Pictures!

[~arph]

Really nice Chris!

Finally I can contribute something too:



This is an echo unit with four pt2399's in series. I was after getting the sound of the binson echorec. Turned out really nice.
Just as with the binson each 'head' is selectable for playback and feedback, but then I took it further. The delay time of each head can be set, plus there is a modulation circuit for those nice chorus effects. The mode switch switches between the well known boss and tails mode.


Will post guts (needs a bit more tidying up) and demo video as soon as I get to recording it.

[Bad Chizzle]

@~arph

That thing is so beautiful!

I..... I just don't know what else to say.

[~arph]

Thanks!

I tried to capture the vintage look..

Here is another shot



The front panel looks a bit rotated in this picture, but that is far less obvious in real life.

[Taylor]

Amazing! Where did you get that front panel made (or did you make it yourself)?

[~arph]

http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/

It's a 1.5 mm. black anodized aluminium panel. engraved, with no fill in color.
It's a bit pricy (40,- for that panel incl. shipping), but well worth it. Considering the overall cost of the thing.
(it has an arduino pro mini inside too   )

Btw, the free software from that site is brilliant for designing drill templates too.

[Thomeeque]

Guts, please

[~arph]

Ok, just to give you an indication of what is in there. This was BEFORE I cleaned up the wiring. I yet have to make photo's o the current guts.
Note that in this picture, the four pots for the head delay times are not connected yet. They go to the blue trimpots at the righthand  board.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

Who says we never see anything a bit different, huh?

Absolutely genius work.

[~arph]

Here is a vid of me noodling a bit when it was still spread out over the desk. This vid doesn't do it justice though, it was just a test to see what the quality of sound was on my phone..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26lLAmFi5t0

[Galego]

Here is a vid of me noodling a bit when it was still spread out over the desk. This vid doesn't do it justice though, it was just a test to see what the quality of sound was on my phone..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26lLAmFi5t0

Looks and sounds great. Not just as a Delay but also as a Reverb, nice shimmer effect at the end of the video.

[~arph]

Thanks,

Yes it does slapback, massive reverb (a bit different as you can still hear patterns) and everything in between.

[caress]

^^^

That's awesomeness right there. Inspirational work Chris.  

great design!  i've been thinking about that idea for a while now, just haven't gotten it together... are you using a crimping tool for the header pins/wires?

[Galego]

Thanks,

Yes it does slapback, massive reverb (a bit different as you can still hear patterns) and everything in between.

Even though you are using an arduino, will you be posting more info on it? Schematics?

[Bad Chizzle]

@ ~arph

So complex, it hurts my brain in a good way to look at it! After seeing this build I ordered 5 of those delay chips lastnight! Not that I think I could do anything this amazing. Just thought I might do a one or two section build and see how that goes. I've not done builds other than distortions, fuzz and boosters yet, so this is gonna really test my chops! Like learning to swim by just jumping in I think. You know, you stand and look at the water. Dip your feet in a couple three times, then jump. I've looked at the data sheet and it looked pretty simple, it's the preamp and added control stuff, such as in the Rebote that makes my head spin a little. Wish me luck! Love this build!!

[JKowalski]

Wow, that delay is just incredible! I remember back when someone first put out the idea for this project and people started crawling all over it wanting to make their own (me as well, though I never got around to it!)

This just blew away all my expectations for what the first one would look like, congrats! So, yours is configured with a uC switching system for the buttons that interfaces with some solid state switching chips to route the PT2399s?

By the way, any info on those LED covers? They look spectacular.

^^^

That's awesomeness right there. Inspirational work Chris.  

great design!  i've been thinking about that idea for a while now, just haven't gotten it together... are you using a crimping tool for the header pins/wires?

I should, but i'm not. As of now I am fiddling with small pliers for crimping. I strip the wire, put the end of the wire cover in the first "C" part of the pin, crimp that C down a little to hold the wire down so it doesnt move, then really tightly squeeze the second "C" around the stripped wire end till I feel that it's never gonna go anywhere. Then I tighten the first "C" around the wire insulation to the same end, and finally dab a little solder at the wire tip for added security.

Excellent work, Chris!
Special kudos for getting this done in such a small box. Must have take very careful PCB design.

The next step is to make your effects "Nintendo cartridge"-style 
Or have several effect PCBs in an external box and connect them to the base unit using a ribbon cable, while switching between them with a nice relay system. Ok, I'm taking it a bit too far..

I thought about the "nintendo" style a bit, but I decided to just stick with this way. One problem is the potentiometers - you need different potentiometers for every effect, so they have to be switched out as well. Designing each effect around the potentiometers is a possibility, but it would be limiting and annoying. Integrating them into the effects units PCB mount solved that problem (and also allowed me to make those face plates interchangeable) but also complicates the exchange process a little, since you need to remove the pot nuts. You'd need a way to connect the PCB to the base unit cartidge style but stably enough to have the potentiometers poke out of the effect and not be sensitive to pressure on them.

The external box idea is limited to the cartridge style for the same reason - pots. Closest I will come to that is a large box where 5-6 of these modules fit in - sort of like some of the multi-effects pedal boards that people make every now and then.

[~arph]

Even though you are using an arduino, will you be posting more info on it? Schematics?

Yes will happily answer all questions. Schematics still are a bit of a mess. Perhaps we should start a separate thread for it.

The arduino is purely there for the switching indeed. Could be done with ordinary DPDT switches too.
I use a MAX395 for switching, that's basically two serial controlled 4066's in one package ( dip 24 )
The button pads are available at www.sparkfun.com

thanks for the kind words.. just wait untill you hear it  ;. I'm getting a good friend of mine to do the demo

last but not least. the current, still messy, but improved guts:

[frequencycentral]

@ ~arph: @#$%ing incredible build my friend. That's some achievement.

[oliphaunt]

Freakin' awesome!

[luko-man]

~Arph: can i have one,

[Galego]

Yes will happily answer all questions. Schematics still are a bit of a mess. Perhaps we should start a separate thread for it.

Yes, please do

I'm now gathering all i need to do tap tempo (pic programmer and whatnot) and i want to do a couple of more complicated time based effects with it, so i'd love to get some ideas from what you did.

Keep up the good work.