Original poster: "Cameron B. Prince" <cplists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hi Brett, I have built both Steve Ward's controller and Dan McCauley's... Dan's does give a little more control and more effects, but I also like the simplicity of Steve's. It seems easier to find the optimum pulse rate and peak the coil out with Steve's board. It's also a little easier to build, especially if you are bread boarding it. Cameron
Cameron, My original staccato controller used TTL IC's. These became subject to RF interference when the spark length went over 25" or so. Next Dave Sharpe designed but did not build a 556 Timer based staccato circuit based on my TTL design. I modified Dave's design using (2) 555 timers, and got the board working. Later I modified this design by adding a zero-crossing circuit based on some work that John Tebbs did for a triggered sync gap circuit. The staccato circuit shown at Steve's website is this modified design in which I included the zero-crossing circuit. Steve offered to put the design at his website since I was having trouble with my website at the time. Steve re-drew the circuit because I had sent him a hand-drawn schematic. Later there was a discussion on the list about which features might be useful, and Dan incorporated the extra pulse features into his staccato board circuit. That's the history of staccato board development.John