The Please Steal My Idea Thread

[EBK]

It might be nice if it didn't do anything until you stamp on the foot switch, whereupon it catches fire and smoke starts to billow out of it. I mean, we've all made pedals like that, right?...

Was thinking that too.  As for optional sound, perhaps something like your hiss, crackle, pop project could work.

[ElectricDruid]

It might be nice if it didn't do anything until you stamp on the foot switch, whereupon it catches fire and smoke starts to billow out of it. I mean, we've all made pedals like that, right?...

Was thinking that too.  As for optional sound, perhaps something like your hiss, crackle, pop project could work.

Yes, fed to the output...I like it. So rather than the "expected" effect, you get something broken. Bonus points if you get a few bits of chopped and distorted input signal into the mix.

[EBK]

It might be nice if it didn't do anything until you stamp on the foot switch, whereupon it catches fire and smoke starts to billow out of it. I mean, we've all made pedals like that, right?...

Was thinking that too.  As for optional sound, perhaps something like your hiss, crackle, pop project could work.

Yes, fed to the output...I like it. So rather than the "expected" effect, you get something broken. Bonus points if you get a few bits of chopped and distorted input signal into the mix.

Yes, but I wouldn't want it to sound broken, per se.  Perhaps it should work as expected but also sound subtly ablaze.

There's another band name someone could use: Subtly Ablaze.   

[ElectricDruid]

Ok, so you're thinking more of a "smoking hot fuzz" or a "steaming pile of distortion", whereas I was thinking more of a practical joke in pedal form..or perhaps a visual gag for the gigging guitarist. One way to get talked about would be to have your pedal catch fire during your solo, and then have to rapidly switch to something else. Of course, the audience wouldn't know this was actually a part of the show.
Still, I think either version is a brilliant idea. I'd love to have time to muck about with such a thing, but it seems a bit unlikely unfortunately.

[EBK]

Still, I think either version is a brilliant idea.

I'm a fan if both versions as well.

I'd love to have time to muck about with such a thing, but it seems a bit unlikely unfortunately.

That's why it's here in this thread.  Someday, someone else might try it.   

[amptramp]

Idea: Build a pedal with a model train smoke generator inside.  A glowing orange light plate (or orange lit knobs) would be good to add to this too. 

..and add software/circuitry to make the LEDs flicker like flames (or, more boringly, use candle flicker LEDs).



I bet someone could program a PIC to control the smoke and the flicker and possibly add optional sound effects. 
*nudge* 

There's loads of examples with the flickery-light part, but I've never seen one with sound effects!
Here's just one example, with a ton of other extra features to boot:
https://hackaday.io/project/11796-avr-vs-pic-the-case-of-the-candle

The trouble with sound on stuff like this is that it's totally underwhelming because of the tiny size. I once designed a Doctor Who style sonic screwdriver sound chip for my young nephew. It generated a selection of interesting noises that could feasibly be opening, laser drilling, melting, etc etc if you had some imagination. The bit that stumped me was getting enough volume and sound quality out of something that would fit into a small hand-held device.

It might be nice if it didn't do anything until you stamp on the foot switch, whereupon it catches fire and smoke starts to billow out of it. I mean, we've all made pedals like that, right?...


Edit: a funny smell would be good too - that distinctive 'magic smoke' smell we all know and love.

Magic smoke with a funny smell?  It sounds like you have found a use for the stash of selenium rectifiers I have.  I remember blowing one of these on a December 15 of one year.  I switched everything off, opened the window and went out to ride my bicycle for a couple of hours.  No way I was going to keep that in even though it was cold and damp out.  This would have been around 1964 give or take a year and the unit that blew was a General Electric television.  Really nasty aroma.

[ElectricDruid]

It occurred to me that the technology in those smoking-replacement electronic vapers must be pretty similar to the model trains. But going into a vaping shop and asking them if they've got vaping liquid with the smell of magic smoke is likely to lead to something different from the desired result in this instance!

[EBK]

An idea in crude (in more ways than one) concept art form:



Big Smurf Pi

[anotherjim]

Cheap vape kit from which to harvest the vaporizer...
https://www.88vape.com/products/classic-vape-pen-starter-kit
I used to love the smell of the smoke units in some of the Tri-ang trains I had as a kid. Seuthe I think is the maker of those (if I spelt it right).
The acrid smell from burning electrics I always assumed, was from the insulating varnish/lacquer like on coil windings which was Shellac based? Anyway, you can get that as button polish?

[Peter Snowberg]

I seem to remember Lionel "smoke fluid" from the 60s to be light machine oil. I've heard model railroaders talk about using olive oil too.

Keep in mind that vaporizers are meant for very low duty cycle useage, but there are now numerous sources of DIY vaporizer rebuilding materials from which you can wind an appropriate heater for continuous duty.

[Ripthorn]

What I promised earlier. It finally arrived. First time round the shop had no stock so i had to find another one that had that with other pots 

I'm planning to do something like this (already have the knobs) but with a 10mm ultrabright indicator LED as well (already have that, too!).

[paul.creedy]

What I promised earlier. It finally arrived. First time round the shop had no stock so i had to find another one that had that with other pots 

I'm planning to do something like this (already have the knobs) but with a 10mm ultrabright indicator LED as well (already have that, too!).

not a black LED that lights up black when it's on ? (i.e. paint an LED and don't wire it up)

[EBK]

I would like to see a pedal labeled:
"My name is not important, and I'm not going to tell you what it is."

(my brother has my copy of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, so I can't fully verify the quote)

Bonus points for adding a "Slartibartfast" label on the bottom or inside of the pedal.

[edvard]

Here's an easy one that I've always wanted to do but never could get around to it:  Fuzz Face but built with TO-3 package power transistors and 1/2 watt resistors and 500V caps, with a clear cover and internal LED lighting so you can see the huge parts all mad science-y and stuff. Power transistors because they come in low hFE for ideal Fuzz Face tones. Bonus for huge knobs and a telegraph key or huge blade switch for the bypass.
 
Fuzz or booster pedals built with parts not made for linear/audio duty, like UJTs, SCRs, Triacs, Thyristors, etc. 

Has anybody done an audio circuit with phototransistors?  I'd be curious if there were non-linearities to exploit in the light emitter/photodetector interface.
EDIT:  Close, but... http://www.learnabout-electronics.org/Semiconductors/opto_53.php

[Rob Strand]

Has anybody done an audio circuit with phototransistors?  I'd be curious if there were non-linearities to exploit in the light emitter/photodetector interface.

A new member posted one about 6 months ago.   It was a novel idea (but it was a bit finicky in terms of adjusting to get desired effect).

[edvard]

I always wanted to find some way of fusing the sound of my guitar with the sound of a dial up modem, think it would sound pretty far out but i lack the computer know how

That's easy.  Just find a .wav file of a dialup modem sound, use an audio editor to fade it out, then load it as a reverb impulse into an IR Convolution plugin. 
You know, that actually might make a fun experiment for this weekend... 
Stay tuned... 

[edvard]

Idea: Build a pedal with a model train smoke generator inside.  A glowing orange light plate (or orange lit knobs) would be good to add to this too. 

Pass the smoke between an LED/Photoresistor pair to get true random modulation for a Phaser/Flanger/Chorus/Tremolo/whatever.  The smoke would have to be pretty thick and/or dark to really work though...

Or two photoresistors for stereo... 

[edvard]

Has anybody done an audio circuit with phototransistors?  I'd be curious if there were non-linearities to exploit in the light emitter/photodetector interface.

A new member posted one about 6 months ago.   It was a novel idea (but it was a bit finicky in terms of adjusting to get desired effect).

I just searched the forum and YIPES there are quite a few threads about abusing phototransistors and optoisolators.  If I weren't due for work in the morning, I'd have a lot of reading to do right now.  As it is, it'll have to wait for the weekend. 

[Rob Strand]

uzz or booster pedals built with parts not made for linear/audio duty, like UJTs, SCRs, Triacs, Thyristors, etc. 

There were a few fakes as well ,

[edvard]

OK, one more idea, and this comes from a combination of ideas and accidental discoveries that I'll explain in a second paragraph.  The idea is:

A bass fuzz/distortion where you run the input through a high-pass filter that does a smooth transition from low to high (like an RIAA curve but tuned for bass frequencies instead of a "knee" at a certain frequency), do the fuzz/distortion/overdrive effect, then run the output through a low-pass filter that is the opposite of the input.
The idea is that it only distorts the top end, but on a smooth curve so you avoid the low-frequency 'fart bass' sound that you can normally get from simply plugging a bass into a distortion pedal, but retaining the sweet singing sustain of the higher harmonics, all from one box. This is akin to what most folks try to achieve with bi-amping, but the idea is to simply do it in one box.

Backstory:  Many years ago, a friend of mine bought a Rickenbacker bass for quite cheap because something was wrong with the bridge pickup, and asked if I could fix it.  I opened it up and found a very small value cap on the pickup output.  I took that off and ran the output straight through.  It sounded better, but still very thin and low output, so I concluded that he had a bad pickup.  Well, I had it for about a month, so I played it fairly often because I figured it would be the only time I ever got to play a genuine Ricky.  One day I had the idea to run the bass through an external phono preamp I had laying around, to at least boost the bass a bit.  To my great surprise, it sounded like a DREAM.  The perfect balance of growl and hum, even when playing finger-style.  That got me thinking that maybe there was some heretofore-unseen Mojo going on in the frequency translation, and that's why I perceived guitar and bass as having more "presence" when listening to a recording from vinyl, as opposed to the same recording on tape or CD (first noticed on the song "Michelangelo's Penis" by Arsenal.  I had both vinyl and tape; an A/B comparison confirmed what I thought I was hearing).  So I got the idea to put a RIAA encoding curve on the front end of a distortion circuit and a reverse RIAA curve (like the "phono" input on most common stereo sets) on the back end might get me some sweet Mojo and set my sound apart from the then-current crop of dirt box clones.  Later I realized this was also very similar to how Craig Anderton's "Vintage Effects De-Hisser" worked, but that's about as far as I ever got with the idea, so any takers are welcome to it.