To hell with decline!! Let's talk about our personal projects happening now!

[culturejam]

As a rebuttle to this thread about DIY pedal decline: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=28094.0

Let's talk about what projects you guys have going on or are about to start. Do you have any new circuits or tweaks in the works? Got some fun builds you're about to start? Have you done any interesting work for clients? Got a PCB design in the words?

I'll start (since I started this)

Couple "new" circuit ideas for the old PT2399:
• First one isn't a new circuit, but a new way to dial in the delay time and maximum delay time available. I've found that with a moderately to heavily filtered delay line, the optimum value for the Delay/Time pot is something like 60K - 70K (which of course doesn't readily exist for our purposes). So I've replaced the single pot with an optical element consisting of the classic LED / LDR combo + a trimmer in parallel with the LDR to dial in the max resistance value to 60K (or whatever actually sounds best with that particular PT2399). Added to that is an R/C filter that causes the LED to "lag" a bit when changing brightness (a la my old Neptune and Triton circuits), so it behaves a bit more like a real tape delay when the delay time is changed. Nothing revolutionary here, just what I feel is a better way to match the circuit parameters to the highly variable PT2399.

• Second idea is probably far less practical, but I think it's cool. It's been bothering me for years that pin 5 (Clock Output) seems like something that can't be used. I think I've figured out a way to use it for something musical. Basically pin 5 is outputing a frequency showing you what the internal oscillator is doing. If you look on the datasheet, you'll see what that frequency should be when pin 6 has X resistance to ground on it. I've checked with a scope, and it's actually pretty accurate (unlike a lot of other parts of the datasheet). So I got the idea to use pin 5 as an oscillator to modulate delay time. But the frequency is significantly beyond would would be audible or useful, and analog logic chips to divide it down enough would require a massive sub-circuit (not at all worth it). But this is exactly what micro-controllers are good at, so I found some existing code that divides by millions, and that gets pin 5's output into LFO range. I have not tested this, but it's something I want to tackle in the next several weeks. The result *should* be modulation that changes speed as delay time is changed. Or it could be adapted to do a tremolo-like thing along with the repeats or maybe it could drive some kind of filter. Or, with a buffer on the output of the micro-controller, it could drive an LED that would indicate delay time (shorter times = faster blinking). We'll see, I guess.

I have more things cooking, but that's enough babbling from me for now.

[mjcyates]

I have 2 multi pedals and a Supro Amp in the works!

[stringsthings]

I've been busy this month putting together a strat kit from solo guitars.  Finally made the leap after watching Brad Angrove's youtubes.
Bought some decent tools for fretwork ( straight-edge, fret rocker, fret leveler, crowning tool ) and did the frets.  That was satisfying.
Very interested to see how the neck plays.  Finished the neck with a couple coats of tru-oil.  Finished the body with lacquer from duplicolor.
( primer, color coats, clear coats .... so many coats! )
It's got to dry now for a few weeks before I can buff it out and assemble the guitar.

So since I've got some time on my hands, I think I'm going to clone a couple of way huge pedals.  I've got plenty of other projects that require
a fair amount of $$ for parts and cases.  Those can wait until later. 

Also did a bunch of synth modules from MFOS.  If I had a decent camera, I'd take pics.  Probably will get to that later this year.

[somnif]

I'm sort of half-heartedly attempting to reverse-engineer a strange Boss pedal. A friend "seems to recall" that he liked the Distortion side of the MZ-2 "Digital Metalizer" circuit, so I am trying to separate that part of the circuit out of the rest of the monstrosity. (The pedal is basically a distortion circuit tied to a digital chorus/slap-back echo for that late 80s/early 90s ice pick tone).

So far its mostly me staring at the schematics slightly crosseyed. 

[dan.schumaker]

Here is what I have going on:

I am pretty proud of this one, it is a Binson type echo in a 1590A enclosure, delay's cascading into one another.  It sounds pretty cool.  I am just waiting on a 1590A box to finish this guy up and put the boards up for sale.  I am thinking of redoing it to use the smaller SMD PT2399, instead of the wide-body version.


I have these boards all populated up, more 1590A circuits.  "The great 9mm pot shortage of 2018" is kinda hindering me finishing them, but I do have some pots on the way to get a few of these buttoned up at least.


I also have a dozen or more 1590A boards all designed and ready to go, just wanting to finish up the aforementioned boards and getting a little more funds.  Some that I am really excited for are another FV-1 board that will allow for program selection, a version of EQD The Depths, and a few different compressors.

But lately, this beast has been taking up most of my time.  Its almost done, just doing some troubleshooting around the relays, but hopefully it will be done really soon.  I have the box all ready to go for it, ready to rock out!

[thesmokingman]

my wife keeps asking what I want for my birthday so I'll probably get a reverb pan and old school red metal toolbox (for an enclosure) to finish up a v1 surfy bear reverb kit I found while unpacking ... I forgot I had two of those kits. I did the first one in a traditional 6g15 fashion which is an expensive route to take for something that isn't a tube reverb.

I also need to finish a shoe gazer ... been putting that one off since I got the enclosure from mammoth and the dual footswitch holes are located so close to the corners that you can't put the footswitches in there straight.

outward from there ... eyeballing that dmm on madbean, the pll on deadendfx, and that vibrophase on pedalpcb

[pickdropper]

I'm trying to decide what I'm going to build into this cool old Sound Level Meter box.  Probably an amp.

[bsoncini]

Im building a mic preamp that is based on the $5 mix preamp for some friends. They want a built in reverb (rubadub) plus overdrive circuit (prince of tone) and an effects loop. Which then goes into a unbalanced to balanced driver to come back out on xlr to go to a mixing booth. I modified a vero layout that freppo posted here They want 3 of them when I get all the kinks worked out. So I'm just trying to finish the first one that I put in an old bose equaliser that I found at the city dump.

I haven't been building much for myself except the bi phase and some fv1 pedals from fv1. But a bunch of younger kids in the shoegazey type scene here always come up with some interesting ideas to try and mostly fail doing.


Still need to add the stomp switch for the reverb circuit

[fair.child]

Is this a preview of 2018 BOTY contest? After I've done with VFE Mega Pedal, I'm thinking what's going to be my next project. I've seen a lot of inspiring posts so far.

[juansolo]

3 builds currently in progress, though technically two of them have been in progress for over a year and one of them is just a re-boxing. AlanP's NNF is one. Yes really. The board's been populated forever. Just decaled up the box today and Cleggy is putting some e-tex on it tonight hopefully. Also the Gilmourizer Mk3, all in barring the last two fx... That one has been a LONG time coming. Finally is just a Electric Mistress re-box as the previous one was holey as hell.

Also I'm planning on making a (Atari style) pong machine. It relies on me winning an auction for buttons to get the GI pong on a chip IC. But if I do, that's definitely on. Even though I've just restored a 1977 Binatone pong machine anyhow. Because I wanna!

[stringsthings]

But lately, this beast has been taking up most of my time.  Its almost done, just doing some troubleshooting around the relays, but hopefully it will be done really soon.  I have the box all ready to go for it, ready to rock out!

Nice!  ( very jealous! )

[Max]

I'm working on an idea which is probably not so original, that involves a Condor with a completely different frequency response, a wah V847 and maybe a Fuzz directly copied from the Vox Double Sound. Well, actually two wahs  .
I bought a V847 on ebay as "DEFEKT" for 30€. Someone tried to replace the pot with a standard 100k linear that didn't fit in the enclosure. Pot replaced, wah is as new, so now I can use it to experiment then keep it as is, keep it modded or sell it .

@ dan.schumaker: I'm very interested in your Binson in a 1590A, keep us updated!

[EBK]

I've got a stutter/crossfade effect on the drawing board that is inspired by a creaky floor board.  I hope to provide more details soon.

[m-Kresol]

I finally got a revision of the Palisades OD on the way. It has additional optical bypass on board + lets you choose if the boost is independent or a slave to the OD
Also, an EQD The depths vibe is also on the same order.

Lastly, I designed a board for the DBA Echo dream 2 and will order that after the first two arrive.

I've got boards left for all three so there will be some available (I already have a list of people for the OD from the first batch that get dibbs).

[matmosphere]

  can I call dibs on a palisades (or two) if there are any extra!