Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Wednesday, 7 November 2018

LZX 010 Clock VCO - Castle Video synth

The 010 Clock VCO is a square wave Voltage Controlled Oscillator with a linear response to CV.
It can be used as a clock source for modules such as the Shift Register and Counter.
You can switch between Horizontal and Vertical square waveforms
It looks like there are also high & low frequency ranges.
It might be useful to have more than one of these modules in your system.
This VCO is the 3rd module in the series and is in Eurorack format.

+12V Current Consumption: 9mA
-12V Current Consumption: 7mA
No +5V

It's 4HP and all through hole.
It doesn't require the 14 pin sync cable however the Vertical sync & Horizontal sync signals
enter the module via the power bus.
So you definitely need to use a 16pin power header.

This can be used with vidiot but as the Castle Clock VCO needs sync in the power bus  you'll need a sync generator (Cadet Sync Generator or V cortex) for that one.
Or you can sync from the front panel jack.

"It's a square wave vco, essentially. Prime for clocking logic". (Philip)


 tHE CD4046 - a phase locked loop vco

The 4046 is the core component. Its a PLL vco.
Totally different approach to the Cadet ramps & Cadet VCO

Ignore my placement of a 10 pin power header in the above pic. Use a 16 pin please.
Got tired of waiting on the jacks.
Decided to try the standard ones instead.






 ICs and impt components used:
CD4046BE ------- Phase Locked Loops - PLL PLL w/ VCO
LM6172IN/NOPB ---- Operational Amplifiers - Op Amps Dual High Speed,Low Pwr Amp
2N3904BU -------- Bipolar Transistors - BJT NPN Transistor General Purpose

LZX - Castle
Introduction
00_000 ADC - Analog to digital converter
01_001 DAC - Digital to Analog converter
02_010 Clock VCO
03_011 Shift Register
04_100 Multi Gate
05_101 Quad Gate
06_110 Counter
07_111 Flip flops

Links
+ ADC overview - LZX
+ LZX industries
+ Hackaday - the 4046 PLL VCO
+ CMOS
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Video Index page

LZX Castle Video Synth - 001 DAC

Some build pics of the 2nd module in the Castle series.
The 001 DAC - Digital to analog converter.
This module is in Eurorack format.
iT'S 4HP and all through hole.

 The 001 MODULE is a Digital to Analog Converter. It's a dual module to convert two 3-Bit data streams into two Analog approximations.

Think of it as a pair of summing mixers.
In audio, a summing mixer turns multitracks into stereo.

"The DAC can take the 3 bits from the adc (or anywhere else) and recombine them as an 8 level single stream output. Think of it kind of like a mixer, but it has preset levels for D0, D1, and D2." (Philip)

With the DAC, the data streams are mixed to make an analog signal with the MSB (most significant bit) having the most amplitude and the LSB (least significant bit) having the least. "Pair it with the ADC to produce a solarize effect counter to synthesize waveforms"







a 10 pin power header is needed



LZX - Castle
Introduction
00_000 ADC - Analog to digital converter
01_001 DAC - Digital to Analog converter
02_010 Clock VCO
03_011 Shift Register
04_100 Multi Gate
05_101 Quad Gate
06_110 Counter
07_111 Flip flops

Links
+ ADC overview - LZX
+ LZX industries
+ CMOS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Video Index page

LZX Castle Video Synthesizer - 000 ADC


Some build pics of the first module in the Castle series.
This module is in Eurorack format.
iT'S 4HP and all through hole.
Quite an easy build

I must thank the entire team from LZX  and Philip Baljeu for making this DIY system possible.
Building these modules from scratch is a great way to learn.
 tHESE are not official build pics and I am in no way affiliated with LZX.

 The Castle 000 ADC is an Analog to Digital Converter. It's used to change an analog input signal in to a 3-Bit data stream.  You will see on the module a single input on the top and 3 outputs below, labelled D0, D1, D2.

"The ADC will take an analog signal and split it into 3 bits or zones, the separate outputs kind of look like a square wave version of staircase, the first output D0 has 4 lines, d1 has 2, and D2 has 1".
 (facebook post from Philip)


The main IC is the SN74HC148N
The SN74HC148  features priority decoding of the  inputs  to  ensure  that  only  the  highest-order data
line is encoded. These devices encode eight data   lines   to   3-line   (4-2-1)   binary   (octal).

The SN74HC148 features ‘priority encoding’ where, if more than one input is active at the same time, the output will select only the most significant active input.

The internal logic is shown below:





The voltage regulators

tHIS is the underside of the voltage regulators. Be careful not to short circuit.


 tHERE  are six LM6172s


Finally done.

Troubleshooting:
There appears to be a sweet spot when adjusting the Bias & Gain knobs.
I'm not sure if this is normal behavior. Outside this narrow range the output signal disappears.
The schematics indicate that the Bias/gain 10K pots effect the first 6172 op amp.

Possibly tweaking the value of those 10k pots or the associated resistors might give a better outcome ??????
I received an email from my friend, Chris who directed me to some info regarding this:
"The bias range is pretty wide, maybe too wide. I wanted enough range to mess with many signals, not just 1V. The controls aren't really something I see people changing a lot, more of just to get the settings right in to the ADC and set and forget. But if people think the range is unusable I can look in to limiting it. In the meantime, anyone who wants to try for themselves, R10 would be the thing to change. its 4.99K right now.” (Philip B).

The Gain control on the ADC goes from non-inverted on the left through zero to inverted on the right. 


LZX - Castle
Introduction
00_000 ADC - Analog to digital converter
01_001 DAC - Digital to Analog converter
02_010 Clock VCO
03_011 Shift Register
04_100 Multi Gate
05_101 Quad Gate
06_110 Counter
07_111 Flip flops

Links
+ ADC overview - LZX
+ LZX industries 
+ Bit numbering
+ CMOS
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Video Index page

Monday, 5 November 2018

LZX - Castle -Modular synth

Some notes before I begin building The Castle.


The Castle synth is different from the Cadet synth which I have recently been putting together.
These modules were designed by  Philip Baljeu of Toronto and were inspired by early digital hardware video synths.
The main difference seems to be that the castle is a system of binary & logic modules.
Binary = on/off or 0/1
It processes 3 bits in parallel....  3 bit data streams
The 3-bits give 8 possible combinations.....Black, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Magenta, Cyan, and White.

I'm guessing that these modules will be good for producing computer graphics and pixels ??... but maybe more. I wonder what it will be like when you mix these with the analog Cadet LZX.
It seems that any signal can be used as an input, it doesn't need to be binary logic signals. 
There are 8 modules in this video synthesizer. Everything is through hole, and 4HP

LZX - Castle
Introduction
00_000 ADC - Analog to digital converter
01_001 DAC - Digital to Analog converter
02_010 Clock VCO
03_011 Shift Register
04_100 Multi Gate
05_101 Quad Gate
06_110 Counter
07_111 Flip flops



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Wednesday, 31 October 2018

LZX Cadet X - DIY Video synthesizer - Multiplier

There is a old saying in the audio world: "You can never have enough VCAs"
Maybe this is a bit simplistic, but I'm seeing the Multiplier as a VCA for video.
(its much more than this too).

These are some pics of the Cadet DIY modular video synth build.
I am an independent builder and have nothing to do with LZX industries.
These aren't official build notes, just my records to help me trouble shoot.
It's a work in progress.
Do let me know if you spot any errors or omissions.
This is module no.10 (Multiplier X).
It doesn't require the 14 pin sync cable.

It's described as "Cadet X Multiplier is a variation on the Cadet VI Fader circuit,
 configured as a switchable 2-quadrant or 4-quadrant multiplier".
So if I understand this correctly, in 2-quadrant mode it it acts like a VCA and in 4-quad mode it behaves like a ring-modulator..... "it crossfades between an inverted version of the input signal
and a positive version of an input signal"

2-quadrant mode = VCA.
You can control the amplitude with a control voltage (0 = no signal & 1V = max signal)

4-quad mode = Ring Modulator
The amplitude of the output is again controlled by CV.
When CV is negative ( -1V for LZX = max inversion) signal gets inverted.
When CV is positive  ( +1v on LZX = max amplification) signal is non-inverted.







This video amp ic is out of stock at mouser. (marked U2 on the PCB)
584-LT1251CN#PBF
LT1251CN#PBF 

I'm using this instead:
584-LT1256CN#PBF
LT1256CN#PBF

LT1251CN#PBF - iTS a 40MHz Video Fader and DC Gain Controlled Amplifier
It's probably the core component of this module. Looks very useful if you are designing your own circuits like the fader and amp below. But its not cheap. Mouser sell them for $16 AUD each.

And yes, this same chip is used in the Cadet VI Fader module.





ICs and special parts:
TL072IP
LT1251CN#PBF  ---- 40MHz Video Fader and DC Gain Controlled Amplifier
LM6172IN/NOPB
TL431BQLPR

to be continued ... waiting on some parts

Links:
LZX official
Muffs - Cadet series DIY/assembled

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LZX Cadet IX - DIY video Synth - VCO

Some pics of the Cadet DIY modular video synth build.
I am an independent builder and have nothing to do with LZX industries.
These aren't official build notes, just my records to help me trouble shoot.
It's a work in progress.
Do let me know if you spot any errors or omissions.
This is module no.9 (VCO IX).
LZX describe it as a wideband triangle core VCO.

 ic'S used:
LM6172IN/NOPB --- this is a dual op amp... specified at ±5V power supply for low
                                 voltage applications such as portable video systems.
TL431BQLPR ----- Adjustable Precision Shunt Regulator
                               TL431 shunt regulator circuit explained 
TL072IP - standard op amp
SN74HC14N - it's a hex schmitt trigger
CD4066BE - CMOS quad bilateral SPST switch
 ----------------------
I'm guessing that the SN74HC14N is being used as the schmitt trigger oscillator.
If I'm reading the schematic correctly, a square wave is developed from the Schmitt trigger and the triangular wave is developed across a capacitor. They are output through buffer amplifiers (LM6172).

This same IC is used in the Cadet IV Dual ramp generator

(Another IC that would probably do a similar job is the 40106  - also a Hex Schmitt-trigger Inverter..
or a 74HC4046... phase locked loop ??? ................... a couple of thoughts for another day)

 DPDT & SPDT switch (on on). These aren't right angled, so I'll have to hand wire them.
We nEED  matched transistors.
I had to do something similar many years ago for an ARP 2600 clone ... the TTSH
 http://djjondent.blogspot.com/2014/08/transistor-matching.html



R43 -- I could use a TempCo but instead using a standard 2K resistor
Resistor 43 = tempCo?
 I decided not to use a TempCo in this case. Just used a standard resistor. I like my VCOs to be untuneable. :-)

 The 10k pots finally arrived. I had trouble finding these. (I got them from thonk)




ICs , parts etc used in this project:
LM6172IN/NOPB
TL431BQLPR
TL072IP
SN74HC14N
CD4066BE


Mods:
+There is a Square output on the C9 circuit. You can output it directly or use it with the triangle to drive a sawtooth waveshaper circuit.

Links:
LZX official
Muffs - Cadet series DIY/assembled
7414 oscillator -DIY
How Video Oscillators work - Muffs

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