In the previous post we established what a Dub Siren was. Now it is time to make one and start the journey to become a Legendary Dub All-Star.
First you need the parts:
8 Sound Keychain – available here in packages of 12 for $9.50 plus shipping! There is plenty of other sound generating circuits out there which are cheap and in the next few days I will do a keychain roundup. There is also a COB (Chip-on-board ) version of this sound generator without the button traces that would be a lot easier to work with. This particular keychain just sounds so good, its got your sirens and machineguns, which everyone instantly recognizes as being Atari like or 8-bit, plus it loops!
Rotary Switch - this will be the sound selector. 8 position is ideal, however 12 position ones seem to be most common and are the cheapest from Jameco. This is what all the sound buttons will be wired to and the center pin will be going to a push button that will trigger the sound by completing the circuit with the Ground.
1 Mega Ohm Linear Potentiometer – to control the pitch of the sound being played back. Obviously the sound circuit has to have a pitch resistor, most cheap keychains do. Lets try to stick with just Jameco for the source.
2 Momentary Push Button Switches – One button will connect the ground to the rotary switch and the other one will be used as a Mute by sending positive output from the instrument jack to the ground. Jameco once again.
AA or AAA Battery holder – Mine was from the SAW III sampler toy, you can improvise as long as you don’t go above 3 Volts. Jameco has a good deal on these.
Plastic Enclosure – Plenty to choose from, but I would recommend reusing something and helping to keep the trash out of the landfill. A Cigar box would do nicely.
Output Jack – 1/4 inch seems to be the industry standard.
Rasta Graphics for the front panel – free on the Internet.
2 Knobs – lots to choose from and scavenge if you can, otherwise get some chicken heads from Jameco.
Rubber feet – so the Rasta Box doesn’t slide off that table when the Bass is bumping.
Solid Core wire – stranded core will be a pain to work with, it splinters too easy.
The total for parts should be under $20 and possibly even cheaper if you are resourceful and can strip components from discarded electronics, etc.
The construction process:
Get everything together in one place on a work surface in a well lit and properly ventilated environment.
1. Connect the battery compartment to the 8 sound keychain board. ( Probably best to keep the batteries out for now, so there are no shorts ) No need for power switch because this particular keychain powers down automatically and instantly comes ON when the any button is pressed.
2. Solder the output jack to where the speaker was connected on the sound board. One wire to the Transistor Buffer and the other to the positive terminal? I dunno seems like that’s how they had it. Normally you would connect the Ground to the outside ring of the instrument jack and the Positive output to the tip.
3. Remove the pitch resistor and replace it with a 1M potentiometer. Center and one of the outer taps should go to where the resistor legs used to be. Very important, connect the remaining outside tap to Ground, this will give you the low pitch drop!
4. This step is perhaps the most tricky and easy to mess up, solder 8 wires to the button connection traces. These are very thin traces that interlock and if you build a solder bridge the sound will be stuck in the ON position. It will be hard and the only thing I can recommend is that you lightly sand or scrape the green protective layer and possibly cut the traces that go to Ground from those buttons. Solder with caution and be careful not to pull hard on the wire because the entire trace may come off. At this point you can probably plug in the batteries and test the soldering job making sure that if you connect the Ground to any of the button wires the sound gets produced. If the soldering checks out, drench that thing in hot glue so nothing moves or falls off!
5. Take a break then drill some holes for the controls in your plastic box. Make sure the knobs are spaced such that there plenty of room for them to rotate. After that you should overlay the graphic and then cut the holes on paper for the controls to slide through. To hold the paper in place I just use packing tape, but there are other plastic sheets and laminate options if you want to get fancy with it.
6. Mount the push buttons, the potentiometer, and the rotary switch in the case if it is big enough to work inside. Otherwise solder wires to the components first and then mount them. Please note that there will be more solder lugs on the rotary than button contacts. I typically just use every other one the first round. The trigger button needs to have a wire going from the center tap of the rotary switch to one of its legs. The other leg needs to be connected to Ground. The Mute button will need to be connected to the tip of the output jack with the second leg going to Ground as well. The potentiometer should just have to be wired to the ground. If you are clever you can make all the Ground connections meet at the same place saving on wire. Mount the output jack and test everything. Makes sound? No…try setting the potentiometer to center and maybe resetting the batteries. Still no? Go back and recheck your connections.
7. If everything works, use copious amounts of hot glue to hold stuff in place. Close the enclosure and start jamming out. The gate switch should chop up the sound when pressed, doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Next plug this into a delay pedal, turn up some Dub Reggae on YouTube, and start Toasting! The only thing to watch out for is overusing these sounds because they eventually lose the magic. However the first 30 minutes will be a pure blast! Enjoy.
P.S. Here is the rough schematic of the circuit with the keychain board in the center, note the red Xs, those are to indicate that if you are soldering to the pads make sure they are not connected to any other pads via Ground. I can post a picture of exactly what I’m talking about soon.
* Updated *
I will be making another schematic and a new version of the siren using the Chip-on-board sound circuit. Also if these keychains are not available in your area, for whatever reason, feel free to order them from GetLoFi here.
everything about this post is great, thank you for sharing this information. it’s great and i am looking forward to more DIY how-to’s from your blog. but honestly, as cool as this device is, it does not sound like a dub siren. it’s a great effect, but it just doesn’t sound like any dub sirens i’ve heard. it’s lo-fi and crunchy. dub sirens are usually cleaner sine tones.
You can certainly use a device that sounds more like a siren. Police Car or an Ambulance toy would do great. There plenty of kits as well:
http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/MK113
This is just to get you moving in the right direction.
I’m definitely going to invest some time into making this. Just letting you know you wrote “eventually loose the magic” which is the wrong spelling. Should be “lose”
Fixed, thanks. It was a lot of words to edit.
I would use stranded wire, it has less of a tendency to break off at inopportune moments. Nice instructable, this will work with a number of different sound making boards, cheap halloween gizmos, etc.
Thats crazy cool. Its weird too because I had just recently finished with a circuit bend of a laser toy that is a “dub siren”, I didn’t know it was called that. Now I know. I added a 555 timer so it would continuously loop and put it in an altoid box. Here is a video http://youtube.com/watch?v=UrBiCmOpN2g.
uh, sorry, try http://youtube.com/watch?v=UrBiCmOpN2g
Just let me guess….the anon response was from the same guy who commented on the yadda yadda’s. You know, the guy who actually addresses you tube as a real person?! The guy who sells crappy samplers, laser guns, and his “dub siren” on Ebay. Oh…you can buy his awesome studio samples too. Sorry to finally chime in here CM, but I’m tired of the instant know it alls who completely miss the point. This is a cheap, quick, and easy way to make something like a dub siren. Use the free info or don’t. Appreciate it or scour other sites to inspire your unimaginative mind.
Thanks for keeping the positive vibes Tommy!
The tin case is pretty rad. Nice work. You can also patch the 555 to the pitch resistor to get the tremolo effect and the non Ground leg of the capacitor will give you a Ramp wave to play with!
guess again, Tommy. you couldn’t be more wrong. i have no idea who you are talking about.
i think CM was gracious at my (a bit useless) criticism, there’s no need for you to make absurd assumptions about everyone who reads a blog. i was simply pointing out that i felt the title “How to Make an Easy Dub Siren from a Circuit Bent Keychain” is a bit misleading. it’s a great post as i said
Hell yes! That’s some rasta jams right there.
thanks for this GLF… (CM)… i think im a dub junky now
Sorry about that! I’m just glad something was useful of the SAW III sampler thingys. Mine are still staring at me. Now fix that misleading title CM. Seriously though, I thought it was that dude who bashed the Lincoln and I freaked. Positive vibes all around…virtual hugs!!
No probs. Those SAW III samplers are actually cool and I am working on a good tutorial for using them. Found a pitch bend, but looping doesn’t seem like an option at this point.
[...] GetLoFi shares instructions on how to build your own dub siren box using an inexpensive sound effects keychain plus a few other simple parts for about twenty bucks. Great tutorial – demonstrates how much potential lies in the inexpensive electro-gadgetry so ubiquitous nowadays. MAKE SOME NOOOOOOIIIIISSSE! – How to Make an Easy Dub Siren… [...]
Big Up to CM, an all dem GetLoFi Massive!! hahaaha.. Great Tutorial!!
[...] to Make an Easy Dub Siren from a Circuit Bent Keychain GetLoFi – Circuit Bending Synth DIY Blog Archive How to Make an Easy Dub Siren from a Circuit Bent K… __________________ DocRemiX at ReggaeDubwise.com Reggae Dubwise – Gateway to reggae on the [...]
!!! IF ANYONE HAS MADE ONE OF THESE AND CAN SELL IT TO ME… PLZ EMAIL ME ASAP… $$££ WAITING… THANKS !!!
Hi I was wanting to buy 2 boards off you, to be sent to the uk. Mailed you but it got returned.
Have you tried this with the chip-on-board sound circuit yet?
Yeah it works about the same. The only tricky part is getting the output loud enough with a transistor.
Otherwise its the same thing.
Do you have a schematic of the circuit with the CoB?
Thanks!
Here is what I have so far on the COB schematic.
I’ll do an updated post very soon about that particular board.
Thanks, looking forward to that! I need it.. having some trouble getting it to work good..
Still struggling to get it to together, some questions.
How do you connect the vertical chip on the board?
Do you use all 8 buttons to this or the rotary switch?
The R2 resistor is switched to the 1M Pot, do you keep the R1?
Thankful for all help..
I can’t wait to give this a shot… just in time for the holidaze daze daze aze aze etc.
Another source for the keychains
http://www.zymetrical.com/product.asp?3=1128
They seem to have best prices right now and fair shipping.
Managed to get all things together and it works great.
Thanks a lot for all help and a dubby siren!
Cool, post some pictures! Glad you like it. Cheers.
[...] the world. Cheers for reading this far…….. I’ll keep a look out……. here’s the project: http://www.getlofi.com/?p=1118 Last edited by sacredm; Today at 03:01 PM.. Reason: missing [...]
Are there any updates for the COB schematics?
Circuitmaster,
I notice on your version of the schematic there is no transistor? Is the transistor not necessary? Also, does anyone know what is the purpose of switches k7 and k8 on the diagram?
ignore the part about k7 an k8, i was just being an idiot
hi hillo by the we im wesley of philippines can you teach me how to make a police and ambulance siren for my motorcycle?circuit and diagram and component.
hey i very much like this post and want to try to make this but how can i learn what the traces are and how to solder properly and what the ground is? thanks!
Hi folks … does anyone know where one can actually buy FX pedals etcetc that would be suited to playing dub/reggae in a band??? Ive seen a few Red yellow n green boxes on youtube ( dub sirens) but there must be other oscillating ,warbling , real time frequency manipulating tools out there!!! ???…but have no idea if anyone is actually making/selling these FX …I saw something called the
” amukat gadgets optical expression device ” which looks interesting …
Thanx in advance jade
You could probably use a Kaossilator, Alesis Air FX, and lots of Delay.
I have a problem with the SG12 kit maybe the same that LoBy had can I send you pictures so I can get some help in getting this bend also is there an alternative way to bend the executor key chain , thanks for any info or help you can provide….
Chester, something is probably just not wired correctly, or you could’ve burned out the module. Or maybe its a different pinout for the circuit board. Just go back to the electronbics123 website and take another look at their basic documentation on how to get this to work.
Should be fairly strait forward from there.
well i gave up instead a bought a dub siren from http://www.dubmekanix.co.uk
[...] -Do this http://www.getlofi.com/?p=1118. [...]
Here we go again! I’ve had nothing but problems with this project. I’ve had 4 of the Executor key chains burn up on me. Is this something common?
Hey Shane, no that is not common. Usually my problem is pulling up the resistor traces. Try the other version with the guns and bombs daughter board.
[...] http://www.getlofi.com/?p=1118 This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← KING ATUPALI, REGGAE [...]
[...] this… Tweet This entry was posted in Projects and tagged Circuit Bending, Etsy, Instrument Cables, [...]
in regards to dub sirens I have been checking sites for a while but I struggled to look for a really nice one that had character …at the end I had success and I found DUB MEKANIX check em out QUALITY STUFF http://www.dubmekanix.co.uk
peace!
is it possible my board from a different toy has no resistor? there is a piece looking more as a kondesator that is simply mounted between the two contats wired to the batery holder.. any idea where to mount the potenciometr?