The story of my struggle in building a copy of the Blacet Pitch Divider. You can view the circuit I have here. I am not sure how accurate it is, and it misses out a few things, like voltage regulation, it I'm meant to use a floating power supply or not.
February 1999: I first come across the BPD diagram whilst searching for a guitar distortion pedal digram. It sat on the hard drive in the archive for years. I want to add here that I am, like many people, a circuit diagram whore. I have whole modular systems on the hard-drive, and I print pages out occasionally. I've got this folder which is just plastic pockets full of circuits. If It's got ICs, or Trannys, or Coils and Caps, and it's got something to do with Audio, I download it, sort it, and store it.
May 2001: First attempt at making the pedal. Didn't get past buying the verboard. Got distracted, made a ring modulator instead, which I finished. I forgot about the BPD for a long time.
Late October 2002: Started project in earnest. Purchased some Verboard, Got the ICs, ran some simulations in Electronics Workbench on the TAFE computers. Looks like things are going well. I have a few plans.
Early November 2002: Things going well. I'm busy with exams at the moment, so, it's been hard to get a lot of time for BPD. I am toying around with ideas to make it less Square Wave output. There is a basic Integrator going on at the output stage (a single cap going to ground). I plan to use a 3-way switch to give different cap values, and, I think I'll install a basic guitar-style Tone Control across the output, probably do it with a double-gang pot, and have two different value caps, switchable with a 3-way to give it a bit of character.
11th Nov 2002: Well, no work done this week, really. Designed the Tone control section, and chose knobs from the catalog (I'm not even gonna pretend that was work of any kind). It really is true that the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. I have looked at the original panel design, and other similar units and they are tall skinny devices, because they are modular synth modules (MOTM make one which appears similar, but that is only a skin-deep). As I am building this as a stand alone unit, I will probably be using a desk-top panel case. Possible one with some kind of sloped top, so I can have the LEDs on there, all flashy and stuff.
Not that Exams and the school year is finished (start again in 1st week of Feb), I have Oodles of time to work on this project. I'm looking forward to that! I am hoping to have it finished by Christmas. That's 5 weeks. Hmm, hope the finances hold out. I shouldn't have to spend too much money on it. The most expensive part to go will be the case, knobs and sockets, but, that is the experimenter's lot in life. I will use crappy 2nd hand knobs until I can buy the chicken-nose knobs I desire. ...
17th December, 2002. Well, another update here. I am quitting my pwn Blacet project in lieu of purchasing a kit from Ken Stone, well, not a kit as such, a PCB. I buy the components and the box myself. His PCB is a better option for something I was kinda of having a little trouble with. The whole PCB layout on veroboard wasn't going as well as I'd've liked. This way, I get a PCB to build it on. A clearer direction for the project. Thanks paul, um, I mean, Ken.
Total Cost of Project So Far.
Printing up the diagram, 10 times $1
Veroboard $4
ICs $4.50