PCB-layout for EM Theremin?

I'm thinking of building an EM Theremin from scratch but a nice circuit board would been nice. Is there anybody that have constructed a working PCB-layout and want to share it?

If somebody send me a photo, I promise to make the pcb, and share it.

Cannot get you a photo - but you should be able to get everything from the Moog article "Understanding, customising, and hot-rodding your Etherwave".. This article has full schematic and diagram of component overlay - place the components in your PCB editor, then route the shortest possible connections between points, taking the usual care over long parrallell sections of track (avoiding these for high frequency / low level signals) and good ground and power supply tracking.

The article in Feb 1996 Electronic Musician "Build the EM Theremin" by Bob Moog is another useful reference - whilst the schematic is not identical to the EW, it is close enough that the basic layout could be modified slightly to build a EW copy.

My expierience is that layput is not too critical - just keep oscillator sections as far from each other as is reasonable, and DECOUPLE POWER SUPPLY CONNECTIONS WELL! - it is supply bourne HF which caused me the biggest problems (unwanted oscillator synchronisation) in the early days.

Much more fun to design your own board than to copy someone elses! .. Design it, do a 'breadboard' version first (based on your PCB layout) if getting a PCB made is a major effort, then go to PCB.

Are there Etherwave schematics on the net?
I am curious to see the design differences.

(* jcl *)

Yes, there are! ;-)

Hey!
By the time one researches and acquires the resources to build a knock-off of this great Moog Theremin, one could purchase a Moog Etherwave for less.
JUST BUY ONE! Keep the company in business,and get a warranty to boot!
Duh!

teslatheremin

Since it sounds like you may have found schematics
I was wondering how the oscillators and antenna circuitry differs from the Etherwave in the EM
article.

Thanks.

(* jcl *)

teslatheremin said:
"By the time one researches and acquires the resources to build a knock-off of this great Moog Theremin, one could purchase a Moog Etherwave for less."
I agree wholeheartedly.. The cost (time) of laying out a PCB, the cost of getting PCB made, the chance of getting something wrong and needing to re-do the PCB, the cost of components / assembly.. If one wants an Etherwave, buy an Etherwave - it will work out cheaper and more reliable than trying to do a "knock-off"..

However, if one wants to learn about the electronics and design your own instrument based on the Moog designs, that is a different matter.. sure, you will probably end up spending asa much or more money, and spending a LOT more time - but you will have an intimate 'relationship' with your Theremin which would far surpass what you will get from building a kit or just copying the Etherwave.

All schematics are available.. these 2 links are for the 1996 EW Theremin construction project from Electronic Musician magazine, and the Etherwave manual

http://www.moogmusic.com/manuals/HotRodEtherwav.pdf

http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~rth/EMTheremin.pdf

Thanks for the links especially the orginal EM
article. I did a PCB layout for the pitch oscillator using the schematic in the article. Apx four hours of work.

My main curiosity is the difference in the analog
and antenna sections between the EM Etherwave and
the high-end $1K - $2K Moog Theremins.

Is there a larger pitch range? Is the pitch range
more linear?

Also, I noticed in the PCB picture of the Etherwave plus the orientation of the antenna coils is different. The article stated the
coils should be parallel and the windings should
be in the same direction.

(* jcl *)

I have made a schematic in Eagly (PCD-CAD) according to the layout in http://www.moogmusic.com/manuals/HotRodEtherwav.pdf but never had the time to finish the PCB itself.
Thats mainly due to that the autoroute didn't manage to get all the connections on a single-sided PCB and also that my knowledge about routing is quite bad..