Monday, January 26, 2015

Portable Microphone Preamplifier

This circuit is mainly intended to provide common home stereo amplifiers with a microphone input. The battery supply is a good compromise: in this manner the input circuit is free from mains low frequency hum pick-up and connection to the amplifier is more simple, due to the absence of mains cable and power supply. Using a stereo microphone the circuit must be doubled. In this case, two separate level controls are better than a dual-ganged stereo potentiometer. Low current drawing (about 2mA) ensures a long battery life.

Circuit Operation:

The circuit is based on a low noise, high gain two stage PNP and NPN transistor amplifier, using DC negative feedback through R6 to stabilize the working conditions quite precisely. Output level is attenuated by P1 but, at the same time, the stage gain is lowered due to the increased value of R5. This unusual connection of P1, helps in obtaining a high headroom input, allowing to cope with a wide range of input sources (0.2 to 200mV RMS for 1V RMS output).

Portable Microphone Preamplifier Circuit diagram:



Parts:
P1 = 2.2K
R1 = 100K
R2 = 100K
R3 = 100K
R4 = 8.2K
R5 = 68R
R6 = 6.8K
R7 = 1K
R8 = 1K
R9 = 150R
C1 = 1uF-63V
C2 = 100uF-25V
C3 = 100uF-25V
C4 = 100uF-25V
C5 = 22uF-25V
Q1 = BC560
Q2 = BC550

Notes:
  • Harmonic distortion is about 0.1% @ 1V RMS output (all frequencies).
  • Maximum input voltage (level control cursor set at maximum) = 25mV RMS
  • Maximum input voltage (level control cursor set at center position) = 200mV RMS
  • Enclosing the circuit in a metal case is highly recommended.
  • Simply connect the output of this device to the Aux input of your amplifier through screened cable and suitable connectors.
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Multi Sound For Guitars

Electric guitars use coils (guitarists call them pickups or elements) to convert the vibrations of the strings into an electrical signal. Usually, a guitar has more than one element builtin, so that the musician can select with a switch which element or elements are used to generate the signal. Because of the differences in construction of the elements and the varying positions of where they are mounted, each element sounds different. The elements can be roughly divided into two categories. There are the so-called ‘single-coils’ and ‘humbuckers’. Single coil elements are elements that contain one core and coil for each string. Humbuckers can be regarded as two elements that are connected in series. Many humbuckers have four connections (actually two single-coils with two connections each).

Multi Sound - For Guitars Circuit diagram :



These two individual coils are usually interconnected with fixed wiring so that they are always used in series. The circuit proposed here offers the possibility of using a hum-bucker with four connections in no less than four different modes, each of which having its own sound. The only things that have to be changed on the guitar are the wiring and the addition of a four-position switch. The latter requires drilling holes in the guitar of course, but if there is a control cover plate (along the lines of a Fender Stratocaster, for example) then it makes sense to put the switch there. This avoids the need for drilling holes in the wood while keeping an (expensive) guitar reasonably unmarred. The schematic shows what the various things look like, electrically speaking, before and after the multisound modification.
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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Electronic Timer with display circuit

timer-circuit

Using this electronic scheme can be built an electronic timer which can be set to measure a maximum of 60 hours. 

The electronic timer allows the fixation of some intermediate time. On reaching this point, a buzzer will sound. 

The circuit is built using ICM7217 integrated circuit, manufactured by Intersil, which contains a CMOS counter up / down, with 4 digits and display properly. 
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