New vero layout: the A/DA Flanger

[cathexis]

Hi,
There's a new veroboard layout in my gallery: the A/DA Flanger, with Moosapotamus' MN3007 retrofit. See schematic and info at http://moosapotamus.net.
This is a great flanger, and most certainly the bar none nr1 most awesome pedal I've ever built! The SAD1024 chips seem all but impossible to find these days, so many thanks to Charlie who made this possible!

It's a complicated build, to say the least. I was real careful while making the board and populating it, quintuple-checking everything, and mine worked right away. It's also a gigantic board. There's a PCB around that you could buy instead of going the vero way, and I hope and suspect that you will. This post is mostly a show-off thing, really.

I've learned more building this pedal than ever before, especially during the calibration procedure. A scope and a frequency counter sure made things easier, but I can see how you could do it by ear as well, just takes more work. I got mine to sweep the specified range of 35kHz-1.3MHz. I tried subbing 074:s for the 3403:s, and it worked OK, but I got a noticeable loss of volume when the pedal was engaged. This can be helped by lowering the value of R41 and R42 to 33K. In the end I put in a pair of 3403:s. The 074:s seemed a bit cleaner, maybe. I tried a 2N5457 for Q1, then a J201, both worked fine.

I couldn't find a clean 18VDC supply, and dual batteries seemed to run out fast, so I added a diode bridge and a couple of filtering caps to my board, and used an 18VAC supply instead, which worked fine, see this earlier post:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=73467.0

There are several sound clips in my gallery, showing off the A/DA:s muscles. You can hear a slight chirp in some of them as the clock goes low, I've fixed that since. This flanger is by far the quietest one I've ever played.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed Charlie will make a similar retrofit for the Electric Mistress!

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/cathexis/


LARS

[shadowmaster]

This is bad ass!

Thanks for sharing!

[StephenGiles]

I have a bad headache this morning  - could you please give a direct link to your vero layout so I can inspect your "work of art"!!

[cathexis]

I have a bad headache this morning  - could you please give a direct link to your vero layout so I can inspect your "work of art"!!

Cup of coffee and a Tylenol would be better - this "work of art" might aggravate the problem!
Working on this project, I learned a lot from your postings of vero adventures with the same circuit, Stephen. Thanks!
Here's the link:
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/cathexis/Veroboard+Layouts/ADA+Flanger/

LARS

[John Lyons]

Insane! 
Hat's off to you for veroing this bad boy.

john

[frank_p]

Completely crazy...

[moosapotamus]

Awesome!
Excellent work, lars! Great sounding clips, too. Dig the drum track. Do you mind if I link to them from my web page?
Also curious, how did you decide where to set the trim pot on the 3007? By ear? Before or after setting the sweep range? Or...?

Thanks
~ Charlie

[cathexis]

Great sounding clips, too. Dig the drum track. Do you mind if I link to them from my web page?
Also curious, how did you decide where to set the trim pot on the 3007? By ear? Before or after setting the sweep range? Or...?

Charlie!
Link away, I'd be proud! I really haven't decided on how to set that trimpot. I was looking at the output of the trim on the scope, and tried to find the most symmetrical-looking output, but I'd like to poke around some more. There are a few different suggestions in the two versions of the bench test procedures and in that 40 page TZF thread here, and I haven't tried them all. It sounds good about 30% of the travel around the midpoint on mine, though.  Again, thank you for doing the 3007 retrofit - I had so much fun with this! How about the Electric Mistress? Would that be possible?
LARS

[moosapotamus]

Cool, lars. But oldschoolanalog is really the one to thank for the 3007 retrofit. He did all the hard work and testing. I just confirmed his work and modified the PCB layout accordingly.

I just took a quick glance at the EM. Compared to the ADA there are a few differences in the way the BBD interfaces with the clock circuit, but they seem pretty minor. I don't see why oldschoolanalog's 3007 retrofit wouldn't work in that circuit, too. And then maybe markusw's TZF mod for the EM could be done with a 3007, too.

Thanks
~ Charlie

[oldschoolanalog]

I don't see why oldschoolanalog's 3007 retrofit wouldn't work in that circuit, too.

Should work. However, this will have to be somebody elses baby. I don't have a EM/DEM to test this on.

[StephenGiles]

Excellent, it sounds just as it should. The vero layout is indeed a work of art and deserves to be framed and hung somewhere prominent!

[Processaurus]

"Not exactly a lightweight, dude."  Great contribution!

If people building it know photoshop or a similar program, it's easy to make a PCB silkscreen-like sticker to put on the veroboard from the layout.

[oldschoolanalog]

The vero layout is indeed a work of art and deserves to be framed and hung somewhere prominent!

+1 on that! 
BTW, the size of the layout can be reduced greatly by perfing it; as opposed to vero .
Dave

[cathexis]

I don't see why oldschoolanalog's 3007 retrofit wouldn't work in that circuit, too.

Should work.

If you guys say so, I'd be willing to give it a try - I'll start comparing schematics. Guess I got the flanger bug...
Thanks to everybody for the kind feedback!
LARS

[Auke Haarsma]

Incredible! Great sounding effect.

Also, thanks for the samples. Really liked listening to them!

[cathexis]

I haven't nagged about anything before, I think. I don't plan on doing it much in the future. I'll bump this post once, though, in case someone missed it. This pedal parks some serious footwear in that proverbial posterior. I am infatuated. Weeks have passed now, and I still spend a friday night with this pedal and a glass of wine. If I had a rug and a log fire, things would be perfect.

Consider this one for your collection. Believe the hype.



LARS

[oldschoolanalog]

Yes. Believe the hype .
BTW; if you think one sounds good. Try 2 in parallel into separate amps.
Be afraid. Be very afraid .

Dave

[quarara]

I believed the hype so much that I dared to post here for the first time after a couple of months lurking. Unfortunately I can't built it the near future, but my heart bumps everytime I think about this flanger... *sighs*

[mdh]

I'm counting the days until I get my PCB from Charlie.  Oh, and Dave, it's not like you haven't done enough for us lately, but did you ever compile your BBD retrofit information for public consumption?  I have an old DOD flanger with a bad SAD512D (at least I think it's bad), and would like to try my hand at reviving it with a BBD I can actually get my hands on.

[oldschoolanalog]

...but did you ever compile your BBD retrofit information for public consumption?

I'm working on it. Sorry it's taking so long . Family life and all that. Also, I want to test each retrofit before posting anything.
I don't want to post anything that's not verified working. First up is the MXR 117 flanger (I have a bunch of them ). Then I guess I'll build an EM (I don't own one. Yet.) and work on that. That seems to be the object of most folks interest.

I have an old DOD flanger with a bad SAD512D (at least I think it's bad), and would like to try my hand at reviving it with a BBD I can actually get my hands on.

IIRC, there is a bunch of info somewhere here (use "search") on replacing the SAD512D with an R5106.
OK. Found some good info...
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=30056.0
And... (check out reply #10)
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=41281.0
Check this out before doing anything.
Hope some of this helps.

Dave