# Sunflower Fuzz



## joelorigo (Jun 10, 2020)

Thanks to several of you on this board for help making this batter power only Sunflower. One member gave me transistors and another walked me through the battery only modifications including sending diagrams and photos of his. Awesome!
And as a beginner at pedal building, I'm open to suggestions if you see something wonky.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jun 10, 2020)

Nice front panel design!


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## Barry (Jun 10, 2020)

Nice graphic!


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## caiofilipini (Oct 16, 2020)

joelorigo said:


> One member gave me transistors and another walked me through the battery only modifications including sending diagrams and photos of his.



Hey, @joelorigo, would you be able to share the battery-only mod info? Thanks!


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## tcpoint (Oct 16, 2020)

Nice graphics.  How does it sound?


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## jjjimi84 (Oct 16, 2020)

caiofilipini said:


> Hey, @joelorigo, would you be able to share the battery-only mod info? Thanks!


What you would want to do is leave out ic1, c5 and c6. You could also skip the 1n5817. Then you would connect the battery snap opposite, red terminal to ground and black to positive.
Also you will need to jumper pins 5 and 8 where ic1 would be.


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## piapium (Oct 16, 2020)

jjjimi84 said:


> What you would want to do is leave out ic1, c5 and c6. You could also skip the 1n5817. Then you would connect the battery snap opposite, red terminal to ground and black to positive.
> Also you will need to jumper pins 5 and 8 where ic1 would be.


why do we do this? is it the original design or to use with battery? I have one and I could give it a try.


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## jjjimi84 (Oct 16, 2020)

piapium said:


> why do we do this? is it the original design or to use with battery? I have one and I could give it a try.


That is to use a battery. The sunflower is using +9 supply and using ic1 changing it to -9 supply which is what the circuit requires.
Some feel that overdrives and fuzzes sound better with batteries. Specifically really cheap dollar store batteries


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## benny_profane (Oct 16, 2020)

If the diode is removed, there is nothing protecting the circuit from reverse polarity. It's really easy to accidentally touch the terminals of the battery connector backward. There should be some method of polarity protection (diode in series, parallel, MOSFET, etc.).


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## jjjimi84 (Oct 16, 2020)

benny_profane said:


> If the diode is removed, there is nothing protecting the circuit from reverse polarity. It's really easy to accidentally touch the terminals of the battery connector backward. There should be some method of polarity protection (diode in series, parallel, MOSFET, etc.).


Flip the 1n5817 around


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## joelorigo (Oct 16, 2020)

caiofilipini said:


> Hey, @joelorigo, would you be able to share the battery-only mod info? Thanks!


Yes, I will go back and read the process Is was advised and sent you a private message in a little while


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## joelorigo (Oct 16, 2020)

tcpoint said:


> Nice graphics.  How does it sound?


It sounds really good!


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## joelorigo (Oct 16, 2020)

piapium said:


> why do we do this? is it the original design or to use with battery? I have one and I could give it a try.


The reason I wanted to do it was because it’s based on the Analogman Sunface and his uses a battery only, and no IC. There’s lot of information on his Sunface page.


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## joelorigo (Oct 16, 2020)

benny_profane said:


> If the diode is removed, there is nothing protecting the circuit from reverse polarity. It's really easy to accidentally touch the terminals of the battery connector backward. There should be some method of polarity protection (diode in series, parallel, MOSFET, etc.).


Good to know, I will be careful when changing the battery. Thanks


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## joelorigo (Oct 16, 2020)

caiofilipini said:


> Hey, @joelorigo, would you be able to share the battery-only mod info? Thanks!


Oh, this thread is where it all started for me





						SOLVED - Sunflower Fuzz
					

Hello,  is it possible the Sunflower Fuzz to work only with a 9v battery without IC and external power supply? I would like to use the sunflower with PNP 2SB178 transistors.  What changes are required?  Omit C5,C6 and IC Jumper D1,jumper fron pin 8 to pin 5   Am I missing anything?



					forum.pedalpcb.com


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## piapium (Oct 16, 2020)

Can you compare it to the version with ic? And why pedalpcb designed it with ic? Copyright issues? I am going to do this mode. Is it true to analogman design? Do I need to change transistors too?


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## joelorigo (Oct 16, 2020)

I can not. Maybe someone else on the board can. 
I am curious however and was thinking of building one with no mods to compare.


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## benny_profane (Oct 16, 2020)

The IC in this circuit is a voltage inverter and allows the use of a standard power supply (and daisy chaining). There is no impact on the audio path. This is a positive ground effect; most effect circuits are negative ground. By removing it and using battery power, you're simply reversing the polarity of the battery to provide a positive ground, but it also means that the effect cannot be powered alongside other effects via daisy-chaining.


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## caiofilipini (Oct 16, 2020)

Thank you all for the details!


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## piapium (Oct 17, 2020)

benny_profane said:


> The IC in this circuit is a voltage inverter and allows the use of a standard power supply (and daisy chaining). There is no impact on the audio path. This is a positive ground effect; most effect circuits are negative ground. By removing it and using battery power, you're simply reversing the polarity of the battery to provide a positive ground, but it also means that the effect cannot be powered alongside other effects via daisy-chaining.


If there is no effect on the audio path it is a useless mod for me.


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## HamishR (Oct 18, 2020)

Well it's useless unless you want to use more than one pedal. The whole point of adding a positive ground power supply running off a regular negative ground power supply is convenience. With a few power supplies these days you can mimic the effects of a cheap battery by reducing the voltage going to the pedal. The benefit can be tonal - you can dial in the exact amount of crapitude you want and its easily repeatable. If you rely on the "sagging voltage battery" you may get a great tone - until the battery finally craps out.  

And copyright isn't an issue in these pedals. Analogman is just using an ancient Fuzz Face circuit with a few simple, common-knowledge kind of modifications.


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## piapium (Oct 18, 2020)

HamishR said:


> Well it's useless unless you want to use more than one pedal. The whole point of adding a positive ground power supply running off a regular negative ground power supply is convenience. With a few power supplies these days you can mimic the effects of a cheap battery by reducing the voltage going to the pedal. The benefit can be tonal - you can dial in the exact amount of crapitude you want and its easily repeatable. If you rely on the "sagging voltage battery" you may get a great tone - until the battery finally craps out.
> 
> And copyright isn't an issue in these pedals. Analogman is just using an ancient Fuzz Face circuit with a few simple, common-knowledge kind of modifications.


I also have a vintage fuzz face that I use with battery that’s why I said it’s useless for me.


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