tiny tremoloOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[deadastronaut]

are they blatantly just an led and ldr inside?...

[newfish]

are they blatantly just an led and ldr inside?...

Yes.  That's exactly what they are, but it saves time (and space) messing around with heat-shrink tubing / 35mm film canisters / insulation tape etc...

Granted, this wouldn't work for *every* opto-isloating application.  Can you imagine trying to get a Neovibe working with these? 

[deadastronaut]

^ yeah right!...

might get a couple of these to mess with....i guess they have the same varying dark/light resistances as normal ldr's then?...

[ORK]

The "resistor" side clearly is a transistor (with lightdependant base) but not a resistor.

[ugly_guitar_guy]

weird....it should be real slo9w to fast...., try a higher c1....out of curiosity....

i used 5mm red bright for on /off...all was ok.

i used 3mm standard yellow, for speed indicator...

what value are your ldr's....the depth should be fine...

Ok, so after some very fine combing, I found that there was a hair thin trace of something connecting the bottom ground where the depth pot is which is why it wasn't working. However, I wouldn't say that it is so much a "depth" as it is a "mix" control. All it does is swell in the normal guitar volume with a very sharp tremolo stutter underneath. Seems kinda odd to me.

Still have ticking too, with whatever vactrol I use. Not sure what I can do to eliminate that.

Hey Rob, which circuit was this first tremolo you did? http://www.youtube.com/user/100roberthenry#p/u/7/UwvCvSwbXYI
 

[deadastronaut]

same one you are doing!....

ticking still?...hmmmmm....mine didnt at all....even when loud!...

[ugly_guitar_guy]

IT WORKS!! HAZZAH!!

Ok, now that I got that out of my system, I can say that I am another verified user of the Tiny Tremolo. Turns out that this circuit really doesn't like superbright LED's, OR the VTL series Vactrols. They all make a popping sound on the peak of the tremolo, so I made a vactrol from a radioshack LDR that rated around 1M and a normal yellow LED. Sounds pretty sweet.

My thought now is that since there's a small volume drop, instead of using a 2PDT switch, you could use a 3PDT switch and route in a buffer/booster when the effect is on. I think I'm going to give this a try, and then squeeze it all into a 1590A enclosure. Thanks for all your help Rob! Can't wait to get it loaded up in a box now.

[deadastronaut]

cool, glad ya got it going....

let us know how ya get  on with the buffer version!...

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Built and verified with no ticking!



I just wish there was a way to make the rate LED brighter, but I guess I'll have to live with it as-is since the TS555CN only outputs barely enough mA to power 2 led's. That's probably what keeps the ticking at bay.

Anyway, a very enjoyable build altogether!

[deadastronaut]

cool...

[JRM]

Is it the "standard" or the boosted version?

[ugly_guitar_guy]

Is it the "standard" or the boosted version?

Standard version. I just have too many projects to get to first, so I'll have to come back to it to tweak a boosted version.

[nexekho]

I've built mine now, not yet got an enclosure in which it fits, but finally put the two halves together on a high tech piece of cardboard, closed the blinds, and:

http://soundcloud.com/nexekho/tinytrem-test

Although I've used a more standard astable 555 with a non-CMOS 555, the basic theory is the same.  Have added a duty dial which only affects one half of the LFO, and a potentiometer on both channels which allow you to bypass the LDRs for depth and I've also used three LDRs with one dedicated to the left channel and the other two switchable for panner or tremolo.
Thanks for the idea!

[deadastronaut]

cool, i coudn't hear the panning though....but it certainly works with distortion too.... nice.

[nexekho]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that as I've only got one stereo patch cable I can't record the panning - with headphones though it works.

[deadastronaut]

ahhhh gotcha... 

[nexekho]

Ordered a short stereo patch with some components for something else, here's the panner:
http://soundcloud.com/nexekho/panner-demo

Thanks again for this design!

[deadastronaut]

@james,  nice one!..sounds great....when i used mine i had it on a slowish pan jamming along with stuff, it was great , it gave it a more live/dynamic to it...instead of  a static mix...

excellent,  did you use the tiny stereo panner vero?...sounds like a good strong signal especially with distortion...

[nexekho]

I used a more standard astable 555 with one of the LEDs on a longish lead and three LDRs, one channel going straight through one LDR and one going through a SPDT so you can switch between a LDR by the first LED and a second by the other LED.  It's the concept that matters though.

It probably matters that my distortion is actually a DSP-based Pocket POD which is very likely to be buffered and the next thing in the sequence is my desktop PC's line in jack.

[deadastronaut]

gotcha!...cool,