Component based search for schematics

[Bellyheart]

I had this idea awhile back when I was looking for a recipe and found a site that let you search based on the ingredients you have and dishes you could make popped up, as well as things you were close to having everything the dish needed. Has anyone done this with circuits or is there anything close to this?

[morange]

That is a really great idea.

[Bellyheart]

I wish I remembered programming. I'm sure I could relearn the stuff if I still have my workbook from high school at my parent's place. Visual Basic seemed to be able to do a lot.

[eatyourguitar]

why would you want that. like isn't it better to just look at what you have and breadboard something based on what you know? we're after distortion and non-linearity. anything goes. most of these circuits do not need specific transistors, resistors or cap values to pass audio badly. you might need an AC128 with exactly x amount of gain to make the perfect vintage fuzz face sound you have on your old vinyls but thats not what this is about. not for me anyway.

I will make a website that asks you how many transistors you have. the code is

Code: Select all

if (T > 0) {print "yes, you can make a fuzz or a distortion or an overdrive"}

[Bellyheart]

Good job. You win.

Everyone experiments. Why you gotta talk down?

[eatyourguitar]

I dont think I was talking down. just being honest. your free to make whatever software you want. free country.

[morange]

It would be a good project for a forum like freestompboxes.org or diystompboxes.com, because it would take a lot of work indexing the components of as many pedals as possible. Someone could work up a program, then people could submit component sets. Its true that the particular transistors or op amps used in fuzz and distortion effects are often interchangeable with others, but there are many cool circuits designed around particular special purpose ic chips; PT2399 delays, for instance. Or say I want to see some examples of how a MAX1044 is implemented? It would be a valuable reference resource.

[McSpunckle]

I think that's a fuckin' brilliant idea.

Eatyourguitar has a good point that if it's too specific it might not return that great of results, but it could just have optional fields and you say "NPN silicon transistor", or the option to be specific or put in some specs or something. And maybe have an "acceptable range" for caps and resistors.

But bread boarding "based on what you know" isn't much when you're first starting out, and sometimes you just wanna build something.

[Ben79]

I also think it's a great idea.

The other day I took apart an old 70s Park mixer. By complete chance I discovered the old (and very rare) silicon transistors, resistors and capacitors were the same as those used in the JHS Shatterbox fuzz ( Zonk Machine II). That was luck, but a tool like yours would have let me throw in these components and find out that I had most of what I needed to at least know that I could build a Shatterbox (which I won't as apparently they are awful).

You might even be able to make some money by adding a button that automatically adds all the extra parts you need to a shopping cart at Mammoth, Small Bear etc.

[Rygot]

I think it'd be cool. You probably should keep it pretty general and just have generic NPN/PNP, small signal, etc.

But if you did wanna have specific part numbers, maybe a link to the schematic that called for that exact part.

So say you have some old 2n2923s, sure you could put them in anything where they fit... but wonder if there is something that calls for these exactly. Voila.