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Zeppelin Design Labs QUAVERATO Assembly Instructions Manual

Harmonic tremolo pedal
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Summary of Contents for Zeppelin Design Labs QUAVERATO

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    © 2018 ZEPPELIN DESIGN LABS. NO PART OF THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. ZEPPELIN DESIGN LABS TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE OR HARM THAT MAY COME TO ANYONE OR ANYTHING THROUGH THEIR PRODUCTS. THE QUAVERATO SOFTWARE IS COVERED BY THE CREATIVE COMMONS SHARE-ALIKE/ATTRIBUTION/NON-COMMERCIAL LICENSE, WHICH MEANS YOU ARE FREE TO ADD OR BUILD UPON THE CIRCUIT IDEA AND THE SOFTWARE IN ANY WAY YOUR CREATIVITY ALLOWS, BUT ANY DERIVATIVES MUST BE SHARED USING THE SAME LICENSE.

  • Page 3: Introduction

    INTRODUCTION The Quaverato is a versatile tap-time tremolo pedal, giving you a wide range of control over the tremolo speed, depth, wave shape, and duty cycle (or spacing). The Quaverato can also operate as a harmonic tremolo, meaning it can apply tremolo independently to the high and low frequencies.
  • Page 4 Throughout the 1960’s Fender used several types of electrical tremolo circuits in their various amp models, including bias-modulating tremolo , optical tremolo , and harmonic tremolo . Bias tremolo is created by modulating the bias voltage on a preamp tube, phase inverter tube, or power tube in an amplifier circuit.
  • Page 5 HOW THE QUAVERATO WORKS The Quaverato is a very versatile tremolo pedal that produces all three types of tremolo sounds mentioned above (bias, optical, and harmonic tremolo). When the guitar signal enters the pedal, it is buffered with a low-gain amplifier stage and then immediately sent to the high pass and low pass filters.

  • Page 6: What's In The Box

    WHAT’S IN THE BOX ”Table 1: Quaverato Harmonic Tremolo Pedal Bill of Materials” (BOM) is a complete parts list of everything that should be present in your kit, followed by photos of each part. Print the BOM and carefully go through the kit, identifying every part. Before opening...
  • Page 7 Table 1: Quaverato Harmonic Tremolo Pedal Bill of Materials Part # Description Notes CB-06-30 Hookup Wire, 2" (5cm) x 5 wires CB-90-13 Heat Shrink Tube, 3/16" x 1-1/2" (5x40mm) For Optocouplers CD-10-12 Insulation Cardstock, 3/4" x 8" (2x20cm) CH-10-30 Steel Chassis, Top & Bottom...
  • Page 8 Part # Description Notes RS-80-32 Resistor, 220R R7, R8 RS-80-40 Resistor, 1K R4, R5, R6, R11, R12, R15 RS-80-50 Resistor, 14K R17, R21 RS-80-51 Resistor, 10K R2, R3, R13, R14, R16 RS-80-52 Resistor, 18K R18, R22 RS-80-54 Resistor, 36K R20, R24 RS-80-56 Resistor, 24K R19, R23...
  • Page 9 HD-50-02 P2, MIDI IN U2, U3 Q1, Q2 IC-30-60 PC-10-01 PL-10-10 PL-10-90 VR2 - VR7 VR8, VR9 VR10 R7, R8 R4-6, R11-12, R15 R17, R21 R2-3, R13-14, R16 R18, R22 R20, R24 R19, R23 R9, R10 SN-30-10 ST-60-39 S1, S2 S3, S4 S5, S6...

  • Page 10: What You Will Need

    WHAT YOU WILL NEED Here’s everything you will need to build the Quaverato kit. TOOLS Digital multimeter #2 Philips screw driver Small flat-head screwdriver Needle nose pliers Wire strippers Small diagonal-cutting or flush-cutting pliers X-ACTO knife or hobby knife ®...
  • Page 11 Your Quaverato tremolo pedal contains one printed circuit board (PCB). All of the components will be installed on the “component side” of the board, which is the side with the part labels printed on it. The other side of the board is called the “solder side,” which, as the name implies, is the side on which the legs of most of the components are soldered.
  • Page 12 Let’s begin! 1. Resistors: The values of resistors are given by a series of colored stripes. There are several tutorials online describing how to decode these stripes, but we will identify each resistor for you by simply naming the stripe colors, and giving you the value and the part number. “Figure 4: Component Values and Locations”...
  • Page 13 a. Start with the 1K resistors (R4, R5, R6, R11, R12, R15), marked BROWN, BLACK, BLACK, BROWN, BROWN. Compare to its picture in the BOM. Find their locations on the circuit board; install and bend the leads out on the solder side as described above (3,4,5,6). Don’t solder any of them until all 24 resistors are installed.
  • Page 14 c. Install the 220 ohm (220R) resistors (R7, R8), marked RED, RED, BLACK, BLACK, BROWN. (11) Bend the leads on the back. d. Next do the 100K resistors (R9, R10), marked BROWN, BLACK, BLACK, ORANGE, BROWN. Bend the leads on the back. e.
  • Page 15 You should have a whole forest of bent leads coming out the solder side of the board. Now you can turn the board solder-side-up and solder each lead to the board. Use a clamp or vise if you have one; it makes soldering much easier (16,17). k.
  • Page 16 2. Diodes (D1,D2, D3): Diodes are polarized, meaning it matters which lead goes in which hole. If you get it wrong your pedal won’t work. You will notice one end of the diode body has a white stripe around it (21). The lead coming from the striped end of the diode goes in the hole with the square pad.
  • Page 17 Ceramic Caps: These caps look like little yellow blobs with two protruding leads. The Quaverato uses two values of ceramic caps: 100nF and 22pF. The only noticeable difference between these capacitors is the tiny label printed on their yellow bodies. The 100nF caps are labeled “104”...
  • Page 18 Film Capacitors: There are 3 film capacitors in the Quaverato. The two green film caps are 22nF (.022uF) in value and labeled “2A 223 J” (30). The red cap is 100nF (.1uF) in value and labeled “104J” (31). These caps are not polarized; the leads can go into either hole.
  • Page 19 STRIPE = NEGATIVE = SHORTER LEAD = ROUND PAD NO STRIPE = POSITIVE = LONGER LEAD = SQUARE PAD Make sure you orient these caps properly! For reference, Figure 4 on page 11 has little red plus signs (+) on the positive pads. Install C4 in its place and bend the leads out (35).
  • Page 20 (39). Bend the leads out on the bottom; solder and clip the leads. 5. Headers (ISP and MIDI IN): We will now install the headers on the board to allow the Quaverato to connect to other pieces of hardware.
  • Page 21 (44a,44b). c. Now install the MIDI IN header. This header allows the Quaverato to connect to an aftermarket MIDI input board (available from Zeppelin Design Labs starting in late 2018).
  • Page 22 6. Optocouplers: The optocoupler is the link between the digital (control) side of the circuit and the analog signal path. There are two optocouplers: one that controls the low frequencies and one that controls the high frequencies. Each optocoupler consists of a light dependent resistor (LDR) and a light emitting diode (LED), both of which are sealed inside a length of of heat-shrink tubing.
  • Page 23 d. Slide the LDR into the other end of the heat-shrink tubing until it is touching the LED (54). Rotate the LDR to put the leads in the same plane as the LED leads (55). e. As you hold the LDR from the outside of the heat-shrink, carefully heat this side of the tube until it closes around the LDR leads (56,57).
  • Page 24 g. Now that we’ve made the optocouplers we can install them. The leads need to be bent 90 degrees, but it matters which way you bend them for them to fit in the proper orientation. If you put the opto in backwards the tremolo effect will not work. Note the PCB graphics indicate where the LDR and LED are intended to go.
  • Page 25 h. Carefully install both optocouplers on the PCB. Double check to make sure the long LED leads are in their correct holes -- with the square pads (66,67). Bend the leads out on the back, solder all 8 leads, and snip them flush (68,69). 7.
  • Page 26 They look identical to the voltage regulator (labeled L78L05), so please don’t get them mixed up -- otherwise your Quaverato won’t work! These transistors are shaped like a three-quarter moon. Notice the PCB graphics around the holes have a similar shape to show you the component’s correct orientation.
  • Page 27 PCB, to show you how to orient the IC. a. Microcontroller, ATmega328-PU (U1): This IC is the “brain” of the Quaverato. We pre- programmed this chip with software which tells the pedal how to operate. This software is open-source and published under the creative commons license.
  • Page 28 iv. Install the ATmega328-PU microcontroller in its socket. Be careful to align the divot in the end of the micro with the divot in the end of the socket. If the pins don’t line up easily with the socket, you may have to gently bend the pins a little closer together by pushing each side of the chip down on the tabletop.
  • Page 29 c. Voltage Regulator, 78L05 (U4): This component takes the 9 volts from the power jack and converts it to 5 volts to run the microcontroller. This component is shaped like a three- quarter moon and looks very similar to the transistors you installed earlier. Install the voltage regulator on the board in the correct orientation (it is polarized), bend the leads out on the other side of the board.
  • Page 30 13. Audio Jacks (J1, J2): Install the 1/4” jacks into J1 and J2 (94). Make sure the bottoms of the jacks are flat against the face of the PCB. Solder the pins (95-97). 14. Hookup Wires: The 5-conductor ribbon wire needs to be split into three pieces: two 2-wire pieces and one 1-wire piece.
  • Page 31 Tin each end with solder (103). We’ll use the two 2-wire pairs in the next step. Set the single wire aside until we install the solder lug. 15. Switch Wires: Insert one of the 2-wire pieces into the BYPASS SW pads on the component side of the PCB.
  • Page 32 16. 16mm Potentiometers: a. Before we install the potentiometers (or “pots”) we need to trim some component leads as short as possible so they don’t puncture the insulation paper and short out against the bottoms of the pots. The outlines of the pots are drawn on the solder side of the board. Trim down all the leads that are inside these circles (107).
  • Page 33 d. Gently bend the potentiometers slightly up-right, until their back is parallel with the PCB (113). e. Cut the strip of insulation paper into two strips: 4.5” (11.5cm) and 3.25” (8.5cm). Slide the strips under the pots to help insulate them from the leads on the PCB (114). 17.
  • Page 34 c. Bend the leads out on the component side of the board. Solder and clip the leads. d. Repeat with the other red 3mm LED at the BYPASS LED location, and with the green 3mm LED at the TAP LED location (119,120). 18.
  • Page 35 Assembly Instructions and populate the PCB now. Don’t try to plug in your Quaverato yet. You still must mount it in its chassis and connect the footswitches before you can power it up and begin the calibration process. Be of good cheer! You are almost done...

  • Page 36: Putting It All Together

    PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 1. Labels: a. Clean the outside of the chassis with some isopropyl alcohol and a rag (1). b. Carefully remove the perforated holes from the label. Make sure not to peel off the label’s backing paper when doing this (2). c.
  • Page 37 Press the label down as you go (7). Remove the tape, turn the chassis over and push the label down on the clean, flat surface of your table or bench (8). e. Stick the serial number label to the bottom part of the chassis to the right of the power jack cutout (9,10).
  • Page 38 You may have to gently bend the pots and toggle switches a bit to get them all to slide in (13). Keep working it until all three LEDs are protruding through the chassis (14). b. Place a washer and a nut on each of the seven pots (15,16,17). Tighten the nuts down with a 10mm socket, or a snub-nose pliers (18).
  • Page 39 3. Footswitches: a. Remove the top nut and washer from each of the footswitches (21). Thread the bottom nut about half way up on the threaded shaft (22). b. Install the footswitches in the chassis as in the picture, with the lugs facing out toward the sides (23).
  • Page 40 4. Solder everything in place: a. Solder the wire pairs to the footswitches. Each wire goes to one of the footswitch lugs; it does not matter which one (27,28). b. Solder the toggle switches to the board (29,30).
  • Page 41 (33,34). That’s it! You are done building your Quaverato Harmonic Tremolo Pedal. After you take a break (and I take a nap), we’ll set up and calibrate the pedal, then finish assembling the chassis and start to jam.

  • Page 42: Calibration And Setup

    CALIBRATION AND SETUP We will now set up the Quaverato to work properly. This process consists of setting the DIP switches and adjusting the trim pots to their optimal settings. 1. Set cutoff filters: The first step is to set the high pass and low pass filters to their desired cutoff frequencies.
  • Page 43 3. Set HIGH and LOW trim pots: In this step we will set the ratio of low and high frequencies. a. Plug in the DC power cable (center negative) and insert a 1/4” instrument cable into the IN jack. The red power LED should come on. (If not then something is installed backwards: check the power LED, D1 and C14.) Turn the DEPTH knob fully counterclockwise so the LFO is not pulsing.
  • Page 44 That’s it, your jumpers should now be jumped! 5. Test the sound: Now you can plug your Quaverato into your amp and guitar to test it out and make any final adjustments. Set the VOLUME, SPACING, and HARMONIC MIX knobs to the 12:00 position;...
  • Page 45 If you would like to change your Quaverato’s tone you can Table 2: DIP Switch adjust the HIGH and LOW trim pots. The values to which Crossover Frequencies we originally set these trim pots (see paragraph 3 above) give, in our opinon, a good balance of highs and lows.

  • Page 46: Final Assembly

    1. If you are building the MIDI mod, see the MIDI Mod Assembly Instructions: drill a hole in the back of the chassis, add a bit of foam tape to the Quaverato PCB, and install the MIDI board. 2. Slide the top chassis (with the PCB installed) into the bottom chassis (1). Place the 1/4” jacks through the holes in the bottom;...
  • Page 47 Are you ready to rock? Yes you are! Plug in a 9V DC center-negative power supply (100 mA or more), stick your Quaverato between your guitar and amp, and prepare to quaver like a leaf in a breeze; flutter like my heart when I see my wife;...