Tremolo design/build

[mblem22]

Hey guys.  I just wanted to start a thread to track the design and build of my tremolo pedal.  It's the first pedal that I've done so it's slow going, but today I started making some progress.  It still needs a lot of tweaking but I got the basic sound and the tap tempo working.

Here's a video of what it sounds like now.  The video also kind of shows the cool proto-board that I made.  If you look closely at the breadboard, you can also see the LED that indicates the tempo and modulation type.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpipE3mjm3w

I still plan on adding:
  - a depth pot
  - a switch to select sine or square wave
  - duty cycle pot
  - a pot which will shift the sine wave toward a falling sawtooth or a rising sawtooth, or shift the square wave to the beginning or end of the phase
  - a jack for an expression pedal which can be used to modulate the tempo
  - I also plan to do a nice professional looking finish with artwork on the housing

Anyway, I thought some DIY folks on here might find it interesting.  I also thought this might encourage me to keep making progress on it.  I'll try to keep this thread updated as the project comes along.

[Happyorange27]

I'm impressed. That's what I like to do. Let me know if you need help with engineering. I would buy one of your pedals when it's ready.

[mblem22]

Hey happy, thanks for checking it out.   I'm an electrical engineer by trade, so the circuit design stuff is going fairly well for me.  It's taking a bit longer than it could have, since I wanted to try making a tremolo without ever looking at an existing tremolo schematic.  Kind of wanted to take my own approach and then compare the finished product to existing designs.

The thing that is actually turning into a pain for me is the mechanical side of it and also graphics.  For mechanical stuff, I'm thinking I want to use PCB mount components for the pots, jacks, and switches.  I'm basically planning to lay it all out in solidworks and then export a board to Altium for PCB layout.  The time consuming part of it is going to be drawing all of the parts in solidworks.

For graphics/finishing I'm thinking about buying the pre-painted and finished hammond enclosures and then using a water slide decal with clear coat to print my graphics on the housing.  Seems like the most economical way to get good looking artwork on there.

Like I said, this is my first serious build, so I am definitely open to advice, especially on the mechanical side.

[the_great_lemon]

Sorry, no advice here but that's an awesome looking build! Can't wait to see how it turns out

[Happyorange27]

Well I could layout your pcb for you. Email me your sketch and ill bounce back a draft to wet your appetite.  happyorange27@hotmail.com.