Diy Sustainer

[col]

Thanks again....actually, since you've now given your coil driver spec - and therefore I have a complete design to build towards - I may well now have a go!

Recently got my hands on a scope.

My circuit as is has a problem with parasitic oscillation on the virtual ground. To fix this I swapped out the LM324 quad op-amp with a TL074cn. The LM324 cannot sink enough current at it's output to provide a stable virtual ground, the TL074cn seems ok. TL074cn might not be the best chip for the job - it was just what I had in my box - I guess any that can handle 40mA at the output will do.

FWIW, this fix didn't have any noticable effect on the functionality! It worked fine with the oscillations (they were at about 1Mhz). Might improve the efficiency a little, but I doubt it as most of the juice is used by the LM386 which doesn't use the virtual ground.

cheers

Col

[irky]

Thanks again....actually, since you've now given your coil driver spec - and therefore I have a complete design to build towards - I may well now have a go!

Recently got my hands on a scope.

My circuit as is has a problem with parasitic oscillation on the virtual ground. To fix this I swapped out the LM324 quad op-amp with a TL074cn. The LM324 cannot sink enough current at it's output to provide a stable virtual ground, the TL074cn seems ok. TL074cn might not be the best chip for the job - it was just what I had in my box - I guess any that can handle 40mA at the output will do.

FWIW, this fix didn't have any noticable effect on the functionality! It worked fine with the oscillations (they were at about 1Mhz). Might improve the efficiency a little, but I doubt it as most of the juice is used by the LM386 which doesn't use the virtual ground.

cheers

Col

Thanks for the update. Hmm sustainers, I arrived here thinking there'd be a coherent detailed tutorial for a complete system (nope - just the driver apparently), & it seems the whole genre is still beset with issuettes/quirks, niggles and 'oh so nears'!

I'm used to the luxury of confirmed builds (often built by many before I venture that way), so being time 'light' wrt my electronics hobby, I think I'll park this one up & look back in a few years ...there might even be a schematic to accompany the ubiquitous DIY driver coil by then.

Cheers.

Edited December 5, 2011 by irky

[irky]

Sounds a touch discouraging ... but I salute your persistence & hope that you get there in the end (& hope you share if you do!!)

[DarkAvenger]

It's probably the string gauge, but you might try to play around with the out caps a little. Something a little smaller might help out there, but your probably better off swapping it into the strat.

I've been thinking about trying a split coil type thing too. PSW pointed out an issue with strings bending in the middle, so I'm having some reserves there. I'll probably be satisfied with just the basic thing, but I'm starting to get that lil bug in me after winding my first coil. I'll post pictures a lil later today.

[DarkAvenger]

[billm90]

Thats looks nice and clean. Way to go!

Not to sure 'exactly' what I am looking at, but are you going to run the pickup, upside down?

[brazilguy]

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[brazilguy]

@psw hello ! theres a copycat company here in my country that is using your knowlege and saying its 100% brazillian technology lol, they copy things like the air system of dimarzio, the mix of alnico with ceramic in same pickup aclaiming thats theyr idea i tink my country is becoming china, check the imagees, a litle search on google brought me a lot of similar circuits from you

Edited January 27, 2015 by brazilguy

[brazilguy]

Just remember...

As I say, I allow email contact and support my design for personal use...not proposed commercial ventures or claims of some minor 'improvement' to suggest that the basic design elements and specifications are no longer mine and don't warrant credit in exchange for the wealth of information I provided. I do not see people replicating other designs and any I have seen that is almost successful' is not offered as DIY nor can deny the lineage directly to design principles on record from before 2005 in this forum and elsewhere.

Painting it green, changing the amp chip, installing an LED or otherwise exploiting my generosity and years of work does not imply ownership or 'invention' of the design any more than sticking a chevvy engine in a model-T ford of an HB in a strat makes you 'henry' or 'leo'...all you are making is a 'green' version of a psw sustainer.

It takes a lot of work and energy and determination to come up with this kind of thing and it is original in concept.

If one wants to make something of their own or even improve the design and explore the area...and of course, doing so on the back of my work demands credit and disallows profiting without reward.

Really though, as I did and most designers do, you need to set out some goals, what is it that you want to do...

I am just trying to get a base line one working, then I will stray off the path.

How many 'sustainers' can you personally use? What skills and research can you honestly offer at this stage? I ask this because like many before, this thread started out by detailing almost every possible and naive and seemingly 'lazy' excuse for not adhering to the design and then turning to others, and by that it follows me, for the answers why. There are reasons this elegant and simple design works and they have been specified over and over. Yes, you need to glue the coil, yes you need a suitable circuit, the LM386 is not a 'magic chip', the driver design is at the heart of things, the wire gauge does matter. When you vary these things, you will get different results...like your high strings wont work...is that really a surprise?

If you use my design as the basis for things, then you raise ethical and moral and legal questions if you seek to profit from it or aspire to make it 'your own'. But, I am not stifling creativity in this, anyone can buy pre-made necks and bodies and build themselves a strat, they can not suggest they 'created it' nor create a company called 'bender' and seel the things or claim the invention...even if you do have a novel colour scheme or wiring scheme.

Any 'path' you take really should be taken because you have a destination in mind, some goal you are trying to achieve. There is typically a distinct absence of this kind of thing it is safe to say. Col, is a notable exception in much of his work and approach, his aims were a little different in the response he sought, he wanted, at one time, a clean and very controlled sustain. Worked on developing dual coil designs to cut back EMI (my approach in this basic DIY design is to address that through a powerful but compact design)but more specifically a fair degree of creative work and design skills to make forward feed compression and the like (the circuit is available).

Without the considerable work and research and knowledge to understand what one is doing on many levels, to be able to answer for oneself questions like 'how thick do I need to make the core' then it is like the many who claim proprietary rights over this thing because they used a different glue than that recommended for the average DIYer and shown to function better than most proposed alternatives or stuck some other amp chip in there, usually cribbed from designs that they have cobbled together from other peoples work.

One really should, I believe, give credit where credit is due and this is standard practice and expected whether writing an essay say to add citations or in the patent process to cite all related sources. However, many seem to want to vary this design purely to make 'something different' and call it their own, or even specifically to profit from my work, even as they require my or others assistance or draw directly from the published material. There are many examples of this about the web and on you tube and the like where there are no 'significant changes' really, other than they made it themselves.

Now, of course that if fine and I am flattered and pleased that someone personally got this to work and I am extraordinarily generous in my ideas and time and only published and offered these things so that people can take it further. But in the almost decade since that, have we really seen anything other than variations of this design anywhere? Did anyone replicate Col's original work a circuits which have some great ideas and shown to work?

...

Otherwise, the device does work when made as described and as I say many people have succeeded and I have spent countless hours helping people achieve that goal. A complete document is being prepared to assist people to successfully build for their own use a successful sustainer to the basic design. If people have ideas for improvements or goals that are not covered by the design or other work I have shared, well then, do share. Those that do claim such attributes have conspicuously not been forthcoming by enlarge with any details and many are asking for money in exchange for 'unknown' products with significant flaws...many of them creating confusion and making wild claims against this design in an effort to justify their actions and used the public calls for assistance when the thing does not work for them as a justification for claims that I, personally, am promoting something that does not work, is deficient, and even can not work all the way to being a 'fake' despite all the evidence to the contrary. In this thread, we see plenty of examples of this kind of thing...

I have been wondering about that 32 gauge wire a lot. I wish I could just go pick some up opposed to internet ordering.

the things is, some guys say they got it to work. hmmmm

Yes, some guys, and we know who those guys chiefly are and why they choose to make a minor alteration and then have to use excessive mains sourced power to run the thing, find heat from the driver excessive and fail to disclose that the circuits are shutting down. These would be the same guys or supporters that go on you tube to personally name me and had to have altered only last month as an extension of the kinds of things that specifically stopped all public discussion of my design? Who are you going to believe, why not track down those guys and see if they can provide the help required...or, perhaps ignore them, stick to the design principles and make yourself a fully functioning working sustainer that you can be proud to own and use and to have built? Be aware that many of these 'guys' were in fact the same person under different names and have followed me with the same BS across every forum that I have contributed to on this subject for years now...I can give you his contacts and aliases if you want to quiz him on such aspects.

But, you know, it is a good place to start with something that works, but just keep in mind that tweaking it does not make it your own and this project is offered as an open source thing, but not for commercial application. The base line is that you make this thing as described and up to the ultimate performance that it offers, no claims of 'improvements' can be made until you at least achieve that. From my perspective, most of which is now done privately of course now, those that do that, no longer seek 'improvements' because those are largely born from the faulty perception that the design is deficient, they make the things and they work and they use them for what they are intended and get the desired results. There are different ways to create such things, dozens have been illustrated that I myself have built for consideration, an infinite circuit variations that will run them that are essentially the same things...but what exactly are people looking to achieve. My criteria was quite open and went about achieving many of those goals, some I failed along with everyone else (like centre mounted drivers, external boxes, etc) and many that I rejected as they did not meet the criteria even if they did work. There is some requirement I believe, to set out some ideas for what and why you are seeking alternatives and a deeper understanding of the principles underlying things in order to meet those goals.

Anyway, reading my posts are of course optional (for those prone to migraines, this is probably not a field one should enter perhaps) and as I say, not here to 'start' another flame war nor encourage it. I have an email address, I suggest that the opportunity is there to get assistance should I chose to assist and that the public exposure of this topic, especially with my involvement (which was invited here and is about my area of expertise as the designer) is only likely to create unwanted attention and the forum does not want anything of that nature to occur and I respect that, there are other forums and at this stage, private correspondence is the best option as their is just too much misinformation and bad advice about with a range of motives. Many people have continued to correspond with me and brain storm ideas for years now and who I value highly, this is an option. I work on many things and of course took the sustainer thing even further than the public has access to, yes, I have and there is no obligation to 'tell all' and many times I feel that all I have gotten from sharing is...well, you can see for yourself the way things panned out there...hmmm

I wish you all success and if people follow the original design specifications, they will achieve it. I can warn you or others (many people follow these threads and so address the wider viewers) of what lies down many of these 'paths' and every right to try and correct and protect my own work as anyone is to repeat my many mistakes and frustrations in taking many of these alternate routes. Even if to the extent of making your own, I am more than generous...I can take donations, but I don't recall anyone ever offering any rewards LOL...

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