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Old 25th Nov 2016, 2:10 pm   #1
feathercurls
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Default Musical neon oscillators

I have made a musical neon oscillator circuit, based on a schematic from Practical Electronics 1966! It works, but will need a better keyboard and finer tuning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhmYvPe-Qqk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fivAN-3wFDc
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Old 25th Nov 2016, 3:00 pm   #2
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Love it! I've just got a breadboard so you shouldn't be putting ideas into my head! I get out precious little enough as it is...

I'm slowly getting my head round the idea of making some very basic oscillator type instruments (I use the term "instruments" in the broadest possible sense...) and this is definitely unusual enough to get my interest.

Regards,
Paul
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Old 25th Nov 2016, 5:37 pm   #3
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

A number of commercial electronic organs were based on the same technology.
Try shining a bright torch or similar at the neons for an alternative way of achieving a tremolo or pitch-bend effect.
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Old 25th Nov 2016, 7:14 pm   #4
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Quote:
Originally Posted by feathercurls View Post
I have made a musical neon oscillator circuit, based on a schematic from Practical Electronics 1966!
Nice one, Lucia!

I love Practical Electronics designs! This must have seemed quite out-there at the time. Thank you for sharing it!
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Old 25th Nov 2016, 7:17 pm   #5
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

That's very silly, great!
 
Old 25th Nov 2016, 8:05 pm   #6
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

A high-voltage stylophone!

David
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Old 25th Nov 2016, 10:19 pm   #7
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Glad you all like it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
Try shining a bright torch or similar at the neons for an alternative way of achieving a tremolo or pitch-bend effect.
Will give that a try.

Quote:
Originally Posted by astral highway View Post
I love Practical Electronics designs! This must have seemed quite out-there at the time. Thank you for sharing it!
You're welcome.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
A high-voltage stylophone!
Yes! The original schematic had a 90V battery, but I am using a nixie tube power supply of 107V DC. The reason I am using it as a stylophone for now is that it needs a better keyboard.
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Old 25th Nov 2016, 11:48 pm   #8
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

With the exponentially-rounded sawtooth, once you have enough notes, I'd suggest playing 'Telstar'

David
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Old 26th Nov 2016, 12:58 am   #9
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

I had an organ some time ago that had a whole row of neon's practically across the width of the keyboard, they were used as frequency dividers on many instruments of the time.

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Old 26th Nov 2016, 4:42 pm   #10
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Hello,

At a tangent I had to find out some info on Neon Relaxation oscillators as part of the restoration of a Stereosound amplifier in this thread https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...t=94293&page=3

There is a link to a PDF of some info I found in a book Electronic Musical Instruments Manual by Alan Douglas, which can be found in post #51 in the above thread.

Terry
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Old 26th Nov 2016, 6:08 pm   #11
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
With the exponentially-rounded sawtooth, once you have enough notes, I'd suggest playing 'Telstar'
For that tune you really need the Selmer Clavioline that's in my workshop.
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Old 26th Nov 2016, 9:02 pm   #12
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Hi Lucia, I have plenty of spare wire ended neons if you need more

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Old 27th Nov 2016, 12:07 am   #13
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
With the exponentially-rounded sawtooth, once you have enough notes, I'd suggest playing 'Telstar'
If I manage to make a better keyboard and more notes, I will give that a try.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Valvepower View Post
At a tangent I had to find out some info on Neon Relaxation oscillators as part of the restoration of a Stereosound amplifier in this thread https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...t=94293&page=3

There is a link to a PDF of some info I found in a book Electronic Musical Instruments Manual by Alan Douglas, which can be found in post #50 in the above thread.
Thanks Terry, I will have a look at that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed_Dinning View Post
Hi Lucia, I have plenty of spare wire ended neons if you need more
Thanks Ed, I think I have enough of them for now, but I will let you know if I need more. Are they the standard mains indicator size?
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Old 27th Nov 2016, 7:42 am   #14
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Hi Lucia, standard size, wire ended and with no series resistor

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Old 30th Nov 2016, 11:51 pm   #15
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
Try shining a bright torch or similar at the neons for an alternative way of achieving a tremolo or pitch-bend effect.
I tried that, it does make the pitch higher. Touching the neons has a similar effect (capacitance? infra-red?). Touching the resistors makes the pitch slightly lower.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
With the exponentially-rounded sawtooth, once you have enough notes, I'd suggest playing 'Telstar'
I decided to give that a try (very clumsy attempt, because it is very difficult to play). It now has a basic 'keyboard' of copper tape, played with two foil contacts. I tuned it to a mobile tuner app, as my attempts to tune it to itself by ear were just shifting wrong notes around. It still has 10 notes tuned to a major scale. I achieved extra notes by using myself as a series resistor, which lowers a note by about a semitone (only!). (I don't recommend this. The resistor values in that part of the circuit are very high (1M + 1M pot) and the current is very low. The power supply is a very small battery-powered inverter, so no seriously high currents. I do have to remember not to touch directly across the HV and ground at the same time though.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9N4uBwL9vY
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Old 1st Dec 2016, 7:33 am   #16
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Sounded ok to me Lucia. BTW, where did you get your "grippy", spring loaded jumpers from?

Nice project, Andy.
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Old 1st Dec 2016, 9:29 am   #17
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Good!

I'm also glad you're not suffering for your art. Though if you ever got the original stylophone advert's demonstrator to play it, most people would want you to use much higher voltages and currents

David
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Old 1st Dec 2016, 2:47 pm   #18
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Wobble View Post
BTW, where did you get your "grippy", spring loaded jumpers from?
The spring loaded hook clips are from eBay, look up 'hook test clip' or similar. They come without leads though, which means having to solder the leads on. This can be very fiddly and it is difficult to solder near plastic without melting it. The larger size ones are much more sturdy and more resistant to melting when soldering the wires on. They are very useful for connecting to components which are too small for crocodile clips.

Does anyone have any ideas of what to use for keys? Some kind of spring loaded buttons? The buttons which I used in the first video are too difficult to press, and I have a hand problem which means anything has to be really easy to use. The stylophone method has the drawback of making it very difficult to play more than one note at a time, and unlike a real stylophone, it is polyphonic so it seems a shame to have that limitation.

Also the stylophone's reputation has suffered because of its annoying tone and that advert.
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Old 1st Dec 2016, 3:17 pm   #19
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

Quote:
Does anyone have any ideas of what to use for keys?
A scrap organ music thingy, a quick search on ebay... http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_so...rt=nc&LH_BIN=1

Problem is if I got one of those for the keys I would restore it.
 
Old 1st Dec 2016, 5:28 pm   #20
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Default Re: Musical neon oscillators

For keys try micro switches with lever arms on them.

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