Mat Janson Blanchet's academic works

No signal generated so far

Posted on November 12, 2017

Independent Study

Signal Generator SG-Alpha - Circuit Board

After discussing with an electric engineer friend of mine, he suggested that I used a perfboard instead of a breadboard to improve the connections quality. As that quality can affect the signal, I thought it would be a good idea to try. The photo above is what I ended up making, and I have to say I am proud of the quality of the soldering I did.

However, it still doesn’t work, which is quite frustrating. At some points, there were feedback squeals, but that is most probably because the emitting coil and the pickup coil were too close.

Looking at the schematics, things seem relatively simple, and logical. I spent some time with the IMCA electronics technician and his signal scope, and all seemed fine.

DIY Ebow circuits

Above are the diagrams I found online. Remember, as the Ebow is proprietary and patented, whatever I find are DIY attempts and are not always easily reproduced.

The last two diagrams were sent to me by the IMCA electronics technician. He found them in a Russian forum where there were discussions about the Ebow.

More investigation is in order it seems. During my readings related to this, I even stumbled on someone mentioning that the coil’s polarity was important. As I hadn’t thought of that, it’s another hurdle in my way…

I will have to put this aside for a while, so that I can concentrate on my IMCA 400 end-of-term works, and my ARTH 358 research paper and final exam.

Wooden case

Signal Generator SG-Alpha - Box

As is the case when I hit a roadblock or when I get frustrated with a project that cannot move forward, I improve its looks or designs. So I created a small case to hold the electronics. This also helps me as it prevents having a lot of wires dangling around when hovering over the string and pickup, trying to generate a signal…


2 Responses to “No signal generated so far”

  1. michu says:

    Hey, change to a LM386 N-3

    • Thanks for this tip! ? I don’t have access to my equipment at this time, but I will check this out as soon as I can.

      How did you stumble on this post? And how did you know which chip to take instead?

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