NEW PRODUCT: Taptation Tap Tempo controller

[YouAre]

I'm looking for a way to control a Pigtronix Tremvelope pedal, which has an expression pedal input, but using a tap tempo footswitch to set time instead. Would the Taptation do that, attached to a tap footswitch? Thanks.

If I'm not mistaken, the Taptation's digital pot is specifically meant to interface with the PT2399's potentiometer input. I don't think it will drop in place of any resistor or potentiometer.

Even if you could replace a pot/resistor with the Taptation's digital pot, it most likely wouldn't provide an accurate tap tempo interface.

[mugenzi]

Shame, but thanks for the information.

[wrieker]

I'm trying to get my taptation to work, my delay pedal works find without the tap set up but when i wire in the taptation. The timeing of the delay simply wont change. The LEDs  demonstrate time changes however. They blink in the correct patteren without any issue . You can hear a faint hiss every time the led goes on but thats about it. any clue what I've done wrong.

seeing as the delay circuit works fine, and i know the taptation circuit is at least registering the time changes from the switch should I expect this issue to be in the digital pot? any help would be greatly appreciated.

[The Tone God]

seeing as the delay circuit works fine, and i know the taptation circuit is at least registering the time changes from the switch should I expect this issue to be in the digital pot? any help would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds like the delay is not interfacing with TapTation so it would be something with the digital pot. Either the pot is not connecting to the PT2399 or the control lines from the TapTation to the digital pot are not communicating. A quick test would be to measure the resistance of the digital pot at one tempo setting then try again at a vast different setting. If the reading is the same then the control lines are not hooked up properly. If it does change then the connection to the PT2399 is not correct.

Andrew

[dickjonesify]

I just got my PT2399 delay pedal outfitted with taptation!

My Freakshow FX Digilog before...




and after...




Everything works great! 
One question:  The modulation speed seems a bit fast for subtlety.  It looks like you can double time it by grounding pin 7 of the taptation.  Is there a way to slow it down?

[dickjonesify]

Also on modulation, I reused a 5K pot because it was already in there.  The demos I've heard sounded like I could get away with less modulation as I only want a subtle amount.  Even with a 5K pot, i can't turn it above 9 o'clock.   Was my strategy flawed?  Would a lower value pot help or no?

[The Tone God]

Also on modulation, I reused a 5K pot because it was already in there.  The demos I've heard sounded like I could get away with less modulation as I only want a subtle amount.  Even with a 5K pot, i can't turn it above 9 o'clock.   Was my strategy flawed?  Would a lower value pot help or no?

Great work! 

Using a 25K pot for the Time pot is fine. Nothing of real consequence will happen with a pot of smaller value.

The modulation time is set to match with the tempo of the delay. Yes a smaller pot (25KA in the datasheet diagram) will reduce the amount of modulation.

Glad you enjoy the TapTation.

Andrew

[jvanginkel]

I have a new delay using the taptation. It's a Rebote 2.5 with the taptation chip including modulation and the time division switch, but I omitted the double time and LFO half time options on this one. I also made an effects loop for it. It can get out of control pretty quickly, but you can dial in some cool sounds with it. In the video I made today, I put the EH Holy Grail (flurb setting) after a Mooer Pure Octave with one and two octaves up in the fx loop. So my dry signal is unaffected, but the delay signal has the octaves and the phaser type flurb thing. Without the Reverb the octaves sound interesting, but the flurb helps them take more of a back seat in the sound. The bad tracking of the double octave sounds intentional when the reverb softens it up. It sounds synthy and shimmery. I designed and etched a PCB with the Taptation and a basic buffer for the delay (after the effects loop). I also have an external tap.
http://youtu.be/A_09JHuxarc

[Jdansti]

Sounds great! Great sounds!   

[jvanginkel]

Sounds great! Great sounds!   

Thank you so much. I'm so happy with my overall sound right now, maybe I don't need to build anymore pedals (yeah right)!

[guitarplayer78]

Hi, the taptation works great, but I have problems with a clock noise even the pedal is off, can you please help me to fix this issue? tnks

[LabyrinthAudio]

Hi, the taptation works great, but I have problems with a clock noise even the pedal is off, can you please help me to fix this issue? tnks

I have this same issue on both of my builds (deep blue delay + taptation). Considerable time (weeks) has been spent taking these apart and incorporating smaller wire lead lengths, shielded I/O jack wires, grounded bypass 3PDT switch, checked all components, cuts, jumpers, traces, swapped different PT2399's, 100uF filter caps, and did mods to lower noise in the circuit. <- Try these fixes. Only thing I noticed is that the I/O jack wires are microphonic (can hear when you tap them in bypass) and due to space issues both boards are on top of each other with trace sides facing each board. At this point I'll have to get a PCB for the main board then put them in a new enclosure with the boards apart from each other. It's been an agonizing couple of weeks trying to get these to work right. Anything I'm missing here? thanks 

[Jdansti]

This is a shot in the dark, but it works on 555 timer chip and might work on the taptation. Place a 1000μF or greater capacitor on pin 1 of the taptation chip with the + lead as close as possible to the chip and the neg lead to ground.

[markusw]

Sorry if this has been asked before. 
The data sheet of the MCP41100 states 1 mA maximum current through the wiper.
At 25 ms delay the current will clearly be higher than 1 mA.
Does the MCP41100 survive this?

Regards,

Markus

[therealfindo]

I have a new delay using the taptation. It's a Rebote 2.5 with the taptation chip including modulation and the time division switch, but I omitted the double time and LFO half time options on this one. I also made an effects loop for it. It can get out of control pretty quickly, but you can dial in some cool sounds with it. In the video I made today, I put the EH Holy Grail (flurb setting) after a Mooer Pure Octave with one and two octaves up in the fx loop. So my dry signal is unaffected, but the delay signal has the octaves and the phaser type flurb thing. Without the Reverb the octaves sound interesting, but the flurb helps them take more of a back seat in the sound. The bad tracking of the double octave sounds intentional when the reverb softens it up. It sounds synthy and shimmery. I designed and etched a PCB with the Taptation and a basic buffer for the delay (after the effects loop). I also have an external tap.
http://youtu.be/A_09JHuxarc

Sounds great!

Are you willing to share that pcb layout?   

[The Tone God]

Sorry if this has been asked before. 
The data sheet of the MCP41100 states 1 mA maximum current through the wiper.
At 25 ms delay the current will clearly be higher than 1 mA.
Does the MCP41100 survive this?

The pot is just serial resistance for the simple clock circuit. The amount of actual current the PT2399 is using on that pin not above the 1mA.

Andrew

[markusw]

Sorry if this has been asked before. 
The data sheet of the MCP41100 states 1 mA maximum current through the wiper.
At 25 ms delay the current will clearly be higher than 1 mA.
Does the MCP41100 survive this?

The pot is just serial resistance for the simple clock circuit. The amount of actual current the PT2399 is using on that pin not above the 1mA.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

thanks for your answer! 
I'm confused now.
Merlin states here http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/smalltime.html
"Pin-6 of the PT2399 is a voltage source that rests at half the chip's supply voltage, which is provided by a 5V regulator in this case, so pin-6 will be at 2.5V. The current sucked out of this pin controls the delay time. An important thing to consider is that the current must not exceed 2.5mA when power is first applied or the chip is liable to burn out, so a 1k fixed resistor is included in series with the delay pot. "

Regards,

Markus

[dickjonesify]

Hi, the taptation works great, but I have problems with a clock noise even the pedal is off, can you please help me to fix this issue? tnks

For me, it was the LED making the noise.  Added another 1K resistor to tame it a bit and the clicking went away.

[jvanginkel]

[/quote]

Sounds great!

Are you willing to share that pcb layout?   
[/quote]

I'm willing. I know nothing about designing proper pcb layouts. I think the layout is on my other computer. I'll look for it sometime soon.  I also would not necessarily recommend doing what i did. Even with the buffer, the fx loop is incredibly sensitive to what you put in it. Some stuff doesn't really work, some of it spins out of control, some setting decrease the repeats, its not really that useful, but it is fun.

[therealfindo]

So, my bro-in-law gave me the taptation chipset for Christmas, and it finally arrived But now I need to etch a daughterboard, and can't seem to find a pcb pdf for that.. does anyone have one? Or even better, a DBD or something like that with the tap circuit already in play..

Thanks!