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Audio Function Generator Stripboard Veroboard Layout

July 28, 2012, 2:38 am
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there isn't really much to say about this circuit as it is mostly a 8038 based function generator with a few bits added on such as a DC-DC convertor for the bi-polar power supply and a range/shape selector switches etc.
the ICL8038 is rated to range from 0.0001Hz to over 300KHz however the sine on the one I built up stops becoming useful at about 300KHz and it starts at about 10Hz however this maybe because I exclusively use parts from broken stuff - the IC was harvested from a PEAVEY classic chorus amplifier that died years ago, The pots came from an old mixing desk and so on so you may get closer to the rated range however 10Hz to 300KHz is fine for most if not all Audio applications.

I should also mention the LT1054 DC-DC converter, I got this as a free sample from Linear Technology and I used this over the more common MAX1044/7660 ICs because I need 12+/- volts and the 1044 has a maximum rating of 10 volts.

Notes:
The ICL8038 does get quite hot
Make sure the capacitors are all rated at 35volts or above

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Goodbye Tony Sly

August 1, 2012, 1:10 pm
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Today isn't an electronics post and it will probably be of little relevance to anyone reading this.
One of my musical heroes died today - Tony Sly of the band "No Use For A Name" basically a skatepunk band I've listened to since I was in high school which though it seems like yesterday was in fact many years ago. I have never really felt moved when a band member from a band I liked died however in this case it has really gotten to me because their songs mean a lot to me and I have loved them for so long it feels as though a good friend has been taken from me and I know there is a big fanbase who feel the same way.

I recorded a tribute to him - one of his songs from my favorite album "More Betterness!" called Room #19 which I will put here a long with some of my favorite songs of his.

Rest In Peace Tony Sly










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6 watt desktop amplifier stripboard veroboard layout

August 3, 2012, 4:22 pm
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I wanted a nice powerful stereo amplifier for studio use, I'm pretty sure this will drive a few pairs of headphones/speakers though I've only tried it with one pair.
this would also be well suited for a nice set of powered monitors for a laptop or any other application.
anyway, I found the TPA1517 from Texas Instruments and it works great.

the powersupply needs to be very clean maybe even external to the unit itself. you'll notice there is a resistor across the terminals of the big capacitor (4700uf) this is a bleed resistor and its purpose is to discharge the capacitor once it is powered off, with the value stated it takes about 3- 4 minutes to discharge the 4700u 40v capacitor. it's not a necessity but it's advised to avoid electric shocks - even the 40 volt cap I used packs a nasty punch.

when you turn it on don't have your headphones over your ears - this is very very loud so the input signal needs to be raised very gradually



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More Audiowankery!

August 4, 2012, 11:07 am
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I do love good audiowankery companies, I even buy hifi magazines just to sit there shouting at it and today I bought one and found this beauty. their angle is that mains electricity is like a hammer drill that vibrates components from the inside.


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Dual Tracking Power Supply Stripboard Veroboard Layout

August 7, 2012, 3:14 am
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another project born of necessity (ie I blew my other one up) This is a 1.5Amp dual polarity power supply (adjustable)

This may look like a waste of stripboard however once you see how big the 1000u caps are you will realize that you need the room.




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Using Stripboard + Key To My Diagrams

August 14, 2012, 4:28 pm
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I've gotten the odd email asking about some of the stripboard layouts and what certain things mean

so I've made a quick little diagram to show you what I mean.
the software I use is known as DIY layout Editor they have updated releases available however for the sake of being lazy I just stuck with the one you see my layouts on here.

Tips.

1. take things really slowly, always count the holes, on larger projects I even label the X Y axis of the board so I don't accidentally misplace a part - so many projects in the past have fallen to a misplaced part.

2. once you have finished your soldering, run a scalpel/stanley knife down each track in-between to catch any little stray whiskers of solder that have found their way to arcing strips

3. double check electrolytic polarities - it's never fun when one of those explodes in your face!

4. make sure your track cuts are well and truly cut, sometimes I've found micro slithers of track left over after cutting.

5. make it as neat as possible, not only does a nice looking board give greater satisfaction but it also aids toward troubleshooting should something go wrong.

6. trust my layouts because I go to great lengths to build and test each layout before I even think about posting them on here, when a week goes by and I haven't posted a layout the reason is usually because the layout didn't work.
if it doesn't work it doesn't get posted.


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RIP Hans Camenzind

August 16, 2012, 3:50 pm
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sadly, the inventor of the 555 timer IC passed today


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Mosquito Repellent Stripboard Veroboard Layout

August 18, 2012, 3:43 pm
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I'm pretty ill at the moment and I didn't want to really get up let alone make a circuit however the reason I am ill is because of bastard mosquitos - you see they bite you and your body reacts to the bites as it would a virus and with an illness the actual feeling of being ill is your body attacking the illness. in most people this reaction lasts a very short time and you don't notice it however with me any illness I get prolonged reactions, I always have which is why I feel really ill right now.
So in order to stop it happening again I thought I would make an electronic mosquito repellent

it mimics the sound the pregnant female mosquito makes which warns others to stay away.



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Knight Rider Kitt / Cylon LED Sequencer Stripboard Veroboard Layout

August 29, 2012, 3:53 pm
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This is a cool little project I've been meaning to do for a long time. One which was so simple I kept putting it off.
Essentially this is a 8Hz (ish) squarewave generator attached to a decade counter - it counts upwards displaying each count on the next LED however the outputs are wired in such a way that instead of just going upwards it goes back downwards. it should be obvious when you look at the schematic how the thing works.

Anyway as the name suggests the LEDS go back and forth like the eye things on Cylons from battlestar galactica or the front panel on the car from knightrider. my older brother drives a taxi so I plan on using this to drive relays to big lamps and attach it to his car when he's next away.

This circuit is very useful outside of replicating old TV show LED things, you can use it to sequence pretty much anything using relays or even digital circuits and you don't have to use the 555 to do it automatically, you can replace that with a push switch circuit to the CD4017 Clock pin (14) and control a pedalboard for example
or maybe even make your house seem haunted by using it to remotely control appliances. I will include a simple Relay Driver below.


 

To use the CD4017 to drive a relay


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Voice Bandwidth Filter for podcasts / youtube veroboard stripboard layout

September 18, 2012, 3:22 am
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This idea came about when someone was tweeting on twitter that they were having problems with rumble noise and high pitch squealing from some air conditioner unit. So I thought I would make a filter for people to combat such problems, basically this thing attenuates anything below 300Hz and anything higher than 3KHz which is pretty much everything outside of the vocal range.
This could be a useful thing to combine with the high quality Microphone Preamp I designed some time ago located HERE

It's been a while since I posted a project because as you (may) know I build up things before I post them so I know they work however I've had bugger all money to buy stripboard, I actually had to de-solder an old project to get enough to prove this one so if anyone can help me out with some stripboard I'd be most grateful!

Paul in the
Lab is here to help
Everyone that's into electronics
Always feel free to
Seek my advice
Either using the
Contact button or my email
Lately I am always at the computer because
I am  designing stuff for the site though I did buy a new
Camera recently it's pretty cool. I remember the first thing I built was the
Knight rider LED scanner which I uploaded
To the site a few days ago, remember if you need to know
How to do something
Even if you think it's
Abit of a stupid question just ask, I
Don't mind. We all had to
Start somewhere. 

anyway here is the filter



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Fading LEDs / Eyes for Halloween decorations stripboard veroboard layout

September 20, 2012, 9:33 am
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The inspiration for this little circuit with Halloween approaching was a post I saw made on this Thrifty Crafty Girl
basically the girl had an idea of putting glow sticks in toilet rolls with eyes cut out to leave in bushes however I thought it would be cool to add an electronic element to it.
so I made a little circuit that will make LEDs fade in and out - they will go in and out of sync and will look pretty dam creepy
Anyway this one quite cheap to make circuit will "power" 4 toilet roll monsters - 2 LEDs per toilet roll or whatever you want to put "eyes" or LEDs in
below is a video of it in action





Paul in the
Lab is here to help
Everyone that's into electronics
Always feel free to
Seek my advice
Either using the
Contact button or my email
Lately I am always at the computer because
I am  designing stuff for the site though I did buy a new
Camera recently it's pretty cool. I remember the first thing I built was the
Knight rider LED scanner which I uploaded
To the site a few days ago, remember if you need to know
How to do something
Even if you think it's
Abit of a stupid question just ask, I
Don't mind. We all had to
Start somewhere. 

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Flux Capacitor LED Decoration Stripboard Veroboard Layout

October 3, 2012, 4:44 pm
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for fans of Back To The Future - or LEDs
I know this isn't exactly like the real thing however that would involve crux tubes and so on and I doubt many people who read my site want to piss about with 10,000 volt supplies. Anyway it's pretty much for my halloween/christmas/bonfire night decoration collection.

as you can see I have included a layout for the actual display board, although it looks like the LEDs maybe abit too spaced out, in practice they wouldn't fit when they are closer together. However should you just want to use the display board I think that each transistor can drive quite a few LEDs (I think the 2N3904s are rated at 100mA)
As it stands the circuit draws roughly 5mA

The last thing I want to mention is the odd value electrolytic (well odd to some) it is 470nf however you can use a none polarized version it just happened that I have both kinds and the electrolytic takes up less space

I also included a little video to show you what it does. HERE




Paul in the
Lab is here to help
Everyone that's into electronics
Always feel free to
Seek my advice
Either using the
Contact button or my email
Lately I am always at the computer because
I am  designing stuff for the site though I did buy a new
Camera recently it's pretty cool. I remember the first thing I built was the
Knight rider LED scanner which I uploaded
To the site a few days ago, remember if you need to know
How to do something
Even if you think it's
Abit of a stupid question just ask, I
Don't mind. We all had to
Start somewhere. 

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Devils Triangle Drone Synth Stripboard Veroboard Layout

October 13, 2012, 4:35 pm
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this is a project based largely on the put up or shut up mentality, for quite some time I've been getting annoyed at seeing youtube videos of people pissing about with these "synths" which are basically boxes of 555 timers with a million knobs that make stupid noises that you couldn't ever actually use in music so I thought I would make my own little synth that would get repeatable sounds and be useful in music and what better type of synth? a droner type - basically cause I love bagpipes - I like drones
anyway the circuit itself is quite a simple one basically because I only designed it during the week, all it is really is 3 triangle wave generators configured to operate in the audio range going into a mixer op-amp configuration with the odd filter here and there to soften the waveforms
I've used LM358 op-amps cause they are the cheapest, I'm not too sure if others would work in the same way though they probably will.

why call it the devils triangle - well it has 3 oscillators one of which can oscillate a slightly high pitch range (for melody) it also sounds demonic so the name fit
Listen to it HERE
or with lots of reverb HERE

Hope you enjoy

EDIT: I replaced the level knobs with on/off switches - it makes it so much more versatile being able to silent certain drones 
EDIT: I added a little schematic on how the switches should be wired as it was causing a bit of confusion.



the one I made - with a really shit paint job

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Behringer UV300 Rate Mod (Slow Down)

October 29, 2012, 5:50 am
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I thought I'd take a quick venture into modifying a effects pedal. The one I chose was the Behringer UV300 ( Ultra Vibrato ) I love Behringer gear and in most cases they do a really good job at effects and pretty well everything they put their minds to (see the X3!)
anyway I bought this on a whim cause it was very very cheap, I didn't even bother looking for samples because if I'm honest there is only so many times one can watch people doing out of tune covers of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds while reviewing Vibrato pedals - also they never turn the rate down to nothing to show you how slow it goes.

as you can probably tell by this post, the "rate" didn't go as slow as I wanted, I like that sort of hypnotic warped record vibrato which this pedal couldn't do however with a little knowledge of how oscillators work and a bit of time probing around with a scope I was able to modify this to go slow enough

In order to slow down the range of the Rate control you basically just have to add capacitors in parallel with C12 and C15 - or you can swap them completely for higher values - the higher you go the slower it is however you need whatever capacitors you add to be very close in value to each other because if one is very different you get an uneven vibrato.
anyway here are the pictures.

if you have any questions - ask!

and you don't need to rehouse behringer pedals, the plastic is very strong - it easily withstands being dropped down stone stairs many times.

Sound Sample HERE


solder very quickly otherwise you'll be resoldering SMD stuff!

it's a good idea to do this in order to tailor it to your preference

the part of the circuit I am changing
The Behringer UV300 with its nice new switch

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Low Battery Indicator ( 9v ) Stripboard Veroboard Layout

November 2, 2012, 12:54 pm
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I was in the middle of designing a little 9volt battery operated music thing and I thought it would be nice to have a little battery indicator to tell me when it was getting low.
Once I made it up I thought it might be a cool little thing to share on here so you could add it into stuff like guitar FX and so on.

it has 3 states:
1. if the battery is good then the LED doesn't light
2. between 7.5v and 6.4v the LED flashes to warn you it's getting low
3. below 6.4v the LED stays lit

I know there are specific ICs for this purpose however I like making my own "solutions"
Anyway hope you like it.




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8 Bit Guitar Fuzz II Effect Stripboard Veroboard Layout

November 9, 2012, 10:34 am
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I wanted to make a kind of brutal fuzz pedal for a song I'm working on that needs a really nasty sounding lead bit so I designed this little beast - it was a very very quick circuit so I didn't add any pots or anything to it however I think you will like it (if you like this kind of thing of course)
it also sounds a little bit like the type of Fuzz the Smashing Pumpkins used in siamese dream 

I have uploaded a little sample of it in action HERE

I hope you will add some mods to this - if you do please let me know!
I'm calling it the Quadraspazz Fuzz




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1970's wah wah pedal Stripboard Veroboard Layout

November 16, 2012, 12:37 pm
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Obviously this is not one of mine but one taken from a magazine from 1970. it uses germanium transistors however if you can't find them or they are too expensive just try some general purpose ones like 2N3906 instead of the ones listed.

There are a few odd values that aren't really readily available - just get the ones nearest to them - like in the case of the 50uf capacitor substitute it with a 47uf one and so on.




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PWM LED Dimmer Stripboard VeroBoard Layout (Orig. By Dave L. Jones)

November 30, 2012, 2:56 pm
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Dave Jones did a cool little circuit using a 555 to dim the LEDs on his Mantis microscope. Obviously this little circuit has a lot of uses so I thought I would make a little stripboard layout for it.

There isn't much to say about it as it has already been covered in his video (linked below)

so here you go.



 

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Guitar FX Regulated Power Supply Stripboard Veroboard Layout

December 5, 2012, 6:21 am
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My store bought Effects power supply has been annoying me lately, it's buzzing both from the box and in the guitar signal,it's bad tempered and cuts out and generally just puking up it's entrails, I've been fixing it over and over for years and I finally thought "bugger it I will make a new one" so I did.

It is a very simple build however it is not one to be taken lightly as it involves the mains so you need to take all due care and attention.
Use a metal enclosure and Earth the Chassis, this both adds safety and cuts any stray noise.
Make sure you use a fuse - in my case I used a connector that had a fuse compartment built into it

You will notice that I used a uncommon type of regulator, you can of course substitute this with a LM7809 Regulator, they are pin compatible though I suggest you try and find the ones noted on the stripboard layout.

Be Careful




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6 Tact Switch Debounce Veroboard Stripboard Layout

December 7, 2012, 11:22 pm
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This is one of those boring circuits which you need to know when dealing with CMOS circuits and I imagine it would come in useful for those of you using microcontrollers like Arduino/PIC etc.

using this circuit you get a nice clean switch signal from a mechanical switch avoiding miss-switching



2 channels of the switches in action

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