[sdiy] Wasp clone, was: SDIY UK 2010 pics and vid

[Dave Kendall]

It's a double-sided 390mm x 250mm PCB, with what looks like large 
hand-drawn traces. There is certainly plenty of space on the board 
between components.

I have one here that I bought when they came out, sold it whilst a 
teenager, and bought it back again in a very sorry state around 10 
years ago.

The only rare-ish chips on it are 3 x LM3080s, a 4006 and a 4019, the 
last I haven't seen in the usual catalogues, although it shouldn't be 
too hard to find. The other 4000 series ICs in it are pretty common - a 
fair number of 4069s, 4013, 4052 and so on.

There are plenty of mods that could be done on it to make it more 
useful - for example PWM of the oscs would be useful with a 2nd LFO to 
drive them.

I didn't find the limited range too much of a problem, as there is a 5 
position range switch for each oscillator.

cheers,
Dave.


On Jul 13, 2010, at 16:10, Tom Wiltshire wrote:

> The method you describe doesn't sound everso complicated, it's true. 
> Maybe you could even pull the board out of one and sit it in a flatbed 
> scanner. If it is single-sided, that'd about do it. Straight to P-N-P 
> blue, then drilling, and soldering.
>
> Still, I'd find the urge to make "improvements" almost impossible to 
> overcome.
>
> T.
>
> On 13 Jul 2010, at 15:44, cheater cheater wrote:
>
>> eh Tom, "all the work" is nothing compared to Jürgen's new vocoder.
>> Besides it's really only just a few elements, let's be honest with
>> eachother, a beginner project at worst. The PCB is nice, big, and
>> spacious, and there are no heat-sensitive chips either. You could
>> finish it with a soldering gun.
>>
>> Given that those things don't seem to sound that bad, it would/could
>> be an interesting project. Not everything needs to be pitch-perfect
>> and the limited range is as much a turn-off as it is a turn-on. Even
>> the wasp interface could stay intact - so that you can use the wasp
>> midi mod that already exists, or use it with your other wasp if you
>> have one, etc. Maybe the Spider sequencer could be copied too and then
>> it could be used directly with the midi interface (it's a small box
>> with limited capabilities so probably not too complicated at all).
>> Then there are the Gnat and Wasp Deluxe.
>>
>> I'm sure enough people are curious about the wasp's sound that they
>> would build clones. I can easily see enough PCBs selling for the
>> effort to pay off to anyone who invests their time to copy the pcb
>> from some photos - and this shouldn't be that difficult, either, just
>> some scaling with mesh tools to remove perspective / lens distortion
>> and off you go with a brush and eraser. Given the simplicity of the
>> circuit at hand it shouldn't be difficult to figure out what goes
>> where under the chips. I guess it would be "more authentic" than any
>> schematics-based copies too (schematics lie, and hey, layout is the
>> king of sound, especially when digital chips are being used for audio)
>>
>> Cheers,
>> D.
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 11:06, Tom Wiltshire <tom at electricdruid.net> 
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 13 Jul 2010, at 05:27, cheater cheater wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Chris,
>>>> really nice pics, thanks.
>>>>
>>>> Looking at the gutted Wasp, it's just one, possibly two-sided, PCB.
>>>> Given how insanely expensive those things get for what they do, I
>>>> wonder, why are there no true to life 1:1 clones yet?
>>>
>>> Because if you're going to do all that work, you might as well build 
>>> something better than a Wasp?
>>>
>>> T.
>>>
>>> PS: I'm curious to hear about the Cygnus too.
>
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