Building the Uglyface PCB

[Taylor]

Time for another "building" thread, this time for the Uglyface. Your build photos, questions, etc. can go here.

The top question I get for PCBs in general is usually how the pots should be oriented, so here's a picture (sorry for the bad photo quality):

http://musicpcb.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/uglyfacepots.jpg

Due to popular demand, this board has holes for standoffs if you're not into board-mounted pots.  

[PereatMundus]

nice!!

I'll toss an order your way once I've sobered up!

now just ad skyripper and your selling all my favorite noicey stuffss.
*looking forward to future projects, seems your projects always tend to be right down my alley

[electricteeth]

I want one of these too! How can I get?

[Taylor]

There's a link in the first post to the board. I always try to not spam the forum with links because I know nobody likes that, so I don't want to put it in huge text or anything.

[LaceSensor]

Can an LFO be added to this?

[Taylor]

It can certainly be added in the way that people have added an LFO to the Uglyface before - but there's no LFO on the board. I could make a diagram to show how to do it if anybody was interested, but you would need to wire the extra parts on a little piece of perfboard.

[karter2000]

It can certainly be added in the way that people have added an LFO to the Uglyface before - but there's no LFO on the board. I could make a diagram to show how to do it if anybody was interested, but you would need to wire the extra parts on a little piece of perfboard.

I'd be interested in that!  Been wanting to build an Uglyface with the LFO for some time.

[Strategy]

I recently (finally) figured out the technique of adding a voltage control input to pots using a vactrol. I have also thought about adding LFO to the uglyface (I built this on Soggybag's PCB from last year or so) but have plenty of LFO's and voltage sources available from other pedals or synth equip.

Taylor, in this circuit if one didn't want to 'build in' an LFO is there a best way to use the vactrol on board? I suppose that the issue then is that the envelope is always active at the same time as the external input unless a switching jack is used? ...or else just keeping envelope amount control on low when you want the external voltage or other voltage source to be active?

Strategy

It can certainly be added in the way that people have added an LFO to the Uglyface before - but there's no LFO on the board. I could make a diagram to show how to do it if anybody was interested, but you would need to wire the extra parts on a little piece of perfboard.

I'd be interested in that!  Been wanting to build an Uglyface with the LFO for some time.

[Taylor]

Hmm. If you had no switching and you just inject a CV into the LED side of the opto, then turning the sensitivity down (envelope off) would ground your CV. You'd probably better off switching between envelope or external CV. You may need to divide the input voltage to get it working within the right range for the opto to respond semi-linearly.

[Strategy]

Thanks I'll experiment with this. I guess an alternative would be to add the vactrol in parallel with the freq pot. That's $5 more expensive and then there's the matter of fitting the extra vactrol. Redundant, but might be a workaround - it will be some tricky labor to desolder what I built and install switching. Unless I build a second Uglyface!! 

Linearity doesn't tend to be much of an issue with noisemakers for simple things like LFO's... I'm noticing that even with careful use of the vactrols it's pretty much "wild style" voltage control across the board...but still useful.

Strategy

Hmm. If you had no switching and you just inject a CV into the LED side of the opto, then turning the sensitivity down (envelope off) would ground your CV. You'd probably better off switching between envelope or external CV. You may need to divide the input voltage to get it working within the right range for the opto to respond semi-linearly.

[LaceSensor]

It can certainly be added in the way that people have added an LFO to the Uglyface before - but there's no LFO on the board. I could make a diagram to show how to do it if anybody was interested, but you would need to wire the extra parts on a little piece of perfboard.

I'd be interested in that!  Been wanting to build an Uglyface with the LFO for some time.

Ditto

[Ben N]

If I put them in one box, can I tap the Gristleizer LFO to feed the Uglyface? If so, anything extra needed, besides a switch, such as a buffer?

[Strategy]

Yes a buffer would be a good idea. I tapped the Gristleizer LFO to a panel output, and when I patch it to something it decreases the effect/filter depth on the Gristleizer signal. I haven't built a buffer for it yet but ought to.

Strategy

[angrykoko]

Hey,
Ordering parts for this build and I'm going to just do pcb mounted pots on one of your boards Taylor.

I cant tell how wide it is though.. will it fit in a 1590B enclosure?
Or would a 125B be a better choice..

Thanks.

BTW:  I built an echo base from one of your boards.. that was the nicest board I've gotten to date!  Solder masked, through hole plating!  It was almost too easy to build.   

[Taylor]

Yes, it will fit in a 1590b - as I recall it's 2 inches wide. But, of course, building in a smaller box makes things a bit trickier. Glad you liked the EB board!

[wizardsofzen]

http://www.jiggawoo.eclipse.co.uk/guitarhq/Circuitsnippets/snippets.html - mentions envelope control, and then gives a really nice example... how would this be accomplished? i'm already putting 2 of these Uglys into some sort of enclosure.

[Taylor]

Envelope control is a part of the basic circuit. That's what the optocoupler is doing. If you don't have any envelope happening, you may have an issue with your opto.

[wizardsofzen]

thanks for that Taylor, haven't built them up yet, just ordering parts now

[angrykoko]

I was trying to recycle a 10K pot to build my uglyface.. long story short.. it broke.

I dont know the math to do this but I have a spare 100K pot, what value resistor would I need (across lug 1 & 3 from what I remember) to bring the 100K down to 10K?

Thanks for any help.

[jwar]

Quick Optocoupler question. I've never used one of these before and was curious about the orientation. I just want to double check that I'm reading the information correctly.

Does this look like the right orientation?