them to make the PCB's but the same Gerber files were sent to another PCB maker and I never had this error in my boards.

do you have the link to the OSHPark project so I can check ?

[cliffsp8]

Here's the OSHpark link

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/ay7fFM4d

Stanley knife will do for me

Cheers

Cliff

[Ice-9]

Here's the OSHpark link

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/ay7fFM4d

Stanley knife will do for me

Cheers

Cliff

The Files in the link look good (without the bridge). I would drop OSHPark an email hey should send out some new pcb's that are correct. Failing that the Stanley knife cut will be good to go.

[cliffsp8]

Thanks for checking, I will contact OSHpark and request good replacements.

Cheers!

PS Stanley has done the trick

[cliffsp8]

OSH Park are fast tracking a new set of boards for me, so I should get them in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime I've given the boards I have a thorough checking with a jeweller's glass  and confident enough that there are no other spurious areas. So I'm going ahead with one of these, after all I need something to do over the holidays when not eating, drinking and making merry

Best wishes...

Cliff

[cliffsp8]

Second board completely built and working

I had a struggle get the eeprom to programme but it did it after about 5 attempts. I think it was a contact problem between the programming pins and the pads. Next job is to get it installed in a box and do some coding...     ... to while away the cold dark nights.

Many thanks Mick for this great project. I'll post some pics when it's done.

Cliff

[cliffsp8]

Some build pictures:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ncsdbfz5ypho9ls/AADzxC4O0mJtATq6HyrdUw4-a?dl=0

Sorry about dropbox link, someday I'll figure out how to add pics into thread

I added a 3 pin header socket to the programming pads which has made programming reliably hands free now. It's just a row of three SIL turned pin sockets from a long strip. A similar row of three is wired to the programmer's cable, and the two fit together very nicely.

Incidentally, I had problems with SpinASM  to start with. To get it to work in Win 10 it seems to need Win 7 compatibility and admin rights to write into the Program(x86) directories. 

I have a few ideas I want to try out, but firstly some simple EQ stuff to get used to this coding lark.

Cheers

Cliff

[cliffsp8]

Here's a bit of code in case anyone finds it useful.

It enables a pot to have a preset value when a patch is started. When the pot is moved about an 1/8 turn, then the actual pot value takes over. Switching to another patch and then back again puts it back in preset mode again.

As a bit of a preamble, I have been using an old Zoom Acoustic pedal to add a bit of body tone and reverb for Aco slide guitar playing. Lately it is making annoying noises (not just my playing  ) and it will have to be retired. I have matched the EQ part of it so far and will add a suitably small reverb next up. I like presets to be presets - it's great having knobs on pedals but they can be a pain. This gives a bit of flexibility too.

Here is the EQ code showing the pot preset feature. The EQ code is incidental - it works for my guitar, though.

Code Select Expand

; CS Aco EQ1 preset patch. Starts with gain preset.
; If pot moved by more than 15%, actual pot takes over until patch restarted
; Pot 0: tba
; Pot 1: when active, EQ peak gain +/- 6db  (Eq matches preset value at approx 2 o'clock)
; Pot 2: tba
;
equ kf 0.0320560500 ;band frequency = 170Hz
equ kq 0.9343308396 ;band Q = .48
equ kp 0.4 ;+ve gain value for preset
equ kg 0.0328345802 ;band internal gain - calculated from above
equ kinvhpf 0.0022983260 ;1-k for HPF @ 12Hz
;
;----pot1-preset constants
equ moved 0.15 ;15%
equ p1set 0.7 ;preset value (=0.4 after pot scaling)
;
equ hpfout reg6
equ khp reg7
equ eqin reg8
equ eqa reg9
equ eqb reg10
equ temp reg11
equ eqout reg12
;
;----pot1-preset registers
equ p1init reg13 ;value of pot at start
equ p1flag reg14 ;mode flag
equ pot1val reg15 ;effective value of pot1
;
;
; ----setup pot preset
skp run,start ;setup conditions
clr
rdax pot1,1
wrax p1init,0 ;Save initial Pot1 value
wrax p1flag,0 ;Pot1 mode flag to 0 to force preset
sof 0,p1set ;Put preset value
wrax pot1val,0 ; into register
start: clr
rdax p1flag,1 ;Check if still in preset mode
skp neg,readp1 ;If not go read pot
clr ;Otherwise
rdax pot1,1 ; check if pot has been moved
rdax p1init,-1 ;Calculate if difference between
absa ; current amd init values
sof -1,moved ; is bigger than threshold
skp gez,next ;If not move on
wrax p1flag,0 ;If yes set mode flag neg
readp1: clr
rdax pot1,1
wrax pot1val,0 ;Put pot value in reg
next: clr

;------   high pass filter
rdax adcl,kinvhpf
rdax khp,-kinvhpf
rdax khp,1
wrax khp,-1
rdax adcl,1
wrax hpfout,0
;------   peaking EQ----filter output is in temp.
rdax hpfout,1
wrax eqin,0
rdax eqin, kg
rdax eqb,-kf
rdax eqa,1
wrax temp, kq
rdax eqin, kg
wrax eqa,0
rdax temp, kf
rdax eqb,1
wrax eqb,0
rdax pot1val,1 ;Read pot value
sof 1.9999389,-1 ;Convert from 0 to 1, to -1 to 1
mulx temp ;Mult by bp filter op
rdax eqin,1 ;Add original signal
wrax eqout,0 ;Save EQ output for next stage
rdax eqout,1 ; which in this case is output :)
wrax dacl,0


Cheers

Cliff

[stringsthings]

Ice-9,

Just read through the thread.  Very interesting stuff, indeed!
Any news on the DIY Blue Nebula?  or updates to the current FV-1 forum project?
For now, I can etch a single sided board to get started.   There's also the tonepad layout.

[Ice-9]

Ice-9,

Just read through the thread.  Very interesting stuff, indeed!
Any news on the DIY Blue Nebula?  or updates to the current FV-1 forum project?
For now, I can etch a single sided board to get started.   There's also the tonepad layout.

I'm afraid I have been so busy with work over the last year that I have not had much time to do anything to further these. The FV-1 updated /revisited didn't get much interest or replies on the forum so I didn't bother looking any more into that for now but if there is interest I will take a look at it again.  I am thinking of getting some PCB's ordered after the Chinese new year holiday for the Blue Nebula DIY. Maybe.

I am back to work after the Christmas Holidays now and have so much work to catch up on for the next month or two so any DIY will be a slow start to the year. 

[loopmasta]

@Ice-9 Hey Mick, I am very interested in a DIY Blue Nebula kit. I would buy it right away. I ordered your original FV-1 PCB years ago and pimped it to be something like the Blue Nebula but never finished it. But it still sounds great. So if you ever sell a DIY Blue Nebula kit i'll buy it. All the best for 2017.

Regards, stiwi

[stringsthings]

If you decide to sell the Blue Nebula PCB's, I'll take one or two. 

[MR COFFEE]

@Ice-9,
I think there are lots of folks that would be interested. But this is a VERY old and LONG thread, and I think LOTS of folks have given up on the idea you and the other guys who did the Blue Nebula project really intend to release a DIY version, and have just quit following the thread. I guess I haven't quite, but I'm incredibly tenacious, probably to the extreme, but at this point mostly I keep following the thread to see what the deal REALLY is, with ALL the mixed messages.

I don't mean to piss you off by saying that, but try and see it from the point of view of people who kept waiting and waiting with a  pic of a finished board, obviously ready to go,oh, BTW, we're all working very hand to finalize the design before releasing it, oh, BTW, we just released a finished Blue Nebula pedal product we are selling all made up, then another tease about we will probably release a partial kit of pcb and firmware to the diy community sometime soon, and months and months of waiting.

The only time I see posts from the team in this thread are in response to other folks wanting to know what's going on with it.

If you are really considering releasing a DIY pcb and firmware kit and want to get a feel for the demand, start a new thread and ask people to reply about their level of interest.

If it's never going to happen, I encourage you all to be straight up and say you guys really aren't going to release it because you want to keep all your work to yourselves. You have the right. I'm sure you put a LOT of work into it. But just give folks a straight answer.

My 2 cents worth.

[Ice-9]

@Ice-9,
I think there are lots of folks that would be interested. But this is a VERY old and LONG thread, and I think LOTS of folks have given up on the idea you and the other guys who did the Blue Nebula project really intend to release a DIY version, and have just quit following the thread. I guess I haven't quite, but I'm incredibly tenacious, probably to the extreme, but at this point mostly I keep following the thread to see what the deal REALLY is, with ALL the mixed messages.

I don't mean to piss you off by saying that, but try and see it from the point of view of people who kept waiting and waiting with a  pic of a finished board, obviously ready to go,oh, BTW, we're all working very hand to finalize the design before releasing it, oh, BTW, we just released a finished Blue Nebula pedal product we are selling all made up, then another tease about we will probably release a partial kit of pcb and firmware to the diy community sometime soon, and months and months of waiting.

The only time I see posts from the team in this thread are in response to other folks wanting to know what's going on with it.

If you are really considering releasing a DIY pcb and firmware kit and want to get a feel for the demand, start a new thread and ask people to reply about their level of interest.

If it's never going to happen, I encourage you all to be straight up and say you guys really aren't going to release it because you want to keep all your work to yourselves. You have the right. I'm sure you put a LOT of work into it. But just give folks a straight answer.

My 2 cents worth.

I see your frustration MR COFFEE. while I did say a diy pcb could/would be available for BN this thread had nothing to do with the Blue Nebula as it was all about the small pedal that was released way back when, the is thread is valid for that first FV-1 effect and all the PM's I get are about the first little pedal not the BN.
I did mention the Blue Nebula in this thread when someone asked if it was possible to make something FV-1 based with a LCD/Arduino/pic control. I will get some PCB's ordered 1st week of Feb when the factories re-open + 3 weeks delivery,these can be used for diy BN, all the firmware and software is available to download on my website already from the BN manuals page.

The problem getting anything new diy out has not been lack of being bothered to do it but lack of time to do the diy side. As a sole trader making guitar pedals I am working loooong hours 7 days a week and customers waiting for any of my products are priority. Just when I think I have a few hours spare to do something else I find out I haven't.

So the short answer is YES, not a kit though just pcb's/BOM.

[loopmasta]

So the short answer is YES, not a kit though just pcb's/BOM.

I like short answers: