Palmetronics

Dylan Palme DIY Episode 1, Let’s Make A JFET Preamp

Resistance Report — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:26:31 +0000

Episode 1 is here! In this one we make a nice little JFET preamp.

Check out the original schematic here: http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/

All the music used in this show can be found at the Free Music Archive (www.freemusicarchive.org). Music featured in this episode was:

Motorama – Northern Seaside
Noctambulo – Noctambulo
Volfani – Balkan Banghra

Happy Valentines Day

Resistance Report — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:52:09 +0000

Coming Soon!!!

Resistance Report — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:01:32 +0000

Lighting Up An LED With A Motor

Resistance Report — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:56:20 +0000

I got bored yesterday so what was I to do? Light up some LED’s with the voltage coming out of a spinning motor of course!

Let’s Build A Bazz Fuss

Resistance Report — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:56:36 +0000

This is an article reposted from my last blog. Originally posted on 10/22/11

The Bazz Fuss is an incredibly simple fuzz effect for bass (though can be used with guitar as well). It only uses a handful of parts and you can put it together on your breadboard in about a minute. I would have done this as another “episode” of It Came From Radio Shack!!!but there are a couple more things you can’t get there (metal case and 3PDT switch), the actual components though, you can find at Radio Shack. I got mine there for just less than $20.

Parts List (* Not available at Radio Shacks)
2n3904 NPN Transistor
0.1uF Capacitor (Poly-Film)
4.7uF Capacitor (Electrolytic)
100kΩ Resistor 100kΩ Potentiometer 1N914 Diode
Rubber Feet
Protoboard
Knobs
Metal Case*
3PDT True Bypass Footswitch*

All together, these things cost about $35. I’m basing my build on this schematic from Home-Wrecker.com:

The circuit is insanely easy to build and can be thrown on a breadboard in less than a minute. Here’s what mine looks like on the breadboard.

I also added a 1MΩ resistor for a little voltage divider to get it to work on mine. If you have a problem with your circuit working, just try adding that.

After testing it out on the breadboard for a bit, it was time to solder it up. I decided to use sockets for the caps and transistor, since there are many substitutions for these parts that add their own flair to the circuit.

The finished circuit.

And here it is all boxed up:

Modding A Boss DS-1

Resistance Report — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:53:57 +0000

This article is a repost from my old blog. Originally posted on 12/31/11.

A week or so ago, I got a package in the mail, it was from my friend Al, from the band Cannibal Papaya. A couple months ago on facebook I asked if anyone had any guitar pedals they wanted to sell for cheap, and Al being the cool guy he is, sent me this Boss DS-1 for free.

When I got the pedal, the first thing I remembered was the gated feedback mod I saw on Casperelectronics’ website, so I decided I’d install that.

This mod is extremely easy, and you only need three things: the DS-1, an SPST toggle switch, and a 2N3904 NPN transistor.

The point of this mod is to add some cool feedback to the distortion without having it squealing when you’re not playing anything.

I had these laying around from a couple failed projects, that’s why they’re not in the prettiest of shape, but who cares?

Here’s how you should be hooking up your transistor, and remember to throw the switch on the collector.

And here’s the whole thing soldered up:

Thankfully there’s plenty of space inside the DS-1 to mount the switch on the back side.

To make sure the transistor doesn’t short anything out, wrap that S.O.B. in electrical tape or heat shrink tubing. Then you can feel safe cramming it all into the pedal.

Like A Glove.

And there you have it. A nicely modded DS-1. The end result is a nice bassey feedback effect. It’s not something that I’ll be using all the time, but for some weird experimentation, it’ll work just fine. If I’m feeling more ambitious, I think I’ll add a 1/4″ jack instead of the toggle switch, so I can add an external foot switch to turn the effect on and off.

Now that I’ve added this neat effect, I think I better fix that dim dull LED Boss put in this thing.

Fixing My Stylophone

Resistance Report — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:30:54 +0000

For the longest time, the stylus on my stylophone has been busted. For the most part it worked fine, but after the stylus that came with it broke, my fix of soldering a paper clip to the original wire just wasn’t cutting it.

A few months back, while scrounging around the electronics at Goodwill, I found an old analog Radio Shack multimeter that wasn’t working. It mainly servers as a parts piece now, and since it only came with one test lead, I thought it would make for a perfect new stylus. Below is a little time lapse of my modification. Enjoy!

Welcome To Palmetronics

Resistance Report — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:03:07 +0000

Welcome to the Palmetronics website! Here you can find documentation of my electronic and other projects. Most of them are electronic musical instruments and guitar effects, but I do make other forms of D.I.Y. doo-hickeys.

I had another blog that dealt with the same thing, and you can find that one here.