Ludwig Phase II Clone Tech Notes

[R.G.]

Don't get me wrong - I say that just because I personally have a conflict of interest. I work for an effects company, and when the workday is done, I mess with effects for fun. But selling clones is something that I don't think I can ethically do. It's not because of any issues with cloning, or karma. It's purely my internal limits on what I believe I should do. I don't know of any ethical problems for you about it.

[digi2t]

I don't know of any ethical problems for you about it.

I understand completely R.G.. In my case, I'll always stop to help someone on the side of the road. I believe that someone is keeping score, somewhere. That's why some years ago, when my truck broke down on the side of the highway, in the middle of nowhere, on a February night when the mercury had dipped to -35 celcius, a woman was nice enough to pull over and give me a ride to the next rest area. 35 kilometers away.

Just a few weeks ago, I bought my Goldwing, I'm driving it through the backwoods to save time, the rear brake starts locking up on me. Ends up stopped dead on the side of a little country road. It's Saturday afternoon, around 5. So happened, 100 yards back, there was a small tractor repair shop, and so happens the shop is closed. But, the owner is outside, building a new shed. The man was nice enough to lend me the tools I needed to fix the problem (previous owner set the pedal wrong), and be on my way. Wouldn't even take the 10$ I tried to slip him.

And similar stuff has happened to me on other occasions. So me? I'm not messing with it 

I'll try and get that current reading to you tomorrow. Working night shift tonight, gotta go.

Later guys!

[pinkjimiphoton]

another phase II has turned up, with a gent named bill who'd phase II has been broken since 73. i'm hooking him up with the wiring info so he can get his back up and running.
i told him to join the forum and do a search...he'll find everything he needs to get it done.


yah...karma is good. let's keep it like that...and invoke the nature of karma to protect this project from those who may be nefarious.

[Keppy]

The only thing I can recommend is if Aron would like to sell a batch of boards, we can give him the layout, parts list, etc., and let him have at it.

+1.  If this can help the forum, that's cool, but I don't have the time/expertise to make more than a few of these. I built my first pedal at the end of February. My board for this was drilled freehand with a Dremel and then soldered with a crappy iron from Radio Shack. Frankly, it's an act of God that we only had to debug documentation errors/omissions, rather than construction flaws.

Umm...Still want me to make you boards?

i have no prob helping peeps out, that was the whole reason i had envisioned this project in the first place.

I still have no friggin' idea how I ended up involved in this. I'd barely heard of this pedal before this thread, and I did those first layouts specifically because I didn't have time to actually try and build the thing. Despite this, I now have it, and I have difficulty reconstructing in my mind how it happened.

I guess this pedal is my drunken tattoo.

[Keppy]

Here's a teaser shot i took while packing:

[pinkjimiphoton]

that's one sexy lookin' pedal bro!!!

hell yah, i still want boards!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

jeez, keppy, how much to make me a front panel, too? that looks bitchin' bro!! 

[Keppy]

jeez, keppy, how much to make me a front panel, too? that looks bitchin' bro!! 

Thanks, but I'm not offering that service to anybody. Took me a few sheets of Press 'n Peel to get that MOSTLY right, and it's still not perfect. I have a hard time defining acceptable levels of smudge on something I accept money for. I'm still proud of it, though! For my second etched enclosure ever, and for the size of it, I think I did good.

If you wanna give it a try, though, I'll send you the PDF. Just 'cause it's you.

BTW, just to be clear, it is NOT a panel. I etched the front of a 1590D.

[R.G.]

Took me a few sheets of Press 'n Peel to get that MOSTLY right, and it's still not perfect. I have a hard time defining acceptable levels of smudge on something I accept money for. I'm still proud of it, though! For my second etched enclosure ever, and for the size of it, I think I did good.

Actually, it's pretty  amazing. Nice work. If you're amenable, I'd like to get some photos of that. I did a section-by-section schemo and tech description of the thing, getting ready to post the final artwork. I think your box and assembly are a beautiful touch for inspiring others.

I think I may have mentioned, I have a favor owed me that will get a dozen plus a few board sets done commercially, double sided, silkscreened, etc. for about $20 a set final cost. I will expend that favor if someone wants to put together the group to make me not have to handle it other than getting them made. 

I hate herding cats. 

[Keppy]

Took me a few sheets of Press 'n Peel to get that MOSTLY right, and it's still not perfect. I have a hard time defining acceptable levels of smudge on something I accept money for. I'm still proud of it, though! For my second etched enclosure ever, and for the size of it, I think I did good.

Actually, it's pretty  amazing. Nice work. If you're amenable, I'd like to get some photos of that. I did a section-by-section schemo and tech description of the thing, getting ready to post the final artwork. I think your box and assembly are a beautiful touch for inspiring others.

Thanks, R.G.! I really appreciate that. I'm gonna post closeups, gutshots, etc. once I'm unpacked. Right now I'm at a hotel and the pedal is buried in a Uhaul trailer. I'm planning a video too, once I get it dialed in. I postponed that process, since I thought I'd be a good guinea pig for any trimmer setting procedure that gets posted in the next few days (hint, hint guys )

I think I may have mentioned, I have a favor owed me that will get a dozen plus a few board sets done commercially, double sided, silkscreened, etc. for about $20 a set final cost. I will expend that favor if someone wants to put together the group to make me not have to handle it other than getting them made. 

I like this idea. Less stress for me, better quality for Jimi et al. Plus, then I can finally build my wife's birthday present (5 weeks late and counting... ).

[R.G.]

I posted the first cut at the tech analysis of the Ludwig at geofex. It needs more verbiage but that's how it works.

I'll post the PCB pattern soon as I get it cleaned up.

[pinkjimiphoton]

guys, i cannot wait to get my hands into this thing and build one. 

keppy, i would be forever in your debt for the chance to get the faceplate done like yours did...especially since it says kep on it, and you're the guy that bit the bullet hard and made it happen.

rg...let me know about those plates please!!

don't know anything about press-n-peel....can someone hip me?

gonna belong the long arduos task of archiving the 40 pages of stuff for this project or so, and hopefully eventually condensing the actual electronic information.
i wanna make sure ALL this info is together in one place for the future of the DIY community.


thanks you guys for making my dreams come true. i am blessed to have buds like you. 

off to see what rg's got up at geo...talk soon!

[pinkjimiphoton]

just looked at it...well done, rg. the only thing i differ with, is it seems to me the formant trajectory switches are interactive..or maybe i did too much of the stuff them guys at ludwig should have laid off? if i get a chance, i'll try and post a sound clip, but to  me they definitely seem to affect each other!

[R.G.]

rg...let me know about those plates please!!

Plates?? In Manuel's voice from Fawlty Towers... Que??

just looked at it...well done, rg. the only thing i differ with, is it seems to me the formant trajectory switches are interactive..or maybe i did too much of the stuff them guys at ludwig should have laid off? if i get a chance, i'll try and post a sound clip, but to  me they definitely seem to affect each other!

Everything I know about them is from the schematic and the verbal addenda that I was given. This raises my innate worry about GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

I took the text descriptions and sketches of the switches and drew up the formant switches, then made a schemo from that, trying to make sense of the way the switches worked. It is entirely possible that I missed something along the way. I was very gratified when I got done drawing the schemos (this is back some years ago, remember) that the "parallel" setting in the drawings had both filters driven from the same control voltage, and the "counter" setting had them running from opposite-directions control voltages. I took on faith that the "vowel" setting worked because it came from a section of the circuit that seemed to produce something unique, and that also seemed to match my ideas about formant 1 moving up, then down in frequency as F2 rose. That is - it seemed reasonable at the time.

A solid session of ohming out the formant switches to verify/not what I did might fix that. I hate to keep asking you and digi2t to dig the captive units open, especially since the console plate is so hard to get into.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i don't think either of us minds, rg...

one big thing i wanna ask tho, is will it be possible to get the BOM /circuit board layouts etc into one cohesive file?
be nice to be able to just order everything up from mouser in one shot.

speaking of which...man...i made a big order from them last nite, what a pain in the tuckus... took me over 2 hours to order 66 things last nite!!

there's gotta be a better way...next time, i think i'll just call 'em. probably faster.

but yah, part values and mouser stock numbers would be a godsend for us newbes...i get the vibe that it's gonna be hard to populate the board already, let alone if someone
gets the wrong size and type of parts.

like i am sure i did last nite.  so many choices...lol...i got all metal 1% resistors, film caps wherever possible, etc...now wondering if i shoulda just got cheap ceramic caps and carbon comp resistors. lol

but back to the original post, i believe the formant switches are interactive...so i will try and play with it a little today to see what's what.


what i meant by plates were the circuit boards you spoke of having made, RG...

i wanna build at least two of these puppies just for me.

and i am willing to be the solder hand for other peeps if they're nervous about it, but i think the deal is gonna be buy one set of all components for you, and one set of all for me...

that way i can have a couple kicking around for friends, maybe turn over a clone or two, "handmade" to make ends meet when times are rough.

i dunno...brain death. if i DO sell any tho, i think it would only be fit to cut in aaron for a piece, and ask that anyone else who does that do the same.

thanks to all.

[digi2t]

Here's a teaser shot i took while packing:

Awwww Kep!!! THAT, is just down right sexy  . I love it. If I may take a cue from your unit, I might call mine the "Phase 2, too", or the "Phase Too Too"  

R.G., measured across R22, I mean the jumper where R22 might have been , on my DMM I'm getting 40.5mA. That's with the animation, and fuzz on.

Kep, as for the trimmers, there's probably going to be a bit of a range where these things will operate in. I haven't recieved the other unit yet, so I don't have a side-by-side comparision. I've decided to give you voltages instead of resistances, since the numbers are not always steady (caps nearby?). Here are the settings I've recorded, using the test points indicated in the original diagram, plus I've added a test point (TP10) for R20 (console), which is between the trimmer leg, and R19.

ENSURE THAT THE ANIMATION IS OFF, ALL FORMANTS OFF, THE FUZZ FOOTSWITCH IS ON, AND THE UNIT IS NOT IN BYPASS.
TP1
FUZZ/VOICE MODE = 1.285VDC (FUZZ MAX.), 116.0mVDC (FUZZ MIN.)
FUZZ MODE = 200mVDC (FUZZ MAX.), 0.775VDC (FUZZ MIN.) - IT RISES TO 1.285VDC ABOUT 1/3 OF THE WAY UP, AND THEN DROPS AGAIN.

TP2
TREADLE RANGE ADJUSTMENT
ADJUST R31 TO 4.08VDC (TOE DOWN), 13.86 VDC (HEEL DOWN)
SURPASSING THE VOLTAGES, EITHER HI OR LO, SHOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM AS LONG AS YOU COVER THIS RANGE. A LOWER "TOE DOWN" VOLTAGE WILL YIELD A HIGHER, THINNER SOUND, BUT RAISE THE LOW END (HEEL DOWN) AS WELL.

TP3
ADJUST R29 TO 3.914VDC

TP4
ADJUST R77 TO 6.36VDC

TP5
ADJUST R55 TO 3.15VDC

TP6
ADJUST R41 TO 3.90VDC

TP7
ADJUST R62 3.905VDC

TP8 = 9.72VDC

TP9 = 18.18 VDC

TP10 (BETWEEN LEG OF R20, AND RESISTOR R19 OF CONSOLE BOARD)
ADJUST R20 TO 115.5mVDC (OR, WITH POWER OFF, 1.527K OHMS TO GROUND)

**R4, AND R65**

R4
SET TO CENTER OF TRAVEL. THIS IS THE HI/LO RATE RANGE ADJUSTMENT. ADJUST TO TASTE, BUT IT MOVE THE RANGE OF THE RATE SLIDER AS A WHOLE.

R65  = TEST WITH POWER OFF - CONNECT ONE LEAD OF DMM TO LEG OF TRIMMER OPPOSITE LEG CONNECTING TO C28, AND OTHER LEAD TO CONNECTION POINT 6 (OR "B" OF OFF-BOARD AMPLIFIER TRANSISTOR). SET RESISTANCE TO 5.5K OHMS.
**THIS SEEMS TO ADJUST THE "BEEFINESS" OF THE OFFBOARD AMPLIFIER. AT MINIMUM (COUNTER-CLOCKWISE) THE SOUND IS KIND OF THIN, BUT AS YOU DIAL IT UP, THE TONE GET THICKER UNTIL THE UNIT BEGINS TO OSCILLATE. I RECOMMEND ADJUSTING THIS BY FLIPPING THROUGH EACH FORMANT, AND ROCKING THE TREADLE THROUGH THE RANGE. IF IT IS SET TOO HIGH, IT WILL OSCILLATE IN THE LOWER RANGES (HEEL DOWN). I HAVE MINE DIALED BACK JUST ENOUGH SO IT DOESN'T OSCILLATE IN ANY FORMANT MODE, OR TREADLE RANGE. IT ORIGINALLY CAME TURNED RIGHT DOWN (LIKE JIMI'S), BUT I DIALED MINE UP A BIT TO FILL OUT THE SOUND.

Once I get the other unit, I'll do a side-by-side comparison, and post the results.

hell yah, i still want boards!!

I'll second THAT emotion!

[pinkjimiphoton]

i have compiled all the info from this project into one file now, soon, i hope to add the remaining bits and pieces. then i'll upload it in one massive zip file for posterity, and make a section of my dot com devoted to our work here. hopefully, that way, all this info will remain available to all for years to come.



i actually printed out each of the two threads as text version pdf's, and each individual page, as well.

thanks guys...ya'll are the best!!!  

[R.G.]

I put the current version of the PCB up at geofex. Give a look and see what I missed, misspelled, drew wrong, left out, and so on.

I'll fold the trimmer setup in later.

[pinkjimiphoton]

awesome...getting it right now. thanks rg 

[Keppy]

Jimi, you should discuss the formant switches with Dino. His description of how they work matches what we have.