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Messages - petey twofinger

#16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOnMBOVNuhg

the second part has a circuit bent speak n math and this goofy lil noise maker called a slider synth (dino segovis) . the slide synth was the circuit that broke my heart for a month or so !

i do want a better speaker for this lil amp , but other than that it turned out way better sounding than i thought . the smaller drivers give enough high end to enable a mic to run thru it and sound great , and it has 2 inputs .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQzANuBi1LU

thanks for watching !
#17
Amplifier Discussion / Re: the Metal Amp
June 22, 2011, 01:46:11 PM
there a few mutants out there , the one finger bass guy , never heard of anything like that . really cool , i would have loved to hear him play . i always wanted to put together a band with all the members are missing fingers or limbs . what a gimmick . then "if"  :lmao: we sucked we'd have a huge out .

django reinhardt was the best 2finger guy , iommi , well techniccly he doesnt really count in my book , but , honorable mention . garcia was missing his 3rd finger tip , i believe .

for me , i was playing for about 6 months , then i had the accident . i ended up getting pushed down to bass in the band . i felt pretty bad about it , but i attacked the bass , did that for 15 years , but i always kept at the 6 string . so now , i have the ability to play both FAIRLY well .

kind of a win . it makes me feel "special" , at least i didnt give up ... but man oh man do i miss em !!
#18
i know its  highly OT , but , i am gonna do a short video with this thing , ill throw a link up in here within the month . we are gonna be super busy for a while .

i cant tell you how happy i am !

finally .
#19
Amplifier Discussion / Re: the Metal Amp
June 21, 2011, 07:48:11 PM
the distortion box i used in there is a dano "metal distortion" so you are correct ! but yeah its metal too . i garbage picked that box at the arcade place dumpster , it was a juke box power supply . that dumpster has been good to me . i got the top panel from a arcade bowling game there , with the track ball . it just had 5 wires hangin down . i spliced those onto the pcb of an old ball mouse , where the IR sensors are , hooked up the arcade buttons to the mouse clickers , and it became a mame controller . so we have all the mame trackball games , like golden tee , bowling , shuffleshot , marble madness , missle command , millipede etc , on this pc . i set it up with a 21 inch monitor on the patio when we bbq and we have a blast with 4 player .

i also got a mp3 "server" module from a juke box . it was a solid metal box , 12 volt in , network out . i opened it up , there were 2 seagate barracuda 250 gig hd's in it ! i LOVE the arcade place dumpster .

thanks for checkin out our music vids . we had a lot of fun , it wasn't serious though . im really proud of how well they did , and i got a lot better too ! could ya tell i only use 2 fingers to fret ? that incedent with the lawnmower , when i was lil kinda threw me for a loop for a while there .
#21
 yea ! the lil project that couldnt finally worked !!!!

it turns out the fifth one was the charm . we celebrated with some garbage picked kirsten negale .

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2137 ... 40x480.jpg
http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9858 ... 40x480.jpg
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7986 ... 40x480.jpg
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/3703 ... 40x480.jpg

im so happy ! i can move on now . i have tons of *s!!t* to do ! i just wish i knew why the first four boards kept geekin out !
#22
Amplifier Discussion / Re: the Metal Amp
June 18, 2011, 07:54:08 PM
it sounded like i said i , but i really said they . i didn't fire him , but yeah i liked that bit too .

i picked up a cordless dust-buster at salvation army , for 1.50 . it had a pack of 6 "c" size ni-cads in it . i added 2 more , and a separate jack to charge or use an an "out" to power a low drain pedal or 3 . i think its really a logical idea for these lil amps . i found a bag with 4 18 volt batteries in a contractors dumpster a while back . they were all good too . i am guessing the tool was cheap or the charger broke , prolly both . its interesting , i mean i have 4 ryobi 18 volt batteries i use all the time . 2 of these i have replaced the cells with garbage picked replacements . i have had great luck finding good ni-cd's for some reason . i was in radio shack for a pcb and i noticed they want 70 dollars for an 18 volter ! i am guessing they are more like 50 at home depot , but . . . i do have a 6 by 9 solar panel here i am going to try that as a trickle charger next time .

i am thinking in the future i should keep my eyes peeled for cordless stuff at resale . like that dust buster , for 1.50 . i still have a collection of deep cells and transformers here . they are really heavy , and we got in trouble at the forest preserve when a fat angry tree police officer informed me "you cant have contraptions like that in the forest preserve" .

it was me , my 2 daughters , and my wife . no one else . a casio , a lil bass amp , guitar amp , mini (tiny) pa with a horn only , no speaker . i did have a few pedals though . he also informed me we needed a permit . a permit to play 3 chord progressions , and solo over that ? i was pretty upset . i spent a lot of time getting all that together . we were planning on doing it all summer . as apartment dwellers , its tough .

at one point we had the entire living room set up with gear , and we used line in , with a headphone amp , and sony mdr 756's . we had 2 foggers , some dj lights and a few lasers with a mirror ball . we rehearsed those 30 cover tunes for 3 years then recorded them .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ9r90GjHos

this is an early stage shot of the living room , i added more over the next few years but that footage is not yet on our hd :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3LO-mvt5cc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-v7aTbG5eA

moving to the forest preserve was an attempt to make some simpler , more organic (?) type of sounds . straying away from full midi accompaniment , just using a beat and going from there . then i hurt my back , so i have kinda been on hiatus for a WHILE . i do have a few ideas , and all this amp building is an attempt to get the rig less contraption-ey . its really a shame about that police officer . i think if he knew how much this meant to me , he would get off on that even more . i am pretty bitter about the whole thing , but moving on .

the bass amp video will be up next , i really like how it turned out , but i need a slightly beefier speaker . the current one came out of a curbed silvertone organ circa 1975 , and it breaks up a little if everything is dimed . i have some ideas about this , but , more on that later . thanks for watching , and commenting !

#23
Amplifier Discussion / the Metal Amp
June 17, 2011, 03:49:08 PM
my 3rd diy battery powered mini amp with built in effects . this one has three , a flanger , distortion , and a uni-vibe clone . this was the most challenging project i ever tried . it took a very VERY long time to complete and its super tight inside the chassis . i think it was around 5 weeks total build time , i mean i worked on it every night , some evenings went into the next morning . i did run into one very odd problem , but fortunately figured that out in less than an hour . i think i broke around a dozen drill bits , it has just under a hundred holes in the chassis .

enjoy , part one i talk , part 2 i play thru it a lil :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_OsZsA32m4



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfF9f0wtFw4&feature=related


thanks for watching ! 

two more to go .
#24
i took the chassis , which houses the 9 volt batt clip , spkr , and cds cell , hooked that up to a breadboard , and ran it for an hour last night . this is at least the 6th time i have done this . i can not duplicate the failure unless the board is mounted on the chassis screws .

going to slap another new board together , with a different circuit this time , an fmims3 , and cross my fingers .

the chassis is tiny , and i used epoxy to build it so replacing the cds cell and spkr is impossible unless i destroy the chassis . i have another identical speaker and cds cells . so may have to just go ahead and make another chassis .

#25
well that little circuit worked for a minute , then the pitch rose and it stopped producing sound !

this is the 4th board that failed in this chassis.  the chassis houses a cds cell , the 9volt batt clip , and the mini speaker (out of an lcd monitor) .

i tried a different 555 oscillator design on the 3rd try , it did the same thing . i bought some lm386n chips and made a square wave osc out of that but it was very quiet .

so i am going to test the components in the chassis again . try a different circuit design and pray . this thing has given more grief than just about anything i have put together . it getting tough on me . i have no i dea why all these circuits stop working after a minute , when the prototype model , the one i built first that took a minimal amount of time tyo slap together is solid as a rock , and the other 4 boards i took time on ,  work for a minute then fail .

i usually troubleshoot these boards for a few days , trying everything as i go , to no avail . i just cant undestand what is the problem ? so i rebuild the circuit / rebreadboard . the final test is the same , the unit fails , so i swap out the chassis mounted componats to the bread board and it works . rebuild board . same issue . new circuit design same chip + smae problem . super clean ultra perfect original version with all everything perfect = fails at 5 minutes , switch chips  , still fail .

everytime this happends i switch out the componants (cds , spk , batt clip) on the chasis to the breadboard , it works . hook up the pcb version to different cds / batt clip / spker it works , well last time it failed .

wfth ?

i have wasted so much time on this , and i need to move on . i am hoping that thru more extensive testing i will find a goofy cold joint in the chassis component , like the cds / batt connector . this would make me happy . the thing is the chassis is tiny , and i used tiny drill holes / hot glue to hold the cds and wire in place (its solered in there too) . and when i test those they come up good anyway . it seems easier at first to write off as a soldering error . ive tried swapping everything . many many configs of different p.s / regulated ps / batts  new , rechargable , etc . staring at it under magnification , continuity tests , jumpering , you name it i have tested/swapped  this board / components up and down . cant figure it out , eliminated every possible thing . works on bread board , soldered up nice in chassis , works for minute or so , quits . wait 10 minutes works .

anyone run into anything this demonic before ?

like i said i get good results untill i put it all together , then 1 minute 1 fail !

this is the circuit

http://www.dinofab.com/slidersynth.html

the mods i made are an output jack for audio (switching 1/th inch headphone) that comes off the main chip putpu . if you plug in a speaker it shuts off internal spk , and audio goes out to extrnl spk . then i changed the cap from a 2.2 to a 1uf for highr pitch . this cap has been switched/swapped with original value or many other values before , still same problem . switch chips it still is in geek mode . wierd works at first then shuts down , switch chip still wont work unless you let it ist 10 minutes then works well for a minute .

i tried a different design circuit it failed too .

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5848/onecdstheramin.jpg



this one did the same thing , so where should i look first to nail this problem .

ps dont let me discourage you from this circuit , its my personal favorite lil noisemaker . i play along with the incredible hulk tv show , and CHiPs (john and ponch ) . you can do the theme song , then do "folly" music parts , think sherwood shwartz mini vamps for folly points .  this thing has the most accurate control parameter as far as  a cds cell device can go , you really can play it more musically than other designs . try this thing , its awesome . the led in a tube with a cds cell on the end of it is amazingly playable , its tough at first but its more stable than any other method . its really cool . i could see making these sensor / emiter combos and have them pulg into all sorts of circuit bent devices for more accurate "musical" control . 

the first one i made copied dinos circuit , then i added an output jack for audio to switch off the speaker when you plug it in to an external spkr or amp . i also changed the cap value from a 2.2 to a 1uf , but that didnt make it fail in the breadboard version , and i swapped that out for the original value in the final mess for the original value 2.2 , and it still bit the big one .

what is going on here , brotha ?

i guess that really isnt fair , but i am hoping i can nail this down soon . i am starting to loose it here . anyone run into a case where a device works for a minute the it geeks ?


#26
i didnt think i should make a thread like "post pics of your workspace" so ill just share these here . i do some smaller work , a lot of times , so i slapped this togther when my paki neighbors moved and threw out the cutting board and a lamp . i have been "improving" it as i go . it has a lil defumer fan with a p.s. and a switch .  i have a larger one on a foot switch thats like 3 feet away , i run that as well . i added florescent lighting today . the incandescent 100 watt was a bit too hott for summertime !



in this pic you can see the magnifying glass , sometimes i "bridge" connections , tough to see , for me anyway .



the whole thing ran me 5 bucks , for the fluorescent lamp , the rest is just scrap .  i think i am finished adding crap to this though . i dont want it to blow a fuse / burst into flames . i was kinda busy today , put in a window unit AC in the kids room . its HOT !  i am hoping that lil circuit in the picture works !
#27
honestly not of this project , the stuff i do videos for i usually dont take pics of , but thats a good point , i really should ! i learned a few things when i put this one together , and shared at least one cool trick in the video . i had fried a circuit the evening before so i threw this together to make myself feel better . speaking of massive failure :

lately i have been having awful luck with a 555 circuit , an oscillator , i have made 4 different boards from scratch , 2 different designs and they all suffer the same intermittent fail . well not really , it works for a minute then the pitch rises and it stops workin . my 4th board will be ready to test tomorrow , i have my fingers crossed (the 2 good ones) wish me luck !

dont give up on me yet , theres 3 more amp vids to come ! (they get better as i go , i swear)

;)
#28
Amplifier Discussion / my 2nd "DIY" amp , the XAM
June 06, 2011, 07:01:38 PM
a little larger , but i like the tone , i will add a distortion circuit to this eventually , on the second channel maybe . the amp board came out of a karoake machine i got super cheap at salvation army . the delay is modified for longer echo . this was a very fun / pretty simple project , a great idea for a beginner to get their feet wet , also , really cheap .

part one i talk , part 2 i play thru it .

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=046PxdOjX-k

thanks for watching , any feedback is mucho gracias !
#29
thanks for watching . i have a few more that i will link up as well , they get better (the amps) , including a bass amp , and this one that was a real nightmare ! i gues i am used to this other place , where guys put up 386 amps , with minimal frills and everyone really digs em . mine kinda get swept under the rug .

the funny thing is i know if i chose to do a 386 amp , and kept it simple , it would be finished a lot sooner compared to the projects i have done .
#30
i realize i did not build this from scratch so it doesn't qualify as much , but it was a fun starter project . the amp circuit was taken from a kiddie tape deck that had a lil plastic mic . i added a chorus circuit that i removed from a dano pedal , then a delay that i modified a little bit .

the video has 2 parts , part one i talk about it , part two i try and play a little bit thru it .

i only use 2 fingers to fret cause of a lawnmower accident when i was a kid .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEHPzmwST5M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVG5WwOpTVM

any feed back would be much appreciated , thanks .