INFANEM the driving notion clone

[ibarakishi]

this is the 5 knob version right?

[goroth]

Yup.

[ibarakishi]

me trying my best not to get my hopes up too high
the internal struggle is real...

[goroth]

Dino is a fucking wizard of everything. He will have nailed it.

[ibarakishi]

[digi2t]

Dino is a fucking wizard of everything. He will have nailed it.

OK, settle down there Capt. Happy. To be clear, Phil is the wizard. I'm just the flunky that sends him shit. He takes all my crappy schemos, notes, and hippy poetry and converts them into living breathing PCB's. Then, just when he's done, I throw a few more twists and forgotten shit at him, and he still manages to pull a rabbit out of his ass (yech!). So again, for clarity, Phil = Wizard, Dino = Flunky. And I'm good with that.

Yes, it's the 5 knob. We found way back that both the 3 and 5 knobbers were nothing to write home about. Kinda like my hate relationship with the Brown Source, about as exciting as watching paint dry. Drew it up, shoved it in the "Not worth one iota of our time" box, and forgot about it. But, after a year of watching this thread drag on, and the fact that a perfectly good working pedal was completely discombobulated to trace it, we felt it was maybe time to pitch in.

Now, before you ask, "But Dino, why didn't you come to are party earlier?", I'll tell you why. Long story short, in the beginning when Phil and I started DEFX, we were still quite active on all the DIY forums. I mean, we still are, but mainly from a "lurk and answer questions" perspective now. Before, we were still naive enough to have that "circuits should be like sex, free" attitude. After we started DEFX though, that kinda got tempered pretty quick. When you drop big dollars on a pedal to trace it, happily share the schemo with the world, and then find out that another PCB vendor has now scooped your attempt to recoup your expenditure, well, it kinda just puts things into perspective, pretty damned quick. After that incident, we learned our lesson, and just started keeping our yaps shut. After all, there is honor amoung thieves, and the corner stone is silence. So, sorry if we left you withering on the vine here, but it is what it is. Not a gripe or rant, simply a lesson learned.

Segundo, I hate SMD tracing. I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Loath. Despise. Pick your poison. Why? I'm getting old. The eyesight is fading. So is the patience (get the fuck off my lawn!!). I also have a severe aversion to dismantling circuits. Over the years I may have pulled a component here or there to take an accurate measurement, but only in extremely rare cases. Most times it's a measure in place, and then recreate on the breadboard to validate affair. As for the tracing, I've always used the process of elimination method. First I sketch the board out by hand, and then I go point to point with a continuity meter, connecting the dots on my sketch as I go. Wait... that means... yup. Start at one point, and check all the rest. then the second point, then the third, and so on. Yeah. It's a monk's job, but it is what it is. As for mathematical combinations of points to trace, I'll leave that to the math geniuses amoung you. All I can say is that even on a relatively small circuit like this, there's a fuck load.

Now, as for this piece of sh... work, I meant to say work. It's just a beyotch to make work right. Particularly for a couple of reasons, which I don't wish to get into right now. Worst part is that it's noisy as fuck on the breadboard, but then again, so is the original when you pull it out of the enclosure. That's why I asked Phil to draw up a PCB for us. While there are solid artifacts of the original present within my breadboard modelling, I really need to get this housed and properly A/B'd to tell for sure.

Finale, "But, but, but, what's that switch at the top Dino?" Well, when you're as unimpressed with this piece of sh... work, I meant to say work, as I am, you need to spice it up to make it worth your while. That's the beauty of the breadboard. What if I stick a cap in here? Or a resistor in there? Maybe a jumper here? Oh, wow, would ya listen to that. Cool!. So, I threw my experimentation into this board. Don't fret... it's an ON-OFF-ON switch, so the middle position will still be your sacred stock Driving Notion, or some semblance thereof. As for the two other positions, that will have to really impress us if this is to ever see the light of day.

In the meantime, carry on with your normal course of business. Start by breathing.

[crochambeau]

After reading that, I am absolutely in on picking up a PCB when available.

[imJonWain]

Nice! Glad my opinion of it wasn't totally off base haha...

[goroth]

There is no other pedal that gets a tone similar to this. Turns the neck of your guitar into aluminium.

[digi2t]

There is no other pedal that gets a tone similar to this. Turns the neck of your guitar into aluminium.

That is really is a great description. You nailed it. It's just not my cup of tea. While the low can boost the lower frequencies into saturation, the high just keeps boosting the upper frequencies, giving a "super clean floating over OD" effect, if that makes any sense. To my ears, it's not jangly, it more.... graty. If you pin the low and high, you get into this edge of super compressed fuzz territory, sorta like a Superfuzz with the wrong transistors in it, without the octave. Strictly a personal opinion, while interesting for a short time, my ears grow tired of it quickly. On SS amps, it's total scheisse. It's only real home is in front of a tube amp, and it better be a good one, with it's own great OD channel. It can be somewhat complimentary, but again, for me alone, not a keeper.

Like I said, this is strictly my own personal opinion. I'm just here to try and help out, not tell anyone who or what to love.

Our boards are in production. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I should have some preliminary results. Until then... roger out.

[mcatano]

For me, the DN really shines after a fuzz pedal. It goes from being a klang machine into a really powerful tone shaping tool that can bring out a lot of articulation and also push things into bonkers synth-y territory. I don't think it sounds particularly great on its own, but it makes other pedals sound bananas.

[oldangelmidnight]

After that incident, we learned our lesson, and just started keeping our yaps shut. After all, there is honor amoung thieves, and the corner stone is silence. So, sorry if we left you withering on the vine here, but it is what it is. Not a gripe or rant, simply a lesson learned.

If Jero or someone wanted to make an ILF special run, would there be some licensing fee or just the purchase of the boards?

[oldangelmidnight]

it is doable but it would be easier if I could destroy it during the tracing process and then rehouse and rebuild after the tracing is completed. I want to either desolder or cut off the potentiometers. then when finished I would put new pots, new box, new jacks.

i would be willing to ship it to you to to destroy so long as
1.) you can rehouse and rebuild it in a new enclosure for me after completed
2.) you can also provide me with a clone of the finished trace completed in an enclosure as well
3.) you agree to freely share the finished schematic with everyone on ilf online so that they can also enjoy it and further improve/alter it to their liking too

if you are okay with all of the above conditions, then let me know in a PM and i will be happy to throw my driving notion you way if you desire for the sake of everyone else on the forum as well that has expressed interest in it

Dino saves the day but it seems like ibarakishi is still due a pedal. Maybe we want to come together to make that happen once the Deadend PCB is verified?

[digi2t]

it is doable but it would be easier if I could destroy it during the tracing process and then rehouse and rebuild after the tracing is completed. I want to either desolder or cut off the potentiometers. then when finished I would put new pots, new box, new jacks.

i would be willing to ship it to you to to destroy so long as
1.) you can rehouse and rebuild it in a new enclosure for me after completed
2.) you can also provide me with a clone of the finished trace completed in an enclosure as well
3.) you agree to freely share the finished schematic with everyone on ilf online so that they can also enjoy it and further improve/alter it to their liking too

if you are okay with all of the above conditions, then let me know in a PM and i will be happy to throw my driving notion you way if you desire for the sake of everyone else on the forum as well that has expressed interest in it

Dino saves the day but it seems like ibarakishi is still due a pedal. Maybe we want to come together to make that happen once the Deadend PCB is verified?

"Day saved" is a bit overly optimistic at this stage, but doing our level best all things considered...

If (and I mean if) the DEFX validation build checks out, meaning that I am thoroughly satisfied with it's performance vis-a-vis our original, we would be more than happy to send it to ibarakishi. As a good will gesture from us, and all DIY forums. There are lots of folks on these forums that not only have massively contributed to the work we have done at DEFX, but also stepped up to help me when I was at my darkest hour. It's the least we can do to pay it forward.

Let me just get past the validation bridge, if all pans out (fingers and toes crossed), I'll reach out to iba for coordinates.

[ibarakishi]

im just thankful for the support digi2t to help things move forward. it means a lot more than i will say here. i will wait to see how things go with the pcb and what updates come as things develop further.

and thanks to ilf peoples for not leaving me in the dust. mainly just wanted to have something that i use and value using both playing live and recording that is now out of production be available easily to everyone, myself included. if the pcbs end up working as expected and allow people to have a chance to affordably see if they want to join the clang gang or not, then i will consider my work done.