How To Make A DIY Electronics Workbench

Us DIYers love to build things from scratch! If you ever wondered the amount of work that would go into building your own electronics workbench, this video series is the one for you! What you will realize is that sometimes DIY is not always the easiest thing to do, as YouTuber Made 2 Hack makes very clear in his three part video series. You will learn the process that goes into making a DIY electronics workbench, along with the trials and tribulations of a manufacturing project. ...

February 7, 2020 · 1 min · 165 words · Steve Senkus

Velleman MK171 Voice Changer Circuit

Anyone who has ever watched Doctor Who will be familiar with the peculiarly distorted voice of the Dalek. According to the Wikipedia entry, the original voice sounds were created with ring modulation. While simple passive circuits for this effect exist, there are plenty of ways to expand on this idea and create your own custom voice changer circuit. For instance, check out this forum post to see what people are experimenting with. Passive circuits are fun to experiment with, but us DIYers know that we still have to deal with amplification, mixing, and output control to have a useful audio circuit. A popular circuit schematic from a Velleman Voice Changer Kit is publicly available: ...

February 6, 2020 · 2 min · 267 words · Steve Senkus

Fun PT2399 Circuit Video Tutorial

In this video by YouTube channel Ms Mad Lemon, you can see the whole process of building a PT2399 circuit from scratch! As us audio DIYers know, it’s a great feeling to power on a hand-built and start playing around! One of the great things about this video is how the participants interact and debug their circuit. In the world of DIY, it can be frustrating to run into roadblocks or issues when we’re all alone. In this video you will notice how they talk about the digital and analog ground issues of the PT2399, the odd circuit schematic design. ...

February 6, 2020 · 1 min · 171 words · Steve Senkus

Learning more about the Princeton PT2399

I have recently been watching YouTube videos about the Princeton PT2399 and I came across a very educational video by user Electronics Freak. The first part of the video gives a very beginner-friendly overview of the chip’s capabilities through explanation of the datasheet. As he builds the project, he runs into a typical issue us DIYers run into: the datasheet isn’t the optimal circuit we need for our project.

February 5, 2020 · 1 min · 69 words · Steve Senkus

Video: PT2399 Delay IC Pedal Review

If you’re a DIY circuit enthusiast like me, you love the PT2399 Delay IC! The range of sounds that can be extracted from simple circuits using this versatile chip will blow your mind. It’s a fairly stable component with a lot of great possibilities for experimentation, sound exploration, and musical inspiration! YouTube channel ThePedalZone released a fantastic review of the PT233 Delay IC that goes into a little bit of history as well as a review of five delay pedals. Check it out and make sure to like + subscribe! ...

February 4, 2020 · 1 min · 90 words · Steve Senkus

Electronics Workbench Essentials

If you’re missing any of these from your workbench, you’ll be creating more work…for yourself. Take a look at our handy dandy list and see what you’re missing that could make your projects easier, more efficient, and ultimately, just plain old FUN!!! 3rd Hand- A third hand is absolutely necessary for any serious electronics work. Unless you have the most patient and steady partner (not likely) to assist you, you’re going to want a third hand. Basically, they consist of two adjustable alligator clips mounted to a heavy piece of metal that free up your hands to solder and assemble. ...

October 10, 2013 · 10 min · 1971 words · Steve Senkus

MIDI for Beginners

You’ve probably seen some weird plug-ins in the back of your keyboard that you’ve avoided like the black plague. They don’t take a normal quarter inch TRS male plug that you may be already familiar with. They look like this: [caption id=“attachment_1237” align=“aligncenter” width=“273”] TRS plug. Tip Ring Sleeve![/caption] No, the weird one with all the holes looks more like this: [caption id=“attachment_1238” align=“aligncenter” width=“225”] What is this? It’s a MIDI plug![/caption] ...

August 18, 2013 · 5 min · 972 words · Steve Senkus

Eagle CAD Printed Circuit Board Parts Library and Schematics FOR FREE on Github!

Over the years, I have greatly benefited from the generous work of the open source community. Whether it’s a reverse-engineered schematic of a early 70’s drum machine to source code for the Arduino, there is a lot of unpaid work that I have used for my hobbies and my work. As a token of my appreciation, I am making the official DIY Audio Circuits Eagle CAD Parts Library and Schematics available to the general public. Many of these custom-built parts and circuits have been manufactured and tested, while others were for demonstration purposes only. Please feel free to download these files and use them for whatever purpose you see fit. ...

June 23, 2013 · 1 min · 112 words · Steve Senkus

MIDI Buffer

Just found an awesome MIDI schematic used in a production model MIDI multiple-output buffer. In the works is a tutorial on how to make you own MIDI buffer! I’ll even have Eagle files! Woohoo!

May 12, 2013 · 1 min · 34 words · Steve Senkus

4093 NAND Gate Oscillator

Use a NAND Gate to get a square wave oscillator. Typically, the 4093 is used due to it being a Schmitt Trigger and there being 4 of them in the IC package. The potentiometer allows for user-adjustable frequency control. Lots of uses for this circuit building block.

March 28, 2013 · 1 min · 47 words · Steve Senkus