The world's simplest tremolo.

[ExpAnonColin]

1) Buy a "rainbow flashing LED" from here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=66949&item=7512176432&rd=1
(BUYER BEWARE-I just received some in the mail but they are NOT rainbow flashing, they are RGB flashing, I have emailed the seller about this, but they will work for this application)
2) Buy a photocell, such as one from smallbear
3) Create an optocoupled LDR/LED combo by either putting electrical tape around the two when they are pushed together, or as described here:
http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=139
or RG style like here:
http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=139
4) Wire the anode (LED Long lead) to a 2k2 resistor to +9v
5) Wire the cathode (LED short lead) to ground
6) Wire one lead from the photocell to ground
7) Wire input and output jacks together
Wire other lead from photocell to the input jack "tip" or "hot" conductor

You can do switching if you want.  Sorry, no speed control! It's simple, that's the point!

-Colin

P.S. This thread was posted as a joke without the intention of anyone actually doing this!

[80k]

haha so , the trem pulses once ever 2 seconds?  how do those LED's work... anyway to easily make the LED change colors faster or slower?

also does this give a square wave, and how choppy does it get?

[ExpAnonColin]

haha so , the trem pulses once ever 2 seconds?  how do those LED's work... anyway to easily make the LED change colors faster or slower?

also does this give a square wave, and how choppy does it get?

Pretty much.  The LEDs have a very very tiny circuit board with tinier SMD LEDs on it, of each color.  The only way to change the rate would be to crack open the LED and remove the .0001mm SMD resistors/caps they have in there!

It's more of a extremely assymetrically clipped triangle wave...  a trapezoidal wave if you will...

\/``````\/```````\/```````\/ etc.

-Colin

[puretube]

how do I get rid of the click?
- do I need a power supply?
- Does it suck tone?
- what`s the current draw?
- can I use a 1color blink-LED?  
- can I make a bi-tremelo by using an xmas light-chain?
- does anybody have a layout?
- is there a stripboard design?
- which LDR should I use?  
- can I use an OC71 as LDR, when I scrape off the paint?
- is it copyrighted?
- anybody modded this yet?
- which type of color gives me more vintage mojo?
- does it fit into a doubleD enclosure?
- how can I increase the speed?
- iis it pos or neg ground?
- how would I wire it for stereo?
- can`t find the schem...


:lol:

[ExpAnonColin]

how do I get rid of the click?
- do I need a power supply?
- Does it suck tone?
- what`s the current draw?
- can I use a 1color blink-LED?  
- can I make a bi-tremelo by using an xmas light-chain?
- does anybody have a layout?
- is there a stripboard design?
- which LDR should I use?  
- can I use an OC71 as LDR, when I scrape off the paint?
- is it copyrighted?
- anybody modded this yet?
- which type of color gives me more vintage mojo?
- does it fit into a doubleD enclosure?
- how can I increase the speed?
- iis it pos or neg ground?
- how would I wire it for stereo?
- can`t find the schem...


:lol:

No click at all, Yes, yes, 4mA or so, yes, maybe, no, no, doesn't matter too much, what?!, no, purple of course!, no-but it will fit into your a double D bra, you can't, negative, can't, no schem!

HA! I am the king of answering questions!

[80k]

heh, it would be kinda cool to set up like 10 of them.  And then have a momentary push button switch for each one that can "reset it" (momentary cuts power for that LED perhaps), and then when you let go of the button, it begins its 2-second cycle.  then you can have each one of them blink at intervals depending on the beat you hit those momentary buttons.  So you'd have a 2 second long rhythmic loop.

Of course 10 might be too many, so it'd be nice to have flip switches to take some of them out of the circuit completely.

[brett]

Hmm...
What about having them trigger each other?
Does anybody remember those old films about nuclear fission, showing mousetraps loaded with ping-pong balls??  If they're close enough, when just 1 goes off, it starts an avalanche of ping-pong balls, thereby demonstrating fission.
If I put one hundred together (or whatever is a critical mass), and randomly allocated the triggers among them, could I create the audio equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb?  Alternatively, if I introduced a damper (like carbon rods in Fermi's (?) nuclear pile), would it be possible to create endless re-generation of randomly triggered multiple tremelo sounds?

Has Pink Floyd already done this?

Oh my.  That was a crap idea.  I feel so ashamed now. :oops:

[puretube]

:lol:
forgot 1 Q: where can I add a depth control?

(Colin: not really neccessary to answer this   )

[Ge_Whiz]

Mr Puretube, you forgot the most important question:

Is it true bypass?

[puretube]

- can I add a loop;
- I want it envelope-modulated;
- can I plug in an external expr.-pedal?....

[Rodgre]

$8 shipping?

What, are they having it sent by bicycle courier right to my door?

Roger

[ErikMiller]

-can you add a DC jack?

[birt]

use a "christmas tree PCB" project and put ldr's on alle the leds.
then add a speed control and a footswitch :lol:

[puretube]

any SoundClips


( :lol: )

[The Tone God]

Thats "The world's simplest tremolo" ? How about the volume knob on your guitar ?

I entered the part number into the NTE cross reference search engine and got NTE123a. Can I substitute with this part ?

Andrew

[Transmogrifox]

You could probably substitute any flashing LED.

Furthermore, you could insert this into the Phuncnosis for an auto-wah.

You would have a certain tremolo effect just by biasing the thing up and injecting the guitar signal directly onto the LED, so the LED becomes your VR (since we're talking simplicity here).  I think it could be done with 2 resistors, 2 capacitors, 1 blinking LED and 1 battery.  It may sound like crap, but it would probably work.

[mojotron]

Thats "The world's simplest tremolo" ? How about the volume knob on your guitar ?...

On a strat... That's what I used for decades...  

But, I am fond of building trems, I use them all the time... but I still find that the volume knob is more musical, especially if you have to get just the right feedback sustained first... I'm just not that good with my feet to be able to turn the trem on then adjust the depth and rate at the same time... all at just the right time..

[Threefish]

Recently I managed to miswire a couple of leds, one a red flashing one and a second non-flashing, supposed to indicate which of two different circuits running in the one enclosure, and I got the (normally) non-flashing one to somehow flash alternately to the flashing one. In my impatience to get the circuit working to my satisfaction, I didn't sketch it out for later reference, and now I think it could be useful, like in this application for instance.
The flashing leds blink at a rate faster than the RGB flashers, so you could get a faster tremlo rate, though still a fixed rate.
I haven't had the parts on hand to try and replicate it, but I think it was something like the flasher wired correctly (+ve to +9v, -ve to Gnd), and +ve of the non-flasher was soldered to the -ve of the flasher and the -ve either to +9v or Gnd. It was something really silly, that's all I remember.
Has anyone else had this? Maybe someone wants to pursue it further.

[squidsquad]

Uhhh...could ya put flashing ones in place of diodes in a distortion circuit???

[Threefish]

Hey yeah. Now that's a great idea.
(....though who knows how or if it'll actually work...) BUT HELL IT'S A GREAT IDEA!
If you were able to add to it my experience with the alternately flashing leds (if we can replicate it again) you could get a...erm...pulsating clipping? Is that what you're thinking Squidsquad?

I think this is worth pursuing. For our own entertainment if nothing else.

Anyone else?