Model 1011 Construction Manual
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M O D E L 1 0 1 1 D i s c r e t e V o l t a g e C o n t r o l l e d O s c i l l a t o r Construction & Operation Guide R E V A - F O R P C B V 1 . 1 S L I G H T L Y N A S T Y E L E C T R O N I C S A D E L A I D E , A U S T R A L I A M O D E L 1 0 1 1 D i s c r e t e O s c i l l a t o r S P E C I F I C A T I O N S PHYSICAL FORM FACTOR: Loudest Warning / 4U WIDTH: 3NMW / 75.5mm HEIGHT: 175mm DEPTH: ~40mm from panel front inc. components PCB: 70 x 150mm, Two-Layer Double Sided CONNECTORS: 4mm Banana IDC power connector pinout. ELECTRICAL POWER: +12V, 0V, -12V CONSUMPTION:~40mA +12V Rail, ~30mA -12V Rail CONNECTOR: IDC 10-pin Shrouded Header, Eurorack Standard or MTA-156 4-Pin Header I/O IMPEDANCES: 100K input, 1K output (nominal) MTA-156 power connector pinout. INPUT RANGES (nominal) 1V/OCT: +/- 10V FM: +/- 5V LOG: +/- 5V SYMMETRY: +/- 5V SYNC: +/- 5V (falling-edge trigger) OUTPUT RANGES (nominal) OUTPUT A: +/- 5V OUTPUT B: +/- 5V SUBOCTAVE: +/- 5V Specifications 2 S L I G H T L Y N A S T Y E L E C T R O N I C S A D E L A I D E , A U S T R A L I A M O D E L 1 0 1 1 D i s c r e t e O s c i l l a t o r T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S SPECIFICATIONS Specifications / Power Requirements 2 INTRODUCTION Introduction 4 CIRCUIT OVERVIEW Circuit Overview 5 Exponential Converter 6 Sawtooth Core 8 Triangle / Sine Shapers 10 Pulse / Suboctave Shapers 10 Output Mixers / Amplifiers 12 CHOOSING COMPONENTS Bill Of Materials (BOM) 14 Choosing Components 15 Transistor Matching 16 CONSTRUCTION Construction Overview 18 Physical Assembly 20 CONTROLS Controls 21 CALIBRATION Calibration Overview 22 CV Scale 23 CV Offset 24 High Frequency Compensation 24 Triangle Adjustment 25 REFERENCE PCB Guide - Lower Board 26 PCB Guide - Upper Board 27 This document is best viewed in dual-page mode. Circuit Overview 3 S L I G H T L Y N A S T Y E L E C T R O N I C S A D E L A I D E , A U S T R A L I A M O D E L 1 0 1 1 D i s c r e t e O s c i l l a t o r I N T R O D U C T I O N The Slightly Nasty Model 1011 is a voltage controlled oscillator that's a little bit different. Despite featuring a host of functionality including four mixable waveshapes, suboctave, linear and logarithmic FM, pulse width modulation, and hard sync, inside it you won't find a single IC opamp or OTA. What you will find is no less than 41 discrete transistors flying in close formation, doing their best to output useable musical tones. The Model 1011 has been designed from the ground up to use modern "jellybean" components that can be cheaply and easily obtained from most electronics suppliers. Despite the unusual implementation, the architecture is actually a very traditional sawtooth-core design that will be familiar to most people who have worked on VCOs before. Three outputs provide mixable sine-triangle, saw-pulse-suboctave, and suboctave square respectively, the pulse wave also featuring both manual and CV-controlled symmetry (pulse width). Aside from the usual 1V/Octave input, there are also separate inputs for both linear and logarithmic FM, each with input attenuators, as well as a hard sync input. The exponential converter is temperature compensated for better thermal stability and the sawtooth core features high-frequency compensation for better pitch tracking. The Model 1011 uses the Loudest Warning 4U format for the front panel, and follows Eurorack electrical and power standards. All front panel components are PCB mounted for easy wiring-free construction. The front panel is available in two finishes - satin anodised and gloss white powdercoat, both on 2.5mm aluminium with robust UV-printed graphics. Introduction 4 S L I G H T L Y N A S T Y E L E C T R O N I C S A D E L A I D E , A U S T R A L I A M O D E L 1 0 1 1 D i s c r e t e O s c i l l a t o r C I R C U I T O V E R V I E W For full schematics, please download the separate schematics PDF. Excerpts shown in this manual may be outdated and are provided for reference only. While the fully populated PCB of the Model 1011 can look quite intimidating, the circuitry can actually be broken down into a set of relatively simple subcircuits that each handle a very specific aspect of the module's operation. Overall, the 1011 has a fairly standard architecture consisting of the following units: 1. Exponential converter - this allows the use of 1V/Octave pitch CVs by taking a linear scale voltage from the CV input and converting it into an exponential scale current to feed the sawtooth core. 2. Sawtooth core - this is the sonic heart of the module, generating the base sawtooth signal from which all other waveshapes are generated. Sync is also implemented in this circuit. 3. Triangle/sine shapers - These convert the raw sawtooth signal into triangle and sine waves by first folding the sawtooth into a triangle shape, and then soft-clipping that to create a pseudo-sine. 4. Pulse/suboctave shapers - These create the pulse wave by feeding the sawtooth signal into a comparator, using the symmetry controls to set the threshold level. The pulse is then used to clock a pulse divider to form the suboctave square. 5. Mixers/output amps - These allow the blending of the various waveforms as well as converting the different levels and offsets of the various raw waveform signals to match the +/-5v expected at the outputs. Block diagram of the Model 1011. Circles marked "A" are attenuators. Circuit Overview 5 S L I G H T L Y N A S T Y E L E C T R O N I C S A D E L A I D E , A U S T R A L I A Circuit Overview 6 S L I G H T L Y N A S T Y E L E C T R O N I C S A D E L A I D E , A U S T R A L I A M O D E L 21 02 13 11 A s y m mDei ts rcirce tSel eOws cLiilml ai t oe r E X P O N E N T I A L C O N V E R T E R Undoubtedly the finickiest part of most VCOs, the exponential converter in the VCC 8 Model 1011 is essentially a discrete reimplementation of the opamp-stabilised 3 + V+ 1 transistor pair found in countless other designs. This circuit works by using the 2 - V- GND naturally exponential relationship of a transistor's base-emitter voltage to its 4 output current, using two matched transistors to mostly cancel out each others' VEE R3 thermal effects and keep the conversion stable across different temperatures and 3 3 currents. A feedback-stabilised current source on the shared emitters of the 1V/OCT R1 1 1 2 2 transistors holds one transistor at a constant current, causing the exponential GND TEMPCO current caused by changes to the input voltage to appear at the collector of the R2 other one. A temperature-sensitive "tempco" resistor provides additional GND correction to the aspects of the circuit's thermal response that are not cancelled VEE TO_CORE by the matched pair. The exact operation of this sort of converter is a bit too involved to get into in this Traditional configuration of PNP exponential converter with opamp manual, but an excellent rundown of the basic principles can be found on René current source. Schmitz' website at http://schmitzbits.de/expo_tutorial/index.html In the 1011, the exponential converter can be broken down further into three basic sections. There are the frontend buffer/amplifiers that combine the various CVs and panel controls into a single pitch voltage; the exponentiator itself, in the form of the matched pair; and the feedback controlled current source, which consists of a differential pair controlling a current source tranistor. The bulk of the exponentiator is single rail and works between 0v and +VCC. The input buffer/amplifiers are essentially just crude emitter followers, and consist of transistors Q501, Q502, and Q510 along with their respective passive components. The output of Q501 and Q502 are both combined and go through the voltage divider comprised of RV505 and the tempco resistor R522, in order to reduce the level to the small voltage swing needed for the exponentiator. Because the circuit is single rail, Q503 provides a buffered offset voltage so that the resultant scaled CV is centred near the 1/2 VCC mark.