[SOLVED] Very low / noisy HandClap

There is something wrong and a scope would help figure it out.. The audio software scopes are probably far better than picking up something from the vintage test gear market. It might be worth the small price to put the cables together.

Where you located? I'm just north of Seattle in the US so if your close to me shoot me a PM.

From rereading the entire thread, If I would just take a stab at one part I would replace the IC28. I think you were " looking" that direction when you inquired about them.

Best,

KaZ

I'm in Switzerland haha, not exactly next door, but thanks for offering. I found a friend who works at a radio station and I might be able to use their oscilloscope.
I ordered a couple of mitsubischi opamps so I'll try replacing IC28!

Thanks for the help,
Val

If your to replace it, make sure you have a good desoldering station. If not destroying the part and pulling the individual leads is better than damaging the pcb trying to get the chip in one peice. Traces are small, solder pads are almost non existent so it would be rather easy to hurt the board IMO.

Cheers and good luck

Good point, I almost destroyed my board on several occasions while trying to desolder without proper equipment. I now have a de-soldering pump which is already much better, but as you said I think I'll cut the pins and remove them one by one.

FIXED!

I figured out from the circuit analysis here http://hardware.freepage.de/cgi-bin/fee ... ndclap.htm and the sound I was getting that the problematic part must have been the VCA that creates the main clap sound, since I was getting the "reverb" part just fine (low noise, shaped and modulated by a simple envelope). Also, i was getting the multiple-attack envelope from ENV-1. This lead me to believe that BA6110 was bad and I swapped it with a new one and voila!

Just posting a new message here to ask a question that I felt didn't need it's own thread and is kinda related.

I'm looking into getting a beginner's oscilloscope to debug audio electronics and came across a company called seeed that sells portable oscilloscopes.
89$ : http://www.seeedstudio.com/DSO-Nano-v3-p-1358.html
199$ : http://www.seeedstudio.com/DSO-Quad-Alu ... -1034.html

Since I'm not very familiar with the requirements of an oscilloscope for this kind of application (like debugging the nava), can someone with experience have a look at the specs and tell me if any of them would be a good buy? I don't wanna spend too much money on this because I'll probably use it once/twice a year.

As I said, I don't need ultimate performance, I want just enough to be able to debug problematic circuits.

Thanks!

If you want to continue seriously in electronics, save up for a bench scope. Entry models start around $300. Or start with a USB scope, they start around $100.
The DSO nano has only 200Khz bandwitdth, which can be fine for analog audio purposes, but it won't help you checking for life in digital circuits.

The 4 channel DSO is a complete waste of money, don't do it, not worth your hard earned cash! For that price you almost have an entry level bench scope.

Don't get me wrong, these scopes are nice but you need to be aware of their limitations. They are portable for a purpose, to keep in your tool case and check for life. You won't be doing any proper measuring.

Thanks for this good advice! I think an USB scope would suit me well actually, do you have any recommendation ?

Do I need mixed signal capabilities or analog would do? I've seen picotech picoscopes 2000 series are quite cheap https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/2 ... 0-overview

Bitscope too, and the software looks nice http://my.bitscope.com/store/?p=list&a=list&i=cat+0

Also this https://www.parallax.com/product/32220

I couldn't wait haha so I bought the Bitscope Micro and received it today. I used it for clap calibration and I'm quite happy with it, the software is very intuitive and the scope is super easy to setup. I chose this one because it has the most features for this price : mixed signal, waveform generator, clock generator, full software suite (protocol analyzer, oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, etc), and it's VERY compact as well as water resistant.

I checked the precision of the device by connecting the waveform generator to the channel A input and it seems quite precise even at low voltages. Would recommend for a beginner 100%.

beeb wrote:FIXED!

I figured out from the circuit analysis here http://hardware.freepage.de/cgi-bin/fee ... ndclap.htm and the sound I was getting that the problematic part must have been the VCA that creates the main clap sound, since I was getting the "reverb" part just fine (low noise, shaped and modulated by a simple envelope). Also, i was getting the multiple-attack envelope from ENV-1. This lead me to believe that BA6110 was bad and I swapped it with a new one and voila!

Hmm I wonder if there are a number of these BA6110's that are bad. I've got the same issue with mine, will update with results when I've tried replacing.