Hey Alan! Thank you for making such a neat little noise boxes to work on -- and posting the stripboard layout so my electronic-lego brain could do it HAAH! I'm slowly working through them and enjoying the learning process! (I make predominantly guitar pedals -- made and Atari punk console and a dub siren -- but I wanna learn more stuff too!) I'm having a little trouble and was wondering if you could offer some insight? I made the board -- wired up all the offboard wiring -- and it worked for about 20sec -- then the board started rapidly heating up to the point the ICs were too hot to touch and about to pop. I swapped out the ICs, changed the vactrol etc -- but it still heats up like crazy and no sound comes out -- just the "you didn't do something right" buzz-hum. Any idea why it would heat up so much? Any suggestions on where to start looking for a problem? (I'm using a 9v guitar pedal power supply instead of a 9v battery and have tried switching mA from 500mA and 100mA -- as well as changing the polarity -- just in case that was it. also using a pre-made vactrol instead of a homemade one -- not sure if that's the problem either.) Any help -- or even theoretical knowledge would be awesome --- and thank you again for the cool stuff to try!
Good to hear you are having a go at building your own. Also, it's OK to make mistakes, that's where most of the learning comes from. For chips to heat up they are usually drawing more current than they should and/or sending it to the wrong place (pin). Common causes to look for include; track shorts either stray solder or not fully cut tracks, misplaced connections eg something connected to the wrong pin, wrong polarity of power supply (though you have checked that), chips in the wrong way round (yes it can be that simple!). I still encounter some of these problems, particularly the stray solder issue. I usually check the circuit board with a magnifying glass to pick up any issues. The power going into a vactrol is isolated from the circuit board (they are used specifically as optical isolaters in some applications) so that should not be part of your problem. One troubleshooting method I use is to trace the circuit diagram on the circuit board. I start at one pin of the ic and match the connections on the board to those on the circuit diagram. It's a good way of spotting missing or wrong connections. Hope this is helpful.
@@CuSiSound Thank you! And thank you again for the encouragement! Sucking at something is the first step in getting awesome at something -- right? HAHA! I haven't had a chance to get back at the circuit yet -- but I had checked (and scored) a few sketchy solder points that looked like they might have gunk between them. Good to know the vactrol is isolated -- that leaves less to worry about. When I get back to it -- I'll check the jumpers and where the power is going in -- I bet I misaligned something in there somewhere. Thank you again for getting back to me and for sharing your knowledge! Much appreciated! Cheers!
Great job on making this clever little box. The deep oscillators sound rich and full of character especially with the subtle LFO. I like the finishing touches on the box itself, like the battery chamber and transparent labels.
@@CuSiSound yes i noticed a design elsewhere that uses diodes on all of the inputs of a sequencer and another op amp osc that had them and im wondering if that is the reason. theres a way to run op amps without vactrols to get true 1v per octave but ive yet to test it out as im still deciding what chip to use. just finishing converting six of caspers LFOs to one board and vco is my next project
Alan, I think I e mentioned, I really like your little boxes. Very clean and cute looking. Some great ideas with the Vactrol and triangle output. And your Baby 8 is quite attractive as well. You could likely sell these online if you so desired. They have a great finished look.
Thanks for the compliments Sarah. These little wooden boxes from the craft shop were a cheap and convenient way of housing my circuits when I first started the CuSi Sound project. They have grown into a quirky approach to building a modular system with my Little Boxes Orchestra. I'm sure I'll be building more but I don't have plans to sell then at the moment.
Great work, as always! The base on the triangle output sounds very cool.
The LFO is a neat way of adding variation! :]
Nice job sir
Hey Alan! Thank you for making such a neat little noise boxes to work on -- and posting the stripboard layout so my electronic-lego brain could do it HAAH! I'm slowly working through them and enjoying the learning process! (I make predominantly guitar pedals -- made and Atari punk console and a dub siren -- but I wanna learn more stuff too!) I'm having a little trouble and was wondering if you could offer some insight? I made the board -- wired up all the offboard wiring -- and it worked for about 20sec -- then the board started rapidly heating up to the point the ICs were too hot to touch and about to pop. I swapped out the ICs, changed the vactrol etc -- but it still heats up like crazy and no sound comes out -- just the "you didn't do something right" buzz-hum. Any idea why it would heat up so much? Any suggestions on where to start looking for a problem?
(I'm using a 9v guitar pedal power supply instead of a 9v battery and have tried switching mA from 500mA and 100mA -- as well as changing the polarity -- just in case that was it. also using a pre-made vactrol instead of a homemade one -- not sure if that's the problem either.)
Any help -- or even theoretical knowledge would be awesome --- and thank you again for the cool stuff to try!
Good to hear you are having a go at building your own. Also, it's OK to make mistakes, that's where most of the learning comes from. For chips to heat up they are usually drawing more current than they should and/or sending it to the wrong place (pin). Common causes to look for include; track shorts either stray solder or not fully cut tracks, misplaced connections eg something connected to the wrong pin, wrong polarity of power supply (though you have checked that), chips in the wrong way round (yes it can be that simple!). I still encounter some of these problems, particularly the stray solder issue. I usually check the circuit board with a magnifying glass to pick up any issues. The power going into a vactrol is isolated from the circuit board (they are used specifically as optical isolaters in some applications) so that should not be part of your problem. One troubleshooting method I use is to trace the circuit diagram on the circuit board. I start at one pin of the ic and match the connections on the board to those on the circuit diagram. It's a good way of spotting missing or wrong connections. Hope this is helpful.
@@CuSiSound Thank you! And thank you again for the encouragement! Sucking at something is the first step in getting awesome at something -- right? HAHA! I haven't had a chance to get back at the circuit yet -- but I had checked (and scored) a few sketchy solder points that looked like they might have gunk between them. Good to know the vactrol is isolated -- that leaves less to worry about. When I get back to it -- I'll check the jumpers and where the power is going in -- I bet I misaligned something in there somewhere. Thank you again for getting back to me and for sharing your knowledge! Much appreciated! Cheers!
Great job on making this clever little box. The deep oscillators sound rich and full of character especially with the subtle LFO. I like the finishing touches on the box itself, like the battery chamber and transparent labels.
very nice
could you just run diodes going out instead of the 1k resistor for the noise?
Do you mean R5 (1k) on the LFO switch? If so, that would ensure the signal only goes in the right direction so it could work.
@@CuSiSound yes i noticed a design elsewhere that uses diodes on all of the inputs of a sequencer and another op amp osc that had them and im wondering if that is the reason. theres a way to run op amps without vactrols to get true 1v per octave but ive yet to test it out as im still deciding what chip to use. just finishing converting six of caspers LFOs to one board and vco is my next project
So nice! Lovely bass sounds and very versatile features. I'll build my own =) Thank you so much!!
24:18 is the coolest part in the video :) . Nice job, i love your little boxes ! As always greetings from germany and take care !
Alan, I think I e mentioned, I really like your little boxes. Very clean and cute looking.
Some great ideas with the Vactrol and triangle output. And your Baby 8 is quite attractive as well.
You could likely sell these online if you so desired. They have a great finished look.
Thanks for the compliments Sarah. These little wooden boxes from the craft shop were a cheap and convenient way of housing my circuits when I first started the CuSi Sound project. They have grown into a quirky approach to building a modular system with my Little Boxes Orchestra. I'm sure I'll be building more but I don't have plans to sell then at the moment.
This is brilliant! thanks for sharing
Nice schematics!
Thanks!