ADSR Envelope Shaper Stripboard Veroboard Layout

I've been a bit busy recently so I thought I'd scan this interesting looking project in from a magazine from the 70's

Ellas Stylophone Stripboard Layout

I have a 2 year old niece called Ella and I wanted to make her something - so I thought I would make her a Stylophone.

NB: there were a couple of errors due to me somehow pressing the "up" button in "DIY layout editor" after I had built this but before I had rendered the image. these errors have been corrected

the original error was; the "tuning board" was listed as being connect to pin8 of IC2 - however it should be connected to pin 7 of IC2
I also missed out "R4" in the schematic (cause I drew the schematic after building it)

Me and Ella

EMF Ghost Detector Stripboard Veroboard Layout

I'm not a big believer in ghosts and all those paranormal reality shows only ever seem to film ghosts with no other aspiration than to knock on stuff however EMF is something I find interesting because we're surrounded by electro magnetic radiation (whether or not you believe it's paranormal is up to you) and I wanted to build a EMF detector - so I did and here it is.

there is an audio output so you can hear/record the actual EMF being displayed on the meter.
it's quite important that you have the pickup inductor mounted away from the device (as you can see in the picture) because you don't want to pickup the EMF of the device (not that there's much of it!)

so if you go out ghost hunting with this - make sure you send me the pictures of the places you're hunting cause I love abandoned places.
and if you record anything weird send me a link!

Atari Punk Console Stripboard Veroboard Layout

Another quick one. A favorite among beginners - originally by Forrest Mims
I got an email this morning asking to check over a layout he'd found and also how to add a volume pot so I just did a new layout, built it and made some stupid noises for half an hour and now I'm posting it here.
this is obviously the version that is adapted to use 2 single 555 timers rather than 1 dual 556 timer but it's the same. 

have fun.

 

Sound Activated Dancing LEDs Stripboard Veroboard Layout ( for the holiday seasons )

With all the various holidays coming up I thought I would do a nice decorative project. This makes LEDs light up with any kind of sound - it might make a cool halloween effect that makes LEDs flicker as people walk past your house or you could have it on your TV or something at christmas or of course anything else you could think of (if you have any ideas let me know)

as usual it is built and tested - it works beautifully and is quite sensitve however if you want to control the sensitivity change R4 to something like a 2K potentiometer or trim pot and adjust to suit.

for the microphone I used one I salvaged from and old phone similar to ( Mouser number 665-POM5238PR ) but I'm sure any kind of microphone will work.

Devils Drone Sequencer Veroboard Stripboard Layout

This has taken some time to design and it's not perfect but it sounds pretty cool (As you can hear from the sample) it follows on from the devils triangle I did earlier this year ( Found HERE and no you don't have to build that to make this work!)
This is quite a big project and as you can hear I have built it using the stripboard layout provided (as I do with all my layouts) so take your time because I really can't spend lots of time answering why things don't work. The truth is that unless you have the board in front of you there is no possible way to troubleshoot things. But if you take it slowly it should be good.
also don't forget to check out the "tips and troubleshooting" page above

I would also recommend not to do this if you're in-experienced

Devils Triangle Drone Synth Stripboard Veroboard Layout

this is a project based largely on the put up or shut up mentality, for quite some time I've been getting annoyed at seeing youtube videos of people pissing about with these "synths" which are basically boxes of 555 timers with a million knobs that make stupid noises that you couldn't ever actually use in music so I thought I would make my own little synth that would get repeatable sounds and be useful in music and what better type of synth? a droner type - basically cause I love bagpipes - I like drones
anyway the circuit itself is quite a simple one basically because I only designed it during the week, all it is really is 3 triangle wave generators configured to operate in the audio range going into a mixer op-amp configuration with the odd filter here and there to soften the waveforms
I've used LM358 op-amps cause they are the cheapest, I'm not too sure if others would work in the same way though they probably will.

why call it the devils triangle - well it has 3 oscillators one of which can oscillate a slightly high pitch range (for melody) it also sounds demonic so the name fit

Hope you enjoy

EDIT: I replaced the level knobs with on/off switches - it makes it so much more versatile being able to silent certain drones 
EDIT: I added a little schematic on how the switches should be wired as it was causing a bit of confusion.

the one I made - with a really shit paint job

Flux Capacitor LED Decoration Stripboard Veroboard Layout

for fans of Back To The Future - or LEDs
I know this isn't exactly like the real thing however that would involve crux tubes and so on and I doubt many people who read my site want to piss about with 10,000 volt supplies. Anyway it's pretty much for my halloween/christmas/bonfire night decoration collection.

as you can see I have included a layout for the actual display board, although it looks like the LEDs maybe abit too spaced out, in practice they wouldn't fit when they are closer together. However should you just want to use the display board I think that each transistor can drive quite a few LEDs (I think the 2N3904s are rated at 100mA)
As it stands the circuit draws roughly 5mA

The last thing I want to mention is the odd value electrolytic (well odd to some) it is 470nf however you can use a none polarized version it just happened that I have both kinds and the electrolytic takes up less space

I also included a little video to show you what it does. HERE

Paul in the
Lab is here to help
Everyone that's into electronics
Always feel free to
Seek my advice
Either using the
Contact button or my email
Lately I am always at the computer because
I am  designing stuff for the site though I did buy a new
Camera recently it's pretty cool. I remember the first thing I built was the
Knight rider LED scanner which I uploaded
To the site a few days ago, remember if you need to know
How to do something
Even if you think it's
Abit of a stupid question just ask, I
Don't mind. We all had to
Start somewhere. 

Fading LEDs / Eyes for Halloween decorations stripboard veroboard layout

The inspiration for this little circuit with Halloween approaching was a post I saw made on this Thrifty Crafty Girl
basically the girl had an idea of putting glow sticks in toilet rolls with eyes cut out to leave in bushes however I thought it would be cool to add an electronic element to it.
so I made a little circuit that will make LEDs fade in and out - they will go in and out of sync and will look pretty dam creepy
Anyway this one quite cheap to make circuit will "power" 4 toilet roll monsters - 2 LEDs per toilet roll or whatever you want to put "eyes" or LEDs in
below is a video of it in action

Paul in the
Lab is here to help
Everyone that's into electronics
Always feel free to
Seek my advice
Either using the
Contact button or my email
Lately I am always at the computer because
I am  designing stuff for the site though I did buy a new
Camera recently it's pretty cool. I remember the first thing I built was the
Knight rider LED scanner which I uploaded
To the site a few days ago, remember if you need to know
How to do something
Even if you think it's
Abit of a stupid question just ask, I
Don't mind. We all had to
Start somewhere. 

Knight Rider Kitt / Cylon LED Sequencer Stripboard Veroboard Layout

This is a cool little project I've been meaning to do for a long time. One which was so simple I kept putting it off.
Essentially this is a 8Hz (ish) squarewave generator attached to a decade counter - it counts upwards displaying each count on the next LED however the outputs are wired in such a way that instead of just going upwards it goes back downwards. it should be obvious when you look at the schematic how the thing works.

Anyway as the name suggests the LEDS go back and forth like the eye things on Cylons from battlestar galactica or the front panel on the car from knightrider. my older brother drives a taxi so I plan on using this to drive relays to big lamps and attach it to his car when he's next away.

This circuit is very useful outside of replicating old TV show LED things, you can use it to sequence pretty much anything using relays or even digital circuits and you don't have to use the 555 to do it automatically, you can replace that with a push switch circuit to the CD4017 Clock pin (14) and control a pedalboard for example
or maybe even make your house seem haunted by using it to remotely control appliances. I will include a simple Relay Driver below.

 

To use the CD4017 to drive a relay