Digital Reverb test build ...

4114Effects

A day of firsts for me ... first digital pedal I've built and first PCB I've designed and etched rather than using vero!

Turned out quite nicely, think I'll use this method more in the future.

As for the circuit, it's a digital reverb chip with controls for Decay plus hi-cut and lo-cut to shape the reverb tone. There's a mode switch to change between a long-cavernous ambient reverb or a decent all-purpose medium reverb. 

The circuit passes through an analogue mixer so you can dial in just as much reverb as you like. There's also a switch to cut the dry signal - perfect for using the pedal in an amplifier effects loop.

When I've got more time I'll start wrestling with the programming language a little more, shimmer and modulated reverbs should be possible at some stage. Exciting stuff!

SteveRobinson

Did you solder that by hand surface mounted? Must have been a delicate operation!

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SteveRobinson said:

Did you solder that by hand surface mounted? Must have been a delicate operation!

Yep ... I used a good temperature controlled iron and the finest tip I could get away with!

Sporky

Hardcore!

Nice clean looking PCB too - excellent work.

randella

Hell fire.  That reverb chip looks to have two pins packed into the same space as every single pin on the standard 8-pin DIL package.  I'm not sure I'd have been physically capable of soldering that, no matter how fine the iron tip.

Fair play, even more so for a first go on a PCB - looks great!  I've always been a vero-warrior

What's the language like?  Is it assembler (in which case you have my sympathy) or something a bit more high-level?

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randella said:

Hell fire.  That reverb chip looks to have two pins packed into the same space as every single pin on the standard 8-pin DIL package.  I'm not sure I'd have been physically capable of soldering that, no matter how fine the iron tip.

Fair play, even more so for a first go on a PCB - looks great!  I've always been a vero-warrior

What's the language like?  Is it assembler (in which case you have my sympathy) or something a bit more high-level?

Assembler ... Outputs as standard HEX though so I should be able to program an external EEPROM using a Pickit. That's the straighforward bit ...

randella

I used the Microchip controllers years ago for matrixed LED arrays in some stuff I was doing.  The Arduino language beats assembler hands-down but the Atmega chips seemed to be hyper-sensitive to dips in the supply rail voltage in the final circuit, so PICs it was.  They might have changed in the meantime.

The nuts and bolts of assembler are quite attractive at the beginning, there's no high-level obfuscation, you know EXACTLY what's going on the whole time (in theory!).  After a while though I realised that the C#.NET I get paid to bang out professionally was far more lucrative than my tinkering was ever going to be.  And I missed my lovely fluffy Visual Studio debugger.

This is some interesting stuff you're doing here, I'll be following what you're up to for sure - good luck!

ThePrettyDamned

Wow, looks awesome! Amazingly tidy work. What iron do you use? I wanna get a new, good one with a set of tips.

4114Effects

@ThePrettyDamned this one http://www.topqualitytools.co.uk/soldering-station-60w-220v-uk-21-10115-uk/?gclid=CjwKEAjwpLa5BRCTwcXS6_rpvC4SJACTDQMMo8ZWuSCI4P0ZCKDY0hnfbJ87MO78SbKleLJW8XS1jRoCNA3w_wcB

Although I got it from Maplin. It's sold under a few brand names though. Used it day in day out for about 2 years now without issue.

Richardj

This is a whole new level of mad genius.

If there is a waiting list for the finished unit I want to be on it.