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DIY Effects


JackLondon

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On 1/9/2018 at 22:13, kodiakblair said:

Does anybody here take on the task of building kits for those of us clueless about electronics ?

I can swap pickups and pots no trouble but I'm 100% certain the Growling Krizzly DLX is beyond me.

I have done in the past... But that Growling Krizzly DLX looks like quite the undertaking!!!

EDIT: I should point out there's nothing about the electronics side of such a build that I would find daunting in the least! It's the enclosure drilling and application of decals that would have me quaking in my boots...

Edited by Bigwan
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On 1/11/2018 at 08:34, Bigwan said:

I have done in the past... But that Growling Krizzly DLX looks like quite the undertaking!!!

EDIT: I should point out there's nothing about the electronics side of such a build that I would find daunting in the least! It's the enclosure drilling and application of decals that would have me quaking in my boots...

I love populating the pcb, don't mind drilling the enclosure. The decals would be fine too. But the sodding wiring... urgh!! 
I have 3 or 4 projects that have stalled at the wiring stage...

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On 1/9/2018 at 22:13, kodiakblair said:

Does anybody here take on the task of building kits for those of us clueless about electronics ?

I can swap pickups and pots no trouble but I'm 100% certain the Growling Krizzly DLX is beyond me.

I'll do stripboard builds and kits for friends/FoF etc for cost of parts and a bottle of nice beer or the like., but I'm always very wary of it. Stuff I build for myself is always made to a very high functional standard, but the cosmetics/finish is often basic or non-existent because, well, I don't really care.

Once you start taking money for the actual building, you have to start matching/competing with peoples expectations, which can mean a lot of headaches ("When I said blue I didn't mean that blue").

Not to mention after care expectations ("Yes I put it in the dishwasher but why didn't you make it waterproof? Fix it for free or I'll tell everyone you're a scammer"). If you've got the patience and the inclination for a commercial endeavour there's probably a decent niche to be carved out there, but it's not for me.

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I reading it back that probably came off more cynical than I'd intended, I know 95% of people would probably be fine, but it's just always felt like a can of worms to me. 

First foray into etching - 

IMG_20180120_002336.thumb.jpg.faec90a3a0c048c2d2e9151359b1e493.jpg

Annoyingly the printer at work died the only day I could print so I couldn't do toner transfer so settled for more of a "horror movie" motif, I painted it with nail varnish then scratched the letters in and random bits off. It's not perfect but I've learned a lot for next time. 

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2 hours ago, bobbass4k said:

I reading it back that probably came off more cynical than I'd intended, I know 95% of people would probably be fine, but it's just always felt like a can of worms to me. 

Not cynical at all,it's called being realistic. Makes no odds if 95% of folk are great,compared to the hassle the normally very vocal 5% can cause it's not worth it.

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On 1/9/2018 at 22:13, kodiakblair said:

Does anybody here take on the task of building kits for those of us clueless about electronics ?

I can swap pickups and pots no trouble but I'm 100% certain the Growling Krizzly DLX is beyond me.

Just been reading Julian Pohler's blog post on bassic.de. He's working on the new version of the Growling Krizzly. Given his recent run of form there'll likely be a CNC milled enclosure if he releases it as a kit (features: BB footprint, screwed-in potentiometers, top mount sockets, adjustable Contour + Freq switch (500 / 800Hz), adjustable presence, + 15dB boost for the jack-out, permanently active DI - see it here: https://www.bassic.de/threads/lazarus-bastel-blog.14857964/page-26 ). I'd be interested in building one of these myself!

Edited by Bigwan
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Current project on breadboard. Not so much an effect per se, at least not yet... but certainly related! 

Arduino Micro controlling 0.96" 124x64 OLED display, quad digital pot chip and 4 status LEDs. Inputs from single rotary encoder (with push switch) and 2 momentary footswitches. Foot switches are notionally for bypass and selection of presets. LEDs for bypass state and current/next preset indication. OLED display for preset indication and menu structure for modifying and saving presets to Arduino EEPROM using rotary encoder for navigation. All sorts of possibilities with this!

IMG_20180125_132321.thumb.jpg.8e67fd5f67467d8a7e3953b05b9ef0d1.jpg

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12 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Current project on breadboard. Not so much an effect per se, at least not yet... but certainly related! 

Arduino Micro controlling 0.96" 124x64 OLED display, quad digital pot chip and 4 status LEDs. Inputs from single rotary encoder (with push switch) and 2 momentary footswitches. Foot switches are notionally for bypass and selection of presets. LEDs for bypass state and current/next preset indication. OLED display for preset indication and menu structure for modifying and saving presets to Arduino EEPROM using rotary encoder for navigation. All sorts of possibilities with this!

IMG_20180125_132321.thumb.jpg.8e67fd5f67467d8a7e3953b05b9ef0d1.jpg

Can you give any examples of how this could be used?

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4 minutes ago, jposega said:

Can you give any examples of how this could be used?

Initial thoughts... Darkglass Vintage Microtubes clone... with presets...

But it should work with lots of pedal designs. It is restricted by the voltage the digital pot IC can handle and the configuration of the pots required. This one has 4 100k ohm linear pots (linear, log and reverse log responses can all be handled in software though). But a mixture of resistances would need more ICs which would get difficult pretty quickly. More of the same resistances should be easy as you can chain ICs together. Available values are restricted too - 10k and 100k seem the most popular, although you can get 200k and 1M just not in this device type as far as I'm aware.

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7 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Initial thoughts... Darkglass Vintage Microtubes clone... with presets...

But it should work with lots of pedal designs. It is restricted by the voltage the digital pot IC can handle and the configuration of the pots required. This one has 4 100k ohm linear pots (linear, log and reverse log responses can all be handled in software though). But a mixture of resistances would need more ICs which would get difficult pretty quickly. More of the same resistances should be easy as you can chain ICs together. Available values are restricted too - 10k and 100k seem the most popular, although you can get 200k and 1M just not in this device type as far as I'm aware.

I really like the idea of having easy digital presets for analog effects. Very cool. 

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Just now, jposega said:

I really like the idea of having easy digital presets for analog effects. Very cool. 

So did I, hence why I set about doing this. I wanted to learn a bit more about coding with Arduinos/microprocessors too, so killed 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.

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On 1/25/2018 at 15:37, Bigwan said:

Current project on breadboard. Not so much an effect per se, at least not yet... but certainly related! 

Arduino Micro controlling 0.96" 124x64 OLED display, quad digital pot chip and 4 status LEDs. Inputs from single rotary encoder (with push switch) and 2 momentary footswitches. Foot switches are notionally for bypass and selection of presets. LEDs for bypass state and current/next preset indication. OLED display for preset indication and menu structure for modifying and saving presets to Arduino EEPROM using rotary encoder for navigation. All sorts of possibilities with this!

 

What digital pot are you using, out of curiosity? Last time I looked at this kind of thing in any detail a few years ago the reality of integrating digital pots with existing analog effects was not pretty for a few reasons, and referring to the actual I was using:
https://www.mouser.com/ds/2/609/AD5241_5242-586728.pdf
1) tolerance - 30% - probably ok for one-off DIY projects, but not so good for predictable results
2) current handling = low
3) voltage range; max voltage is well below the 9V of standard effects pedals
... the end result being you probably can't just snip out an analog pot and replace it without a digital one without analysing how the circuit works and making sure the max current and max voltage isn't exceeded.

Would love to see someone get a hardy and reliable solution going in this area, though!

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12 hours ago, OzMike said:

What digital pot are you using, out of curiosity? Last time I looked at this kind of thing in any detail a few years ago the reality of integrating digital pots with existing analog effects was not pretty for a few reasons, and referring to the actual I was using:
https://www.mouser.com/ds/2/609/AD5241_5242-586728.pdf
1) tolerance - 30% - probably ok for one-off DIY projects, but not so good for predictable results
2) current handling = low
3) voltage range; max voltage is well below the 9V of standard effects pedals
... the end result being you probably can't just snip out an analog pot and replace it without a digital one without analysing how the circuit works and making sure the max current and max voltage isn't exceeded.

Would love to see someone get a hardy and reliable solution going in this area, though!

AD5144ABRUZ100 I think it is (phone autopredicted that so assume it's right!). I hadn't given the current handling much thought to be honest, but for the initial project I think the 5 odd volt limit should be fine - it definitely won't work for every pedal for that very reason. I got lucky in that the Guma Antique I plan on grafting this to uses 4 100k pots, 2 lin, 1log, 1 inverse log. These chips are +/- 20% tolerance, again I'm going from memory as it's been a few weeks since I selected them and haven't looked at anything other than the i2c section of the dataset and the pinout since, but if they are that's same as the ubiquitous 16mm Alpha pot that seems to be used in most every analogue pedal nowadays. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Finally decided to get my derrière into gear and finish the vero-based Mammoth hybrid I've had hanging around half finished for ages. I'm also incorporating a blend control for full flexibility, if it works that is! Watch this space :) 

 

Edited by Rich
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