MK-1 Printed Circuit Board Set

Now anyone with basic electronic knowledge and soldering skills can build their own high quality tube theremin.
PCB_jpg


 The Music From The Ether PC Board set is based on the MK-1 DIY tube theremin design by Mark Keppinger and came about because of the dwindling availability of many key electronic components required to do the build. Things like panel mounted ceramic compression trimmers in values usable for the tuning ranges of the oscillators, 10-lug terminal strips, and passive components with leads long enough to do point to point wiring were becoming difficult to source. We also understood that while many potential builders who have adequate electronics knowledge and soldering skills they may be intimidated by the intricacies of doing point to point circuit wiring. Finally, if we were to continue producing completed ready to play RCA style theremins a major rework of the original design was going to have to happen.

  Our new printed circuit board set uses modern components throughout that are readily available at the "big box" electronic supply houses. The Power Supply board provides power to the electronics and contains an audio amplifier capable of sinking approximately 10 watts into an 8-ohm speaker. The Oscillator board contains the three oscillators and associated circuitry necessary to produce the pitch and control the volume of the instrument. Because the oscillators operate at radio frequencies of several hundred kilohertz, the oscillator board is a three layer PC board that has ground planes on the top, bottom and middle of the board to minimize any stray RF interaction between the oscillators. This three layer board construction also makes the oscillator board frightfully expensive to have manufactured. Do it right or don't do it at all! The vacuum tubes needed to do the build are, 3-6J6's, 2-6V6's, 1-6H6, 2-6SN7's, 1-5Y3 and 1-0D3/VR150. They can be scrounged at hamfests and electronic swap meets, the interweb and Ebay- they're easily aquired and still quite common. Go for the metal jacketed tubes wherever possible to really give it that old time look! When used in conjunction with our newly redesigned chassis set your theremin will still sport the "old school" tube chassis look on top but underneath will be fully modern reliable printed circuit boards. Full build documentation is available in the download section on this website.

PCB Set Contains One Oscillator and One Power Supply/Audio Amplifier PCB
Order from our Online Shop

Copyright © Music From The Ether