Univox - Univibe (Uni-vibe)

Discussion regarding early stompbox technology: 1960-1975 Please keep discussion focused and contribute what info you have...
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R.G.
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Post by R.G. »

DrNomis wrote:I downloaded a copy of the Forum Vibe PDF,etched a board from the included artwork,implemented all the mods,replaced the 47k input resistor with a 2M2, guess what?....it worked first time...,I'm very happy with it.... :)

My build uses a 22V DC/450mA plugpack, I'm getting 26V DC going to the LFO and lamp driver circuit,the rest of the circuit gets 15V DC, it sounds great....
Cool. Glad it works for you. With 26Vdc, you have enough headroom to try the higher DC voltage regulators if you want.

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DrNomis
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Post by DrNomis »

R.G. wrote:
DrNomis wrote:I downloaded a copy of the Forum Vibe PDF,etched a board from the included artwork,implemented all the mods,replaced the 47k input resistor with a 2M2, guess what?....it worked first time...,I'm very happy with it.... :)

My build uses a 22V DC/450mA plugpack, I'm getting 26V DC going to the LFO and lamp driver circuit,the rest of the circuit gets 15V DC, it sounds great....
Cool. Glad it works for you. With 26Vdc, you have enough headroom to try the higher DC voltage regulators if you want.

Yeah,that sounds like a cool thing to try, I would have to make a new power supply board and use an LM317T adjustable Regulator,I could probably adjust it so that 20V goes to the input amp and phase stages,and the LFO and Lamp driver gets 26V, I'm getting a pretty clean sound from my UniVibe build as it is though.... :)
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DrNomis
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Post by DrNomis »

My 22V DC/450mA Plugpack already had a bridge rectifier consisting of 4 power diodes already in it,so all I did was build the rest of the power supply on a piece of Vero/Stripboard, I used two 470uF/63V RT capacitors, one 470uF/35V RB capacitor, and an LM7815 regulator...... :)
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Post by hiorgos »

I just want to try to hint a bit of info. Saw this guts shot of an original Shinei Univibe, maybe someone is interested..

Image

Image

Image

And this one from another unit

Image

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Post by lolbou »

Topics merged.
hiorgos wrote:I just want to try to hint a bit of info.
The search function is you friend then :wink: ...
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Post by hiorgos »

lolbou wrote:Topics merged.
hiorgos wrote:I just want to try to hint a bit of info.
The search function is you friend then :wink: ...
Great, thanks!. I searched with "shinei", didn't find it!

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Post by HHR18 »

I just build mine using a ForumVibe PCB and the power supply and voltage regulator posted here on page 2 (thanks for those by the way!) Having some weird noise problems though. Take a listen:



The noise gets a lot less when I press down on the first 1uF cap. I measured the voltages of the transistors and only Q1 seem to be off a little. On the forumvibe site the voltages are the following:
E 0.92
B 1.33
C 2.03

Mine are:
E 1.04
B 0.86
C 1.88

Anyone got an idea what this might be?

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Post by ramaclaproth »

There are differences between the 1968 UniVibe and the 1969 UniVibe that we all should know and try it out!

Look again at the layout from Turretboard ---> http://www.turretboard.org/wp-content/u ... _names.pdf

The differences are the caps on C13 and C16 are switched the other way around!

EARLY UniVibes (double rubber version) had C13 for 4,7nF, and C16 for 470pF.

The late UniVibes (single rubber version) had C13 for 470pF and C16 for 4,7nF.

EARLY UniVibes (double rubber version) had C6 (-) negative goes to LDR.

The late UniVibes (single rubber version) had C6 (+) positive goes to LDR.

EARLY UniVibes (double rubber version) had C17 (-) negative goes to R32 R33 R34.

The late UniVibes (single rubber version) had C17's polarity orientation the same way like the early UniVibes had it too, BUT most clone builders follow the "915" factory schematic, the RG schematic or the Turretboard layout which they got it WRONG for C17's polarity orientation.

Most EARLY UniVibes (double rubber version) had R37 for 47K but also some early ones from the same year had R37 for 100K.

Most late UniVibes (single rubber version) had R37 for 100K.

Here are the layout of BOTH the 1968 and 1969 UniVibes:

https://imageshack.us/a/img703/2669/uv1968.jpg

https://imageshack.us/a/img22/9903/uv1969.jpg

Note: The ones that use the 10nF and the 6nF for C13 and C16 (which were mentioned by Turretboard as the "Wattson" tracing) they were mistakes made by Shin Ei BUT were made very limited that way.

Keep in mind the 1968 UniVibes were NOT made by Shin Ei, they were made by a company named Honey. Shin Ei took over Honey in 1969 and years later Korg took over Shin Ei. Honey was the original company which first produced UniVibe and put UniVibe on sale in 1967. Unfortunately, Honey went bankrupt in 1969 and Shin Ei became in charge of the production of UniVibe and as a result, UniVibe after 1969 experienced several changes in specification such as the design of logo and the circuit and hence the change in the sound occurred.

Jimi NEVER used the single rubber version UniVibes, Jimi used the double rubber version UniVibes.

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Post by Masuto »

Hi fellows... i have finished building my 3rd univibe clone.
Trimmer settings are done by ear- i own a leslie rotating speaker so i know how a leslie is supposed to sound.
BUT this afternoon as i was having tea, i checked some vids of original univibes on youtube.
AND THEY ARE WAY WOBBLY! to my ears, not in a good way.. they sound like waves inside a wave, half cut smaller waves within the big wave of phasing..
My clones sound positively wet and leslie like, i can do axis jimi without hassles..
So im asking..HOW IS IT SUPPOSED TO SOUND?
like a leslie or like a soup of half formed waves?
Are the clones on youtube gone due to their age? They sound like theyre biased wrong..
Help!

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Post by Masuto »

Masuto wrote: Are the clones on youtube gone due to their age? They sound like theyre biased wrong..

i meant ONES not clones...goddamned samsung

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Post by ch1 »

I have a question if anyone knows where I can find an Eagle file on the schematic to the Univibe? Couldn't find it on this forum.

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Post by DrNomis »

Masuto wrote:Hi fellows... i have finished building my 3rd univibe clone.
Trimmer settings are done by ear- i own a leslie rotating speaker so i know how a leslie is supposed to sound.
BUT this afternoon as i was having tea, i checked some vids of original univibes on youtube.
AND THEY ARE WAY WOBBLY! to my ears, not in a good way.. they sound like waves inside a wave, half cut smaller waves within the big wave of phasing..
My clones sound positively wet and leslie like, i can do axis jimi without hassles..
So im asking..HOW IS IT SUPPOSED TO SOUND?
like a leslie or like a soup of half formed waves?
Are the clones on youtube gone due to their age? They sound like theyre biased wrong..
Help!

Going by what my Univibe sounds like, it should sound airy or watery, the sweep should be fairly even, one thing I did notice is that the effect gets more noticeable as you increase the speed of the effect, I'm guessing that a lot of those original Univibes had the lamp-driver trimpot a bit out of adjustment, possibly due to component aging, the trimpots used in those old Univibes always did have a habit of going high in value, or intermittent, as they aged..... :thumbsup
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Post by DrNomis »

Also, the Univibe's LFO circuit is basically what's called a Phase-Shift-Oscillator, which is supposed to generate a low-frequency Sine-Wave, I remember having a look at the output waveform on an Oscilloscope one day and noting that the waveform wasn't a clean Sine-Wave, there was a bit of asymmetrical distortion, the Lamp-Driver circuit is really simple, consisting of a single transistor, when you vary the setting of the trimpot on the transistor's emitter, you're effectively varying the biasing of the transistor, this will affect the shape of the LFO waveform, and therefore the sweep of the effect too..... :thumbsup
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Post by Masuto »

Cheers Dr Nomis! I had the feeling it was due to component aging.
Since i found the same brand electrolytics as the original and got me a smallbear, enclosed ldr set, i guess it's building time again.. For my 4th uni vibe. :horsey:
Anyone here tried the new Nu-Vibe by Fumio/Korg? Opinions?

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Post by DrNomis »

I used mostly BCxxx series transistors in my Univibe build, except for the Lamp Driver and LFO, I used two MPSA14 Darlington Transistors..... :thumbsup
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Post by lolbou »

DrNomis wrote:I used two MPSA14 Darlington Transistors
Cascaded? A single darlington pair wasn't enough to drive your lamp ? :scratch: Or is it just a typo?
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Post by DrNomis »

lolbou wrote:
DrNomis wrote:I used two MPSA14 Darlington Transistors
Cascaded? A single darlington pair wasn't enough to drive your lamp ? :scratch: Or is it just a typo?



Nah, not a typo, what I meant was that I used one MPSA14 for the LFO and one for the Lamp Driver.... :thumbsup


I could have edited my post but there was no edit button, and I only realized it when it was too late...... :slap:
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Post by collingtech »

hey guys the pdf link schematics is broken

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tabbycat
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Post by tabbycat »

and sinner's amazing univibe 'opus' here... https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... 30#p237630

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