EchoWreck: A PT2399-Based Binson Workalike

[Ripthorn]

Since lockdown had me working from home all spring/summer, I spent about 6 months working on this project. It uses four PT2399 chips in parallel, synchronizes delay time using the four PWM outputs of an ATTiny841, has tap tempo, and the usual suspects of individual toggles for playback and feedback for each of the four "heads". The swell control simply turns on all delay stages for playback, and the drift control changes the ratio of the delay times for the repeats (I should change the default to something a little more subtle, but I'm too lazy right now ).

If you want to build one, I have full build documentation including how it works, schematics, board layouts, code, etc. at my webpage for it: https://scientificguitarist.wixsite.com/home/echowreck. This is for personal, non-commercial use only, as I spent vast amounts of time and effort on it. I hope you enjoy it! Now go get your Pink Floyd on!

[snk]

Very interesting, thank you for sharing!

[frequencycentral]

Looks and sounds awesome Brian. Gutshots please.

[Ripthorn]

Looks and sounds awesome Brian. Gutshots please.

Thanks, Rick! I'll get some gut shots after I get home this evening. It's a very tight squeeze in this Gorva S90 enclosure, but just big enough is big enough

[deadastronaut]

cool....

[Invertiguy]

Holy crap, that thing is awesome!

[Ripthorn]

Alright,  Rick, here a gut shot.  A two board stack that barely fits into a Gorva s90.

[Radical CJ]

I really like those sounds... and 10 switches! But a little advanced for my current DIY skills     

[Ripthorn]

I really like those sounds... and 10 switches! But a little advanced for my current DIY skills 

Don't worry, you'll get there eventually. I've been doing this a good while and didn't get to this stage easily.

[Radical CJ]

Don't worry, you'll get there eventually. I've been doing this a good while and didn't get to this stage easily.

Surface Mount is a barrier for my simple setup, and I'd think pretty necessary for putting circuits this size into a stomp enclosure.... However, my real fear is the PT2399s...

At the start of this year I started making stompboxes as a practical way of learning about electronics, as well as about music equipment and the history of different sounds. I now have a draw full of clones, modified clones, experiments combining different parts of different circuits, and a couple of simple original designs including a transistor fuzz and square-wave tremolo that work (although, I admit are not the greatest examples of their respective types).

In every project I was able to troubleshoot all issues, and more importantly, to learn something in the process... except for what was meant to be a simple single PT2399 delay which just won't work no matter what I try! It produces echoes which loop endlessly until it quickly becomes an un-listenable noise crescendo. It is so frustrating.

However, you are clearly aufait with PT2399s. Four in this design, and four in the T60 Reverberator on your site as well!

[Ripthorn]

I learned a bunch about PT2399 circuits at the electro smash page on them. Probably the single best place to learn about them.

As for SMD, I hand solder all my surface mount projects. A pair of tweezers and a fine soldering tip and away you go. Then again, it's been probably 20 years since I first put together an Electra, with gobs of projects between then and now. If you stick with it, you can achieve amazing things. This community has been vital to me in that front.