honeydripper / diphthonger builders - advise

[duck_arse]

well, I think I've reached the circuit I shoulda built at the start. I'll grind out the schem soonest, and post it for any interested parties owning CA3080's.

I can say - don't use ceramics in the filters section, as they are rather microphonic. as for the hiss, another round of swap the op says the 4558 is lowest hiss, then the TL072*, then the LF353*, and the LM1458 is worst.

as for the hiss - I slung a percolator with switched input cap in front, I say this is the default method I will be recommending. there is so many odd funny different settings and sounds comes out, huge range on the sweep pot. the fuzz pot also produces a cleaner output set hard to fuzz when driven w/ the perco. and I fear a distortion is better than a fuzz [bazz, fuzzrite] as you retain some envelope. the perco wound up made a wonderfull fuzz sound that wasn't being swept per-say, but the fizzy tizzy hamonics did some great trailing oww-wahs.

fun for all the family, highly recommended. embrace the hiss.


* proper, old natsemi LF and TI TL parts. 4558 is a pull from some old pedal.

[pinkjimiphoton]

ha, weird. i use them mono ceramics in everything, no prob in this circuit, and i think i settled on a 1458!! lol

glad ya got it workin bro, love to see what ya came up with !!

[duck_arse]

thanks jimi, it's your vid that caused the project in the first place.

as for my ceramics, I'm using proper old disks, none this new fangles mono bizz. having to double up caps on the bb until I get some right value poly's.

I wanted to add on the hiss - it's most obvious on the first and fourth settings.

[pinkjimiphoton]

ahh, ok. yeah, i only use them mono ceramics nowadays. love 'em. they CAN be microphonic if damaged/overheated/cold solder

first thing i check.

man, i wish i never sold that first one i built, it was really a good sounding one. i think i may have one board left for it that bean sent me, but i may have gifted it to petey twofinger, i forget. THAT KID is my freekin hero... peeps wouldn't believe the stuff he pulls off!

[anotherjim]

I find a lot of filter effects don't give their best with guitar or bass unless you do something that really adds treble. If that treble is noise then so be it. The Wasp filter I built recently only comes properly to life with pre and post distortion. I've got a Dist+ in front and a dirt pedal after. Being a low pass filter, it needs lots of highs to give a wide-ranging sweep, but when it is low and cutting most of the treble, it also needs some harmonics adding back in or it will be lost in the mix.

[duck_arse]

the switch to backup machine meant a new version of eagle, which I started on tonight. so those diagrams will be a little while, as e v e r y t h i n g is now slighty different.

never mind that. I needed to check a connection today [which was wrong], so loaded it up with the big bassy distortion signal, wound the sweep right down, and blanged a few power chords. if you've never heard a digeridoo played with throat singing .... but! as the chord dies out, the beat notes start wibbling the envelope, ripple like, and the mess ends with wahwahwahwah...... endless fun. I'm more impressed w/ the circuit sounds produced each time.

[moid]

That description sounds awesome It's the next EHX 9 series pedal for sure! They could package a digeridoo, kazoo, vuvuzela, an airhorn, an alpine horn, a fog horn, a tuba and some synth farts (two flavours; squeaky and bassy) and call it the Wind 9 or something similar

Good luck with switching computers... mine had to have on operating system change and (thankfully) it has fixed the sound issues I was having, but now all my settings have gone and I need to update tons of software... you have my sympathy.

[duck_arse]

I have updated my diagrams to match what's working on the BB, re/posted here in colour and BW, don't be scared:

https://imgur.com/a/dethbA0

I think my parts numbering matches Beans. there's voltage readings all over - where multiples, they are read while stepping thru the modes.

some points: in trying to track my original fault, I did a lot of messing w/ the supply arrangements. then when trying to kill the hiss, I did more messing with bias and R//C supply filterings. and in the end is what is drawn. you might note there is an audio bias and a VCA bias on the audio section dia - live with it, or delete one set of parts and link the Aref and Vref together.

I'm speccing 18V external DC input from the outset, so it's one less thing for me to think of. I've never used charge pumpers, not starting here. the rectifier page draws about 4mA, the audio gobbs around 13mA at idle.

I rebiased the audio section to 9V as it makes no sense to have the 18V headroom crippled by the 5V biasing of the previous designs. now you can flog the frontend as you like without extra awful clipping resulting.

socket the filter/output IC and test your stocks to find most acceptable hiss factory. I've included the twinned VCA input resistors as per aquataurs notes - I couldn't hear a difference but they show on all the datasheets, like he says.

out.

[pinkjimiphoton]

too late for the party, but i DID find two pics of the original one i built on madbean's original board... dunno if it would help or hurt, but wtf, here ya go:

[duck_arse]

your persistence perserverance is admirable, jimi, and thanks, but when I finally get some build pics up, you'll see how far apart our two builds izz. but - wot's that trimmer do?

[pinkjimiphoton]

had to do with picking sensitivity if i remember correctly. that and the ge diodes really made the circuit quack. i believe in brian's build doc it suggested trying different value resistors there, so i said screw it and went for the trimmer. but man! so long ago!!!

[duck_arse]

progress? we have a photo showing, left to right, the other board [rectifier w/ many loose wires waiting], the new board [LM3080's] and the old board [LM13700] - with just a hint of fur visible.


pardon the flare - flash cameras, what can you do? testing the new tomorrow.

[moid]

You can temper (or diffuse if you prefer) the glare from a flash that's mounted on the camera by taping a little bit of white tissue paper over the flash itself - you'll have to experiment with how many layers you need (depends on paper thickness/quality) but that will diffuse the flash - it will still add illumination, but won't be so focused and intense as it beams off those gleaming pots.

Tracing paper is also really good for this, again depending on it's thickness... I wonder if that even exists anymore? I haven't seen any since I was a student. A type of paper called layout paper in the UK is fine too - that's still available in art shops for graphics students to buy, although I doubt many use it these days.

[bluebunny]

^ Yeah, this.  I've used a handkerchief to good effect in the past.

[duck_arse]

thanks moid, I have used the tissues in the past, not sure what resulted. next time, maybe. and my old man allays had tracing paper about, so I'm old enuff to know what it is/was. used to slice my fingers open on it, too.

[blackieNYC]

As mentioned above by Jimi, which would be the diodes to change to Ge? 3,4,5&6?  I'm stuffing a madbean board right now.

[duck_arse]

the only diode I changed was one of D1 or D2, in the input clipper stage. made no difference I could hear, there is so little distortion comes from that stage. which version are you building, and have you checked aquataur's page? most importantly - have you breadboarded it, and flogged the input with a distortion of some sort?

[blackieNYC]

Aquataur's write up is amazing! But there is no mention of the diodes.   
I'm actually skipping the breadboard as I'm stuffing a madbean pcb for this project. I think i'll finish the build as stock and double back to the mods after I've heard the thing.

[duck_arse]

............... skipping the breadboard .................

you going with 13700 or 3080?

[blackieNYC]

13600 - hoping that works well.