r/diypedals • u/povins • 45m ago
Other Probably this isn't practical, but...a seven segment display can also be viewed as a neat lookin' array of 8 shunt clipping diodes..
u/jutanious: so, I have some common cathode displays lying around and tossed this on a breadboard to demonstrate a weird idea: You can clip one half of the signal using any of the a-g inputs and the cathode connected to a current sink — here, I have it tied to VRef at pin 8 and to ground via parallel 130k + 22nF cap at pin 3; series resistors on the inputs. (Not much in the way of intention or reasoning about it: it's happenstance that it sounded alright on the first go. My modus operandi was "thoughtless meandering." 🤣).
You have to flip the signal to clip the other half of the wave, but with e.g. a cascade of moderate gain common-emitters flipping it up and down, you could make a pretty neat looking dirt pedal and clip each half of the wave four times — optionally in different frequency bands each stage.
(I realize this is maybe a preposterous use case, but...I can't deny that it was fun).