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 Forum index » DIY Hardware and Software » Stickney Synthyards
little drummer
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PHOBoS



Joined: Jan 14, 2010
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 4:46 pm    Post subject: little drummer
Subject description: drum toy
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I got an electronic drum toy for €0,50 at a thrift shop hoping that it would have some drumsounds (instead of the usual melodies),
and it does indeed Very Happy. The drum sounds are a kickdrum, snaredrum, crash cymbal and hi-hat. It also has a button
to play a build in rhythm and pressing one of the drum buttons will cause a temporary variation in the rhythm.
The circuit is just a blob but it does have a resistor on the PCB which is responsible for the pitch/speed, and a
transistor to drive the speaker which provides an open collector ouput so I can easily adjust the output voltage
(the circuit itself runs on 3V). The buttons are connections to GND so I can add external trigger inputs using transistors.

I noticed that it can only play one sound at a time and as long as a button is pressed it will disable the other sounds,
so I'll probably add some simple gate to trigger converters. I could add some circuitry to produce some rhythms
but I think I'll just add some inputs for the drums, a pot for the pitch (or maybe a vactrol), switches to turn the
drums on/off and a line output. Although the current housing looks nice it's not very practical and I got an old battery
charger that I might use for it instead. It probably has a build in transformer which I could use as a powersupply.

It'll be a while before I get started on it, but here's a picture and in the meantime any ideas are welcome.


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commathe



Joined: Jul 26, 2013
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

When you put a pitch pot in, check if the voltage at the pin its connected to stays the same. If it does then it's probably current controlled -- add a transistor as a CV input Cool
Last edited by commathe on Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:00 am; edited 1 time in total
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PHOBoS



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PostPosted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

thanks, I'll check it out. I did notice that both sides of the resistor are connected to the 'blob' instead of one side
being connected to the positive supply which is often the case. Of course there could be a connection to it underneath
the blob, which seems to be true for the output transistor.

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PHOBoS



Joined: Jan 14, 2010
Posts: 5591
Location: Moon Base
Audio files: 705

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 1:46 pm    Post subject: Re: little drummer
Subject description: drum toy
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PHOBoS wrote:
Although the current housing looks nice it's not very practical and I got an old battery
charger that I might use for it instead. It probably has a build in transformer which I could use as a powersupply.

Although it would make a nice housing and did indeed have a useful transformer I'd end up with yet another standalone box.
I thought about making it into a synth module but eventually decided to put it into PHOMETHEUS which I wanted to give some drums
anyway. I already got the panel done and soldered & tested the needed circuitry onto some perf but I need some parts to finish it as
the panel will have some more things on it. I will add updates in the PHOMETHEUS thread, so stayed tuned.




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