Circuit Schematic learn

Depending on its design an electric guitar may have anything from one to six pickup elements. Classic (acoustic) guitars could also benefit from one or more retro-fitted pickups. Each pickup has a specific sound depending on the type of sensor and the location on the instrument. When a guitar has more than one pickup these can be connected together with or without additional components. However it is preferable for each pickup signal to be buffered individually. These buffered and possibly amplified signals should be level-adjusted in order to produce the desirable effect (or ‘sound’). After that they are mixed and sent to the next stage of the audio processing equipment.

Circuit diagram:

Most guitarists agree that pickup elements cannot drive cables longer than about 6 feet without risking significant signal degradation. Guitar pickups typically require a load resistance above 50 kΩ and sometimes higher than 200 kΩ, hence a preamplifier/buffer is often inserted, whose main function is not high gain but to enable cables between 10 and 30 feet to be connected representing a capacitance between 90 and 180 pF/m. In the circuit shown here, each pickup has its own input buffer with a transistor configured as an emitter follower. Each stage has a gain slightly lower than unity. This is not an issue because most pickups provide significant signal levels, typically well over 200 mVpp.

The input resistance of the first stage exceeds 200 kΩ, which is appropriate for most inductive pickups on the market. If higher input resistance is needed the 1-MΩ resistors marked with asterisks could be omitted, and the 720-kΩ ones may be increased to 1.2 – 1.5 MΩ. This will raise the stage’s input resistance to around 500 kΩ. To ensure the highest possible undistorted signal can be developed at the output of the first stages, the collector-emitter voltage (VCE) of T1–T4 should be about half the supply voltage. It is important for the first transistor in the buffer to have low noise and high DC gain.

The types BC549C and BC550C and the venerable BC109C are perfectly suitable in this respect while the BC546C, BC547C and BC548C may also be considered. The buffered signal from each pickup is adjusted with a potentiometer and sent to the summing circuit of the mixer. The next active element is an audio operational amplifier type NE5534 or NE5534A (IC1), which provides the required amount of signal buffering. The 5534(A) has low noise, low distortion and high gain. It can drive a 600 Ω line when necessary, but the preferred load is above 2 kΩ. Its amplification is adjustable between 3 and 10 with feedback potentiometer P5. At higher values of the gain some limiting and distortion of the output signal is ‘achieved’, which may well be a desirable side effect.

The maximum undistorted amplitude of the output signal depends on the supply voltage. If higher gain is needed the value of P5 may be increased to 470 kΩ. Output K7 has a volume control potentiometer (P6), which could be omitted if not used or required. Both outputs K6 and K7 are capable of driving 600 Ω loads including high-impedance headphones. The circuit is simple to test and adjust, as follows:

1. check that VCE on T1–T4 is approximately half the supply voltage;
2. with no input signal, adjust trimpot P7 for about half the supply voltage at the output of IC1. If precise regulation of the opamp’s output offset is not required P7 may be omitted and R17 connected to the junction of R18 and R19.

The supply voltage is between 12 V and 24 V. It is possible to run the unit off a 9 V power supply but the lower supply voltage will limit the output amplitude and gain. The current consumption from a 9 V battery is typically 10 mA. Two 9 V batteries connected in series is the preferred solution. The undistorted output amplitude is up to 6 Vpp at a 12 V supply with 2 kΩ loads at the outputs. The unit’s frequency band exceeds 20 Hz – 20 kHz. Distortion and noise were found to be negligible in view of the application.

A long time ago when telephones were so simple almost nothing could go amiss from an electrical point of view, Telecom operators installed surge protection on all telephone lines exposed to storm risks. Paradoxically, now that we are hooking up delicate and expensive equipment such as telephones filled with electronics, fax machines, (A)DSL modems, etc., this protection has disappeared.

However, if you have the good fortune to live in the countryside in a building served by overhead telephone lines, there’s an obvious risk of very high voltages being induced on the lines during thunderstorms. While we have lost count today of all of the modems, fax machines and other telephones that have been destroyed by a ‘bolt of lightning’, surprisingly you only have to invest a few pounds to get a remarkably efficient protection device like the one we are proposing here.

During a storm, often with lightning striking near a telephone line, the line carries transient voltages up to several thousands of volts. Contrary to the HV section of television sets or electrical fences, on which practically no current is running, in the case of lighting striking current surges of thousand of amps are not uncommon. To protect oneself from such destructive pulses, traditional components are not powerful or fast enough.

As you can see on our drawing, a (gas-filled) spark gap should be used. Such a component contains three electrodes, insulated from each other, in an airtight cylinder filled with rare gas. As long as the voltage present between the electrodes is below a certain threshold, the spark gap remains perfectly passive and presents an impedance of several hundreds of MW. On the other hand, when the voltage rises above this threshold, the gas is very rapidly ionized and the spark-gap suddenly becomes a full conductor to the point of being able to absorb colossal currents without being destroyed.

Circuit diagram:

 Protection Circuit Diagram For Telephone Line

The one we are using here, whose size is of the same magnitude as an ordinary one watt resistor, can absorb a standardized 5,000 amps pulse lasting 8/20 ms! Since we are utilizing a three-electrode spark gap, the voltage between the two wires of the line or between any wire and ground, cannot exceed the sparking voltage, which is about 250 volts here. Such protection could theoretically suffice but we preferred to add a second security device made with a VDR (GeMOV or SiOV depending on the manufacturer), which also limits the voltage between line wires to a maximum of 250 volts.

Even if this value seems high to you, we should remember that all of the authorized telephone equipment, carrying the CE mark must be able to withstand it without damage. This is not always the case however with some low-end devices made in China, but that’s an entirely different problem. Since pulses generated by lightning are very brief, the ground connection of our assembly must be as low-inductance as possible.

It must therefore be short, and composed of heavy-duty wire (1.5 mm2 c.s.a. is the minimum). If not, the coil, composed of the ground connection, blocks the high frequency signal that constitutes the pulse and reduces the assembly’s effectiveness to nothing. Finally, please note that this device obviously has no effect on the low frequency signals of telephones and fax machines and it does not disturb (A)DSL signals either.

Author: Christian Tavernier - Copyright: Elektor Electronics Magazine

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