Circuits that shouldn't have worked but did.

[CodeMonk]

I had an odd thought the other day.
To build some kind of dirt pedal (Fuzz or high gain distortion).
But for sh*ts and grins, incorporate something different (for me anyway) like a 555 chip.
Or just something that has not usually (If ever ) been used in a particular type of circuit.
Some kind of circuit that almost defies logic basically.


So you all done anything like that?


Edit:
And if you have seen something like a fuzz that has a 555 in it, I don't wanna know about it. That would be cheating.

[Gurner]

But for sh*ts and grins, incorporate something different (for me anyway) like a 555 chip.
So you all done anything like that?

Edit:
And if you have seen something like a fuzz that has a 555 in it, I don't wanna know about it. That would be cheating.

You sound a little mixed up ...do you want to know if anyone has done anything like that or do you not want to know?  

[deadastronaut]

 

[LucifersTrip]

he'd like to know if anyone has used any very odd components in a fuzz/distortion that is normally not used....but does not want to know about a 555 used in one specifically...since he's considering doing it

[jafo]

Defies logic? The obvious would be using a logic inverter (is that emotion, perhaps, or maybe whimsy?) as an audio amplifier.

[Gurner]

he'd like to know if anyone has used any very odd components in a fuzz/distortion that is normally not used....but does not want to know about a 555 used in one specifically...since he's considering doing it

I was just having a bit of fun, I guess that rules out me telling him about my patent applied for 'superweird-555fuzzcrazyness' circuit then   (which is fine if you like distorted ring modulator music bt pretty discordant otherwise)

[DavenPaget]

he'd like to know if anyone has used any very odd components in a fuzz/distortion that is normally not used....but does not want to know about a 555 used in one specifically...since he's considering doing it

I was just having a bit of fun, I guess that rules out me telling him about my patent applied for 'superweird-555fuzzcrazyness' circuit then   (which is fine if you like distorted ring modulator music bt pretty discordant otherwise)

Pretty much haven't been tried but i've seen FM-modulated fuzz pedals on beavis .
555 hmm , just configure it as a oscillator and mix the input .
Or use a astable vibrator 

[Mark Hammer]

When I was about 16 or 17, I started running the cartridge of my "record player" to the mic input of a tape deck I had, and from there to my guitar amp (it was a pretty tiny and tinny amp/speaker on the record player).  One day my dad comes into my room, as I'm holding the cable from the tape deck.  I ask him to hand me the cable from the record player and hold out my free hand.  He mixes things up and grabs the cable from the record player with one hand, but puts his unoccupied hand in my free hand.  In other words, there are two bodies between the wires that are to be connected.  AND THE SOUND PRODUCED WAS LOUDER THAN I HAD EVER MANAGED TO GET FROM THE DIRECTLY CONNECTED SYSTEM.  My sister comes in the room.  Just for the hell of it, I get her to hold my hand and my father's hand.  It gets louder still.

I can't explain it.  It happened.

Does that fit your criteria of a circuit that should NOT have worked...but did?

[blooze_man]

That made me say "whoa"

[Mark Hammer]

You'n me both, brother, you'n me both.

[nexekho]

And if you have seen something like a fuzz that has a 555 in it, I don't wanna know about it. That would be cheating.

Haha, this inspired me to look into it and I've been playing around with building a 555 square wave thing.  It's quite a nice design for such a thing - the two comparators and flip flop can be used to make a very rough lo-fi square wave tracker and the discharge pin can be used to enable a second high/low pass filter network on the trough of the wave.  Could also make a strobe tuner using a 4017, 556 and the discharge pin turning the LEDs off.

[crane]

Defies logic? The obvious would be using a logic inverter (is that emotion, perhaps, or maybe whimsy?) as an audio amplifier.

In the 80ies it was hard to get electronic components here in Latvia (this was a part of USSR back than). One of my university professors told that they actually hat to use a logic element as an opamp

[Paul Marossy]

When I was about 16 or 17, I started running the cartridge of my "record player" to the mic input of a tape deck I had, and from there to my guitar amp (it was a pretty tiny and tinny amp/speaker on the record player).  One day my dad comes into my room, as I'm holding the cable from the tape deck.  I ask him to hand me the cable from the record player and hold out my free hand.  He mixes things up and grabs the cable from the record player with one hand, but puts his unoccupied hand in my free hand.  In other words, there are two bodies between the wires that are to be connected.  AND THE SOUND PRODUCED WAS LOUDER THAN I HAD EVER MANAGED TO GET FROM THE DIRECTLY CONNECTED SYSTEM.  My sister comes in the room.  Just for the hell of it, I get her to hold my hand and my father's hand.  It gets louder still.

I can't explain it.  It happened.

That's weird! 

[DavenPaget]

Defies logic? The obvious would be using a logic inverter (is that emotion, perhaps, or maybe whimsy?) as an audio amplifier.

In the 80ies it was hard to get electronic components here in Latvia (this was a part of USSR back than). One of my university professors told that they actually hat to use a logic element as an opamp

Pretty much like the CMOS Hex Inverter-based pedals ! 

[PRR]

> they actually had to use a logic element as an opamp

ALL "logic" is linear amplifiers, but driven with LARGE signals.

Look at an old-old logic function, an RTL "NOT" function:



You find a similar scheme in MANY audio amplifiers. Instead of driving the input with Zero and +3V, you "bias" the input about half-way and add blocking caps in and out.

BTW: RTL was good enough to guide men to the moon. Identical "logic" was used from steel-mills to railroads from San Diego to Vladivostok.

Multi-input "logic gates", you ignore/disable the excess inputs.

CMOS is real handy because the input impedance is infinite, little loading (however the bias system adds loading).

TTL's input and output devices are awkward for linear amplifiers. It bleeds for speed, is hard to hold steady.

OTOH, you can use "audio amplifier" as "logic". Take out the caps, put in large signals.

[CodeMonk]

When I was about 16 or 17, I started running the cartridge of my "record player" to the mic input of a tape deck I had, and from there to my guitar amp (it was a pretty tiny and tinny amp/speaker on the record player).  One day my dad comes into my room, as I'm holding the cable from the tape deck.  I ask him to hand me the cable from the record player and hold out my free hand.  He mixes things up and grabs the cable from the record player with one hand, but puts his unoccupied hand in my free hand.  In other words, there are two bodies between the wires that are to be connected.  AND THE SOUND PRODUCED WAS LOUDER THAN I HAD EVER MANAGED TO GET FROM THE DIRECTLY CONNECTED SYSTEM.  My sister comes in the room.  Just for the hell of it, I get her to hold my hand and my father's hand.  It gets louder still.

I can't explain it.  It happened.

Does that fit your criteria of a circuit that should NOT have worked...but did?

Thats EXACTLY what I was asked/looking for.
I wasn't looking for any answers or build info or any educational info.
Just stories of your past experience in building stuff.
Doesn't even have to be about pedals or electronics. Although that is what I would prefer reading about.

And yeah, still thinking about a fuzz with a 555 in it (was just one of the first odd thoughts that popped into my head).
Or hell, anything else I may having lying around.

The original post was made purely for a curiosity and only entertainment purposes.

he'd like to know if anyone has used any very odd components in a fuzz/distortion that is normally not used....but does not want to know about a 555 used in one specifically...since he's considering doing it

That's my idea/plan, more or less.
The specific parts used aren't really part of my query. Its just a general question.
As for my particular plan, I want to go in more or less blind and without any expectations on how I want it to sound, parts I use, or what it will do and just get it to make noise.

[allesz]

Since I build an atari punk console I always found the 555 a fashinating chip for the noise maker.
I remember that earthtones audio posted a schem of a 555 fuzz some time ago, but I did not try it. He recently came back to the project and reported that it was not working .
I made, some time ago, a pedal with a tl431 (I posted a simple schem on the other site, the idea was stolen somewhere on the net) that was capable of overdrive and to drive a speaker too. The sound was ok but it needed some tweak: I went back on the breadboard but I wasn't able to get something good, the parts were just the same, but it didn't work like the fist circuit. I made a bazz fuss for my bass palyer with that box (he rarely use it, he likes is boss bass overdrive instead). 

[nexekho]

And yeah, still thinking about a fuzz with a 555 in it (was just one of the first odd thoughts that popped into my head).
Or hell, anything else I may having lying around.

I haven't put much time into this (it's missing a lot of stuff it should have like parallel caps to ground on the biasing and needs a clean boost etc) but:
Simulation
A 5532 input buffer, then two separate biases.  The Gate pot allows you to move these biases close to 2.5v or separate them to 1.6v/3.3v.  One biased signal runs into threshold, the other into trigger.  This makes a decent looking if uneven square wave tracker.  In this instance a 556 is being used with the other generating a pitch (would need pot trimmers in real life) and feeding it into a 4017 with a bank of LEDs, the discharge pin on the first half of the 556 being used to turn those LEDs on or off.  Then a dual D-type for octaving that ffuzz, a mixer, tone and volume plagiarized from Cooking Your Own Distortion.

[DavenPaget]

When I was about 16 or 17, I started running the cartridge of my "record player" to the mic input of a tape deck I had, and from there to my guitar amp (it was a pretty tiny and tinny amp/speaker on the record player).  One day my dad comes into my room, as I'm holding the cable from the tape deck.  I ask him to hand me the cable from the record player and hold out my free hand.  He mixes things up and grabs the cable from the record player with one hand, but puts his unoccupied hand in my free hand.  In other words, there are two bodies between the wires that are to be connected.  AND THE SOUND PRODUCED WAS LOUDER THAN I HAD EVER MANAGED TO GET FROM THE DIRECTLY CONNECTED SYSTEM.  My sister comes in the room.  Just for the hell of it, I get her to hold my hand and my father's hand.  It gets louder still.

I can't explain it.  It happened.

Does that fit your criteria of a circuit that should NOT have worked...but did?

Thats EXACTLY what I was asked/looking for.
I wasn't looking for any answers or build info or any educational info.
Just stories of your past experience in building stuff.
Doesn't even have to be about pedals or electronics. Although that is what I would prefer reading about.

And yeah, still thinking about a fuzz with a 555 in it (was just one of the first odd thoughts that popped into my head).
Or hell, anything else I may having lying around.

The original post was made purely for a curiosity and only entertainment purposes.

he'd like to know if anyone has used any very odd components in a fuzz/distortion that is normally not used....but does not want to know about a 555 used in one specifically...since he's considering doing it

That's my idea/plan, more or less.
The specific parts used aren't really part of my query. Its just a general question.
As for my particular plan, I want to go in more or less blind and without any expectations on how I want it to sound, parts I use, or what it will do and just get it to make noise.

I had used a 555 to time the input of a 4017 so that the connected LED's to the 4017 would be PWM'd .

[jasperoosthoek]

I had a small neon light near my bed as a 10 year old. Just a neon lamp and a resistor in series. I opened it and asked my mother what the resistor was. She said it was a transformer and the lamp was like the lamp in a flash light.

So I knew transformers had four legs and I tried to be careful when I plugged it in with the cover removed. Unfortunately I did touch it and the 230 VAC showed through my hand!

The circuit DID work!