Tube boost + overdrive running off a 9 volt battery

[Renegadrian]

Bill, those values are way out of standard...please read them better and report...my layout is verified and the pots are wired the right way just like you see in it...

[BarnyardBill]

@zambo
Hmm, I tried all day today to get a tube circuit to work and I think it is my wall wart that causes so much of this buzzing.   I saw that one guy made a bridge rectifier to clean up the AC noise.  I think that my next project will be to make a circuit to clean up this nasty signal.  I thought that maybe a 7812 chip would do this but I still get lots of noise.  The voltage is regulated, but the buzzing is horrible.  I plugged in a 9V battery and it was super quiet.  Anyways, this is where I am at now.  I'm getting good readings on my pins and I even was running the plates at +15V.  So, I'm going to order some parts to make a rectifier/regulator, do some research, and maybe try to put a fuzz circuit in an enclosure.  This valvecaster is actually only my second circuit and I haven't put my first circuit in an enclosure yet.  Well, I'm off to search the forums for some info on rectifiers.  If you know of a way to make a rectifier circuit with 1N4001 rectifiers, I could certainly put it to good use.  

@Renegadrian
Yes, I think you are right.  I think I may be doing something wrong.  As I said to zambo, my wall wart is really making a lot of noise.  Also, I might order some veroboard while I am ordering parts for a rectifier.  I don't know why the tube projects are giving me such a hard time.  I built a 2 transistor fuzz circuit and it works great.  Do the tube circuits suffer more than other circuits from bad wall warts?  

Bill  

Edit: I couldn't stand it, so I started over and made the standard 3 knob valvecaster.  It works!, but still lots of humming.  I am going to make a quick huminator (the beavis project). I am 99% sure that this one is correct.  However, is it common to hear popping or clipping when Volume and Gain is up to 100%?

[bassmannate]

I've got a question about using the voltage multiplier. Do you need to use a regulated supply or does the multiplier circuit clean things up for you?

[BarnyardBill]

I made a little rectifier circuit (for the original pedal of this thread) and it is now 1000000% quiet!! No 50-100Hz hum whatsoever!!

The reason why I`m posting this now is because I KNOW there are people out there who built this pedal and are struggling with bad wall warts.

Connect this simple (yet damn effective) circuit between the crappy wall wart and the pedal, and all the demons will dissapear.



Notice the voltageregulator is a 12V regulator. Heck I even used it on 9V and they both sounded wonderful!



And here is a videoclip with studio recording.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNPehH2VZQ

Just wanted to share that with yall.

tipetu,

How much noise were you getting from the bad wall wart?  My noise is so bad that I when I turn Volume and Gain up to ~100%, I hear popping and clicking.  The popping is at regular intervals, and if I change the .01uF capacitor, the clipping will get faster or slower.  I am going to attempt to make something like you made but I don't have a 2200uF cap.  Do you think the 2200uF is very important here?

Thanks,

Bill

[BarnyardBill]

hello again,

sorry for posting so many times.  I am having some issues with humming and buzzing with my valvecaster.  I even get a large amount of buzzing when I use a 9V battery.  I really like the sound of it, but I am scared that if put it in an enclosure that it will still be buzzing really bad.  When I press the bypass switch, it is a crystal clear clean signal.  But the second I turn on the valvecaster, it starts buzzing again.  I even tried a 1000uF and 2200uF capacitor as well a full-wave bridge rectifier from radioshack and it helped some, but not very much.  I read other posts where these filters and regulators have worked perfectly, so I am just trying to fix this problem.  Thanks for your patience.  I am fairly new at this, but I did make a fuzz pedal on my breadboard as well, and it didn't buzz like this one does.  Any ideas?

Thanks a lot,

Bill

[zambo]

@ Bill,ok check it out. I use 1spot walwarts and they work every time. A lot of times buzzing is a bad ground. sometimes wires that are to long will pick up buzz as well. A bread board is a great experimentors tool but they are prone to buzz as the circuite is not enclosed in a grounded, sheilded enclosure. Go get a 1spot 9volt walwart and see if it still buzzez. Make sure whatever walwart your currently using is rated for 200 milli amps or more.

[zambo]

@zambo
Hmm, I tried all day today to get a tube circuit to work and I think it is my wall wart that causes so much of this buzzing.   I saw that one guy made a bridge rectifier to clean up the AC noise.  I think that my next project will be to make a circuit to clean up this nasty signal.  I thought that maybe a 7812 chip would do this but I still get lots of noise.  The voltage is regulated, but the buzzing is horrible.  I plugged in a 9V battery and it was super quiet.  Anyways, this is where I am at now.  I'm getting good readings on my pins and I even was running the plates at +15V.  So, I'm going to order some parts to make a rectifier/regulator, do some research, and maybe try to put a fuzz circuit in an enclosure.  This valvecaster is actually only my second circuit and I haven't put my first circuit in an enclosure yet.  Well, I'm off to search the forums for some info on rectifiers.  If you know of a way to make a rectifier circuit with 1N4001 rectifiers, I could certainly put it to good use.  

@Renegadrian
Yes, I think you are right.  I think I may be doing something wrong.  As I said to zambo, my wall wart is really making a lot of noise.  Also, I might order some veroboard while I am ordering parts for a rectifier.  I don't know why the tube projects are giving me such a hard time.  I built a 2 transistor fuzz circuit and it works great.  Do the tube circuits suffer more than other circuits from bad wall warts?  

Bill  

Edit: I couldn't stand it, so I started over and made the standard 3 knob valvecaster.  It works!, but still lots of humming.  I am going to make a quick huminator (the beavis project). I am 99% sure that this one is correct.  However, is it common to hear popping or clipping when Volume and Gain is up to 100%?

Also when volume and gain are 100% up you are probably boosting your amps input beyond the point of sounding good at all. there is a point where to much boost is a bad thing and sounds awful. How does it sound with the gain at 75% and the volume at 65% or even half. Just a little boost is the magic touch sometimes. Fwiw 

[zambo]

I've got a question about using the voltage multiplier. Do you need to use a regulated supply or does the multiplier circuit clean things up for you?

I have only used a regulated supply so i dont really know the anwer..sorry. I hate to sound like the 1spot 9v adaptor salesman but i really have had excellent luck with these so i stick with them. the multiplier i copied from frequencycentral worked good and was really quiet though.

[bassmannate]

I've got a question about using the voltage multiplier. Do you need to use a regulated supply or does the multiplier circuit clean things up for you?

I have only used a regulated supply so i dont really know the anwer..sorry. I hate to sound like the 1spot 9v adaptor salesman but i really have had excellent luck with these so i stick with them. the multiplier i copied from frequencycentral worked good and was really quiet though.

Yeah, I've got a 12v 1spot. I'm just thinking of feeding the multiplier a higher voltage like from a 19.5v laptop power supply to get higher voltages.

[zambo]

all the ones i have seen will only take up to 16 regulated i think. After that they do bad things. I think .

[bassmannate]

all the ones i have seen will only take up to 16 regulated i think. After that they do bad things. I think .

Ok, so I may want to just stick with 12v into the multiplier.

[BarnyardBill]

Ok, I've got a good report for once    Here is how it happened.  I took the valvecaster off of my breadboard and decided to try out the fuzz/booster circuit from a b.y.o.c. thread.  I got it working with no buzzing. Then, I saw that I had some more room on the breadboard, so I said "heck, I might as well build the 'valvecaster' again if it'll fit.  So, the valvecaster continues to hum so loud that I could barely hear the guitar.  Then I ran the fuzz/booster into the valvecaster and after playing with the pots for a minute, the hum was gone and the tube sounded better than ever!  Both circuits running off of the same power supply with a 7812 regulator.  And, the heaters are getting 15V straight from the power supply.  It sounds GREAT.  Thanks for being patient with me and for all these great ideas.   

-Bill

 

[tipetu]

I made a little rectifier circuit (for the original pedal of this thread) and it is now 1000000% quiet!! No 50-100Hz hum whatsoever!!

The reason why I`m posting this now is because I KNOW there are people out there who built this pedal and are struggling with bad wall warts.

Connect this simple (yet damn effective) circuit between the crappy wall wart and the pedal, and all the demons will dissapear.



Notice the voltageregulator is a 12V regulator. Heck I even used it on 9V and they both sounded wonderful!



And here is a videoclip with studio recording.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNPehH2VZQ

Just wanted to share that with yall.

tipetu,

How much noise were you getting from the bad wall wart?  My noise is so bad that I when I turn Volume and Gain up to ~100%, I hear popping and clicking.  The popping is at regular intervals, and if I change the .01uF capacitor, the clipping will get faster or slower.  I am going to attempt to make something like you made but I don't have a 2200uF cap.  Do you think the 2200uF is very important here?

Thanks,

Bill

Hi, yeah, I had EXACTLY the same problems you describe! Popping and buzzing and annoying sound. I would strongly recommend you building a rectifier circuit like this! The 2200µF is not so important, as long as you have a somewhat similar polarized cap. Go for it!

[BarnyardBill]

tipetu,

Ok, thanks a lot.  I have since discovered that a fuzz circuit I have been messing with seems to clean up the valvecaster's humming as well.  It is a fairly straightforward booster circuit with 2 Si transistors.  I am new to circuits and DIY so I haven't yet figured out how it accomplishes this.  I run my cables through the fuzz circuit first and then through the valvecaster.  Next I want to try the other boost in front it that Renegadrian suggested.  His layouts have helped me a lot. 

About the full wave bridge rectifier.  I picked up one of these from radio shack.  It kinda looks like an oversized 7812 regulator except with 4 pins.  Will this work in place of the 4 RL205 diodes? 

Bill

[fabienl]

tipetu,

Ok, thanks a lot.  I have since discovered that a fuzz circuit I have been messing with seems to clean up the valvecaster's humming as well.  It is a fairly straightforward booster circuit with 2 Si transistors.  I am new to circuits and DIY so I haven't yet figured out how it accomplishes this.  I run my cables through the fuzz circuit first and then through the valvecaster.  Next I want to try the other boost in front it that Renegadrian suggested.  His layouts have helped me a lot. 

About the full wave bridge rectifier.  I picked up one of these from radio shack.  It kinda looks like an oversized 7812 regulator except with 4 pins.  Will this work in place of the 4 RL205 diodes? 

Bill

Hi,
the 4 rl205 diodes are there only to convert power from AC to DC.
7812 component is used to lower a voltage input to 12v. For instance, if you put 18v in entry of this component, you'll have around 12v.

Fabien.

[BarnyardBill]

I made a short vid of me playing through my breadboarded fuzz/valvecaster today.  You can see the hot tube.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgSLIworWSQ I will post the finished product soon (hopefully).



@fabien

But is he using the 4 diodes to possibly clean up an residual AC that gets through?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062580  <----This is the bridge rectifier I was asking about if it is equivalent to the 4 diodes.

-Bill

[tipetu]

Yes I`m using the 4 diodes to convert the AC signal to DC. You may also use the little 4 pin chip you discovered. It has the exact same function but looks a little different. Be sure to check out the data sheet for correct pin layout.

[artsinbloodshed]

Hey guys!
I must say that matsumin's schematics is somehow becoming mysterious for me...I've built it 3 times and it didn't work 3 times...
I verified my perfboard so many times that I can't even remember how many...(remember rainman)
At best, i get a very low volume nasty sound with a huge hum, and at worst, I get nothing...
What is hurtful is that I'm not even a noob in building pedals...what the ****!
Does anyone have a perfboard layout that works?!
Thanks!

[PaulBass]

  And, the heaters are getting 15V straight from the power supply. 

-Bill

 

powering the heater beyond the voltage tolerance will shorten the tube life significantly. 12.6V plus 10% is 13.8V which is the highest tolerance. If you lower it to 10 - 12 volts it will still sound great and last longer

[BarnyardBill]

At best, i get a very low volume nasty sound with a huge hum, and at worst, I get nothing...
What is hurtful is that I'm not even a noob in building pedals...what the ****!
Does anyone have a perfboard layout that works?!
Thanks!

@artinbloodshed

I think I can relate to your problem and actually I am glad you are having this problem because it means that we are both doing it correctly and getting bad results.  I also did this circuit numerous times and just yesterday I managed to get it to work nicely.

Here is what I did(by happenstance) to get it working.  I put a very loud fuzz pedal circuit(http://buildyourownclone.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11899&st=0&sk=t&sd=a) on the same breadboard that the valvecaster is on and when I run them both(linked together with cables) from the same wall wart they work great.  I can even switch the order of them and it still works.  I tried powering the fuzz circuit and the valvecaster separately and started the loud humming again.  So, as of now, it is working as long as both circuits are getting power from the same source.  Maybe a daisy chain would work also, but I don't have one to try it.  Also, both circuits have a 3PDT switch and they both will work independently or together.  I have also heard reports of other booster circuits sounding really good with the valvecaster.

I still don't know why this makes it work, but it does.  If you try this, please let me know if it works for you too.  I am glad I was able to get mine working, but I still feel like something is different about mine.      

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgSLIworWSQ

Hope this helps,

Bill