Space Heater. TUBES!

[Dan0h]

Was so excited to build this one. I built the Black eye with all Tayda components, so I decided to do this one with all Mouser components.

Thing sounds amazing, I actually like it better than the black eye. Gushing with glassyness goodness. Super loud! I love it. Going to have find something to kick off my board because this bad boy is going on it.

Now for the dingle berries… first thing this one even more so than the black eye is a super tight fit. So tight in fact that if you don’t use those lumburg jacks you have to ream out the pot holes to nudge the board up. You can see in the photo my clearance is literally mm’s. You also have to be very careful of solder on the sides of the board grounding out on the enclosure. The components are super close together and some are very close to the edge. I’m thinking @vigilante398 must be an engineer for his day job because this thing is super efficient and tidy when it comes to space but also requires you to be on top of your game to build it and fit it.

And the squeal. So this is really a non issue for me but it does do some crazy robot language squealing when the left knob is at 90% and above. Guitar volume all the way down doesn’t stop it. Buffer in front doesn’t stop it. The good news is I will never play the pedal at that high of a level so no biggie. And other than that it’s super clean and noise free. I was disappointed that going the extra $$ Mouser route didn’t give me a squeal free pedal though.

Kudos @vigilante398 2 for two winners in my book. I’m going to use your power section schematic and tinker around on my Proto board and try to make a Magnetron with a tube instead of transistor. If you guys don’t hear from me for a while I must have zapped myself.

Man I love the sound of tubes.

 

[Feral Feline]

MULLARD!

A Mullard Magnetron...
Can't wait to hear about the Magnetron tinkering.

 

[music6000]

Was so excited to build this one. I built the Black eye with all Tayda components, so I decided to do this one with all Mouser components.

Thing sounds amazing, I actually like it better than the black eye. Gushing with glassyness goodness. Super loud! I love it. Going to have find something to kick off my board because this bad boy is going on it.

Now for the dingle berries… first thing this one even more so than the black eye is a super tight fit. So tight in fact that if you don’t use those lumburg jacks you have to ream out the pot holes to nudge the board up. You can see in the photo my clearance is literally mm’s. You also have to be very careful of solder on the sides of the board grounding out on the enclosure. The components are super close together and some are very close to the edge. I’m thinking @vigilante398 must be an engineer for his day job because this thing is super efficient and tidy when it comes to space but also requires you to be on top of your game to build it and fit it.

And the squeal. So this is really a non issue for me but it does do some crazy robot language squealing when the left knob is at 90% and above. Guitar volume all the way down doesn’t stop it. Buffer in front doesn’t stop it. The good news is I will never play the pedal at that high of a level so no biggie. And other than that it’s super clean and noise free. I was disappointed that going the extra $$ Mouser route didn’t give me a squeal free pedal though.

Kudos @vigilante398 2 for two winners in my book. I’m going to use your power section schematic and tinker around on my Proto board and try to make a Magnetron with a tube instead of transistor. If you guys don’t hear from me for a while I must have zapped myself.

Man I love the sound of tubes.


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Cool Build!
I have around 8 tube based pedals, mostly starved plate but I find the 12AX7/ECC83S has too much Gain or Bloom for my needs.
I mainly run 12AU7 so I can crank it more for smoother sustain'
My Sib Cuda has a 12AT7 in it now & I also converted it to LT type spec after speaking to Rick Hamel from Sib!

This is why I like Pictures on Builds & Troubleshooting!
I read this about the ECC803 below that may cause some of your issue, the other thing could be the Tubes you have maybe Microphonic?
This may also be a factor for the Black Eye issue???? :

A premium quality ECC803 tube that replaces any 12AX7 / ECC83 tube type. The JJ ECC803-S is a warm, full sounding tube, with high-gain. It's great sounding in hifi amps and guitar amps (guitar players see note below).
Note: Because this tube has a long plate structure it is susceptible to excessive microphonics and is therefore not recommended for use in combo amps or high gain stages. For these amps the JJ ECC83-S is a better choice.

JJ ECC803S / 12AX7 Preamp Vacuum Tube | thetubestore.com

Buy JJ ECC803S / 12AX7 preamp vacuum tubes in stock and ready to ship! Find reviews, data sheets and specs to upgrade your tube amplifier.

www.thetubestore.com

 

[Dan0h]

Cool Build!
I have around 8 tube based pedals, mostly starved plate but I find the 12AX7/ECC83S has too much Gain or Bloom for my needs.
I mainly run 12AU7 so I can crank it more for smoother sustain'
My Sib Cuda has a 12AT7 in it now & I also converted it to LT type spec after speaking to Rick Hamel from Sib!

This is why I like Pictures on Builds & Troubleshooting!
I read this about the ECC803 below that may cause some of your issue, the other thing could be the Tubes you have maybe Microphonic?
This may also be a factor for the Black Eye issue???? :

A premium quality ECC803 tube that replaces any 12AX7 / ECC83 tube type. The JJ ECC803-S is a warm, full sounding tube, with high-gain. It's great sounding in hifi amps and guitar amps (guitar players see note below).
Note: Because this tube has a long plate structure it is susceptible to excessive microphonics and is therefore not recommended for use in combo amps or high gain stages. For these amps the JJ ECC83-S is a better choice.

JJ ECC803S / 12AX7 Preamp Vacuum Tube | thetubestore.com

Buy JJ ECC803S / 12AX7 preamp vacuum tubes in stock and ready to ship! Find reviews, data sheets and specs to upgrade your tube amplifier.

www.thetubestore.com

Thank you, and I love AT7’s as well. I didn’t think about the longer the plate the more chance of microphonics but it really makes sense. The RCA in my black eye build is very used and slightly wonky, it could be the cause of the oscillation but with a buffer in front there is zero oscillation so no worries. This build the oscillation is different it really sounds more like a robot voice and only when the gain is maxed out. Put a Death by audio or zvex logo on the pedal you’d think it was meant to be that way.

 

[fig]

Tubular groove! We have a new fever, and the only thing that’s gonna cure it is more tube.

Tight is right! When I got my Sushi Box, at first I thought the SH pcb was an alternative 3PDT breakout, until I looked at the screen print.

Great build sir!

 

[Dan0h]

Man, this one bums me out because it's the one project I wanted to build of his. When I read that it was making noise I guess I'm gonna have to wait till it's sorted out with what the issues are. I have extra tubes but I don't tube roll, things should do what they are supposed to like they were designed. Good build and glad you like it still.

Yeah, I hope it gets sorted out. I know he sells a ton of pre-built pedals. Wish I knew what was going on different with the ones he is building compared to the ones some of us are building.

I went into this knowing it was version 1 type stuff so I took the risk willingly. Totally respect that others want to, and should, wait until the bugs are resolved.

To be totally honest. My heavy water clone comes incredibly close to sounding like the Space Heater on low gain and my Mojito build comes incredibly close to the black eye on lower gain. Nothing touches the black eye at high gain that I have though. Epic.

The sounds are not the same but “incredibly” close. Which has broken down some more walls in my mind of tube snobbery. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the fact that the electrons are jumping from metal plates inside of a glass tube and that is just ef’ing cool. But the sound can almost be replicated by non tube parts.

 

[Deperduci]

I haven’t gotten to this board yet, but like what others have done so far. Glad yours is good Dan, hope mine turns out like this did, my BE has a voltage problem somewhere……

 

[music6000]

View attachment 30975

You would be surprised how quick you can shave Aluminium with a sharp Wood Chisel!!!

 

[Dan0h]

Update: Sadly I can not have both the Black eye and the Space heater on my board at the same time. After trying many locations and power supply options the two on the board together just doesn’t work. I get a strange sound, and I realized I’m getting what I think is DC build up on the SH foot switch. Big pops when engaging. Ugh. When one or the other is alone on the board no noises. Throwing in the towel on these together for now.

 

[Harry Klippton]

Which one is gonna stay on your board?

 

[Dan0h]

Which one is gonna stay on your board?

Keeping Black eye. No footswitch pops and sounds great after a buffer.

The Space Hester also sounds amazing but I have to solve the pops and figure out what is causing the strange noises when both are in the same chain.

 

[Brett]

Keeping Black eye. No footswitch pops and sounds great after a buffer.

The Space Hester also sounds amazing but I have to solve the pops and figure out what is causing the strange noises when both are in the same chain.

I'm sure you've seen this already but have you tried adding pulldown resistors like shown here: http://www.muzique.com/lab/pop.htm?

I too was very curious in the Space Heater project but I may refrain until a solution is found for squealing/whining. I checked out the layout on @vigilante398's BOM page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KXgweYAuuKtLFefRiEwegBfJQtoYr3pQ/edit and your board appears to be a different layout from the build docs. The inductor is directly next to the tube on yours where it's in a different position on the build doc (albeit still very close).

Something tells me that having the inductor (and all other SMPS components) so close to the audio circuit MAY be with investigating. The inductor that the project calls for isn't shielded and I wonder if that could be causing some of the strange behavior with higher gain settings.

 

[music6000]

I'm sure you've seen this already but have you tried adding pulldown resistors like shown here: http://www.muzique.com/lab/pop.htm?

I too was very curious in the Space Heater project but I may refrain until a solution is found for squealing/whining. I checked out the layout on @vigilante398's BOM page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KXgweYAuuKtLFefRiEwegBfJQtoYr3pQ/edit and your board appears to be a different layout from the build docs. The inductor is directly next to the tube on yours where it's in a different position on the build doc (albeit still very close).

Something tells me that having the inductor (and all other SMPS components) so close to the audio circuit MAY be with investigating. The inductor that the project calls for isn't shielded and I wonder if that could be causing some of the strange behavior with higher gain settings.

Try some Shrink on on the Inductor?

 

[Brett]

Try some Shrink on on the Inductor?

I'm not an expert on SMPS or inductors and I'd gladly admit that I'm wrong if someone more experienced chimes in, but I don't think applying shrink tubing on a standard inductor = shielded inductor.

 

[Dan0h]

The inductor I got from mouser is twice the height and came wrapped vs the Tayda one which was shorter and had the coil exposed. These boards are very tight quarters so things are close. I still think it’s the chip. And the TLC555’s will be here Tuesday.
I hope the fact that these do sound absolutely delicious doesn’t slip by. The squeal is annoying and needs to be fixed but it’s really only at the highest gain settings which are rip your face off anyways. I’m still a sushi box fan. And support finding the fix.

 

[Brett]

The inductor I got from mouser is twice the height and came wrapped vs the Tayda one which was shorter and had the coil exposed. These boards are very tight quarters so things are close. I still think it’s the chip. And the TLC555’s will be here Tuesday.
I hope the fact that these do sound absolutely delicious doesn’t slip by. The squeal is annoying and needs to be fixed but it’s really only at the highest gain settings which are rip your face off anyways. I’m still a sushi box fan. And support finding the fix.

I'm sure it's a great sounding pedal and it's awesome that you enjoy the tone so much. I'll keep watching these in hope that @vigilante398 figures out where the problem lies. I'd love to put a valve pedal on my board but I'd really like to see where this all goes before I pull the trigger.

Given that this board doesn't have a voltage regulator for the heaters, I assume that you're powering this with a 12V supply?

 

[Dan0h]

I'm sure it's a great sounding pedal and it's awesome that you enjoy the tone so much. I'll keep watching these in hope that @vigilante398 figures out where the problem lies. I'd love to put a valve pedal on my board but I'd really like to see where this all goes before I pull the trigger.

Given that this board doesn't have a voltage regulator for the heaters, I assume that you're powering this with a 12V supply?

9v. You can run with 12v but 9 does the job. And I agree, once it’s resolved if I can retro my build I might build another one.

 

[Brett]

9v. You can run with 12v but 9 does the job. And I agree, once it’s resolved if I can retro my build I might build another one.

Have you tried it with a 12V supply? I only ask because my understanding is that tubes like to see either ~6.3V or ~12.6V heater voltages.

 

[Dan0h]

Have you tried it with a 12V supply? I only ask because my understanding is that tubes like to see either ~6.3V or ~12.6V heater voltages.

I have not but I can and reply back if there is any difference.

 

[vigilante398]

Have you tried it with a 12V supply? I only ask because my understanding is that tubes like to see either ~6.3V or ~12.6V heater voltages.

The way these boards are designed, the tube heaters take the input supply directly to the heaters in parallel, so they "want" 12.6V in that configuration. It turns out 9V is enough to get them hot enough to pass signal though, and is a lot more convenient. There's nothing wrong with running a 12V supply into it, it will just run noticeably warmer.