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Thoughts
Thechipalsoincludesatempomultiplier.Thisiscombinedwiththe
tappedtempotoallowtheLFOfrequencytobesetatamultipleofthe
tappedrate.Theavailablemultipliersare0.5,1,1.5,2,3,and4.This
allowshalfanddoubletime,andtriplettimes.
TheLFOtempo,multiplier,waveformselection,wavedistortion,and
outputlevelareallvoltagecontrolledusing05V.Unwantedfeatures
areeasilydisabledbytyingtherelevantpintoaconstantvoltage
(usually0Vor+5V).
Block Diagram
SynthInterfaces
BandlimitedRamps
ThechipusestheanalogueinputsofthePICforCVs.Thesearefedto
theinternalA/Dconvertor,whichsampleseachinputevery150uSorso
andconvertsthevoltagetoan8bitvalue.Inordertoavoidusingan
externalD/Aconvertorfortheoutput,thechipusesthebuiltinPWM
module.ThePWMoutputneedspassingthroughalowpassfilterto
convertthepulsesbackintoananalogueoutput.
UsinganexternalcrystalwiththePICallowsthechiptorunatits
maximumclockspeedof20MHz,andthismeansthatthePWMmodule
isabletoproducea19.5KHzsamplerateat10bitaccuracy.Although
thisdoesn'tsoundlikemuch,inpracticeitisimpossibletohearany
artifactsinmostsituations.
Pinout Diagram
Possible uses
TheTAPTEMPOinputcanacceptclockpulsesfromotherequipment,
whichallowstheLFOtobesyncronisedtootherdevices.Thechipalso
includesaCLOCKOUTPUTwhichcanbeusedtodriveother
equipment.Thisallowsataptempocontrolledclockforananalogue
sequencerordrummachine,forexample.
ThePWMoutputfromthechipcanbeusedtodrivetheLEDinavactrol
(orsimilarLED/LDRcombination)directly,withoutanysubsequentop
ampfilterstages.Theslowresponseofthevactrolprovidesmorethan
enoughfiltering.Thismakesforanextremelysimplecircuitwithvery
fewcomponents.Thevactrol'sLDRcanbeusedtoreplaceastandard
potentiometertoaddtaptempoLFOcontroltoavarietyofcircuits.
Examplecircuitsareinthedatasheet.
More details
Ifyou'dliketobuildone,orliketoknowhowIbuiltmine,perhapsyou'd
liketolookat:
TapTempoLFOPIC16F684ASMcode
AssembledHEXcodefromabovefile
CircuitDiagramcompletemodularsynthtaptempoLFO
CircuitDiagramtaptempotremolo
CircuitDiagramtaptemposequencerclock
TapTempoLFOdatasheet(includesexamplecircuitdiagrams,
examplewaveforms,andchippinout)
projectoveratMuffwiggler.com.
Version 2
ChrisSafiaddedtheWaveDistortionfeaturefrommyoriginalVCLFO
intotheTAPLFOcode.Iaddedaphaseresetonthefirsttaptothetap
tempoinput.ThisallowsyoutokeeptheLFOonthebeatwithasingle
tap.Ialsotweakedsomewaveformssotheyallresettothetopofthe
waveform.Finally,Iusedthesparepinfromthefirstversionasadigital
inputtostepthroughthedifferentmultipliers.Thisworkswiththe
MultiplierCVinthesameeither/orwayastheTapTempoinputand
theTempoCV.