add on: DIS*Player

...may I add: I found another service (http://www.schaeffer-ag.de/en/front-panel-designer/screenshots.html) which delivers custom-madel front panels (or whole cases if required); these panels and cases are available in many different materials and allow for really durable and professional-looking enclosures...

Design of the front-panels is done with a free software (which is unfortunately only available for Windows). The order is made online, and shipped within one week.

Fred is gone, a true explorer, someone I viewed as a giant, and “I will miss our conversations”. Until the rest of you get the construction of his Displayer working I would like to share a beautiful piece of “free software” that I have used daily on my theremins the last 4 years. It might fulfill some of your basic pitch tuner requirements.

RS Theremin Pitch Tuner (http://www.oldtemecula.com/theremin/ult_antenna/pitchtuner.htm)

Sure hope that link works, I am not as sharp as the marble I use to be.

RS Theremin
Christopher

Hello,
As I have previously posted, I would be interested in Fred's DIS*Player device. Count me in!
Good Luck!

teslatheremin

OK, now we are 4!
I got roughly the same prices for PCBs.
Looking at my DIS*player board, it is not only double sided but also through plated. This makes it more difficult to make a DIY board, but not impossible.

I am confident that I can produce a small number of boards, DIY style. They won't have the screenprint on the top, no tin plate on the tracks and a couple of the chip sockets will have to be wirewrap types but it will work.

This will involve a lot of work on my part, but am prepared, willing and able to do it.

Target price will be £15 (GBP - Sterling) per board, unless I can find cheaper UV board.

How does that sound?

MarkT

Your price is fine with me.

[i]-- Kevin[/i]

...thank you for the offer - I am still in...

The board is ordered, the masks are made.

This river is flowing!

Will post an update as soon as I have some more news.

regards

MarkT

I've been working on a Dis*Player of my own for a while now. I was planning on doing some kind of article on it when I got it done and working but life has gotten in my way and it sits about 95% done on my work bench :-(

I do have this to contribute though. When I was getting ready to build it I noticed that some of the parts were no longer available. I was posting in the theremin makers newsgroup at the time and got the attention of someone fairly respectable in the theremin world. I'm not gonna drop names because he went waaaaaay out of his way to work up this parts list for me and I don't know if he wants to be bothered with questions. However here is the parts list he gave me.

Dis*Player
Mouser.com Parts list
Part# Mouser Cat#
C1, C2, C6, C12-C19........80-T350A225K016
C3.........................539-CK05332K
C4.........................140-ESRL50V4.7
C7.........................539-CK05103K
C8 (LOW NOTE = 110Hz)......140-PF2A103F
C9 (LOW NOTE = 110Hz)......140-PF2A224J
C10 (LOW NOTE = 110Hz......140-PF2A503F
C11 (LOW NOTE = 110Hz......140-PF1H104K
C22........................539-CK05104K
C23........................539-CK05102K
C24........................539-CK05471K
D1, D2.....................512-1N4148
IC1........................512-LM7805CT
IC3........................512-LM311N
IC4........................511-4027
IC6........................511-LF353N
IC12.......................512-KA79L05AZTA
Q1, Q2.....................512-2N3904D81Z
R1.........................291-24K
R2.........................291-56K
R3, R39....................291-22K
R4, R5, R8, R9, R12........291-100K
R14, R17...................291-4.7K
R7.........................291-68K
??.........................291-10K
R11........................291-470
R15, R18...................291-47K
R16........................291-1K
R20........................291-390K
R21........................291-750
R22, R25, R28, R31.........291-20K
R23........................291-1.5K
R26........................291-2.2K
R29, R32...................291-3K
R38........................291-82K
R40........................291-4.7M
SW1........................690-C5P0304N-A
SW2 (OPTIONAL).............633-M201101
C5.........................140-ESRL50V10
Power Supply...............412-112053
J1.........................502-712A

A few of the parts are once again obsolete but Mouser suggest alternative parts when you look up these.

Digi-key.com Parts list
IC1........................LM7805CT-ND
RV1, RV2, RV3, RV4.........3329H-503-ND
IC 7-IC 11.................LM3914N-1-ND
IC 5.......................LM2917N-ND

That should be the complete parts list.

I will also add these notes that a friend of mine gave me. He's an engineer and I had trouble figuring a few things out.

The positive for your power, volume, and frequency go as follows: Power positive goes on the left side where it is labeled "V+" below C1. To the right slightly is labeled "F in", this is for Frequency. To the right of IC4 is a label for "volume" just below "V in". This is where your volume input goes.

The negatives for all three need to be attached to the ground plane. The ground plane is the trace that borders the entire board. On the left side, above "V+" there is a label "G". You might be able to use that for your ground, and tie all three into that point away from the board.




This project is kind of tough for me because while I can solder and follow instructions the Dis*Player seems to require a little more advanced knowledge of electronics then I have. I almost missed the resistors in the display section because I didn't see them mentioned in the construction article. I really wish the image of the completed circuit board on the site was higher resolution. I spent a lot of time trying to figure o

The DIS player sounds like a great training tool but can someone tell me, in what way is the DIS player superior to, for example, an ordinary tuner plugged into the Etherwave Pro?

...for me 'superior' is the wrong adjective; my intention is to not only be able to train more precisely (which I do now with either a chromatic tuning device (Harley Benton MT-50) or the MIDI-Wave from Wavefront), but also to 'make the sound visible'...

...I also experiment with a 'VD-01'-module (http://www.mfberlin.de/Produkte/Module/VD-01/VD-01e/vd-01e.html), which allows to make an audio-signal visible...

...so, the 'sound' (music) I make with the Theremin is not only a feast for the ears, but also to the eyes...

:o)