@@KASSUPOSSE the first thing I would suspect is the tape head. I had a bunch of spare cards, so I just soaked the top (no magnetic strip) part of the card in isopropyl alcohol and ran it through a few times. If you don’t have spare cards, I expect you could do the same thing with cardstock/printer paper. Once the tape head is clean if you’re getting the same issue I would check the capacitors, then the amp. All else failing, I’d say set up an audio probe and trace the signal backwards from the aux out to see if there’s a clean signal anywhere. Good luck getting it working, these things are super fun! And feel free to email me pics once you get into it, happy to take a peek and be a second pair of eyes!

@@po8aster thank you so much!

@ no problem! Happy to help out!

Hey there! Sorry for the delay - I wanted to open it up and check cause I remembered the power switch wiring was kinda confusing on these, and I want to say they aren't always wired exactly the same way. So if yours doesn't match the one in this video/my answer below, feel free to email me with some pictures and I'd be happy to take a look! Short answer: the Grey wire is Vcc (or the positive power supply for the board). Long answer: the three wires on the switch are Red (Batt+), Grey (Vcc/Board+), Blue (GND/Board -). The Grey wire is on the common point of the switch; so sliding the switch connects it either to the Red wire (On) or the Blue wire (Off). Instead of just disconnecting the Battery + side, it actually shorts the Board + to the Board - when turned off. Maybe a proper EE can chime in on why, but I speculate that doing that reduces noise/the "pop" you sometimes get when turning off amplified devices.

@@SlothBiscuit Glad to hear it! I’m definitely hoping these will make it more approachable since it can be an overwhelming thing to start getting into!

@@gettinsilly Thanks! Yeah this is a great starter project imo, I learned a ton getting it working!

I de-soldered the original oscillator and tried the "out" of my clock mod on both pins of the oscillator and I get only faint low volume whines. No matter the position of the trim pot.

It sounds like you may have what I call the "silver" version, which has a different long cylinder shaped oscillator. Check this video to see if it matches yours: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJiaXp96atKomJYsi=z3hRAmrKrZD0W76S&t=36 That version has a different oscillation range, so odds are you did everything right, there's just extra steps with that version. The video details it, but as an overview: you need to cut the DIV Pin trace, then connect the DIV pin to V+. You'll probably also get better results with something like a 100k pot, but that's a matter of preference. And if that video doesn't match, or something else is up, feel free to shoot me an email with pictures ([email protected]) it could always be something I've not seen before, so happy to help figure it out!

Just realized I forgot to answer your question on testing: if you connect Clock Out to the + pin of an LED, and GND to the -end, the LED should light (or technically flicker very very quickly). You'll need some resistance (3K-1M, doesn't really matter for testing) between the R1 and R2 pins, but it sounds like you've already got a pot in there so you should be set with that. If you're going to hook it up for more than a couple seconds you should put a current limiting resistor (something small, ~220 ohms) between either of those connections to protect the LED. But if it's just a quick test, just an LED is fine, I just have to mention current limiting resistors or the EEs will come for me.

@@po8aster Thanks so much for the tips! I haven't found the time to try them out yet. I will report back when I do get to it.

The day will surely come!

@@lapielazoolie nice! That sounds like a pretty sweet setup!

@@george4_4_39 Thanks! 😸

@@utube5478 oh that would be a cool mod! Unfortunately I don’t know how, but someone really good at math could maybe find a way to clock an ltc1799 based on an input, but that would end up bending the pitch vs just adjusting the internal tempo.

Thanks! I definitely learned a ton about finishing trying to get this one looking good!

@@jonirons honestly if I could get away with hand lettering I probably would 😸 I love the look my handwriting is just so bad

@@BlastPast Thanks so much, I’m glad to hear it’s been helpful! I’ve got a few ideas on what to do next, so hopefully it’ll keep up as I get this KZbin stuff figured out! 😸

@@jonirons Thanks, I’m glad they’re at least not horribly distracting 😸 I recently discovered that actually wearing my lavalier instead of hanging it on my camera rig makes the audio way better (who’d’ve thought?) so, for better or for worse, the bleebleerbloorps might go away (or at least chill out) in future videos.

@@jonirons Aw thanks! Yeah I was impressed too, I’d heard this was a cool unit to bend but honestly wasn’t expecting it to be so fun and glitchy.

I'm not sure who a good supplier is for Argentina. I can ship there, but I know shipping from the US is crazy expensive, so hopefully there's a better option.

@@jonirons Same actually. I always intend to strip things down, and occasionally do. But honestly I just end up chucking a lot of stuff in the shed that “I’ll figure out at some point” 😸

@@jaimee.9090 I’ve heard it’s a hoot and a half!

Thanks! It's definitely made me take my time a lot more, and learn to appreciate using a ton of flux!

Same! I think I've finally cracked it with adding that additional diode in, but need to do some extra testing to make sure it's stable and put together a new PCB. But fingers crossed the next version will stick!

@@jonirons I think you’re right about the role of that amp but i haven’t messed with them too much either. I do have a lil feedback circuit I want to experiment with, so I may steal your idea and try it out here!

@@po8aster Neat! I've always been tempted to modify one of these Meowsics, but usually the sound coming out of them isn't to my taste. Maybe feedback will add a certain flavor. Thanks for stepping through this mod!

@@jonirons Thanks! It’s good to be back in the saddle 😸

Yeah, I'm a big fan (if it wasn't obvious 😸)!

Not sure what you mean, but I definitely made this and the mod board 🤷

You could put it into a guitar pedal with an oscillator in it (Simon the Magpie has a few videos on this), but since guitars are pretty much completely passive, it wouldn’t do anything to the guitar signal directly as far as I know.

They may have updated since I made this video. Feel free to email some pictures and I'd be happy to take a look! For checking the board, just use a multimeter to read voltage across the two points (look for where the power switch and battery wires connect to the board), but happy to look at that as well!

thanks I'll double check with the multimeter. theoretically though it should just be on the board opposite side from where the battery wires go? is there a reason I couldn't just solder them directly to the battery wires or housing?

@@meatiershower7317 The main reason is just to find easy to solder points that are only on when the main power is on to prevent battery drain. But the module doesn’t pull much power so you definitely could go straight to the battery connectors if you’re using rechargeable batteries/aren’t worried about drain.

Sure! Short version: use a wire/bit of component leg/etc to connect the hole labeled DIV to the hole/pin. Also, make sure to cut the trace on the back with the Scissor icon (that usually connects DIV to GND). Long version: The DIV pin changes the speed range of the oscillator. When connected to GND (the way it comes) it oscillates at a much lower rate than when it is connected to V+. So it could be working, just not in the right range to change the pitch. Also, if you bridge the DIV to V+ without cutting the trace, it will just short to GND, so double check to make sure that’s cut! If you’re still having trouble, feel free to shoot me an email with pics etc, I’d be happy to take a closer look!

@@po8aster I had a chance to work on this again and I’m happy to share that it’s working perfectly! Thank you so much for the help!

Glad to hear it's up and running! @@chasetimmons

Hey there! For the RFI, I would check the capacitors around the main power supply as well as the signal path and power around the amplifier to see if anything looks suspicious. Feel free to email me some pics, I'd be happy to take a peek and see if anything jumps out! For the conductive paint, there's this stuff called KeyPad-Fix (or search "remote control button fix paint" for something similar) that works great for repairing that conductive stuff. Depending on how deep the scratches are, it might take a few coats, but I've had good luck with it!

Hi Mr Alex! Really thanks. I'll send you some pictures. I uploaded 3 videos of my casio working... I can hear the pops and cracks on the sound here.@@po8aster

Sure thing! Shoot me an email and let me know if there’s any specific spots/connections you need shots of. I haven’t published anything but have plenty of photos from the build I’d be happy to share!

Thanks! I just lifted the Input pin from the amplifier, then routed the signal through my effects circuit before going back to the amp input. I also routed the input jack straight to the effects circuit to let you mess with the input in real time. So it’s actually super straightforward! I recently updated this build and added a second amp to the signal chain; definitely recommend that since the SK sounds great overdriven and it can be quiet otherwise. And feel free to email me if you run into questions as you’re bending! I keep telling myself I’ll clean up my process pics to publish, but happy to share what rough material I have in the meantime!

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll get that fixed once I’m back home. In the meantime, feel free to email me; I’d be happy to get you set up while I’m figuring out what’s wrong with the website

I'm probably looking for one of those too. I have the red ones from the UK. I found that going from +"output to c13 near the volume buttons. Also probing around from c13 there's some wild distortion on the top pin of the 8 legged IC

I have always said that 😸

Yep! Not an exact copy of course, but I do take commissions! Feel free to shoot me an email if you’re interested and we can chat about what you might want!

@@po8aster amazing - thanks for such incredible work

Thank you! It’s a super fun little interface!

Thank you! 😸

You could always do both!

Thanks! This one is probably still the most intensive one I’ve done 😸

Thanks! The case was definitely the trickiest part, but it actually made the bending a lot easier since I had more elbow room for the bends and mod circuitry 😸