Improvised Variable Speed Leslie. Food for thought?

[torea]

Hey all,

I found a way to sort of make my Leslie 25 into a variable speed. It works because this Leslie's speaker isn't connected to the motor in any way (not sure about all 25s). So I have a 1/4" cable, and a separate 2-prong cord to power the rotor.

So I power up the speaker with my Fender tube amp, easy enough. No spinning sound, just the speaker.

Then I plug the 2-prong into one of these - http://www.amazon.com/Skylink-WS-100N-Wireless-Control-Channel/dp/B00008X5D5/ref=dp_cp_ob_hi_title_1 - which allows me to turn it on and off from my keyboard. So with a bit of practice, I've been able to get a nice chorale speed out of it, then let it rev up to get the tremolo. As long as it doesn't get all the way up to speed, it's easy to slow back down to chorale.


Obviously this method is cheap, both in cost and quality. But, since I don't feel like dumping the money into getting it modded to dual speed (gonna bide my time for a 147 or something like it), this'll work for now.


I dunno, hopefully this will help inspire some sort of idea for a better system in someone :P

[Brendon Wright]

Interesting!
Wireless switching!

[torea]

Yep =) I'll see about making a recording, but it might not be a Hammond, since I don't have one that can hook up to the Leslie.

[torea]

Hey all, bringing this one back up. I made a video!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a6X9UOEyWw

[Brendon Wright]

I bet BUCK ROGERS had wireless leslies.

[torea]

I bet BUCK ROGERS had wireless leslies.


Haha yeah, the wireless control is kinda fun. What's cool about controlling the speed how I am, is that I can keep a nice medium speed. Plus, the 25 has a short period during the revup where it's fast, but not full speed fast. So I can kind of exploit that slightly-slower-than-fast speed.

I'd love a better way to maintain the slow speed though. Isn't there some type of electrical thing that can do that? Maybe a bimetallic strip (which is used to make blinking lights)? I dunno how I'd switch between that and the remote switch though. I dunno, just a thought. I'm pretty happy with it as it is. Ton of fun!


I'll be making a nice recording with some quality gear once I get the M111 to my apartment =D

[Brendon Wright]

... and fun is the name of the game, otherwise we wouldn't bother hanging 'round here!

[torea]

... and fun is the name of the game, otherwise we wouldn't bother hanging 'round here!


Exactly! My dad and I split on the organ, since I know he's always wanted a B3. But he hasn't really played our M111 much, maybe a few minutes here and there. Set up the Leslie and all of a sudden he was playing and wouldn't stop haha. Can't imagine what'll happen if/when we get an A-100 and a better Leslie. We'll be fighting for time on the full size Hammond haha

[Brendon Wright]

Yep, it's funny, some folks think we're nuts.

THEY think WE'RE nuts????

[jdoc]

We think we're nuts, why wouldn't they?

[Brendon Wright]

Yep. You got me there.
I ain't got no alibi.....

[brrdr52]

A good idea!!!!

[tonewheel1966]

On my Yamaha RA100 there is chorale and tremolo, but the tremolo speed is controlled by a pot so you switch between slow and any speed of tremolo you want. Now if you could get the motor unit out of one of these............

[torea]

Interesting about the pot. I thought about something like a dimmer switch, but this way seems to work and my tech said the motor wouldn't like less voltage.

I'm still working on a better video example =)

[Hamman]

Hey actually that is kinda cool! I could see that being used for 2 stack motors as well with a DPDT ice cube relay with the remote unit controlling the relay coil (120VAC) and the relay switching the speeds. Hmmmm??!

[torea]

Hey actually that is kinda cool! I could see that being used for 2 stack motors as well with a DPDT ice cube relay with the remote unit controlling the relay coil (120VAC) and the relay switching the speeds. Hmmmm??!


Can you explain that a bit?

I was hoping someone would have an easier way to control the slow speed. Sometimes my remote switch doesn't turn off fast enough and the motor speeds up before I can shut it back off. I was thinking maybe the kind of thing that controls a blinking light? Aren't blinking lights controlled by something that charges up electricity, then releases it at a certain point?

[Brendon Wright]

Wouldn't it be cool if the dimmer switch did pitch shifting as well?
You could play some quite comical stuff!!

[torea]

Wouldn't it be cool if the dimmer switch did pitch shifting as well?
You could play some quite comical stuff!!


A friend of mine knew The Entertainer back and forth (as many piano students do) but only in C, and another friend of mine absolutely hates The Entertainer. So one day we pulled out my dad's keyboard with a pitch knob, and called the second friend's phone. We left a message of The Entertainer in 5 keys using the pitch knob =D

Pitch shifting a Hammond could be pretty cool. Especially if you could do just one note.

[jimmywilliams]

I don't know how practical it would be to hook up an intermittent timer circuit to the remote to turn it on and off on a regularr interval - it is battery powered and is only meant for quick turing on and off. Adding additional circuitry to the remote switch would probably drain the battery pretty quickly I would think. Never thought of it though...

In all seriousness, has anyone with various types of homemade Leslies (at least those that don't use the stock amp/switching citcuits) ever considered just using a DC motor instead? Then you can control the speed as you wish with changes in voltage (assuming you had a DC power supply). Are DC motors with the necessary torque very expensive?

[jimmywilliams]

Oh ... and please no dimmer switch on that AC motor!

[Brendon Wright]

Pitch shifting a Hammond could be pretty cool.

Why, There IS such a thing, you know!

It's called "playing with the start switch while the organ is running"

On my T I have a "whammy button" which cuts power to the TG but not the amps, for those rare dive bombing moments.

It makes a sound like a sick cow treading on a cat playing the bagpipes.

[torea]

Really? Cool. Are there any adverse effects to this?

[bossbandbob]

In all seriousness, has anyone with various types of homemade Leslies (at least those that don't use the stock amp/switching citcuits) ever considered just using a DC motor instead? Then you can control the speed as you wish with changes in voltage (assuming you had a DC power supply). Are DC motors with the necessary torque very expensive?

Yes Jim, you may remember i did that with my Minileslie powered by that little 12$ variable speed DC fan. The variable speed worked very well but the fan motor got very noisy (and distracting) at lower speeds for some reason (not enough torque?) when attached to the foamcore rotor horn that I made which is about 2-3x as heavy as the fan's original blade. It worked perfect at it's highest speed and the rpm was just right with the added weight of the rotor.

On another note: Wild thunderstorms up here tonight and several tornadoes about 30 to 60 miles away from me. Nearly jumped out of my seat while playing my keyboards tonight as a strong bolt of lightning outside sent a loud static signal (like you would hear on AM radio) though my amps. That was the end of my practice for the evening! Everything is on surge protectors and working fine though.

[Brendon Wright]

Really? Cool. Are there any adverse effects to this?

Not with the kill switch, but as for the start/run thing, I don't know.
Emerson and Lord both fooled with that a bit.

When you see Emerson throwing the organ about and it makes sick wailing noises, he's actually playing with the switch. Moving the organ is just for show!

[torea]

Doing a bit of research, I found this - http://www.goffprof.com/shopping.jsp?p=109

Apparently, it does what I was thinking, controlling the current into the motors. Unfortunately, it costs $259. I'm trying to keep this fix to like, $30? =D

[Hamman]

Well yeah with a T organ that would work since doesnt that organ have a capacitor on the run motor? I know on the start/run switch consoles you can only shut the power off super fast as the synchronous motor will fall out and stop all together

[torea]

It seemed to work with my M111. Flipping the start brought in tons of hum while it was on, but I got a nice bend up then down then level. Nice and spooky.