Rockman X100 - Make it a DIY Pedal

All about modern commercial stompbox circuits from Electro Harmonix over MXR, Boss and Ibanez into the nineties.
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Yazoo55
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Post by Yazoo55 »

I am pretty happy now. I can’t claim it is 100% as good as an original model but it sounds good to my ears.

I did have trouble with the 2N4339. I spent a lot of money getting one but I had way too much compression. I ended up buying the surface mount version last month and it works much better. When I checked the original 2N4339, the VGS(off) was really low, only about 0.15 volts. For the surface mount version, it measured about 0.3 volts consistently across the 10 I bought.

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JTEX
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Post by JTEX »

Here's a mug-and-gutshot of my 2nd Shockman guitar. Hello world!

This took an inordinate amount of time and effort (and money), but it was worth it. Maybe one day I'll integrate the main board and the little delay board, but I'm so happy with it as-is that I can't find the motivation to clean it up. Especially since I tried to Kickstart the Shockman and it went nowhere (as expected).
IMG_20220708_222419.jpg
IMG_20220705_111648.jpg

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Carvindc125
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Post by Carvindc125 »

JTEX wrote: 09 Jul 2022, 03:07 Here's a mug-and-gutshot of my 2nd Shockman guitar. Hello world!

This took an inordinate amount of time and effort (and money), but it was worth it. Maybe one day I'll integrate the main board and the little delay board, but I'm so happy with it as-is that I can't find the motivation to clean it up. Especially since I tried to Kickstart the Shockman and it went nowhere (as expected).

IMG_20220708_222419.jpg

IMG_20220705_111648.jpg
Dude that looks great!
I heard a demo of your delay with the Shockman. I really like it! Very clever use of power with the PT2399 as well.
I would have never thought about that.
i've heard that the PT2399 can be a bit picky. Do you find that you have to change some values of components in your delay section depending on the exact PT2399 chip you use?

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JTEX
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Post by JTEX »

Carvindc125 wrote: 28 Jul 2022, 18:05 i've heard that the PT2399 can be a bit picky. Do you find that you have to change some values of components in your delay section depending on the exact PT2399 chip you use?
I made 5 SMDelays using chips bought on eBay (the SMD version) and they all worked about the same without tweaking values, and didn't mind being powered by 3V. YMMV, of course.

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JTEX
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Post by JTEX »

I finaly took the time to trace a couple of X100s to figure out why some things in the original Rev10 schematic left me scratching my head. Many "as-built" component values differ from the schematic (C103A and R114 are the most consequential), but the biggest bobo was that there's no actual connection between IC101B pin 7 and D117. Now I can finally make sense of the R174/175/176/D117 arrangement. It pretty much disables the compresor gain control in DIST and EDGE. This greatly reduces hiss by not pumping up the low level signals (and noise) before DIST.

Here's a partial, edited, correct (as-built) schematic. I hope it helps clear some confusion.

BTW, by now I much prefer the sound and feel of my Shockman to the original X100, so I would definitely not build a straight X100 clone.
X100_partial_corrected_JC.png

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Post by VivMeLol »

Image

Here is a graph of the outputs of a Rockman X100.

Blue is DIST mode
Green in CLN1 mode

For very low levels of inputs, the gain in DIST mode is more.

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Carvindc125
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Post by Carvindc125 »

JTEX wrote: 29 Jul 2022, 13:07 I finaly took the time to trace a couple of X100s to figure out why some things in the original Rev10 schematic left me scratching my head. Many "as-built" component values differ from the schematic (C103A and R114 are the most consequential), but the biggest bobo was that there's no actual connection between IC101B pin 7 and D117. Now I can finally make sense of the R174/175/176/D117 arrangement. It pretty much disables the compresor gain control in DIST and EDGE. This greatly reduces hiss by not pumping up the low level signals (and noise) before DIST.

Here's a partial, edited, correct (as-built) schematic. I hope it helps clear some confusion.

BTW, by now I much prefer the sound and feel of my Shockman to the original X100, so I would definitely not build a straight X100 clone.

X100_partial_corrected_JC.png
For some reason I thought you already knew about this easter egg....Anyway hats off to your design. Managing to shrink the foot print down so much and making the whole circuit quieter is NOT easy. I have been struggling with this myself.
congrats! and respect!

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Ripthorn
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Post by Ripthorn »

VivMeLol wrote: 14 Mar 2021, 18:42 After we decided to modernise the Chorus on the Rockman X100 by using modern parts like MN3207 BBD and CD4046 PLL,

and decided to add new controls like LFO speed, Chorus depth and Chorus delay time (while making sure there is a setting that replicates the Rockman)

We took an existing topology of LFO and clock that used the components we identified, and began SPICE analysis and re-design of the schematic to make sure that it covers the specifications of the Rockman X100.

Image
So question: what is the base time rate of the BBD when LFO is not modulating clock at all? Just curious.
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JTEX
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Post by JTEX »

Carvindc125 wrote: 08 Aug 2022, 16:32 ....Anyway hats off to your design. Managing to shrink the foot print down so much and making the whole circuit quieter is NOT easy. I have been struggling with this myself.
congrats! and respect!
Thank you. A year later, I'm still traumatised by how hard it was to design that 4-layer PCB -- to the point where I've been seriously procrastinating for many months about updating it with the delay section and the few little mods/changes I made since the original. I might never do it...

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Post by VivMeLol »

Rockman X100 signal flow

Some corrections and clarifications to the article at http://rockman.fr/Reviews/Rockman.htm

A. When the Cab Sim is out of the circuit, another EQ is used instead

B. The Rockman X100 does not hard pan reverb to right and chorus to left, as wrongly mentioned at Rockman.fr

The attached graphic shows what's actually going on in the stereo mixer (added yellow and red items)

Image

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