Menu
What's new

New Organ Build Topsy 3

Ted I will have to look on my next trip to the old house I still dont have the shop moved. I just went to a vacuum cleaner repair shop and looked at the belts and picked one out and made it work. I do have some in stock if ya want me to send ya one. I can also make one up for ya out of orange round belting 3/16" or 1/4"
 
graham wheeler said:
Hi everyone
Just got started again after a 6 month break, Overseas holidays and other excuses,
The motor I used was a radiator cooling fan of an old toyota car, seems to work very well, BUT, I did have to make a very small 25mm pulley to gear it down enough,
the belt is 5mm rubber Oring material, you can buy it by the metre, and join it with superglue, I use Loctite 406.


Now for a question! I have just finished my first lot of pipes (accompaniament) but i cant tune pipe D#, I can get D ok but the needle on the Korg tuner moves to the right and then changes to E, I have adjusted every part that moves, and changed the thickness of the card to no avail, is this importent, or can i leave it just before it changes to E ??
thanks
Graham
Auckland NZ
Click to expand...

I like the way you have done your drive and the crank wheel Graham.
As far as the problem with the pipe you might check to make sure there are no leaks in the pipe. Its odd that you cant get D# and I have no other ideas will try to talk to a buddy of mine and see if he has any ideas also.
 
Jay Caughron said:
Ted I will have to look on my next trip to the old house I still dont have the shop moved. I just went to a vacuum cleaner repair shop and looked at the belts and picked one out and made it work. I do have some in stock if ya want me to send ya one. I can also make one up for ya out of orange round belting 3/16" or 1/4"
Click to expand...

Just ordered my motor from all elec. so don't know exactly how long a belt I need but rough measuring it's about 6 feet or so. If you know if the 3/16 can be found locally let me know where to look otherwise I would appreciate a piece, I can join the ends later. My wiper motor works good but it draws 4-5 amps and I'm hoping the scooter motor draws less.
 
Hi everyone
First I must introduce myself. My name is Peter Lewis and I live in the UK. Although I joined the forum in August 2010 this is the first posting I have made. I Been very interested in reading everybody's progress in building their Topsy 3 Organs. I have been building my own for the last 18 months. Its now finished and I have put 3 video's on You Tube. Here are the links.



 
Thank you all very much for your kind comments. It is the only organ I have built, but I found it to be a fascinating project. I certainly made my share of mistakes. Parts that had to be redone etc! I hope the following points may be of help to some builders. I didn't want a hand turning option, so I used a 12v golf trolley motor with a gear box to give 130 RPM direct drive. The final speeds are controlled by a standard motor speed controller from China via E Bay. This was converted to two speed by replacing the single potentiometer with 2 that are switched by a small latching relay controlled by the limit sensors on the bellows. I first used micro switches for these, but they where noisy, so I changed them to magnetic proximity reed switches. This system seems to be working well giving a quite drive. I found the sensors need a diode across them because of the relay coil. I did the speed control this way, as I was not confident in my electronic abilities to build John Smiths board. For the same reason I bought the register board from Jay at A Turn N Time. This is working well. I found E bay really good for getting difficult to find items. Sorry to ramble on, but I hope it may be of interest.

All the best to everyone
Peter Lewis
 
Peter, I have watched and listened to all three of these videos over and over. Very nicely done Sir! The tone quality is just great and the casing of the organ is also very well thought out and looks great. I've not really been very intrested in building the Topsy but this really makes me want one. Thank you for sharing.
 
Wow!!,thats a great sound you have there, Very impressed, thats got me motivated to get stuck in and finish mine , Could you tell us a little about the lighting ,that is very nice feature,
cheers
Graham
Auckland NZ
 
Thanks again for your comments
The lighting is RGB LED strip. These have groups of tiny red green and blue LEDs spaced at intervals with cutting and joining points every so often. The strips are self adhesive and run on 12v. They are connected to a control unit that changes and mixes the 3 colours to give about 8 colours including white. It also does fading and flashing sequences and even changes to the sound if required. This is operated by a small remote control. They really are ideal. I bought mine from a supplier in China via Ebay. I used a strip around the front opening and 1 strip along inside the glockenspiel. On the "Looking around the organ" video, the white box behind the wood block on the upper left corner of the front compartment is the control unit. It just fitted in. I hope this helps.
All the best
Peter Lewis
 
full register control board

In adding a manual vibrato button to full register control board, one side is ground and other side goes to midi inputs 41 AND 42 so blocking diodes are needed. Anyone know how these diodes are to be installed? I assume one between switch and each midi input but does cathode point to ground or midi input?
 
Ok it's been all summer long and no post. Are there any builds going on still? Any progress with the ones that were in the works? I'd like to hear how things are going. Keep us informed.
 
I don't know how you can TOP that. That is an amazing organ! And I'm struggling with a Senior 20. Guess that shows what class I'm in. What does a person do after accomplishing a build like that, what next??

Congratulations!:thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top