uglyface LDR question

[runmikeyrun]

How important is it to use any certain LDR/vactrol in the uglyface?  I home-made one out of an led, ldr, and some shrink tubing.  I can't get my uglyface to oscillate for anything, and i'm thinking this might be the problem...  any thoughts?

Mike

[petemoore]

I I I IIRC....that's one you should be able to see the LED go on and off, depednting on the settings, with it powered and varied input voltage [deadened string to hard attack n ring]. If the LED's brighness doesn't change, I would try looking in that area for a fault.

[snorky]

I gotta make one of these - can anyone recommend an LDR they've used that worked well?  I wouldn't mind just ordering a Vactrol - I see smallbear carries a number of them.

TIA!

- Mark

Ah! Just found this in another post (quoting Tim Escobedo):

Yes, get'em from Smallbear. VTL5C3, VTL5C2 work fine.

If you can find suitable LDRs that measure in the Megaohm range in the dark to less than 4k in light, it's possible to make your own, using the LDR, a ultrabright LED and some lightproof tubing, such as heat shrink stuff.

[petemoore]

I get all kinds of wierd sounds and Fuzz Tones from the U.F.
 I used a Philcap Photocell. There were four per package, the others I've been measureing from that batch are not that great of a R sweep, I think the best one I had is like 200k-1.5M+...I can't tell you values of what's in it.
 People Do have trubbles with this component, according to posts though...I must have gotten lucky!!

[Tim Escobedo]

If the circuit isn't oscillating under any setting, the LDR probably isn't the problem. With pin 4 of the 7555 above about 2V, it should oscillate regardless of a LDR even being used in the circuit. Perhaps something else is wired incorrectly.