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Swapping out caps on nautilus plus rolling vactrols

Started by Haggis, May 09, 2013, 12:32:07 AM

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Haggis

Hi Im building a Nautilus and have come across a couple of sticking points. Also I'm fairly new to the electronics game (2nd build)
Firstly the schematic specifies 1n8 caps in the C6 and C8 positions.
I'm having trouble sourcing suitable 1n8 caps in the uk and reallly would prefere not to get them shipped from oversees. I can get hold of 1n5 and 2n2 caps no problem. Would substituting these make a big difference?

Also I'm planning to roll my own vactrols. The schematic suggests using and LDR with charectoristics as close to, 20-50k light and 10M dark, as possible coupled with a 5mm water clear LED.
I can source one that does 50-160k light and 20M dark. I was wondering about putting a 20M resistor in parallel to make it ~50-160k light and 10M dark. Any thoughts?

Schematic:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/Nautilus/Nautilus.pdf

crey

Hello,
I just finished one and used 1n5's instead, i can't really tell anything odd or weird about it. Sounds like a Mu Tron to me!!
As far as the vactrols, make sure to get a sheet on them that gives you all the different values to make 100% sure you can get as close as you can get to the values.
Rolling your own isnt that hard, ive used black heatshrink, and doubled the layer.. they've worked fine for some tremolo circuits ive breadboarded without any response to outside light.
just make sure you pinch off the ends at the wires by heating the heatshrink and simply pinch it closed when its hot, it will stick and stay shut.
good luck!

Haggis

Thanks for the reasurance I thought I was on the right track.
The LDRs Im thinking at using look like they will match fairly well. The turn on response time is a little slower 20ms compared to 2.5ms ant the turn off is vitually identicle. I'm thinking that the 20M res in parralel should actually speed up the turn on response a bit by making the response curve similar to a reverse audio pot rather than linear.
Ill have a play with it all on breadboard I think before hitting the pcb