READ ME FIRSTUpdated 4/20/2012

Step by Step Assembly Instructions for all GetLoFi.com Kits

Table of ContentsBEFORE YOU BEGIN..............................................................................................................................2Tools Needed for Basic Kit Assembly.......................................................................................................2LoFi Delay.................................................................................................................................................34093 Quad Oscillator.................................................................................................................................8

Circuit Description................................................................................................................................8Assembly ..............................................................................................................................................9Install the IC........................................................................................................................................13Power and Output Connections...........................................................................................................13Powering ON.......................................................................................................................................15

Distortion Lab..........................................................................................................................................16Theory of Operation:...........................................................................................................................16Assembly:............................................................................................................................................18Operation:............................................................................................................................................25

Gameboy LTC 1799 Install......................................................................................................................27LTC 1799 Module General Instructions...................................................................................................28555 Timer.................................................................................................................................................30Atari Punk Console 3.0............................................................................................................................33Extra Information.....................................................................................................................................51

Resistor Color Code:...........................................................................................................................51DC Power:...........................................................................................................................................52Audio Jacks:........................................................................................................................................52

BEFORE YOU BEGIN• SAFETY IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

• Make sure that all the components are included.

• Always work in a well lit and ventilated area.

• Wash hands after handling solder and components.

• Use only proper tools.

• Returns only accepted for unopened kits.

• Send us an email at circuitmaster@gmail.com with any problems or questions.

Tools Needed for Basic Kit Assembly• 25 watt or less soldering iron with a fine tip.

• 60-40 Flux-Core from Radio Shack or equivalent DO NOT USE ACID CORE or SELF CLEANING solder.

• Wire Cutter for cutting long legs of components close to circuit board.

• Wire Stripper for exposing the metal core of the insulated wire.

• Third Hand or other assembly with a clip to hold the circuit board while soldering.

Component Substitutions

You may receive 104 ( 0.1uF capacitors ) or 1K resistors that look like above, both are same.

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LoFi DelayCompleted Board Overview. LED Flat side goes towards the White Pin Connector. The Black Capacitors are polarized so make sure they look exactly like the image. Also the IC should face with the divot away from the potentiometers. Capacitors can go either way.

100 ohm resistor ( Br, Black, Brown ) is hiding under the 250K potentiometer on the left, And a 10K ( Orange, Black, Brown ) is close to the 20K potentiometer on the right.

Underside of the board. Make sure that no burrs are shorting the contacts. This is a handmade board so its not perfect.

Next versions will be professionally manufactured, but of course not as charming.

Diagram:

Output jack. Notice that your wire will be different. Just make sure that Pin closest to the potentiometer is Violet wire, and pin furthest away is Black wire. Black will always be ground in this case. It also goes to the number 1 ( sleeve ) pin of the jack. The violet wire will go to the last pin ( tip )

Input jack. Use Blue wire for the pin closest to potentiometer to got to the tip of the jack, and Second pin with the black wire to sleeve. 1M resistor is optional on the input.

Switch to power on the circuit. Polarity doesn't matter as long as one of the wires is connected to the center pin of the switch.

As far as the power connections go.

Red wires goes first, closest to potentiometer and the black wires goes second, similar to all the other ground connections.

4093 Quad Oscillator

Finished Circuit ( note: different wire colors from instructions )

Circuit DescriptionThe Quad Oscillator is based on the 4093 Logic Gate with dual inputs for each gate. For our purposes we are only using one input. Each gate oscillates in the audio frequency range through feedback provided by the charge rate of capacitors and adjustment of that that rate by varying resistance of the potentiometers changes the output frequencies.

Four oscillators are then mixed together via Diodes and buffered through a capacitor with attenuating resistors for acceptable line volume.

The LED simply indicates to us that power is applied.

Assembly

Make sure the circuit board looks thus with two drill holes on the Right side of the IC socket. Start by placing the socket in the center of the board with the notch facing towards the square through holes for the potentiometers. Leave the IC out during the soldering process.

Bend the legs of components outward before you begin the soldering this will prevent things from falling out when the circuit board is flipped for soldering. Heat the trace and apply the solder until it melts and looks shiny. Check for gaps and always heat the trace metal not just the component leg. Cold solder joins will make the device not function.

After the socket is in place install the Diodes. Note they are polarized and have a stripe which should be facing away from the Socket. Install, flip over, solder, and clip the extra leg length.

Add the 10uF capacitors to make two of the logic gates into low frequency oscillations. Make sure that the White Stripe for all capacitors is facing AWAY from the socket.

Next install the 1uF capacitors for the high frequency oscillators again with stripe away from IC.

Finally install the last 47uF capacitor all the way on the right side of the board ( stripe away ). This capacitor helps to filter out any DC current which can be damaging. Last but not least we have two 1KOhm ( Brown, Black, Red stripe ) resistors. One on the left is for lowering the current to the LED preventing it from burning out and the one on the right is to help buffer the output. The 100 Ohm ( Brown Black, Brown ) resistor located on the outside of the circuit board is for attenuating the output, meaning that it shunts some of the signal to the ground lowering the volume. If you prefer a variable volume control, replace this resistor with a 1K ohm potentiometer.

Finally we have the Power Indicator LED. The Flat side ( or the short leg ) must be placed in the hole towards the IC socket. Otherwise the polarity will be backwards and it will not light up. If you are planning on installing this in a case you should consider wiring up the LED with long wire extensions.

Current kit parts variation.

The underside of the body should look like this with clean solder joins and no extra component legs touching each other.

IMPORTANT: Break off the little security tabs on the potentiometers before soldering them into place. Simply snip off with wire cutters.

Rest the board on the tops of the potentiometers and finish soldering all of their legs in place. However if you want to extend these or fit them into a custom case, you should use two wires per potentiometer, one from center and one from the outside leg to extend them.

Install the ICCarefully without bending its legs, you may have to gently push them towards the center to align them to the socket.

Power and Output ConnectionsNOTE that if you have the updated circuit board. That looks like this. The power connection has changed. Battery and output are the same however.

Power switch is on the next two holes to the left of the Red wire and Output is to the Right of the black wire.

The 9 Volt battery clip must be connected with Black wire to hole #2 and Red wire hole #3.

Your power and output wires must look like this. Proceed to solder them into place.

When soldering to the switch, do so quickly. Extended soldering heat on the legs will cause the case to melt and will push the springs out of place. First push stripped wire through the holes and then quickly solder them.

Powering ONIf all the connections look good and there are no cold solder joins, connect a 9 volt battery, and the output of the device to the input of an amplifier set at low volume at first.

Turn the switch and the Red LED should light up indicating power to the circuit. ( If it does not check your battery making sure its fresh. Otherwise your LED may be backwards or your power connections are not in the right place, or your switch is not wired correct. ) Either way double check each step if you have problems.

As you begin to adjust the potentiometers, various clicks and beeps should start coming out of your amplifier speakers. The circuit is working, congratulations!

Distortion Lab

Theory of Operation:

Distortion Lab is based around TL071 Op Amp IC, an analog integrated circuit designed to create gain in the signal that is passed through. When alternating current such as that of an audio source is amplified beyond the headroom of the amplifier we get distortion. Distortion clipping can also be artificially created through the use of diodes in pairs. Lets follow the path of the signal as it goes through the circuit.

From Input pin1 the audio passes through C1 which buffers it by removing potentially damaging Direct Current. R1 and R2 are called input biasing resistors, one connected to +9 volts and the other one is connected to Ground. Without them this circuit would not function at all! Op-Amps are designed to function from a dual ended power supply, meaning +9 and -9 volts. While there are numerous sonic advantages to that most people prefer to use just 1 battery.

The gain of the Op-Amp is set by R3 and R ( in the Tone Profile ), because R3 is fixed our only option is to change the R. This can be replaced with a 50-100K potentiometer to get a nice range in the Drive Level. The C2 capacitor helps to form a High Pass filter, cutting out Low unwanted frequencies like Mains Hum.

Most of the Tone shaping of the incoming signal thus occurs in the Tone Profile module, which is a receptacle for components that are inline of the Feedback path from the output of the Op-Amp back to its input. The diodes in this case act as Signal clipping mechanisms, where once the audio wave reaches the certain level it gets blocked from passing. This is where you may experiment by plugging

in different diodes to hear their effect on the tone. Germanium diodes tend to have a smoother clipping, while Silicone are more sharp in my opinion. These do not have to be in pairs, you can use 2 diodes in series or even LEDs, and even some transistors to see their effect on the sound, experiment away. The C capacitor in the Tone Profile is a Low Pass filter, it helps to cut out unwanted High Frequencies such as those of Radio Stations, which may be picked up by the circuit.

Finally the output of the Op-Amp and the Tone Profile is sent through C3 buffering capacitor to remove DC voltage and spikes. Following that R4 resistor helps lower the signal level. You can also replace this resistor with a 10K potentiometer with wiper on the output, left leg connected to Ground and the right leg connected after the output resistor.

Further recommended reading:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/richardo/distortion/index.html

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/richardo/distortion/index.html

Assembly:

Note that the white stripe on the capacitors is – therefore it goes opposite of + indicated on the above diagram.

Lets start populating the circuit board with two 8 pin DIP sockets. Make sure you are working with the correct side of the board and everything look as pictured in the photo.

Its good to start with low profile components such as resistors. These are 1M ( Brown, Black, Green ).

Next the 100 ohm resistor ( Brown, Black, Brown )

Next is the 1K resistor ( Brown, Black, Red ). This actually regulates how loud the signal from the output gets. This resistor can be replaced with a potentiometer to change the volume.

Now we can install the 10uF electrolytic capacitors. Make sure the stripes are facing to the outside of the circuit board.

Last component on the circuit board is the 1uF electrolytic capacitor. Once again white stripe to the outside.

Its time to assemble the Tome Profile module. Each new module you create can be created the same way. Substituting various diodes, capacitors, and resistors.

The finished module should look like this. Cut the legs short first and insert them into the holes, then carefully and quickly solder the legs to the cup.

To connect the Input and Output jacks, use Black, Blue, and Violet wire. Black is ground.

Make sure the wires are arranged in such a fashion. Violet ( Input jack ) Black ( ground ). Next will be Red for positive, and black for Ground to the power supply. Following Ground and Blue for the Output.

Finally we add the power switch. It will control the connection between the Red Battery wire.

The wire connections should look as such:

Violet, Black, ( Input ).

Red, Black ( Power ).

Black, Blue ( Output ).

The IC should be oriented towards the Tone Profile IC. Look for the little black dot.

Operation:Make sure that the battery is disconnected when you are installing and removing the Tone Profile. Plug an audio source such as guitar into the Input jack ( Violet wire ) and the Output ( Blue ) wire must connect to a mixer or an audio amplifier.

Start with very low volume on the mixer or amplifier. Turn up the volume on the source and listen for the result. You should hear a distorted effect. Turning up the volume on the will create more of the effect. Adjusting guitar pickup selection and tone will shape the sound. Experiment with settings and try other audio sources such as Piezo pickups.

Distortion amount controls can also be added by soldering the potentiometer to the bottom of the circuit board where the Tone Profile goes. Either side of the 8 pin DIP package is fine.

Gameboy LTC 1799 Install

LTC 1799 Module General Instructions

Old LTC Module instructions. Ignore trim resistors, everything else should apply.

555 Timer

In the first step we will install the IC socket. Make sure the PCB looks a such with 3 Potentiometer holes and the top and the writing on the bottom. The Socket has a notch, preferably it will face towards the potentiometer.

Next we will solder in place the 1K resistor ( Brown, Black, Red ). This will help to set the frequency of the oscillator. You may use two longer wires instead and connect another potentiometer instead of this Fixed resistor.

Now we will install the capacitor. Please note that the kit includes 2 capacitors. 10 uF ( useful for more Lower frequency oscillations such as Tempo ) and a 1 uF capacitor ( more suited for higher audio frequency range ) If you are not sure which to use simply connect two extension wires and try both on a switch.

No we can install the potentiometer. Please not that it will cover the 1K resistor so access to that will be limited at this point.

The power connection to the 555 time is provided through the bottom set of connections in the circuit board. Black wire is Ground and Red wire is Positive voltage. Do not exceed 15 volts, that may damage the IC. Typically the 555 power is fed from the circuit you are trying to incorporate the timer into. The set of holes directly across form the power connection is the CV voltage input for the 555 IC. Note that it only accepts low voltage of 0-1 volts to change the frequency.

The pulse output of the 555 can be connected to via two holes directly above the power connection.

The black wire is the ground. However if you are injecting the pulse into the same device that is powering the Timer you do not need that extra wire. The violet wire is the output of the 555. It will look like a square wave, meaning strictly OFF and ON with the duration of the pulses dictated by the potentiometer. This change in duration will produce a chance in frequency.

Atari Punk Console 3.0

The Atari Punk Console is based on the 556 dual timer IC. The new kit features several improvements, first of all we added an attenuated output. This will assure that the sound level coming from the APC is not extremely loud as it was before. There are also trim 10K resistors to prevent squealing high output frequencies. Finally there is a random frequency setting that can be engaged by adjusting the potentiometer.

APC 3.0 Rev 0.3 circuit board should look like this once populated. ( Note that your 1K resistors may be BLUE )

First step is to insert the IC socket into the center of the PCB. Make sure the notch faced towards the top, where the two sets of 3 square pads are and you can see the GetLoFi, LLC 2012 text under the socket. Carefully solder the IC socket on the underside without the 556 IC, which will get inserted after everything is finished.

Next locate three 10K resistors ( Brown, Black, Orage ) and place them in the same holes as the above picture. Two resistors near the potentiometers will act as trimmers preventing the pitch of the APC from going into extremely high frequencies. You may bridge those with solid wire if you wish to follow the original schematic. The one close to the outside is a volume limiting resistor, it allows the APC to be plugged into an amplifier without overloading the input. However the disadvantage is that now the APC circuit does not have enough power to drive a speaker. You may connect a wire at the top of this resistor to a speaker + if you wish to drive it.

Now we install the 1K resistors. ( Brown, Black, Red ) one the left side the 1K resistor is part of the oscillating circuit, it sets the frequency for the 556 operation. Its possible to replace it with a potentiometer to alter the sound. The 1K resistor on the right side is simply for limiting the current to the LED on the circuit board.

Please note that in this step we added a 100 ohm resistor ( brown, black brown ) on the very far edge of the circuit board on the right. This is am attenuating resistor that sends some of the signal to ground making the signal more quiet. The other components added are 10uF electrolytic capacitors. These are polarized, meaning they have a + and – side ( skunk stripe ) observe their orientation and make sure it looks exactly as the photo above. The capacitor on the left is what helps APC 3.0 create the hysteresis effect, you may skip installing it and simple jumper the connection with wire to create the original version. The capacitor in the right however is an output DC filter capacitor, it is required.

In this step we install the 104 ( 0.1uF capacitors ) these ceramic capacitors are NOT polarized, so their orientation doesn't matter. Both capacitors help to set the frequency of the 556 oscillator, one closest in the image is part of the Capacitor Bank which will be switched on to drop the overall frequency of the APC module.

The 223 ( 0.033 uF ) capacitor shown in the above image is also part of the Capacitor Bank, when switched on it will drop the frequency of the APC.

Final capacitor to be installed is the 103 ( 0.01uF ) ceramic. Seen here as the smallest of the group next to the 104. Warning Important Step coming up, so not trim this capacitors legs yet.

If your circuit board is Rev 0.3 SKIP and looks like this , skip the extra steps. Design has been fixed. No jumpers are needed. However some output and power wiring has changed.

OLDER Boards need the jumper.

This is a required step! First take a look at this image, this is what the underside of your circuit board should looks like. Nice clean solder connections, not too much solder, no solder bridges either. No bubbly solder joints that don't make a contact with the copper traces.

NOW take the right leg the 103 capacitor and bend it towards left leg of the 10uF capacitor as shown in this image. Solder the connection in place, by doing so you have created a jumper. Unfortunately this version of the circuit board has an error which is why you have to do this. Please email me at circuitmaster@gmail.com if you are not clear on this step.

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In this step we solder in the White LED. Make sure the flat side is pointing towards the back of the circuit board, away from the potentiometers.

Finally we add the potentiometers. These 500K potentiometers control the frequencies of the two oscillators in the 556 IC. One will set the over all root note and the other one steps through all the available notes in that range.

The 9 Volt battery connector is attached as shown above. First two holes of the 4 hole array.

9 Volt connector and the Power-On switch. The switch simply bridges the ground connection for the entire circuit.

The ¼ inch output jack is connected as shown. Leave the middle pin unconnected. Make sure you use the same side of the jack as shown in the image. The other side is switching meaning that the contacts will lift up and no sound will be passed through. Black wire is ground and the violet wire is the signal.

Important! We have to address one more error on the circuit board by creating a jumper as shown in the above image. It goes from the black output ground wire, to the black wire following the switch.

Capacitor Bank buttons are connected as such, polarity doesn't matter. BUT DO NOT solder in till you have the buttons through the case which you intend to mount this circuit.

The photo sensor once connected will act as a light control for the frequency of the APC. Connect two wires and it is highly recommended that heat shrink tubing is used to prevent shorting of the contacts. We also highly recommend that you use an LED Bezel ( available from getlofi.com/shop ) to contain the sensor.

The photo sensor and a switch to engage the photo sensor will be soldered to the two sets of holes next to the right side potentiometer.

Closeup photo of where the photo sensor and engage switch must be soldered to.

Finally this is what it should look like once everything is connected to the circuit board.

The Momentary trigger button can be connected to the power switch. AGAIN DO NOT solder the buttons until you have mounted them in a case.

Everything should be all ready for testing, make sure the IC is seated in the socket with the notch towards the potentiometer. If there is no LED light once the power switch is turned on, double check your power connection, make sure the LED is facing the correct way. If there is no sound make sure all the jumpers indicated in the above instructions are in place. If the IC gets hot then it may be backwards. Double check all the components against included images.

Transistor Theremin:

Please note that the Silver colored Transistor goes on the bottom and the NON-colored one is on top. The flat sides should face each other. You may also experiment by plugging in various other NPN ( TOP ) and PNP ( Bottom ) transistors.

Also note the battery and output jack installations.

The bottom of the PCB should look like this after you are all done. Clip extra lengths of all components. Please note that if the LED keeps staying on, there is a small short where the word “switch” is. Try scraping the S with a pointy object my apologies, new boards will be revised.

Transistor Theremin Deluxe Kit

Please note that the Silver colored transistor goes into the PNP spot. Install the battery compartment with square end pointing towards the edge. Use the white square connector for the speaker, however first install the battery compartment.

Note the photocell, capacitor, and the bottom placements. The transistor in this image is an NPN, non colored one.

The underside should look as such, with the output jack installed slightly off center. Just bend the middle leg outwards and solder it to the trace below. Circles is where magnets can go for easy fridge mounting.

Extra Information

Resistor Color Code:

DC Power:

Audio Jacks:

BEFORE YOU BEGINTools Needed for Basic Kit AssemblyLoFi Delay4093 Quad OscillatorCircuit DescriptionAssembly Install the ICPower and Output ConnectionsPowering ON

Distortion LabTheory of Operation:Assembly:Operation:

LTC 1799 Module General Instructions555 TimerAtari Punk Console 3.0Extra InformationResistor Color Code:DC Power:Audio Jacks: