tiny tremoloOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[deadastronaut]

^me too...

bread suggestions!.

1: whack a 100uf electro on the + and - on the board...i leave one on there all the time for power filtering..

2:make your breadboard 'true bypass...get a 3pdt toggle or stomp...2 jacks and led and wire it up as if it were a pedal...this will help in the long run..believe me!..(make a seperate box/ or attach it all to the board..somehow..)
great for instantly hearing the difference between effect +bypass....when experimenting.

3:join up the middle + - rows...

but seriously, i never had any ticking with the ts555cn when i put a 2.2k on the +, ... like perrow said, try a 5k-10k trim on the + pin....and drop it and see if its ok...

if i were to build this again, id use a different ic for  lfo!... ....ive used lm358n's..tl072's...etc...no ticking whatsoever...not as 'tiny' as i'd like..but not big either...and they work nice!....

[newfish]

Another two cents...

I tried to build a 555-based tremolo a year or so ago, and cured my ticking issues by using a 22uF cap from the (LDR's) LED Anode to ground.

In the end, I stood on the shoulders of giants, and used the LFO from the Phase 90 circuit - it's pretty much *any* dual Op-Amp (TL072, LM358, 4558 etc...), and is quiet as a mouse with a ball-gag.

I also had to use a small 'boost' circuit after, as there was a noticeable drop in volume with the effect engaged at extreme settings.
I ended up using a 'standard' FET Boost, with a trimpot on the output.  I simply adjusted this trimmer to an appropriate level of recovery.

Hope this is of some help.

[deadastronaut]

hi ian.  i have the image of that mouse now..


yeah it did go quiet at extreme settings...(the trem..not the mouse)..

anyway,  so did you still use the led/ldr to ground via depth method?...and if so, where did you put the buffer..?  just curious.

[newfish]

Not sure about the 'depth' thing. 
The 'depth' control I employed was to mix between the square and triangle waves produced by the oscillator - so more of a 'blend' control.
Each waveform required a resistor in-line to the 'blend' pot (100K Lin) to balance out the difference in amplitude - and to provide a low enough supply to dim the LED properly at the lowest 'volume' point.
From memory, the Square wave was something like 10K, and the Triangle wave was roughly 6K8.
I can check these values later if you need...

The guitar's signal went straight to the Anode of the LDR, LDR's Cathode went to the imput of the buffer.

Obviously, the buffer was after the trem.

It did not give a 'clean' trem effect (I imagine because of the constantly ramping impedance of the guitar's signal), but was a pleasant 'vintage' amount of grit.

Anyway, it fits in a small box, sits there, and works.  I need nothing more from a stompbox...

[deadastronaut]

cool....gotcha!...

[Brossman]

but seriously, i never had any ticking with the ts555cn when i put a 2.2k on the +, ... like perrow said, try a 5k-10k trim on the + pin....and drop it and see if its ok...

I think you missed it... I used a ts555in, not "cn"... but they can't be that different... different runs/tolerances? ...w/e, irrelevant...

Anyhow, the only ticking is hardly audible - I can live with it, I think.  As for the input resistor, I tried stuff while on BB - got nothing...

Well, I was happy (enough) with the stuff I had (subbed 22uF cap for 47uF), so I put er on perf - only a bypassed sound, but could hear the click when I touched the open lug of the Speed-pot.  As I turned the knob, the clicks matched the speed of LED, but only clean sound came through... Could I have burned out the LDR when soldering/heat-shrinking?

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Has anyone used a Vactrol for the LED/LDR combo? I have several laying around (VTL5C9, VTl5C3, VTL5C2) and could drop one of those in the circuit if the ranges are wide enough.

BTW, this is a damn good sounding effect. Can't wait to get it built up!

[Brossman]

Guitar guy: havent used one, personally.  But in theory, it should work just fine, so long as the maximum resistance is large enough (ie, 1Meg...?)

[deadastronaut]

yup!....

[ugly_guitar_guy]

So... Using this layout, what would happen if I used a 50k pot for speed and a 5k pot for depth??



I ask this because I'm getting into using alpha clear shaft pots and would love to make this pedal with light-up knobs, but they only come in 5k, 10k, 20k, 50k, and 100k.

Thanks!

I plan on getting this on the breadboard tonight...

[deadastronaut]

hi ugly :        use this layout.....with a ts55cn cmos.

other 555's may tick ok...

yep breadboard it first...

yep pots will be fine...note i used 10k and 4.7k on this version...verified and no ticking.

where do you get the illuminated pots btw?...link?..

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/chickpea/TS555TINYTREM.gif.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

[ugly_guitar_guy]

hi ugly :        use this layout.....with a ts55cn cmos.

other 555's may tick ok...

yep breadboard it first...

yep pots will be fine...note i used 10k and 4.7k on this version...verified and no ticking.

where do you get the illuminated pots btw?...link?..

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/chickpea/TS555TINYTREM.gif.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Awesome, thanks! I was trying to locate the most current version in all of these pages.

I got the pots from Mouser. They're 14mm pcb mount, part # 313-1400F-5K (for 5k of course). They only make them in 5k, 10k, 20k, 50k, and 100k, but they look damn good.

Gonna try to fit this into a 1590A, so here we go!

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Well it looks like I have a quirky little problem. I'm trying to use some leftover vactrols for this circuit, and when I plug in any of my vactrols to the LED side of the circuit the 555 shuts off. I have a VTL5C9, VTL5C1, VTL5C2, and VTL5C3 and they all do the same thing to the circuit. any idea what's going on here? Is the 555 not putting out enough power to run the speed LED and the vactol? I think the vactrols require 40ma...

And the plot thickens...

I put a blue superbright LED into the side where the LED/LDR combo would go and the circuit works fine. I put an amber LED into the same spot and the speed indicator LED turns off. Seems a bit strange, eh?

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Ok, so apparently the radioshack 555cmos that I have puts out too little mA to drive a superbright 3mm led AND a vactrol (or a superbright led and any other led for that matter). I put in a "normal" led into the enclosure rate position and made my own led/ldr combo and voila! tremolo works (with ticking of course...). I have the TS555CN on order from Mouser so we'll see how that works out for me.

The issue that I have run into now is that the "depth" knob doesn't seem to work, so I have to figure that out next....

[deadastronaut]

HI UGLY..

the other (ground end) of the ldr goes to pin 3 of the pot, then pin 2 of the pot to ground...that'll give you the depth.

yep, leds are funny arent they, i used a standard 3mm yellow with mine and it worked fine...

with the ts555cn, dont forget to tie pin 4 - 8 together...otherwise the lfo will lock....sometimes.. .. but no ticking. ,

[ugly_guitar_guy]

with the ts555cn, dont forget to tie pin 4 - 8 together...otherwise the lfo will lock....sometimes.. .. but no ticking. ,

Just got my ts555cn's in today and I wanted to double check this. tie pins 4 and 8?? Not just 4 and 5?? Just want to make sure this isn't a typo...

Thanks 

[deadastronaut]

yep!....otherwise it tends to lock up the lfo....ok.

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Sooooo... even with the TS555CN I still get ticking. My on/off LED is a superbright, so I'll swap that for a "normal" led and see if that has any effect. Also, with the TS555CN I can use my VTL5C9 vactrol but the speed indicator LED gets very dim.

Also, the speed is pretty high and I'd like to make it slower. I ended up using an 870R resistor in the R2 spot because I couldn't get it to work with a 2.2K, and my 4.7k pot is actually a 5k pot. Would a 10k pot give a slower rate??

Lastly, the depth pot is wired up correctly and still doesn't do anything when I turn it. This circuit really does act so weird for so many different people...

[deadastronaut]

weird....it should be real slo9w to fast...., try a higher c1....out of curiosity....

i used 5mm red bright for on /off...all was ok.

i used 3mm standard yellow, for speed indicator...

what value are your ldr's....the depth should be fine...

[newfish]

...or you could use something like this for an even small, neater LED/LDR arrangement.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/low-current-optocoupler-sfh618-2-2228

Ignore that it's Maplin if you will, but these things are *tiny*, and work...