GuitarGuy Posted June 18, 2006 Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 The wire unloops very loosely. Unless there is a burr on the edge of the spool the wire shouldn't snag or break. If you find the wire is breaking. sand the rim of the spool. O'k I'll give it a try then. I'll have to try to find a good place to mount the spool. In a bucket on the floor works well. The height from the floor gives you a bit of slack to try to catch any mishaps before the wire breaks. (but when it breaks it happens fast anyway) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 OK, I tried putting it on the floor and pulling the wire from the spool by hand- I see what you mean now, it seems to sort of 'spring' off the spool, and there isn't much contact between the wire and the top of the spool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted June 18, 2006 Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 Theres parts with sanyo, motorola, mitsubishi, philips... allsorts printed on them. I can actually only find 1 component with Sony printed on it! Is the power amp just the big black thing, or shall I keep it attatched to that little board its on? Also, looking at some of the premade amp units on this site: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...%20AMP&doy=18m6 They all have large caps on them. On mine the caps are all on the main board... You know, when it was still in one piece as a hifi, the mic would always be on when you plugged it in; it wasnt like you needed to set it to 'microphone mode' or anything, it just had one pot to control the mic mix, I'm wondering if I could just clip everything back together, plug my guitar in and see if it works! I'd do that if I wasnt so terrified of mains electricity Whatever happens, theres no way I'm testing anything I've made without one of those RCD things. The power amp section is the entire board. The big black thing is just the block of power transistors. Chances are if you plug your guitar into the mic jack you'll have a major impedance mismatch and it'll sound terrible, if you get any sound at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 Chances are if you plug your guitar into the mic jack you'll have a major impedance mismatch and it'll sound terrible, if you get any sound at all. I tried it before I took it apart- it was permentantly overdriven, but actually sounded ok. A propper pre-amp would probably be better though. I need to figure out how to connect things to the power amp now then. Thanks Crafty, and everyone else who's contributed to this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 OK- here's another small question that doesnt warrant its own thread: I've been building winder MKII, and all's going fine. it has an on/off switch and a speed control pot; both of which work but the speed control doesn't work very well... Its a 1meg pot, and its basically just acting like another on/off switch. when its turned to 0 the motor is on, turn it ever so slightly above 0 and it just goes off. I think this is because the pot is too-high value. I connected the pot in series with the motor, because according to wikipedia the speed of the motor is proportional to the voltage, and so connecting the pot in series should vary the voltage accross the motor. Is it correct to wire it in series? My idea is to connect a resistor in parrallel with the pot to decrease its net resistance, and hopefully make the speed adjustment possible; roughly what sort of value would seem sensible? Normally I would just experiment, but I ask because all my parts are being 'borrowed' from an effects pedal that I would like to reassemble once I'm done wit the pickup winder Ideally I'd want a second pot in parallel with the 1st pot so I could vary the 2nd until the 1st gave a useable range of speeds... but sadly I dont have any more pots Anyway, any ideas as to rougly what sort of value of resistor may be worth trying? or any other mod that might help? If you need more info I'm running the motor at 6V, pot is 1meg and the circuit is all wired in series: Battery (+) --> motor --> on/off switch --> pot --> battery (-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doeringer Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Going back to the original question. Cheap Wal-Mart desk fan, take the motor out, perfect for winding. Actually found a fan that had a broken base and they sold it to me for $2.00. As for the counter, if you have an electronics store around that has salvaged parts, I picked up a digital counter with a light sensing trigger for about $10. I use a sewing maching foot control. Whole thing cost about $25. I even machined a couple of speed knobs as guides for the wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 This motor I have now seems about right for the job actually, the speed seems about right at around 6V. All the counter is going to cost me is the ~£1 it costs for a reed switch and magnet. Plan B if this doesnt work is to try to get a sewing machine motor Plan C can be the desk fan So far this has cost me £0 since I've salvaged all the parts. I might just try a few resistors in a bit, (but be sure to solder them straight back to where they came from in the pedal so I dont forget if they dont work) I'd imagine its hard to guess what sort of resistor to use without needing more info about the motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Yeah, it would be a bit tricky to figure that out. However, with a multitester, you could check what amperage the motor runs at at whatever voltage you're running it at, and determine resistance from there. Better yet, you could use that calculation as a basis for choosing a resistor. Then you could vary the speed until you get it exactly where you want it. peace, russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Yeah, it would be a bit tricky to figure that out. However, with a multitester, you could check what amperage the motor runs at at whatever voltage you're running it at, and determine resistance from there. Better yet, you could use that calculation as a basis for choosing a resistor. Then you could vary the speed until you get it exactly where you want it. Nice idea!... but I dont have a multimeter I'm definitely ordering one when I get around to ordering all my pots, switches, resistors, circuit boards etc for my sustainer and for the guitar electronics. I think I'll just do some random experiments and see what happens. I should be able to find a suitable value without too many experiments, as it will be clear if the resistor I'm using is too big or too small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 I would have been tempted to go the easy route and just get a cheap cordless hand drill... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 I would have been tempted to go the easy route and just get a cheap cordless hand drill... I dunno if you can get variable speed ones, but mine would be way too fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarGuy Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 Ben, One thing i have noticed about motor speed is that you want it variable. The reason being is the initial "jump" when the power is turned on is enough to break the wire very easily. Also it lets you slow the bobbin down before stopping. On my lego winder I incorporated this and it proved invaluable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 Ben, One thing i have noticed about motor speed is that you want it variable. The reason being is the initial "jump" when the power is turned on is enough to break the wire very easily. Also it lets you slow the bobbin down before stopping. On my lego winder I incorporated this and it proved invaluable. I'm working on that Thats what I'm having trouble with. I'm not going to be doing any more on the winder until next tuesday though, since I have 2 exams tomorrow and its about time I did some revision for them, and then I'm at my dad's house until tuesday evening. Heres the progress so far: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 I've had an idea... The motor I'm using is from a cassette deck, and before I removed it it was connected by an elastic band-like drivebelt to a big circular thing that turns really smoothly... Like this: What if I fixed the pickup bobbin to the motor and the spool of wire to the circular platform thing? It seems to me like that would make wire breakage very unlikely and ensure that the wire remains at uniform tension- since both will be rotating at the same speed at all times... hmm.. I might try that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 My Black and Decker hand drill is variable speed. The more you pull the trigger, the faster it goes. Its slowest speed is about 1/2 rotation per second (thats an estimation, I don't have it on me at the moment). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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