REALLY ugly Tap Tempo Trem

[G._Hoffman]

If you think it looks ugly on the outside, you should see the inside!






This is just a first run. I have to buy a new box (I messed up drilling some of the holes - sigh - and I made one of the circuit boards too small, with the result that it doesn't sit on all of the stand-offs. Also, I want to put a heat sink under the regulator (since it is pulling 9V down to 3.3V - it is getting just a little hot - Not too bad, but still), and I've got to try to do something about the clicking when the optoisolator turns on and off quickly for the square and sawtooth waves. I'm not sure if I can pull that one off, but I will try. I might have to try a different circuit, but I hope not - there is no more room in there!  And yes, you are seeing right, there are two circuit boards.  One for the Logic stuff (program switching) and face plate LEDs and Tact switches, the other for the PS and the actual LFO and Trem circuit.

I've spent most of my free time working on this for the last couple weeks - some of which really shouldn't have been free!  I'm going to order a new enclosure this week (I spied a really sexy pink sparkle one at Pedal Parts.com, or some such place!), and I'm think I'm going to replace the depth pot with an audio taper - its action is just too sudden at the moment - and put in a push-pull for the wave/rate pot so I can use it for the tap/wave switch that is currently hanging off the top so unattractively.  AND I'm going to get the holes for the ratio LED's in the right place, and make all the holes the right size this time! 

If you are wondering, the MV-53 is a tap tempo LFO on a Microcontroller, made by Molten Voltage.  It does some cool stuff, though I haven't had a chance to try it out too much yet.  I probably won't get to spend any real time with this until next weekend, sadly.

Somewhat shockingly, to me, this thing actually worked almost right the first time I plugged it in.  I think I must actually be learning something, because that has never happened for me before with anything more complicated than a battery driving an LED.  Even there, I usually get the LED backwards at first!  So, I feel pretty impressed with myself to have it make sound and all that the first time I powered it up!  Between the two boards, this thing has 16 very short wires, and somehow I managed to get them all in the right place!  I was shocked!  Once I get the new box, the only problem I will have is the lack of room for a battery, but since I will always be using it with a PS anyway (and besides, this is just a dry run on the LFO circuit I want to use for my amp when I rebuild it early next year!), I'm OK with the no battery thing.

Oh, hey, does anyone know a good way to get a D Latch to power up in a blank state?  Or, barring that, at least to be able to decide which state I want it to start up in?  I was thinking I could just raise the value of one of the caps on the switches (SW5-SW12) to slow down it's rise to positive, but I'd rather a way to start in "reset" mode.


Gabriel

[tubenit]

Gabriel,

That's remarkable! What a cool thing to come up with. It doesn't have the aesthetic beauty of your fine guitars but it is indeed a work of art.

Congrats on your  ingenuity and current success. I'm amazed at your talent in creating such a device.

With respect, Tubenit

[G._Hoffman]

Thank you, but don't be too impressed.  I stole everything from somewhere else.  The MV-53 is a commercial, though new, product.  There are several others coming on the market soon which are similar, though none identical.  The trem circuit is theirs too, taken right out of the data sheet.  Those guys did all the real innovative work on this.  The switching part is also stolen, more or less.  I got the basic idea from R.G. Keen over at GeoFex - he has a programmable effects switching unit where I got the basic idea, and then I changed it a bit to remove some extraneous parts, and to update the actual semiconductors used to more modern devices.  (This had an additional benefit.  His circuit uses old 74C3XX IC's - by using the newer 74HC5XX stuff, I VASTLY simplified the layout of the board, because all the inputs are on one side of the case, and the outputs are directly opposite.  Very nice.)  I changed a couple other things, and I added some current protection to the switching, but in no way was I doing anything but stealing from RG Keen and the guys at Molten Voltage.

I did do one really stupid thing, though.  Though I did bread board the logic switching section (kind of silly, since I've used the same basic circuit several times before), I never did bread board a working version of the LFO and Trem - I just made the circuit board straight away.  I got lucky, but it really shouldn't have worked at all!

I'm also moderately amused by the fact that I put all of this in a waterproof enclosure.  No particular reason - it was just the cheapest one Mouser had of the size I wanted!


Gabriel

[Manic]

Thank you, but don't be too impressed.  I stole everything from somewhere else.  The MV-53 is a commercial, though new, product.  There are several others coming on the market soon which are similar, though none identical.  The trem circuit is theirs too, taken right out of the data sheet.  Those guys did all the real innovative work on this.  The switching part is also stolen, more or less.  I got the basic idea from R.G. Keen over at GeoFex - he has a programmable effects switching unit where I got the basic idea, and then I changed it a bit to remove some extraneous parts, and to update the actual semiconductors used to more modern devices.  (This had an additional benefit.  His circuit uses old 74C3XX IC's - by using the newer 74HC5XX stuff, I VASTLY simplified the layout of the board, because all the inputs are on one side of the case, and the outputs are directly opposite.  Very nice.)  I changed a couple other things, and I added some current protection to the switching, but in no way was I doing anything but stealing from RG Keen and the guys at Molten Voltage.

I did do one really stupid thing, though.  Though I did bread board the logic switching section (kind of silly, since I've used the same basic circuit several times before), I never did bread board a working version of the LFO and Trem - I just made the circuit board straight away.  I got lucky, but it really shouldn't have worked at all!

I'm also moderately amused by the fact that I put all of this in a waterproof enclosure.  No particular reason - it was just the cheapest one Mouser had of the size I wanted!


Gabriel

Non the less I still have to agree with tubenit  "That's remarkable!"

I dig Me some "rat rod" pedals!!!

[G._Hoffman]

Non the less I still have to agree with tubenit  "That's remarkable!"

I dig Me some "rat rod" pedals!!!

Well, thank you.  All it really took was some time, but there you go.  I'm getting a new enclosure that I'm going to make a LOT prettier.


Gabriel

[madison]

>>I'm getting a new enclosure that I'm going to make a LOT prettier.

I don't know.....after a couple of beers it looked fine.

Very impressive work, thanks for sharing.

[Dynaflow]

 Nice, waterproof is good, beer spillage not a problem! 
Regards,

Dyna

[G._Hoffman]

Nice, waterproof is good, beer spillage not a problem! 
Regards,

Dyna

Except for all the holes on the top kind of defeat the purpose of the rubber gasket on the bottom!


Gabriel

[Dynaflow]

ummm Well yeah there is that... doh... Nice none the less, I listened to a molten voltage clip on youtube with that chip in it. Interesting control for the effects.

Regards,

Dyna