The advantage of this box is that everything was already An additional LED is provided which flashes with every
with every But a word of caution. Originally I thought it was going to
It came to pass while designing a pair of subwoofers that
what was needed was an audio amp and test oscillator for
the work bench. In the past I had always used a synth from
the studio for this and ran a cable to the main system for
monitoring. Since the studio upgrades, this is far less practi-
cal. So it was decided to quickly cobble together an audio
test set. And as usual, a five minute job turned into a two
month drama.
FEATURES
Oscillator
• Isolated sine/triangle outputs 600Ω impedance.
• Isolated Square output 600Ω impedance
• TTL/CMOS sync outputs (non-isolated 5V)
• Tri/sine out can be left or right leaning sawtooth.
• Amplitude Modulation input
• Frequency Modulation input
• Six selectable ranges from "real high™" to "Is this thing even
working?™"
• Pulse LED on square ouput so you can see if it is actually
working.
• Vernier frequency control for fine adjustment with a single
knob.
• Sine/Triangle is level adjusted so that the triangle is the same
amplitude as the sine. (A common problem with the XR2206)
• Master output level control. (though this only controls Tri/Sine)
Amplifier
• Switchable isolated inputs with reasonably high input
impedance.
• Stereo balance, volume and simple tone control.
• Analog mechanical average metering with 3 LED peak meter.
(Peak meter is summed from both channels)
• Meter can measure the input to the monitor amp or an external
input.
• Headphone outputs
Additional
• Provides all these features on a small remote box connected to
the main unit by a standard CAT5 cable.
• Remote box has a ± 12V regulator supply for quick
prototyping.
Amplifiers aren't hard to find. In this case it came in the
form of an old, stereo, radio cassette player. I have no idea
where it came from but it's been in the junk pile for years
and showing various signs of decay. At first the notion was
to build it into the box it was already in. This would have
had several advantages. A portable cassette player has
everything, including the speakers, self contained. However,
after building the basic oscillator board, it became apparent
that this was not going to be entirely ideal. So back to the
junk pile and I found a nice but dead stereo cassette deck.
there on the front panel just about. Meters, knobs, switches
etc. It was a fairly good looking unit though being a Sanyo it
was understandably deader than Elvis. I'll get to the logistics
of recycling later but for now I'll get straight to the circuit.
THE OSCILLATOR
The oscillator is based round an XR2206. For some reason I
found this extraordinarily difficult to get working. Probably
my state of mind. (definitely my state of mind.) These things
are normally a doddle though. I played round with all kinds
of current sink arrangements for the VCO (which is really a
current controlled oscillator) but in the end settled for a
more or less "Stick and rudder" approach.
The problem with the frequency control pot was that I
wanted to use a vernier dial. The kind used on EMS VCS3
synths, etc. What I hadn't realized was that they only do a
180° rotation. Instead of the 270° (or so) rotation of a nor-
mal pot. So my first thought was that I would need some
kind of level translation in order to afford trim pots at either
end to adjust the range. I had figured this would be better
than the somewhat mechanical solution which would be hit
and miss.
This was just plain trouble. I spent most of my time re-
designing this stuff until I finally gave up and went for the
dumb pot approach. This does not yield a full range of the
VCO but with the range switch, it's possible to get overlap.
Since this wasn't really designed as a sweep oscillator, I
could live with that. Although it does have a VC input if
some kind of external sweep modulation is required. Both
AM and FM are possible.
A switch sits across the symmetry adjustment pins on the
XR2206. This allows the addition of a sawtooth or ramp
output. The switch can select a left leading or right leading
sawtooth as required. It works best when used with Triangle
wave selected. It Does work with sinewave selected but
offers no additional advantage.
The XR2206 has a problem that the triangle waveform out-
put is something around twice the amplitude of the sine. So I
used a trimpot to squash the level when switched to Tri. You
need to adjust this till they are at the same level. The volume
control follows this and is then buffered by an op-amp. This
restores some of the level and helps drive the 600Ω isolating
transformer.
Both Sine/tri and square outputs are isolated by the trans-
former. This does two things. Allows the oscillator to be
electrically isolated from the test subject and provides a low
impedance output of 600Ω. It means that the system can't
introduce humloops. (Though I did this internally by acci-
dent in the prototype.) It helps reduce the possibility of any
strange effects on the circuit under test that might arise due
to unforeseen circumstances. One less thing to worry about
when you've got you're head in something.
These transformers are designed for high quality audio but
the frequency response tapers off after 20kHz. So even
though the oscillator is capable of 100kHz or so, it's unlikely
to pass through the transformer with any usable amplitude.
There is also a TTL/CMOS ouput in case you need to trigger
a pulse into some logic. The oscillator can go down to about
0.05 Hz or so. So if required, this could be use for throwing
at some logic design at a pinch.
square pulse. Normally it just looks like it's hard on but if
the oscillator is slow enough you can see it pulsing. This is
handy if you've got it down to a very slow rate and it's no
longer audible. The TTL/CMOS output should have been
75Ω but due to a stuff up with the PSUs in the wiring I had
to quickly add a 200Ω resistor otherwise there was a risk of
shorting out the PSU if connected back into the amplifier.
For whatever reason you'd want to do that.
THE AMPLIFIER
The Amplifier is obviously pre-built but required some
modifications. This can be seen in sheet 2. No circuit is
given however since I don't actually have one. Just a block
diagram and the additional components/switching/wiring
required.
The input to the amp has yet more 600Ω isolating trans-
formers. Once again the objective here is to be able to listen
in on a circuit but interact with it as little as possible. How-
ever 600Ω is way too low for input impedance so the extra
resistors are there to prevent input loading.
There is a switch to switch out the isolation transformers so
that ground referencing is possible. It's probably not all that
useful but the switch was already there so it's been included.
Not much else can be said of the AMP. It's entirely up to
whatever the constructor has on hand and the configuration
she may wish to use.
THE METER
The meter circuit is adapted from an original idea by Rod
Elliott of ESP (Elliott Sound Products) from his web site. I
was looking for a reference for driving mechanical meters
and while I could have done something much simpler, I
kinda liked the look of this and decided to try it out.
The Meter did not have anywhere near enough gain to drive
the meters in the cassette deck but the response was good.
So I changed a number of things around and took a feed off
to drive a mono peak meter.
The peak meter is a pretty much standard comparator ladder.
There were 3 LEDs on the front of the cassette deck which I
initially thought I'd use for status. But since these were not
needed, I built up this peak meter quickly. If you wished,
you could use the redundant op-amp from the quad package
to provide a fourth LED. Just add another 1k resistor.
I used LM348s for this part of the project. They're pretty
crappy but I had lots of them hanging round with nothing to
do. Normally you'd probably use something like an LM324
but why waste them when you could use up some of your
crappy ones. The LM348 is really just four 741 type op-
amps in a quad package. So you can tell they're not exactly
going to be great for anything if "Quality" is in the name.
But for something like this they are suitably adequate. Just
don't expect them to ever drive rail to rail like a 324 can.
POWER SUPPLY
The circuit shows a transformer with two secondaries. There
are in fact three secondaries and two transformers in the
whole thing. One transformer was the original from the
amplifier cassette player. The other is the original Cassette
DECK transformer with two secondaries. Your PSU require-
ments will vary entirely with what you've got on hand.
be pretty cool to have three PSUs however somewhere in
the mess I've created a small hum-loop it would seem.
Despite the fact that I've tried to keep it all in something of a
star earth topology. That is. All grounds are tied at a single
point. This became not possible due to the configuration of
the original cassette DECK's PSU So now I have to go back
and try and hunt down where this problem exists. Still it's
not a major problem. It just pisses me off but most people
probably wouldn't hear it.
If you're available PSU is significantly different to that
shown, don't worry, you can run the whole thing from one
secondary and one rectifier/regulator circuit. The 7805/7905
regulators will stand about 35V DC each if memory serves.
So you have quite a bit of room to move. I've taken the
"Don't give a rat's rectum" approach but you might want to
adapt the circuit to whatever you have to work with.
CONSTRUCTION
There are few, if any, part numbers on the circuit. There is
no printed circuit layout. I prototyped it in my usual manner
and all I need is a circuit. I suspect others won't even be
interested in this but if they are, will be only interested in
building a one-off anyway. But if a PCB is required I might
consider designing one. It's not economically viable for me
to make this into a full project so don't ask unless you can
make it worth my while.
Since it's doubtful you'd have the same junk in your collec-
tion that I do, it's equally doubtful you'd build this with the
same configuration anyway. So one should consider this as a
guide to applying what junk you might have laying around.
And speaking of which…
RECYCLING
As mentioned, this project is build mainly out of recycled
junk that was intercepted on the way to land fill. You could
use almost any old junk as your amplifier as long as you can
figure out how to put a signal into it. One source might be
old, amplified computer speakers for example. I used an old
radio cassette player. It seemed like a good idea at the time
and it worked out easy to find the business end.
The oscillator however had to be built from scratch since
there wasn't anything in the junk box already set up to do
this. But I did have half a dozen 2206s in stock so I used one
of them. I could have used an ICL8038 but these are trouble
for experienced people let alone novices. I just didn't feel
like the hassle.
Using an old cassette deck as the housing saved about a
g'zillion hours of mechanical engineering. The hardest part
was deciding what to do with all the bits on the front panel.
In the end I'm left with one op-amp, one momentary press
button and one LED redundant. I simply can't think of an
additional use for them and of course, they're spread all over
the device. They couldn't all be near each other physically
now could they?
The result is that I now have a half decent looking box that
sits above my bench and makes it easier to test audio crap.
Be absolutely Icebox.
 U?
VCC
U? VCC 78M12 REMOTE UNIT
C? 78L05 1 3
C? Port Port Vin Vout +12 volts
1 3

GND
Vin Vout +5 volts
D? TRANS-DUAL-SEC

GND
J? 1N4002 R? C? Q? C?
1000uF + C? 1K BD139
DIODE 100nF 100R C?

2
T1 12Vac
Frequency Mod R? 1N4002 C? R? 10uF- 25v 100nF

2
2K2
VCC
240Vac RED-flatnosed LED ZD1 V zener +

2
D? +
R8 1000uF + C? C? 10 V C?
100nF 1000uF 10uF- 25v
2K2

GND
21Vac
C?
U5 1 3
J? Amplitude Mod Vin Vout -5 volts Port Port GND
2 7
6 1N4002 U?
LM307 79L05 ZD2 C?
3 AM input Vee
4 10 V 10uF- 25v 10uF- 25v
D? R? R? + C? V zener - C?
DIODE C?

2
30K 100R 1000uF 100nF
VCC C? Q?

GND
R? BD140
Vee
1K 1 3
R1 1N4002 VCC Vin Vout -12 volts
Vee
10K U?
XR2206 Q? 79M12
U3 Port Port
VCC 4 XR2206 NPN
1 AMSI VR2 R?
SYMA2 16 22K~25K Tri-Symmetry 4K7
5 Multiplier SAW-left R?
and SYMA1 15 S2 2K2
6 sine R?
C1 logic-hot
shaper Vee
BC549 75R
Vee SAW-Right
WAVEA2 14 Q1
D? R? NPN
CAPACITOR 9 FSKI Current VR1 R?
C2 270R
Switches WAVEA1 13 Sine Tri/sine 500R RES1
S1a logic-gnd
1N4148 Othr Channel
S3 7 TR1 STO Triangle VCC
CAPACITOR 2
C3 Frequency Range U4a
RV3 8 TR2
R? 8 1/2NE1458
100K SYNCO 11 5
CAPACITOR 10K 7 R? T? 600R Audio
C4 Pulse-active
BIAS GND MO 6 1K
10 12 3 R? 4
4K7
CAPACITOR Pulse-neutral
C5 1uF
C7 Vee
Frequency ADJ Sine
CAPACITOR Vee R? Tri/sine
C6
100K U4b 75R
VEE S1b R? 3
LEVEL Tri level adjust Triangle 1/2NE1458 600R Audio
CAPACITOR T3
Sine/Tri-hot
50K 2 1
VCC gnd
R2
Sine/Tri-hot
100K R6
R?

1M 10K
R7
DC Offset Trim
10K

Vee

(C)copyright 2004 All electric Kitchen & Batz Goodfortune

All rights perversed. Do what you like but just don't blame me.
I take no responsibility for anything, anytime anywhere, ever.
If you have any kind of problem with this. It's you're own problem not mine.

AUDIO TEST SET oscillator / Amp

Sheet 1 of 2 REV-01-Take-05
 VCC

AUDIO AMP
POWER AMP LS?
SPEAKER R?
R?
S? R? Tone/ VU Meter /Analysis Meter 47K
T?
Test Probe Left Active
10K SW1-C 10K
VOL
U1A D?
SW1-A D? 4 1/4-LM348 LED
S? 1N4148 R? 2
POWER AMP LS? From other channel R?
TRANS1 33K 1
Test Probe Left neutral SPEAKER
SW1-D 3
10K
S? R? Tone/ 180R
T?
Test Probe Right Active
R?
10K
VOL R?
1K 1/4-LM348
SW1-B
S? D? 1N4148 U1D D?
TRANS1 R? 13
Test Probe Right neutral only one channel shown R?
33K 14
Meter VU/Funk Gen Vzener +
S4c-d 12 180R
LED

R?
NPN-BC549 1K
To Meter switch Left Meter VU/Funk GenS4b
C? Q? U1C D?
Port 9 1/4-LM348
8 R?
C?
10uF 10uF 10 180R
R? LED
11
100R
C?
R?
47nF 1K
R? R?
1M 10uF
820R
D? Capacitor used if
OA91 peak meter reading
R? Optional
speed is deemed
330K 27K to be too fast
R?
M1 C? R?
VU 10uF 220R
AR?
2 (13)
Vee
1 (4) 1 (14)
R? 3 (12)
D?
10K OA91 D? R?
1/4 LM348 U1B
SW4a 1N4148 4K7
6
R? 7
Meter VU/Funk Gen Port Port 5
100K 1/4-LM348
100K
P?
V zener -
RCA C? Port Port
R? 1uF
EXT / Comp R?
10K AR?
6 (9)
Audio input level 2 (3) 7 (8)
5 (10)
R? R? Adapted from a design by Rod Elliott
From Audio Amp
1/4 LM348 Elliott Sound Products
Input Switching PO Box 233 Thornleigh NSW 2120
5K
Australia
100K
R?

22K

(C)copyright 2004 All electric Kitchen & Batz Goodfortune

All rights perversed. Do what you like but just don't blame me.
I take no responsibility for anything, anytime anywhere, ever.
If you have any kind of problem with this. It's you're own problem not mine.

AUDIO TEST SET oscillator / Amp

Sheet 2 of 2 REV-01-Take-05