Vanishing point V2.1 1590b sized PCB layout and some audio FX layouts.

[Bassmanfox]

I got this working , but it seemed to have a few errors. 
First off the "CC" out?  what the...??  if you just use that you will only have on or off, with no depth, unless working on this thing all day really made me crazy.   You have to break the connection from the last pot out that goes to the 220r.  Then use the CC and the connection to the last pot out.  The last pot will go to your + of the led and the CC or the 220r out will go to the negative.  This is what the schematic on tone god shows anyway.

Secondly I don't know why there is the 100k resistor on the top left next to the speed pot.  It just goes from +9v to pin 2 of the cd40106.  Can anybody explain why?  In place or not in place I seem to get the same result.  I left it off as it is not on the original schematic.  I got rid of the clock/manual toggle because I couldn't seem to get that to work.  What I ended up doing was connecting both 2 (yes both underlined 2's)  and put that to a switch to switch it to ground or not just like on the schematic.  I'll try to connect those again later now that I know it works.  Can anybody confirm that the diagram is correct, for some reason the schematic is making me cross eyed?  I connected it to the suggested wah board and used a vtl5c3 and it works just fine.  I put a trim cap in place of the 100k on the photo side of the Vtl5c3 and that helped a little to obtain more of a wah.  I just wanted to post this quick just in case anyone was stuck, I'll update it after I have some time to spend with it.

[The Tone God]

Its been awhile since I looked at that and I didn't complete go through it to confirm the layout. The layout is trying to do everything offered in the VP article including the step mode. It is up to the builder to decided what features they want and how to impliment them.

Secondly I don't know why there is the 100k resistor on the top left next to the speed pot.  It just goes from +9v to pin 2 of the cd40106.  Can anybody explain why?

I believe that is the 100K pull up for the debouncing circuit if one plans on using the step switch function but it should not having a connection from 6 to 4. If you are not using the step function then you should not need the 100K or the accompany cap.

Andrew

[Fp-www.Tonepad.com]

Thanks nelson!

Fp

[DWBH]

nelson, is the pdf file from the link of your 1st post totally updated?

[DWBH]

Hey nelson, there's no effect out in the Tremulus Lune pcb.

[DWBH]

Bump

[The Tone God]

If you are trying to use the VP to control the Lune then you would use the VP's output to control the optocoupler instead of the Lune's LFO. The "effect out" is that of the Lune not the VP.

Andrew

[DWBH]

Sorry, but I didn't understand.

Both the wah board and the filter have an out on their own board.

If I want to control the wah with the VP I connect the out of the wah board to the 3PDT. What about with the tremulus? What do I connect to the Effect out of the 3PDT?

[DWBH]

Sorry, but I didn't understand.

Both the wah board and the filter have an out on their own board.

If I want to control the wah with the VP I connect the out of the wah board to the 3PDT. What about with the tremulus? What do I connect to the Effect out of the 3PDT?

bump

[The Tone God]

I getting alittle confused. The VP only replaces the control on the effect. In the case of the Lune you will replace the optocoupler. In a wah you would replace the pot used for the sweeping.

The VP does nothing with the audio portions of these circuit so you treat them just the same as without the VP in terms of wiring bypasses and signals.

Andrew

[DWBH]

Hehe...
I'm confused as well.

But follow me: In the tremulus board there's no out pad, although that in the other boards there is. The out of the effect is connected to the 3PDT. But, as there is no out effect in the tremulus, what do we connect do the 3PDT?

bah, nevermind. I'll draw something with the connections (wah and tremulus) and then i'll post it here.

[mattpocket]

This is ace!

Its been on the cards for a while now, and now I got a decent layout I can finally build one!?

Thanks for all the hard work guys! 

[~arph]

I did not use this layout (did my own) but this is how mine turned out:

[theblackman]

that is VERY stylish.

[jmasciswannabe]

Yes, that does look very, very nice. I was wondering if anyone has tried or thought of replacing the optocoupler in the uglyface with this circuit. Thoughts, comments?

[theblackman]

i would say it would be pretty cool, moosapotamus (www.moosapotamus.net) added an envelope follower to his..

[jahsoul]

would be nice just to have as a modular pedal with banana jacks to send cv to various other effects... or maybe try one with a gristleizer or any of those rad jon hollis circuits?! ugh THANKS

[widdly]

Banana jacks wont work for battery pedals because the grounds wont be connected, unless of course you use a couple of them. 

But nice idea on routing CV's like in a modular synth.  I'd go for 3.5mm plugs so you don't connect them to the wrong things.

[mojotron]

I got this working , but it seemed to have a few errors. 
First off the "CC" out?  what the...??  if you just use that you will only have on or off, with no depth, unless working on this thing all day really made me crazy.   You have to break the connection from the last pot out that goes to the 220r.  Then use the CC and the connection to the last pot out.  The last pot will go to your + of the led and the CC or the 220r out will go to the negative.  This is what the schematic on tone god shows anyway.

Secondly I don't know why there is the 100k resistor on the top left next to the speed pot.  It just goes from +9v to pin 2 of the cd40106.  Can anybody explain why?  In place or not in place I seem to get the same result.  I left it off as it is not on the original schematic.  I got rid of the clock/manual toggle because I couldn't seem to get that to work.  What I ended up doing was connecting both 2 (yes both underlined 2's)  and put that to a switch to switch it to ground or not just like on the schematic.  I'll try to connect those again later now that I know it works.  Can anybody confirm that the diagram is correct, for some reason the schematic is making me cross eyed?  I connected it to the suggested wah board and used a vtl5c3 and it works just fine.  I put a trim cap in place of the 100k on the photo side of the Vtl5c3 and that helped a little to obtain more of a wah.  I just wanted to post this quick just in case anyone was stuck, I'll update it after I have some time to spend with it.

Well it took me 2.5 years to get around to this project, always interested in this thread - but very little time to put into it. Finally, I had some time so I built some stuff for myself for the first time in a long time. The VP was 3rd on my build list - I needed to satisfy my curiosity with the OVD and then I needed to make a killer MXR EF - but mostly - I could not dig up any cd40106 parts and had to wait for them anyway. I ordered a bunch of CD40XX(X) parts so I may really dive into the deepend here...

Andrew, Nelson and Bassmanfox (well everyone who has helped with this) - I thank you very much - The digital board works great!

The way I did this was to etch the board, populate the board, then wire things up, then debug all in about 6 different sessions. This is not a build that I think one would want to sit down and knock out in an afternoon - this is a tough one, but well worth it. So, I planned it out and decided to really take my time as the time involved in being careful may be less than that of debugging a rushed build. I think this was one of the few (other than TS808 and maybe the FF) first builds where it (kind of) just worked as soon as I applied power - I fired it up just as layed out (only routing the emitter of the right most transister first) - then appled Bassmanfox's mods to get it to work. And, it's pretty cool - I'm very happy with the digital board. I think the tough thing about this board is just the optimization for space.

Here are the mods I needed to make to get the digital board to work:

1) I got rid of the clock/manual switch as Bassmanfox suggested and added a ground to 2 on a switch instead - I kept the 100k resister (don't know about that one - likely a don't care at this point as the trace is not being hooked to a switch).
2) I routed the emitter of the right most transistor - as suggested earlier
3) The "CC" out comment by Bassmanfox saved me a great deal of time!! That was right on the money - Thanks again!!

OK - now I will move on to either integrating the Trem or Wah boards - those are pretty straight forward at this point since I have build a number of wahs and lunes before this, plus I have a bunch of Light Dependent Resistors (LDR)s to mess with.

Maybe I will put them in the same box, or have a digital box and many analog boxes as suggested earlier - I'll figure that out next session.
Also, I'm going to put some work into getting the clock/manual toggle to work - I'll post what I find out.

Side note, one thing that has always bugged me about using LDRs is that they are tough to get right, even after you have found the right one; there has to be a better way to do this - anyone know of a good way to eliminate the LDR in like a Trem Lune circuit?

[The Tone God]

Side note, one thing that has always bugged me about using LDRs is that they are tough to get right, even after you have found the right one; there has to be a better way to do this - anyone know of a good way to eliminate the LDR in like a Trem Lune circuit?

The LDR was used as a "safe" way to control an number of different circuit parameter control configurations. It solves alot of problems toward the goal of universal control if there is such a thing. Can it be replaced by something else ? Depends on what you are controlling and/or the function of the resistive element in the circuit.

For example an easy replacement is if the element is a source to ground like say for a tremolo. You can use various transistors for the job depending on the signal requirements. Calibration would be the major trick here. I did play the idea of a buffer/bias control on the output of the stages into the resistive control element so one could adjust the range of the output to drive different elements or even just for another control.

Just a few thoughts.

Andrew