Came here just for a quick "oh let's see how the neon bulb sounds", stayed for the excellent talk and demonstration of all the other devices. Nice work!
im impressed ! dist. sound- 👍🏻+ clean sound- 👍🏻++ new H.Freq sound - 👍🏻🏅🎖🏆 your presentation (explanation & clarity) - 👍🏻 , 👍🏻 one for each skill as they exist as irreduceably complex , when the most effective way to teach is sought after. AND i was elated that you seemed to embed obscure wisdom , to those that have keen observatory traits. first off, i admire your pedals design. the I/O and controls are in the optimum location, as this has been fleshed out for over 100 yrs. but im intreged to the type of material used.... ie: the housing, it dont look like Aluminim. or thin sheet - stamped steel. it looks though it was cast. then the switch looks as a re-purposed fastener custom fitted as a switch post cap, to resemble the simplicity of steam- punked. i do a lot of repurpose 'ing on my builds, (CBG's, sm. amp's & bluetooth speakers, just to name a few) i find this is a most admirable way , as it removes waste products from the earth, and not having hard earned finances to run buy a box painted red metal flakes, chrome corners & a packet of stickers with skulls, stars, stripes, lightning bolts a wide variety for choice. the difficult level increases and to me that increases the fun/enjoyment level. i get a kick out people looking at mine & i see them trying to de-engineer it. now the rubbish discarded item , stands as a rare & coveted item. from the artistic touch & the wonderful ability of creativity, so to whatever materials was used - 🔭✨️😉🤚🏼😁. ok, ive yammer'ed long enought , that is a great tone on each setting, i pre-judged the zener diode to help with s plesant tone because it has that build up of resistance to point & then it allows current to flow & falls off a cliff, but alas, it has a distenct sound. i admire to whole thing, and mostly would like to swap ideas on high frequency & builds using it. ...... but i will have to return at a later time. btw you got a sub from me ⚡️🎸🤚🏼😁
Haha yeah, actually I'm surprised gas discharge distortion is not more of a thing, they are used for voltage regulation and stuff, like diodes are at low voltage.
You are amazing. You are such a good inventor and teacher. Set up a basic class live and I will attend, I want to learn about how to make circuits, inventive ones, useful and fun ones. Awesome!!
Hahaha thanks, always nice to get a compliment... but I would be remarkably unqualified for something like that :P I've never actually learnt electronics and I'm really fumbling around this stuff myself. For example, just a few weeks ago I learnt that I've been referencing my audio inputs and outputs incorrectly all this time, which is why my circuits never worked with wall adapters and I always had to use batteries xD
Oh man you nailed the 00s grunge tone without even trying hell yeah. Might have to build one of these into my amp project once parts start arriving- I’m using one of those “Tube Fever” kits off Ali in combination with a couple op amps and some clipping diodes to build a low wattage practice amp that still has some of the features from larger amps.
Pretty cool on what you did here. 👍 You should share this with Jack White from The White Stripes. I'm sure he would love this. This is really cool how you can stack things.
Oh yes, I LIKE high voltage distortion! I want a little box like that with the clips so I can fiddle with different combinations all night!! Super frickin kin Cool!!!
It's a cool little experiment. I'm a firm believer semiconductors do it better than tubes, but there's also a lot involved to get the circuit there. The compression of the control grid in the tube plays a pillar role in it's most desired characteristics, and so does the limited bandwidth in comparison since they tend to cut off at about 10 Khz when used with guitar. *The last few days, I've used a pair of diodes in a feedback loop on a very simple high gain transistor amplifier, and I'm getting the dead on distortion texture of a tube, but it needs significant refinements with some RC networks and truly, more architecture to be truly useful. About 9 years ago, I pieced together some of my original designs and I had a sound dead onto a 5150 and a Mesa Dual rectifier, but 100% semiconductors. I had the definition of tubes, the saturation and texture of tube distortion, and just needed more gain to shred metal. I'm restarting that journey and this time, I will complete it! Your experiment taps into what I've long since necessary which is very high voltage distortion. Most of us want that zapping, zinging froth and glassy buzz of tubes without the price, and I'm ranting just to say, it can be done.
I enjoyed you video because of the innovation you showed in getting those different sounds, You might also want to try a Diac, it is like a low voltage neon bulb.... Keep experimenting, it is good for both the mind and the soul!
great video! I've been messing around with neon bulbs in audio circuits for a few years, but yours is the first I've seen about it online. my solution sounds different due to different components and layout, and also I'm using bass. I'll make a video and message you when it's ready :+)
Most excellent, my friend. Really gets the imagination going. Would love to see further exploration, perhaps to include analysis of existing commercial pedal circuits such as the Hudson Broadcast (and/or any others that employ small transformers). Thanks for sharing this ✌️🤘🤙🔌🎛🫡
damn I enjoyed that video a lot! You should make more of these and consider selling some custome made pedals! I'm sure there's tons of people interested in that
Glad you liked it! I don't think I'd ever produce and sell them, but I am planning to make another of these in a proper stomp box form soon for personal use on my pedalboard.
Awesome channel and video! My first flirtation with gas discharge tubes involved replacing the full wave rectifier tube with a mercury vapor rectifier in a few amps - with a time delay relay to ensure the filament had enough time to warm the tube. Never considered trying these tubes as essentially clipping diodes.
Ha! I didn't even know gas discharge tubes could be directional. Goes to show how sometimes an idea obvious to one person isn't to another and vice versa...
@@Psychotenuse Check out the channel El Paso Tube Amps. He has tons of videos on AF and RF amplifiers, and among them he did a few on gas rectifier tubes - mercury vapor, argon, and xenon. As you noticed with the sharp gain cut-in with your pedal illustrating the distinct threshold of ionization, gas tubes used as rectifiers have an advantage over vacuum tube rectifiers since they have a nearly constant voltage drop regardless of current draw - this happens to be the voltage required to ionize the gas. For example, a 5u4g vacuum rectifier may have a significant voltage sag when loaded up to 200mA, but an equivalent MV rectifier (like a type 83) will have a stable 15 volt drop throughout its current range. As you mentioned elsewhere, gas tubes are often used as a voltage reference for regulating circuits; this stable voltage drop - due to the ionization potential, regardless of current draw - is precisely why they can be used effectively for this.
Yeah, lots of cool properties! The one that's most unique to me is the little hysteresis loop (not pictured in the video) between the turn-on and turn-off states, something you don't see in any semiconductor devices that I'm aware of.
GE published a 500 page manual on their little NE-2 bulbs with tons of circuits. They need light (or radiation) to work, which is why the orange lights on power strip bars flicker in a dark room. The amount of ambient light would probably change your distortion tone!
Do a search for the old Signalite publications. They had all sorts of fascinating circuits with neon bulbs. Including musical stuff like frequency dividers.
@@Psychotenuse I plan to build this, I have a large collection of little neon bulbs, different voltages and colors. Excited to compare them. Thanks for your videos!
Thanks :) Yeah so effects like reverb and delay (a reverb is just a collection of very short delays) cannot be done using analog circuitry alone. You need either digital processing or mechanical movement to get any kind of frequency-independent delay. There are some "analog delay" pedals but they are sort of 'half-digital' in that they use a discretized time axis. It would probably be possible to build a reverb pedal using a popular microcontroller like an Arduino. Maybe something I try someday but I'll have to learn how xP
So I came up with a network like this imgur.com/a/HVgTLwY looking for something whose I-V curve has negative curvature, i.e. the static effective resistance increases with voltage. R1 here should be 10 - 100 times bigger than R2. When the voltage is lower than the threshold voltage, most of the current flows through R2. When the voltage is higher than the threshold voltage, much of the current flows through R1. Two of these networks connected anti-parallel gives the squelch network I showed. As for the clipping part I don't actually remember exactly what it was but it's diode-resistor series pairs connected in parallel.
thatis really cool,, i need to watch more of your videos,, an led bulb made a distortion sound, i wonder if a xenon bulb from a car headlight would do, i know they make tons of voltage
This is fascinating! I'd love to see your schematics. I'm currently almost finished with my rat pedal cone, which I've modified to include a 9-way switch that will choose between different colored LEDs. The 9th setting leads to a row of 8 LEDs in a circuit borrowed from the Boss Heavy Metal. I'm looking forward to seeing if it works.
I noticed you haven't put out a video since last year, but I just found this and thought it was amazing (though electronics is unfortunately completely over my head >.
Yeah, I've not uploaded pretty much since school related activities started back up. I do have plans for a couple of videos in the coming months, though. As to using gas discharge tubes for an amp, the problem of course is that they have no amplification capabilities that I know of :P Maybe multiple stages of gas distortion would have a cool effect though, like how you get multiple stages of vacuum tube distortion in an amp.
I really couldn't, unfortunately, because I used a salvaged transformer from an old linear power adapter. You could look for 240V to 12V transformers or for 120V to 6V transformers (you would wire them in reverse, of course)
I would like to mention that getting shocked across some fingers on one hand cannot kill a person. However, it may cause burns if the amperage is high enough. Not sure how much amperage it would take to cause permanent nerve damage. I only shocked myself once on a hand with 120vac, and this just caused muscle spasms in that hand for an hour. Always be as respectful of high voltage as if it were a spinning blade.
Not immediately clear to me how you'd use it for a VCF but if you have a high voltage DC rail it is really easy to make an LFO with one of these (literally 3 components).
excellent idea, patent your idea. The other thing is that, if the more detailed project could be published? I don't understand the schematic and I don't know about engineering issues. Or Photos of Proyect.
@@Psychotenuse it's okay. The detail of the triangle before the transformer in the schematic. What is that triangle?. What type of transformer does it use? I see that there is a source, maybe 9v. That's right?. And what potentiometers? How are the potentiometers connected?
@@havieralvarez2500 What I show in the video is just a rough "block diagram" of sorts to give an idea of what is going on (the triangle represents an amplifier). The full schematic is linked in the description, as well as a parts list.
interesting. theres a minute capacitance when its not conducting... picofarads... still sucks some of the top end out. remember, it STRIKES at ~90V... but it CONDUCTS at much lower voltages once it strikes. about 20... so you clip the wave when it peaks out, and then... theres this interesting effect... it will always pull the waveform back down to the conduction voltage, only conducting whilst enough current exists to maintain ionisation. how much power is the amplifier delivering, resistance, frequency, etc... if the waveform reverses before ionisation decays... it will continue to conduct. if it doesnt reverse fast enough, then the neon will stop conducting and only strike again as it hits that 90v peak again... so the deacy characteristics as the amplitude and frequency and ionisation /deionisation rates all interact are particularly interesting... would have loved to see some scope traces? im assuming high amplitude high frequency signals will tend to "reverse conduct" far more... now i gotta throw this into a tube somewhere... this is only one of literally HUNDREDS of ways of messing with this concept... thought of before but never bothered trying?
Love this video! I am trying to build one myself, but I can't seem to find a transformer that works for this application. Could you link the one you are using here?
No, unfortunately, because I used one salvaged from an old wall wart i.e. linear power supply. It's just a power transformer, though. You can use a 120V to 6V transformer or a 240V to 12V transformer.
Im a little late to the show, but i hope someone can tell me where to get a 1:20 transformer for audio, or the best core to buy and the number of wraps on the primary.
Maybe split the signal in 2, with some slight difference like mod or delay, and then both signals have their own neon tube. Like eyes. Then put a skull or cat picture on it
Hi, thanks for another cool idea. Is there any reason why non inverting application of TDA2030 couldn't be used here? I have some small noninverting version PCBs handy, and maybe with input resistance much greater than 1K it wouldn't load guitar as much?
I have a Nixie tube power supply I was thinking of using for the high voltage in a project like this. How would you go about that? I suppose I'll have to control the signal with a transistor? Conversely I could try to find a transformer but I'm not sure where to look for the right specs.
The point of using a transformer is to avoid the need for a high voltage power supply. If you just want to do it with high voltage that's a completely different circuit.
hello, very good video. The project is phenomenal. I only had three questions. 1-Can a direct current of 15 volts be used for the TDA 2030? 2-If the transformer is T1=1:24 (5volts/120volts) what would change from the schematic in googledrive? 3-at time 5:42 you used a led bulb, can any be used?
Thanks for watching and commenting :) 1. Yes, the TDA2030 can be run off 15V. 2. That transformer should work fine. You'll be operating it a bit outside its voltage rating but probably not enough to damage it, particularly since you'll probably be way under the power rating. 3. The LED bulb is being used as a clipping element here, so clearly an incandescent bulb will not work. A fluorescent lamp might do something interesting, but I can't promise you it's not dangerous to try. Even among LED lamps, only the simpler ones will act as a clipping element. Some fancier LED lamps may have complicated driving circuitry in them, in which case you won't get the kind of result you see in the video.
Haha yeah, I don't recommend you do that :P I zapped myself with this intentionally in the name of science (in fact I can sort of turn my hand into a distortion pedal) so I know more or less how much it can hurt. I was careful never to touch the two terminals with two different hands because that way the current can flow through your heart.
I'm not sure what you mean by stacked. The neon lamp is not a valve and it has no amplification capabilities. To make this transformerless you would need a DC rail at 90 volts or higher.
Your questions seem based on the idea that a neon lamp is an amplifier like a valve or transistor or op-amp. It is not. It is a passive nonlinear component like a diode.
Hahaha. Well, first of all, I don't recommend you emulate my behavior in the video. To answer your question, though, I am getting zapped a bit sometimes, but it's not too bad because my hands are dry and I'm holding the leads fairly lightly. I have also tried - for science - licking my fingers and grabbing the leads tighter, and yeah that definitely gave me a good little tingle in my nerves. There are several reasons it's not particularly dangerous. The high voltage side on the transformer is effectively isolated from mains, so I'm not going to have currents running through my body to ground. As long as I only touch the contacts with one hand any currents will be only in that hand. Then the neon bulb itself clamps the voltage to its nominal 90V and the drop resistor limits current further... basically while I definitely don't advise imitating my stupid behavior, I've also definitely not built an electric chair here.
Came here just for a quick "oh let's see how the neon bulb sounds", stayed for the excellent talk and demonstration of all the other devices. Nice work!
Thanks! Glad you liked it :)
im impressed !
dist. sound- 👍🏻+
clean sound- 👍🏻++
new H.Freq sound - 👍🏻🏅🎖🏆
your presentation (explanation & clarity) - 👍🏻 , 👍🏻 one for each skill as they exist as irreduceably complex , when the most effective way to teach is sought after.
AND i was elated that you seemed to embed obscure wisdom , to those that have keen observatory traits.
first off, i admire your pedals design. the I/O and controls are in the optimum location, as this has been fleshed out for over 100 yrs.
but im intreged to the type of material used.... ie: the housing, it dont look like Aluminim. or thin sheet - stamped steel.
it looks though it was cast.
then the switch looks as a re-purposed fastener custom fitted as a switch post cap, to resemble the simplicity of steam- punked. i do a lot of repurpose 'ing on my builds, (CBG's, sm. amp's & bluetooth speakers, just to name a few)
i find this is a most admirable way , as it removes waste products from the earth, and not having hard earned finances to run buy a box painted red metal flakes, chrome corners & a packet of stickers with skulls, stars, stripes, lightning bolts a wide variety for choice. the difficult level increases and to me that increases the fun/enjoyment level. i get a kick out people looking at mine & i see them trying to de-engineer it.
now the rubbish discarded item , stands as a rare & coveted item. from the artistic touch & the wonderful ability of creativity, so to whatever materials was used - 🔭✨️😉🤚🏼😁.
ok, ive yammer'ed long enought , that is a great tone on each setting, i pre-judged the zener diode to help with s plesant tone because it has that build up of resistance to point & then it allows current to flow & falls off a cliff, but alas, it has a distenct sound. i admire to whole thing, and mostly would like to swap ideas on high frequency & builds using it. ...... but i will have to return at a later time.
btw you got a sub from me ⚡️🎸🤚🏼😁
@guitarman_3693 Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it. Many of builds are just fun projects so I don't bother to make them performance-ready.
"so be careful over here on this side because its almost mains voltage."
*grabs bulb and repeatedly plugs and unplugs*
Hahaha yeah not the best role model perhaps :P
I checked, and you can shock yourself with it if you hit the strings hard.
Really cool non-conventional clipping element!
Haha yeah, actually I'm surprised gas discharge distortion is not more of a thing, they are used for voltage regulation and stuff, like diodes are at low voltage.
It sounds like a very thick fuzz, really good .
wow the tone was wayyy better then i expected amazing project🔥🔥🔥
Thanks! Glad you liked it :)
You are amazing. You are such a good inventor and teacher. Set up a basic class live and I will attend, I want to learn about how to make circuits, inventive ones, useful and fun ones. Awesome!!
Hahaha thanks, always nice to get a compliment... but I would be remarkably unqualified for something like that :P I've never actually learnt electronics and I'm really fumbling around this stuff myself. For example, just a few weeks ago I learnt that I've been referencing my audio inputs and outputs incorrectly all this time, which is why my circuits never worked with wall adapters and I always had to use batteries xD
@@PsychotenuseYou're doing a great job! Keep it up, I'll be watching and learning. Best to you.
This is so dope! Ended up buying some neon diodes to hopefully build one of these…thanks!!!
Awesome! Glad you like it :D
I'm completely blown away ! that is SICK !
Thank you!
:)
Brilliant! Simplicity and a fantastic sound. This is my next project!
I'd love to hear how it goes :)
just finished building one of these .In combination with the amp I built based on yours I am pleased with the results.
Going to try a diode valve👍
That's awesome!
Oh man you nailed the 00s grunge tone without even trying hell yeah. Might have to build one of these into my amp project once parts start arriving- I’m using one of those “Tube Fever” kits off Ali in combination with a couple op amps and some clipping diodes to build a low wattage practice amp that still has some of the features from larger amps.
Awesome!
Pretty cool on what you did here. 👍 You should share this with Jack White from The White Stripes. I'm sure he would love this. This is really cool how you can stack things.
Oh yes, I LIKE high voltage distortion! I want a little box like that with the clips so I can fiddle with different combinations all night!! Super frickin kin Cool!!!
ur stuff is consistently brilliant dude
That is quite the compliment, thank you so much haha
Huh, I'll be damned it actually sounds pretty good! The way that tiny tube lights up under load is pretty cool too!
Glad you like it! Thanks for watching and commenting.
It's a cool little experiment. I'm a firm believer semiconductors do it better than tubes, but there's also a lot involved to get the circuit there. The compression of the control grid in the tube plays a pillar role in it's most desired characteristics, and so does the limited bandwidth in comparison since they tend to cut off at about 10 Khz when used with guitar. *The last few days, I've used a pair of diodes in a feedback loop on a very simple high gain transistor amplifier, and I'm getting the dead on distortion texture of a tube, but it needs significant refinements with some RC networks and truly, more architecture to be truly useful.
About 9 years ago, I pieced together some of my original designs and I had a sound dead onto a 5150 and a Mesa Dual rectifier, but 100% semiconductors. I had the definition of tubes, the saturation and texture of tube distortion, and just needed more gain to shred metal. I'm restarting that journey and this time, I will complete it!
Your experiment taps into what I've long since necessary which is very high voltage distortion.
Most of us want that zapping, zinging froth and glassy buzz of tubes without the price, and I'm ranting just to say, it can be done.
There’s a company called surprise sound lab that makes a pedal that uses semiconductors in a high voltage circuit that sounds pretty good.
I don't know if you will see my comment but I have beem making DIY pedals and this is a genius idea man. Keep up the good work!
Glad you like it! Thanks for watching and commenting :)
I enjoyed you video because of the innovation you showed in getting those different sounds,
You might also want to try a Diac, it is like a low voltage neon bulb....
Keep experimenting, it is good for both the mind and the soul!
Amen :)
Cool device ... thanks a lot for sharing
Glad you like it, thanks for watching :)
Sounds divine man greatest distortion i ever heard, so musical.
I guess you were waiting all your life for gas tube distortion xD
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks. I think I might experiment myself after seeing what you were doing there.
It's pretty cool
Glad you like it :)
Pretty nice preamp pedal!!!, sounds like the 70's amps distortion. Grettings and keep it up!!!.
Thanks! :)
Damn, it's soo good! I need to try this with my Behringer TD-3 bassline :)
great video! I've been messing around with neon bulbs in audio circuits for a few years, but yours is the first I've seen about it online. my solution sounds different due to different components and layout, and also I'm using bass. I'll make a video and message you when it's ready :+)
Most excellent, my friend. Really gets the imagination going. Would love to see further exploration, perhaps to include analysis of existing commercial pedal circuits such as the Hudson Broadcast (and/or any others that employ small transformers). Thanks for sharing this ✌️🤘🤙🔌🎛🫡
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Just like to point out your a great player also . Hopefully you cash out before this gets to the big companies . Very interesting sounds
Hey, thanks! I don't really mind if some company picks this idea up, in fact it would be pretty cool to see it on shelves, haha.
@@Psychotenuse copyright is pretty ridiculous on circuitry anyway
I’ve never smashed that like/sub button so fast. Cool vid, thanks. Cool fuzz tone too.
Thank you!
Cool video! Well done! Higher voltage pedals sounds good.
Ok, I think I have to build this. Thank you for a great video!
Glad you liked it!
damn I enjoyed that video a lot! You should make more of these and consider selling some custome made pedals! I'm sure there's tons of people interested in that
Glad you liked it!
I don't think I'd ever produce and sell them, but I am planning to make another of these in a proper stomp box form soon for personal use on my pedalboard.
Thats a good sounding distortion too. I like that.
Glad you like it, thanks for watching :)
Awesome channel and video! My first flirtation with gas discharge tubes involved replacing the full wave rectifier tube with a mercury vapor rectifier in a few amps - with a time delay relay to ensure the filament had enough time to warm the tube. Never considered trying these tubes as essentially clipping diodes.
Ha! I didn't even know gas discharge tubes could be directional. Goes to show how sometimes an idea obvious to one person isn't to another and vice versa...
@@Psychotenuse Check out the channel El Paso Tube Amps. He has tons of videos on AF and RF amplifiers, and among them he did a few on gas rectifier tubes - mercury vapor, argon, and xenon. As you noticed with the sharp gain cut-in with your pedal illustrating the distinct threshold of ionization, gas tubes used as rectifiers have an advantage over vacuum tube rectifiers since they have a nearly constant voltage drop regardless of current draw - this happens to be the voltage required to ionize the gas. For example, a 5u4g vacuum rectifier may have a significant voltage sag when loaded up to 200mA, but an equivalent MV rectifier (like a type 83) will have a stable 15 volt drop throughout its current range. As you mentioned elsewhere, gas tubes are often used as a voltage reference for regulating circuits; this stable voltage drop - due to the ionization potential, regardless of current draw - is precisely why they can be used effectively for this.
Yeah, lots of cool properties! The one that's most unique to me is the little hysteresis loop (not pictured in the video) between the turn-on and turn-off states, something you don't see in any semiconductor devices that I'm aware of.
That would be super interesting in eurorack format!
Thats a really nice clipping behavior!
GE published a 500 page manual on their little NE-2 bulbs with tons of circuits. They need light (or radiation) to work, which is why the orange lights on power strip bars flicker in a dark room. The amount of ambient light would probably change your distortion tone!
Do a search for the old Signalite publications. They had all sorts of fascinating circuits with neon bulbs. Including musical stuff like frequency dividers.
That's pretty cool to think about, yeah!
hell yeah, thats so interesting to watch!
Very impressive, it has that old timey lo resolution fizzy kinda sound. I think I might try to make me one. 😁👍🏽
Glad you like it! Would love to hear how your build goes if you do :)
Best video I've ever seen in my life
Thanks for the comment, it means a lot! Glad you liked it :)
@@Psychotenuse I plan to build this, I have a large collection of little neon bulbs, different voltages and colors. Excited to compare them. Thanks for your videos!
@julesl6910 That's awesome! I would really love to see your results, since I have only ever tried this one bulb.
This answers so many questions for me!
Thank you, thank you!
Really? It's a pretty specific idea xP
Glad to be of help though!
@@Psychotenuse Now I have a bunch of questions! Hahaha!
Amazing as always
Keep doing the great work
Edit : sir could you please build a simple hall/room reverb pedal .
Thanks :)
Yeah so effects like reverb and delay (a reverb is just a collection of very short delays) cannot be done using analog circuitry alone. You need either digital processing or mechanical movement to get any kind of frequency-independent delay. There are some "analog delay" pedals but they are sort of 'half-digital' in that they use a discretized time axis.
It would probably be possible to build a reverb pedal using a popular microcontroller like an Arduino. Maybe something I try someday but I'll have to learn how xP
Also why would you call me sir lol that's funny
Pt2399 might work as well??🤷🏽♂️
Haha I didn't know about this chip, of course that would work :D
Very cool project! sounds amazing
Thanks! Glad you like it :)
I really like this pedal! Very cool idea.
Glad you liked it, thanks for watching :)
That was very cool and very interesting. Great job.
Thanks!
pretty cool stuff. let's se what else is going on here, 'cause I'm up for a fun weekend project.
The last configuration sounds pretty warm but still nice but of gain
Could you share a sketch of the LED matrix you used at the end of the video? Also, what voltage is used for power? 9v?
Thanks! This kicks ass!
So I came up with a network like this imgur.com/a/HVgTLwY
looking for something whose I-V curve has negative curvature, i.e. the static effective resistance increases with voltage. R1 here should be 10 - 100 times bigger than R2. When the voltage is lower than the threshold voltage, most of the current flows through R2. When the voltage is higher than the threshold voltage, much of the current flows through R1.
Two of these networks connected anti-parallel gives the squelch network I showed.
As for the clipping part I don't actually remember exactly what it was but it's diode-resistor series pairs connected in parallel.
Badass, thank you!
Thanks you very much from Indonesian.
Great idea! Reminds me of the Plasma Pedal by Gamechanger Audio.
That was partly the inspiration, I'm sure! Thanks for watching :)
This is so great! Love your channel!
Works well as a fuzz pedal
Thats a cool project man!
Glad you like it :)
thatis really cool,, i need to watch more of your videos,, an led bulb made a distortion sound, i wonder if a xenon bulb from a car headlight would do, i know they make tons of voltage
I think I might have tried that xD
Didn't do anything, which makes sense because it's probably essentially a short circuit at low power.
Very nice and very greatly explained ! My only question is whats the power supply voltage ?
12v in the video
Wooooow man you are a genius.
Subbed for coolest pedal idea ever 😁👍
Thanks! Glad you liked it :D
Bro one word
Eddie Van Halen
Y E S❤❤❤❤❤
Great! I would love to hear that plugged into a Tube amp, like a Marshall ou something similar!
This is fascinating! I'd love to see your schematics. I'm currently almost finished with my rat pedal cone, which I've modified to include a 9-way switch that will choose between different colored LEDs. The 9th setting leads to a row of 8 LEDs in a circuit borrowed from the Boss Heavy Metal. I'm looking forward to seeing if it works.
The schematic is linked in the description :)
Glad you like it!
I like high voltage distortion!
Glad!
:)
I noticed you haven't put out a video since last year, but I just found this and thought it was amazing (though electronics is unfortunately completely over my head >.
Yeah, I've not uploaded pretty much since school related activities started back up. I do have plans for a couple of videos in the coming months, though.
As to using gas discharge tubes for an amp, the problem of course is that they have no amplification capabilities that I know of :P
Maybe multiple stages of gas distortion would have a cool effect though, like how you get multiple stages of vacuum tube distortion in an amp.
Can you link to the step up transformer you used.
I really couldn't, unfortunately, because I used a salvaged transformer from an old linear power adapter. You could look for 240V to 12V transformers or for 120V to 6V transformers (you would wire them in reverse, of course)
This is great! Do you have a schematic for the squelch network you used?
Edit: found it on another comment!
You should make a high voltage plasma pedal with a flyback and camera flash bulb
Can we use a 6v/220v transformer
It should be fine. I would change the drop resistor to around 200k.
Next try MOV ( metal oxide varistor )
Very interesting sound! :)
can I pass vocals through it for little saturation
Sure, why not. It will sound pretty lofi for vocals because of the filtering and such from the transformer
very cool
Cool idea. Good results.
Thanks :)
@@Psychotenuse no problem. Thank you for the ideas, man.
@@Psychotenuse I'm going to be making a new channel for electronics and stuff. I'll let you know when I get some content.
Thanks for your educated containt, may i knor your schema please
Thanks for watching :)
If you mean the schematic for the circuit, there's a link in the video description.
I would like to mention that getting shocked across some fingers on one hand cannot kill a person. However, it may cause burns if the amperage is high enough. Not sure how much amperage it would take to cause permanent nerve damage. I only shocked myself once on a hand with 120vac, and this just caused muscle spasms in that hand for an hour.
Always be as respectful of high voltage as if it were a spinning blade.
Definitely good advice.
I already builded sounds perfect
Awesome, glad you like it!
I was looking at these on mouser a while back and wondered if you could use them for a VCF. This is cool too.
Not immediately clear to me how you'd use it for a VCF but if you have a high voltage DC rail it is really easy to make an LFO with one of these (literally 3 components).
Really good project. What is the power supply voltage value that you are using? Is it 9v or greater?
Glad you like it :)
I was using 12v in the video, but it should work fine on 9V.
@@Psychotenuse Yeah, it's an excellent project, I really liked it.
Really cool!
Totally cool!
Thanks :)
very good video!! What is the input voltage of the pedal?
It was 12V here, but it should work fine on 9 :)
excellent idea, patent your idea. The other thing is that, if the more detailed project could be published? I don't understand the schematic and I don't know about engineering issues. Or Photos of Proyect.
Glad you liked it :)
Not sure what you have in mind though about the more detailed project. What don't you understand about the schematic?
@@Psychotenuse it's okay. The detail of the triangle before the transformer in the schematic. What is that triangle?. What type of transformer does it use? I see that there is a source, maybe 9v. That's right?. And what potentiometers? How are the potentiometers connected?
@@havieralvarez2500 What I show in the video is just a rough "block diagram" of sorts to give an idea of what is going on (the triangle represents an amplifier). The full schematic is linked in the description, as well as a parts list.
Fxxxxxxxxxxxxxg amazing ! Best video , Love this , peace man !
Hahaha thanks! Glad you liked it xP
@@Psychotenuse love that man , you know what you are doing 💪😁📸
interesting. theres a minute capacitance when its not conducting... picofarads... still sucks some of the top end out.
remember, it STRIKES at ~90V... but it CONDUCTS at much lower voltages once it strikes. about 20...
so you clip the wave when it peaks out, and then... theres this interesting effect... it will always pull the waveform back down to the conduction voltage, only conducting whilst enough current exists to maintain ionisation. how much power is the amplifier delivering, resistance, frequency, etc...
if the waveform reverses before ionisation decays... it will continue to conduct. if it doesnt reverse fast enough, then the neon will stop conducting and only strike again as it hits that 90v peak again...
so the deacy characteristics as the amplitude and frequency and ionisation /deionisation rates all interact are particularly interesting... would have loved to see some scope traces? im assuming high amplitude high frequency signals will tend to "reverse conduct" far more...
now i gotta throw this into a tube somewhere... this is only one of literally HUNDREDS of ways of messing with this concept... thought of before but never bothered trying?
Thanks for your very detailed comment! Glad you liked the idea :)
I can't find this 90v lamp help!!
You should search for "neon indicator lamp"
You should try to make a boost style pedal from this
That would essentially just be an op-amp boost.
Love this video! I am trying to build one myself, but I can't seem to find a transformer that works for this application. Could you link the one you are using here?
No, unfortunately, because I used one salvaged from an old wall wart i.e. linear power supply. It's just a power transformer, though. You can use a 120V to 6V transformer or a 240V to 12V transformer.
@@Psychotenuse oh okay awesome, thank you!
This rules! 😺
Uow, fantastic! How many volts was the circuit powered?
In the video it's running off a 12 volt adapter. It would probably work fine off 9 volts, though.
Im a little late to the show, but i hope someone can tell me where to get a 1:20 transformer for audio, or the best core to buy and the number of wraps on the primary.
Hey! Glad you're here. It's just a mains transformer wired in reverse :P
grandma: where are my food containers?
Lol this is the one time I didn't actually use a food container xD
I think it had visiting cards
Maybe split the signal in 2, with some slight difference like mod or delay, and then both signals have their own neon tube. Like eyes. Then put a skull or cat picture on it
Hahaha, I see you are a true pedal designer at heart!
Use a dpdt to switch clipping elements and you can get two or more channels
Yes, that could be a cool setup. Someone suggested using two neons as the eyes in a cat graphic pedal xD
Hi, thanks for another cool idea. Is there any reason why non inverting application of TDA2030 couldn't be used here? I have some small noninverting version PCBs handy, and maybe with input resistance much greater than 1K it wouldn't load guitar as much?
Glad you liked it :)
Nothing wrong with non-inverting. It requires a split rail power supply, but if you can provide that it should work fine.
Thanks! 😊
So cool! Do you think this would work as a euro rack module? It could light up your setup in a dark performance
Sure, why not
I have a Nixie tube power supply I was thinking of using for the high voltage in a project like this. How would you go about that? I suppose I'll have to control the signal with a transistor? Conversely I could try to find a transformer but I'm not sure where to look for the right specs.
The point of using a transformer is to avoid the need for a high voltage power supply. If you just want to do it with high voltage that's a completely different circuit.
Killer man
Thx! Good stuff!
would be cool to combine this with an LDR for a dirty compressor
Haha. Could be done, yes.
hello, very good video. The project is phenomenal.
I only had three questions.
1-Can a direct current of 15 volts be used for the TDA 2030?
2-If the transformer is T1=1:24 (5volts/120volts) what would change from the schematic in googledrive?
3-at time 5:42 you used a led bulb, can any be used?
Thanks for watching and commenting :)
1. Yes, the TDA2030 can be run off 15V.
2. That transformer should work fine. You'll be operating it a bit outside its voltage rating but probably not enough to damage it, particularly since you'll probably be way under the power rating.
3. The LED bulb is being used as a clipping element here, so clearly an incandescent bulb will not work. A fluorescent lamp might do something interesting, but I can't promise you it's not dangerous to try. Even among LED lamps, only the simpler ones will act as a clipping element. Some fancier LED lamps may have complicated driving circuitry in them, in which case you won't get the kind of result you see in the video.
*output can potentialy hurt you*
hold neon bulb for leads 😅
Cool circuit btw
Haha yeah, I don't recommend you do that :P
I zapped myself with this intentionally in the name of science (in fact I can sort of turn my hand into a distortion pedal) so I know more or less how much it can hurt. I was careful never to touch the two terminals with two different hands because that way the current can flow through your heart.
@@Psychotenuse yeah, i know that, just wanted to point it
That’s so funny to me XD. Awesome
Can these be stacked, how about a sub miniature tube, and can it be transformerless
I'm not sure what you mean by stacked. The neon lamp is not a valve and it has no amplification capabilities. To make this transformerless you would need a DC rail at 90 volts or higher.
@@Psychotenuse stacked like op amps in a pedal
Your questions seem based on the idea that a neon lamp is an amplifier like a valve or transistor or op-amp. It is not. It is a passive nonlinear component like a diode.
if those are high voltage leads... how are you now getting zapped handling them like their turned off?
Hahaha. Well, first of all, I don't recommend you emulate my behavior in the video.
To answer your question, though, I am getting zapped a bit sometimes, but it's not too bad because my hands are dry and I'm holding the leads fairly lightly. I have also tried - for science - licking my fingers and grabbing the leads tighter, and yeah that definitely gave me a good little tingle in my nerves. There are several reasons it's not particularly dangerous. The high voltage side on the transformer is effectively isolated from mains, so I'm not going to have currents running through my body to ground. As long as I only touch the contacts with one hand any currents will be only in that hand. Then the neon bulb itself clamps the voltage to its nominal 90V and the drop resistor limits current further... basically while I definitely don't advise imitating my stupid behavior, I've also definitely not built an electric chair here.
Awsome!