Members Buttcheex8 Posted May 13, 2006 Members Share Posted May 13, 2006 i was wondering if there was anyone out there who could help explain to me the elements of a circuit diagram (in particular for the ross compressor). I've built one using a kit but I have no idea how the circuit works. i am a mechanical engineer major so i've taken classes in EE, but i don't know enough about circuits and complicated as these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zachary vex Posted May 13, 2006 Members Share Posted May 13, 2006 visit the forum at diystompboxes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Marshall Posted May 13, 2006 Members Share Posted May 13, 2006 Originally posted by Buttcheex8 i was wondering if there was anyone out there who could help explain to me the elements of a circuit diagram (in particular for the ross compressor). I've built one using a kit but I have no idea how the circuit works. i am a mechanical engineer major so i've taken classes in EE, but i don't know enough about circuits and complicated as these. funny thing is, i knew a lot of electrical engineers at my old job... Most of them wouldnt have a clue. of course they had all been working in power distribution for 20 years, and could tell you the efficiency of a power system in a sky scraper by looking at the blueprints for 3 seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CliffC8488 Posted May 13, 2006 Members Share Posted May 13, 2006 Way too involved to get into in a forum. Compressor's are interesting beasts and prolly a little more complicated than your average pedal. I'd start with Zach's advice. CC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spentron Posted May 13, 2006 Members Share Posted May 13, 2006 Oh jeez. It's not hard if you skip the fine detail. Starting with the schematic at http://fuzzcentral.tripod.com/compressor.html ... the IC in the middle is a transconductance amp, and everything to the left of it gets it going. IC pin 5 is near ground and the current into it controls gain. The emitter of Q5 starts near 9V, and our sustain control simply controls the maximum gain. Q3 and Q4 are the same, but Q2 drives Q3 in reverse phase so either the + or - side of the signal is detected. Anytime the IC output rises high enough to turn on Q3 or Q4 it pulls down the voltage on the 10 uF cap between them and therefore Q5 drops and the gain of the IC is cut, causing compression up to the point Q3 and Q4 are only driven enough to maintain a stable state. If input decreases, the gain increases back to the start state, but slowly so the thing doesn't try to respond to every cycle of the waveform like a distortion device does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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