Wogglebug module PCB group buy

[Davo]

There's a group buy for Wogglebug #3 module PCBs going on at http://diy.czmok.de/Group-Buys.66.0.html.  If you can remember the "music" from the movie Forbidden Planet, that's the kind of sound a Wogglebug can create.  Boards are 7.10 Euros each assuming 50 boards are made.

Also, there may be a group buy for front panels brewing at the dotcom synth Yahoo group at http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/synthesizerscomgroup/.

[Jaicen]

Jeez that sounds like  :o !!

.......Makes me afraid.

[Kartoshka]

omg  :o

[/tilted/]

Heck yes!!!

I want to!

For 7.10 Euro, I can't afford NOT to get one!

[TheAncientOne]

Note, the price of 7.10 is for the board only - he adds carriage at his end and postage on top. Mine, in the UK, cost me 16.12 Euro, delivered. Considering the board quality, it's a very good price.

A couple of minor points: the board is laid out for surface mount decoupling caps, in the larger 1206 package. the 0805 series fit and work just as well, and are easier and cheaper to get. Unless you are feeling rich, don't go for the Spectrol pots specified: they would cost me about 4.8 Euro each. I've used flying leads and my usual Alpha pots, (around 0.6 Euro), which work well with the push-on Re-an knobs, (which cost me about 0.15 Euro each in bulk). With an analog synth you'll find the most money is spent on hardware!

I have some spare Vactrols, especially if you need the rarer dual one, (the UK agent has a minimum order), I can sell/trade a few.

Mike

[Twin-X]

I have some spare Vactrols, especially if you need the rarer dual one, (the UK agent has a minimum order), I can sell/trade a few.

Mike

I want those vactrols :D i have 2 of these boards at home. (i joined the groupbuy before this one)

[/tilted/]

i too want Vactrols, please.

I'm joining the buy now!

[NorthernLightX]

vactrols are essentially just an LED and an LDR in a light proof package, right? Isn't it quite easy to build those yourself?

[/tilted/]

relatively easy to build yes, but these circuits are designed with specific vactrol devices in mind, and the 'off the shelf' components you could use to build one are a little less consistent than the vactrols are when mass produced.

[Goblinz]

vactrols are essentially just an LED and an LDR in a light proof package, right? Isn't it quite easy to build those yourself?

Snazzy name for something so simple!  :D

[TheAncientOne]

I have opened trading with the UK distributer for vactrols, for this and another project.

The ones needed are VTL 5C3 (single for rate control), and VTL5C3/2 (Dual for the filter).

If need be, I can do a group buy, if a few people want some -their minimum order is a reasonable £15, which equates to 4/5 Vactrols.

I've built my own too - for an old style phaser and a sort of clone of the famous 'Univibe' for a guitarist friend  who has what might be called a mild Hendrix fetish. That all started when I built him a clone of the Fuzz Face, with some old germanium transistors, (I wish I had a picture of it - it was housed in a small old hub cap, on a base machined out of MDF, looked cool in a mad retro way). The Univibe used home made lamp/LDR phase shift elements. There are a few problems with making your own. It's easy for a phaser or Leslie simulator, but there are a wide range of LDR characteristics to contend with, and the response time is a very wierd thing - some will drop resistance fast when light hits them, and recover much more slowly, others are more equal, but slow in both directions.

If you're building the 'Wogglebug', stick with the design spec. I've used home made ones in a voltage controlled distortion unit. When I do a new one to go with my Basslines, (SID and TM3030), I'll probably use the VTL5C3, for its fast response - that way I can envelope shape the distortion to get a better click and emphasis.

Sorry, meandering again

Mike

[huck]

would like some vactrols, not to jack the thread

shane

[wicked-E]

Got a question here.

Seen on the shematics that the Wogglebug got CV-/gate input and found some midi-to-cv/gate-interfaces for diy.

So my question is, it is possible to use the Wogglebug as an externenal "filter" for example the mbSID or other Eq. or I´m totally fault with my understanding of its funktion!?  :P

[NorthernLightX]

...I've used home made ones in a voltage controlled distortion unit...

Hi Prof, would you care to explain how you made these? I've bought some dirt-cheap LDRs with the intention to create vactrols out of them, if you have some tips about how to position the LEDs and LDRs and how to create the light proof package I'd be very grateful.

Cheers, Alex.

[TheAncientOne]

Got a question here.

Seen on the shematics that the Wogglebug got CV-/gate input and found some midi-to-cv/gate-interfaces for diy.

So my question is, it is possible to use the Wogglebug as an externenal "filter" for example the mbSID or other Eq. or I´m totally fault with my understanding of its funktion!?  :P

The Wogglebug has a CV input for it's rate of change, and an external clock input if you wish to take over control of it's 'sampling' rate. It's really a chaotic/random sound generator. You could use it to control a filter, but it won't process external sounds, though you could mix your external sounds and that of the bug via a ring modulator.

It has been said that anything you combine with a wogglebug comes out sounding like a ...... wogglebug.

The device has its roots in the famous Buchla 265/266 'source of uncertainty', which could provide various random types of control system. A bit of random googling will get you the 266 circuits, though they date from 1976, and some parts will need to be altered to suit what is available. I'm lucky that I've still got the Nat Semi white noise generator chip originally used, if you can't get one, you'd need an 8 pin PIC or AVR programmed as a 32 bit PRBS - there are a few examples on line.

You can chase up the original article here:original Wogglebug article, there are some samples of the bug doing it's mad thing too: Krell Noises.

Hope this helps

[TheAncientOne]

Hi Prof, would you care to explain how you made these?

My Mk 1's were quite crude. I rolled a strip of thin black card around a drill of the same diameter as the LDR, to make a tube, and stuck it using Scotch 'Magic Tape'. Magic tape is a matte finished self adhesive tape widely used in graphics work - you can photo.copy through it, and it doesn't break doiwn with age, unlike ordinary Sellotape. I pushed the LDR in one end and secured it with a shot of hot glue. The LEd was fitted into a grommet of a suitable size, and glued in the other end. I allowed about 5mm between the LDR and the LED. I used a diffused wide angle LED, though I probably didn't need to.

Basically, you need a light proof tube, the same diameter as the LDR, and some way of adapting the LED to fit in the other end. When assembling them onto veroboard, I put a loop or two of wire around the tube to stop it moving about.

An idea I though about was to get some perspex rod, the same diameter as the LED, drill a pocket in one end for the LED, tape the LDR on with electrical tape, or heat-shrink sleeve the two together, then put a bit of black paint over the end.

For earlier experiments, I just board mounted the two parts facing each other, then put a small cover over them.

If you want a plug in part, you can mount both bits on a 14 pin DIL header, then make a cover  for them. this can be plugged into a DIL socket, giving you an opportunity to try different LED/LDR combinations.

Hope this helps

[NorthernLightX]

Thanks Mike, it does help ;)

I myself was thinking to use hot glue to stick an LED and an LDR together, and then dip the package in black paint. The light can travel through the hot glue. I'm not sure if this is going to work, how do you predict the rate of success?  :D

[Goblinz]

Could you not use a surface mount LED to make things smaller. Solder some wires to the LED terminals, glue it on the front of the LDR and cover front of the whole thing with insulation tape.

        G

[NorthernLightX]

Could you not use a surface mount LED to make things smaller. Solder some wires to the LED terminals, glue it on the front of the LDR and cover front of the whole thing with insulation tape.

         G

I do not own SMD LEDs, so I'm going to expiriment with normal LEDs first, but thanks for the suggestion.

[TheAncientOne]

If you get the LED too close, it only lights part of the LDR, and you can't get the full range of resistance change. I found I got a better result with some types of LED too - some have a greater variance of light level vs current.

My first experiments used a small solderless breadboard in a cardboard box. with the LED and LDR just plugged in facing each other A bit of fiddling with a scope, or a parallel port gadget made from a Maxim desgn let me do curves for the things.

If there is more interest, I'll dig out some details.