Dreadbox Dysphonia User manual

1. Construction
1.1 What's in the box 2
1.2 Bag parts 3
1.3 Tools you will use 3
1.4 Preparation of the bottom board 4
1.5 Preparation of the power board 5
1.6 Preparation of the top board 6
1.7 Connection of the top and bottom boards 10
1.8 Finalization of the module 16
2. Check, tune and calibrate
2.1 Check the assembled module 18
2.2 Tuning and calibrating the module 21
3. Operation manual
3.1 Oscillator 22
3.2 VCA 22
3.3 Multiple (MULTI) 22
3.4 Mixer 22
3.5 MIDI to CV/GATE 22
3.6 Modulator (MOD) 23
3.7 Envelope (ENV) 24
3.8 LFO 24
3.9 4-pole Low Pass Filter (LPF) 24
3.10 Multimode lter (12DB) 24
3.11 Echo 24
4. Specications 25
CONSTRUCTION
& OPERATION
Manual

1. Construction
1.1 What's in the box?
In the box you should nd the following items:
- The Bottom board, which is pre-assembled and tested in-house
(though you will still need to solder the ribbon header and tune it)
- The Top board
- The aluminum panel
- The power board
- The components bag
- A DIN5 (MIDI) to 3,5mm cable adapter (specs as suggested from MIDI.org)
- A ribbon cable for modular use (not shown in the picture)
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED
Before you start the construction of this DIY project, make sure you have basic soldering skills and that
you can identify the electronic components. If it is your rst time soldering, there are several tutorials
on youtube that can help you :)
It would be easier and helpful for you to work on a big desk, so as to have plenty of space to work on.
Also a room with an open window would be perfect while you soldering.
Before you start the soldering process, make sure you have all the components needed and noted in
the BILL OF MATERIALS SECTION. Please note that we might have added more components than
needed or less (hopefully not). It would be very helpful if you count all the components before starting
the project (but without removing these from their bags).
2

1.2 Components
1.3 Tools you will use
3
In the bag we've included all of the hardware parts
- 46 x 3,5mm stereo jack
- 13 x 100KB plastic rotary pot
- 8 x 10KB slider pot
- 2 x pushbutton with red LED
- 3 x female 20 pin connector headers
- 1 x female 10 pin connector header
- 1 x male 10pin ribbon connector header
- 1 x USB jack
- 8 x M3 Bolts with HEX head
- 6 x M3 bolts with Philips head
- 6 x M3 plastic spacer 16mm length
- 12 x M3 plastic spacer 11mm length
- 2 x M3 metal spacer 10mm length
- 2 x M3 washer 1mm heigh
The following tools are required for
this assembly, but they are not
included in the KIT
-Digital multimeter
-Soldering wire(0.7mm and 1.5mm)
-Soldering Iron
-Cutter
-Pliers

For this step you will need:
- The bottom board
- A Soldering iron
- 0.7mm solder wire
- A Cutter
- The 10pin ribbon male header
Solder the ribbon header to the
bottom side of the board as
shown in the pictures
4
1.4 Preparation of the bottom board

Then, cut the excess wires from the pre-assembled trimmers and remove the extra PCB from
the top and bottom side of the board.
1.5 Preparation of the power board
5
For this step you will need:
- The 0.7 solder wire + a soldering iron
- The USB jack
- The 10pin female header
Solder the USB jack and the header, as shown in the pictures.
You can also use this board as a generic modular power supply. Max supplied current is
200mA@+12V and 80mA@-12V. In order to do this, you need to solder a 16pin male
ribbon header (not included in the kit), instead of the 10pin female.
Pin "1" is marked with a small circle at the bottom right.

1.6 Preparation of the top board
Start by removing the excess PCB from the board
Locate and place the 3.5mm jacks on the board
Then solder these by using the 1.5mm wire
6

7
Next, locate the two push buttons.
WARNING! They have a polarity that needs to be
respected! If not placed correctly they will be
damaged and removing them is a challenging task!
Check their bottom side. The "+" sign should match
the square pad on the PCB.
Another tip on how to place them correctly is :
The guide on the top should match the small hole
on the PCB, and the long middle lead should match
the cycle pad.
Once you are sure regarding their orientation, push them rmly down to their position.
WARNING!: If the button is not pushed correctly, it will touch the aluminum panel and this will
not allow it to rest to it's OFF position - or it will not be able to be aligned correctly to the whole
of the panel.

8
The next step is to solder the slider
potentiometers.
Locate all 8 sliders and
place them on the pcb.
The proper way to solder the sliders
straight, is to solder the top pin from
the top side of the pcb. Then turn the
pcb upside down and reow the rest
pins. Make sure they are placed
correctly.
Make sure you have not set the
soldering iron above 350 degrees.
Also do not heat each slider pin for
more than 5 sec each time.
Do not try to adjust the slider's lever
while it is hot.

9
Finally, place the rotary
potentiometers on the pcb.
WARNING!: Make sure they are
perfectly straight! Otherwise they
will not be aligned correctly to their
corresponding hole on the panel!
Make sure you have not set the
soldering iron above 350 degrees.
Also do not heat each pot pin for
more than 5 sec each time.
Do not try to adjust the pot's lever
while it is hot.

10
1.7 Connection of the top and bottom boards
In this step we will connect the two boards and solder their connecting PIN headers.