History

Here’s the story. I have piles and stacks of old computers and electronic hardware.

The question is, what to do with it all?

I know, make music!

After a while, I realized effects were needed to make the sounds both sparkle and grime. But I didn’t want to use just anything, so I thought “How can I process my sound while staying true to making music with old computers? I know, I’ll make effects *out* of old computers!”

I looked through the guts of an old computer, and I studied the modem, and decided that it would be sacrificed to the Gods of Rock! Using only parts for a single, old modem, I created what would eventually become The Dragonfly.

After designing and experimenting, I came upon a design and sound that I thought was a lot of fun.

This is the first version,

made early August 2008.

For a while, I tired many different variations, using other parts from the same, single old modem.

Eventually it ended up in a small wooden box.

After showing it to friends and family, they were really starting to get excited. But I couldn’t really make more and put them in all in wooden boxes.

Maybe there’s something else inside the computer we can recycle.

How about a hard drive?

Here’s a second prototype, built to fit inside a hard drive case. Added now are some standard guitar effects controls. The clear acrylic still has it’s protective plastic on (left), and the finished version (right).

Here’s a third prototype. Now there’s a proper foot-switch, and an experimental paint job.

But this was scrapped because generic pre-made circuit boards just weren’t reliable enough. I also wanted to create a design that would be highly resistant to RF and other types of inference.

HISTORY

Here’s the first PCB circuit boards I ever etched, and using only about 5 ml of etching solution!

I originally started setting up the circuit in Eagle, however, it was just taking too long, so that night while I was trying to fall asleep I designed the layout in my head.

The next morning I fired up Photoshop instead and just drew it out by hand. To my surprise I didn’t make any mistakes. Even the double-sided alignment was bang-on. This is fun!

Now there’s the issue of labels. I wanted to do something different, but still be able to design in full-color in Adobe Illustrator.

After testing out an idea, I was able to transfer directly to the acrylic. No need for silk-screening. Alright!

What would this world be without logos? Cyberdyne, Initech, Protovision, Encom, Reynholm Industries, Microsoft... everybody’s got to have a logo, right?

Here’s a first sketch of the Flytrap Gear logo.

I also need more of these little chips from the modems. But most of them are very tiny surface mount parts. Here’s where I used a Dremel tool to build some adapter my hand, using the scrap area of a few old circuit boards.

Now that the new circuit is mounted, it needs to be wired up. All those black wires keep the signal nice and clean, and shields it from interference and noise. The white wires are all the ground wires, and come to a single point on the circuit board. This helps ensure we don’t get any ground loops while using our pedal. Even the black signal wires are grounded in this way.

For the final touch, the “Sizzle” switch gets a skull make-over.

Ya gotta have skulls!

It’s like the law or something...