Lofi mixer with cd4069

Here is a lofi mixer+distortion, the component values are examples...

It uses one inverter from cd4069 as a summing amplifier. You can add more channels by repeating the input circuitry (100k pot, 0,1uF cap, 47k resistor) The 500k pot is gain and will give a nice amount of distortion if/when needed :) You can use a single 4069 chip to build both filters in the previous post and this mixer.

Filters with cd4069

Here are two easy to build filter circuits based on the cd4069 chip. I´ve used them in my recent projects and I´m quite pleased how they work. These schematics are examples meant to be a starting point and the component values are examples so feel free to experiment with different values.

First a lowpass filter

It uses three inverters. So you can build two with a single 4069. R1 and R2 are the cutoff frequency use a 10k-20k stereo pot or two ldrs and leds driven with a cv source (lfo,sequencer etc.). Cap values are drawn 0,1uF but I´ve built one with 0,047uF and it worked fine. The 100k pot is resonance, and this filter will oscillate when resonance is turned up. There are two output options drawn in the schematic "out" (wich is more bassy) and "out2". You might want to use a output cap (1uF).

Second one is a bandpass filter.

This thing uses only one inverter. Try different cap values instead of 0,01uF ones(maybe from 0,001 to 0,068) and they dont all need to be the same. This is also voltage controlled with the npn-transistor you can use a pot to ground, ldr etc. insead if you like.

cmos-lizard

I made this cmos 40106 based noisemaker as a dubsiren or something. It has 1 oscillator and 2 LFOs. I didn´t have any plans when i started just a 40106 chip and some components. First i built a simple squarewave osc from 1/6 of the chip ran it through pulsewidht modulator (again 1/6 of 40106) with Lfo (1/6)

Then i added second lfo with led and ldr for pitch modulation. The best part was "starve" pot ->just a 10k pot in series with battery + to ic pin 14. Some really crazy sounds can be made with playing with this pot. Here is a schematic of the oscs and lfos

The component values are what i happened to have so try different values for the results you like. Add more buttons, switches etc. for more playability (only 1 button in the schematic for output) for example i did a powercut button (normally closed) with cap in parallel (47 uF)

work in progress videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Obpgbwqqg0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lUz9t-jzKM and a video of the finished piece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF3NOiu0AUY

here is a picture of the finished piece.

Cardboard pcb and recycled parts

Cardboard pcb and recycled components

The idea for making electronic projects on cardboard came from Ciat Lonbardes paper circuits. I had used veroboard previously. But it was a bit difficult to change more complicated designs to work on veroboard. Also making pcb:s at home seemed complicated with all chemicals, UV-lamps etc. Cardboard may not be the most sturdy material, but it is cheap, always available, environment friendly and it works. I also have a pretty good collection of circuit boards from broken equipment. A lot of components (resistors, caps, transistors etc.) can be recycled from these. So using cardboard pcb and recycled components you can build electronic projects at home more environment friendly and you don’t need to spend any money on the parts. (Of course some parts are a bit difficult to find from random broken equipment.)

1. you can print picture of the pcb you want on paper and then glue it on a piece of cardboard. Or design your own circuit by drawing it. Postcards can easily be used as material.

2.poke holes for the components with a needle or other sharp object.

Top wiew of my wp-20 board.

3. insert the components and solder them according your pcb design. In most cases components reach each other with no jumper wire. But when using recycled components the pin are often cut bit too short so you might need jumper with them.
Bottom wiew of my wp-20 board

4. because device made on cardboard may be damaged easily. Protect it with proper housing.

WP-20 sound effects synthesizer

I have been building some noisemakers using cardboard as pcb. It´s a nice material for building electronic projects at home because: 1. everybody may not have the needed equipment to make "real" pcb:s 2. every one has a piece of cardboard laying around. 3. It is cheap and easy. This is my latest creation on cardboard pcb. It´s wp-20 sound effects synth. It was very nice to do on cardboard because there was enough spce between components in the original pcb design.

I did´t use the original noise source with 18v but i built a simple 9v noise generator. I left q1, r1, c3 unconnected to the board. here is the noise circuit.

output of the noise generator was connected to r3 through 50k resistor.

Testing wp-20 video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEDE96ycAec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dol7MjE7g8M

link to music from outer space wp-20 page:

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/WP20/WP20_PG1.html

I made a sub oscillator for my wp-20. It is based on cd4040 ripple counter it uses the vco squarewave (before the 100k resistor marked R8 in the original wp20 schematics) as clock input and divides it. Six switches (from 1 octave down to 6 octave down) select the harmonics to vcf-vca. The circuit is quite simple the component values may be tweaked to get better performance. I used components that I happened to have so some different values might work better but these seem to work ok. (sub osc out is connected to ic 2b pin 6 through a 100k resistor like the vco) here is a picture of the circuit

Stereo tapedeck oscillator

This is a easy and quick way to make a feedback oscillator from old tapedeck. You just need to connect the rec input with output.

You can do it by soldering wires between the in and out lines (r in to r ou and l in to l out) Most homestereo tape players use rca connectors and you can use them as your outputs. You can also do this without soldering if you have proper wires to do the connections ( few rca wires and Y shaped rca adaptor for output from feedbackloop). Press rec/play to get it working. Frequency of the oscillator is adjusted by turning the tapedecks rec level knobs. The singnal is quite strong so I do not recommend you to plug this to your most expensive or fragile sound gear.

Mobile experimental electronics laboratorium

This is a work in progress, we are just starting. For years we have been talking about a mobile experimental electronics platform, that we could drive anywhere. Now we have a solid base for that.

We were just given an electric car, Elcat. Our aim is to integrate mobile experimeltal electronics laboratory and facilities to play electronic sounds straight from the van. Idea is to integrate all essential features inside the van, so we just drive it anywhere we want to show our stuff.



Project will propably advance quite slowly. The first obstacle on our way are the batteryes. The ones we have are in a pretty bad shape, and new set will cost us about 1000-4000 euros. Beside that we will have to pay quite a lot of money to get the car registered. Among other things we will have to pay DIESELL TAX for not using gas.

well project is advancing slowly, we should be getting the car toed to Vallila in couple of days, and after that we will start measuring, planning and of course we must start to gather money for this financially disasterous project.