tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27008052503003797352024-02-18T17:59:14.156-08:00bIOVISUALIZECHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-4618782410755974342023-10-31T09:06:00.000-07:002024-01-27T09:15:32.278-08:00Net zero interactive viz with Voilà<p>I had the chance to collaborate once again with Voilà on a scrollytelling project for CPP Investments about their goals to be carbon neutral. I'm pretty good at animating gooey blobs now. Try it here and see how it was done: <a href="https://chezvoila.com/project/changingworld/">https://chezvoila.com/project/changingworld/</a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMVsRbJnmvbByPomsykwMtdrq37HS2THg1F3bjtrF7qL9EacmEbpusCfXHg3fYzVC4rByoPPb-01r-BeaNxN2My99dDG7JuPP-cdiyT5Ya7sbnjhQlOct6_WLb9qZxijiB241wrRVQEcIngEio4AERckUJ6APtXhk6xc6D08iyCvizLaDJmpPFXay/s2494/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%2012.06.01%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1818" data-original-width="2494" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMVsRbJnmvbByPomsykwMtdrq37HS2THg1F3bjtrF7qL9EacmEbpusCfXHg3fYzVC4rByoPPb-01r-BeaNxN2My99dDG7JuPP-cdiyT5Ya7sbnjhQlOct6_WLb9qZxijiB241wrRVQEcIngEio4AERckUJ6APtXhk6xc6D08iyCvizLaDJmpPFXay/w640-h466/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%2012.06.01%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-66023818099586875652023-09-30T10:20:00.000-07:002024-01-27T12:12:29.835-08:00The Strasbourg shooting<p>I illustrated a long-form article about the shooting on the Christmas market in Strasbourg. It was a collaboration with the excellent Le Lab des DNA et de L'Alsace with Emmanuel Viau's team.</p><p><a href="https://www.dna.fr/faits-divers-justice/2023/12/10/attentat-de-strasbourg-les-10-minutes-qui-ont-bouleverse-l-alsace">https://www.dna.fr/faits-divers-justice/2023/12/10/attentat-de-strasbourg-les-10-minutes-qui-ont-bouleverse-l-alsace</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaavdpIxMVAnCpttr765juOleUYBv-fSCTV-H8M4HiHTZ1xTLWOSr1ekuUd9cIEumRgeqdXQdEKEqOOAvWDhtkWvGVkxQw1tCyoIFQVWpDkHMBoii-E5pwbq497sXmHvjOslv0FbFWBWYPjXnEXbWAMHCfiq-Rk5ZY7OSobaNKop_VJSuLf_ujmSX/s2302/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.19.59%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1986" data-original-width="2302" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaavdpIxMVAnCpttr765juOleUYBv-fSCTV-H8M4HiHTZ1xTLWOSr1ekuUd9cIEumRgeqdXQdEKEqOOAvWDhtkWvGVkxQw1tCyoIFQVWpDkHMBoii-E5pwbq497sXmHvjOslv0FbFWBWYPjXnEXbWAMHCfiq-Rk5ZY7OSobaNKop_VJSuLf_ujmSX/w640-h552/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.19.59%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnSa25O4K_oo3mUTnimCXc2YccaGeBaiOJzHYDz8YixIoKKs5C-rr-NHuQbdwRhHqAosTxuhcPx7m7iBOraXxZjGHw9zxUZIZRQt6K7yBvvt_W2BtcOLLq8pg5Qr2E5uHro48wjk6rI_z3YQ8sNHdeRJoqDvw759BekkHjYRDITmQswsoAE-SF4Dg/s2306/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.31.37%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1984" data-original-width="2306" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnSa25O4K_oo3mUTnimCXc2YccaGeBaiOJzHYDz8YixIoKKs5C-rr-NHuQbdwRhHqAosTxuhcPx7m7iBOraXxZjGHw9zxUZIZRQt6K7yBvvt_W2BtcOLLq8pg5Qr2E5uHro48wjk6rI_z3YQ8sNHdeRJoqDvw759BekkHjYRDITmQswsoAE-SF4Dg/w640-h550/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.31.37%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36rRu7UB5zgqJA_Q_eT1NrvimaJ00yMYotNkWYQinmfBNryaMT7aoYDLhQZ-EgtKDAHkykWLLelAE8Z6MUZZbYFVKQxbkzmGVSZa0FB0UaIvovCyJ92MOF5MwcE1L4ldDoXMozXnNXNkQTOBsmr9ywJ73NBFWvWFR0Df_i38dhFTkdd9k3IiKiLDo/s2298/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.33.42%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1986" data-original-width="2298" height="554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36rRu7UB5zgqJA_Q_eT1NrvimaJ00yMYotNkWYQinmfBNryaMT7aoYDLhQZ-EgtKDAHkykWLLelAE8Z6MUZZbYFVKQxbkzmGVSZa0FB0UaIvovCyJ92MOF5MwcE1L4ldDoXMozXnNXNkQTOBsmr9ywJ73NBFWvWFR0Df_i38dhFTkdd9k3IiKiLDo/w640-h554/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.33.42%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tri3TFWdoBLkZ90K2j6C-Jo4wKX_ME9-lKWCiAJ2sWjuAzKSiLnPXE06wg36RVdR-AXx3khpxT7MvrfRiSKJBqM92_2AG9UfwimdDXSE2jep0GK7oOmJz0Gqv-PXCxfW3ME-KI1TAX1YU_vlPksiOnS-rEHBMdtj5zS8f-rzf3885kFqO0pE70N4/s3350/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.33.15%20PM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1796" data-original-width="3350" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tri3TFWdoBLkZ90K2j6C-Jo4wKX_ME9-lKWCiAJ2sWjuAzKSiLnPXE06wg36RVdR-AXx3khpxT7MvrfRiSKJBqM92_2AG9UfwimdDXSE2jep0GK7oOmJz0Gqv-PXCxfW3ME-KI1TAX1YU_vlPksiOnS-rEHBMdtj5zS8f-rzf3885kFqO0pE70N4/w640-h344/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%201.33.15%20PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-33790023352609177162022-07-30T09:33:00.000-07:002024-01-27T10:02:17.897-08:00Climate change viz with Voilà<p>I had the chance to collaborate once again with Voilà on a scrollytelling project for the Canadian Climate Institute about the cost of climate change on the infrastructures. I helped with the scrolling animations. Try it here and see how it was done: <a href="https://chezvoila.com/project/infrastructure/">https://chezvoila.com/project/infrastructure/</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QHGLEy6UyfPwkWNsiy9bId26phlM5RKlFRIDblIh0BcKC_nGU8qx2IpaGSaeeqjx3q0lzOyzbxZROAApnWhI1qoSuGevrUEW8CkQhYS_vCTWIPuNdP6wjTW2jH7S0k5ISssmjY3ZzIUUtHnHhqgV-fhUF6liGUmKDVidt14ZtoSS8w5nrcfI-KIF/s3326/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%2012.36.32%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1976" data-original-width="3326" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QHGLEy6UyfPwkWNsiy9bId26phlM5RKlFRIDblIh0BcKC_nGU8qx2IpaGSaeeqjx3q0lzOyzbxZROAApnWhI1qoSuGevrUEW8CkQhYS_vCTWIPuNdP6wjTW2jH7S0k5ISssmjY3ZzIUUtHnHhqgV-fhUF6liGUmKDVidt14ZtoSS8w5nrcfI-KIF/w640-h380/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%2012.36.32%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-44240187034650848662022-01-10T10:40:00.000-08:002024-01-27T12:11:33.887-08:00Crash du Mont Sainte-Odile<p> </p><p>I illustrated a long-form article about the crash of Mount Sainte-Odile. It was a collaboration with the excellent Le Lab des DNA et de L'Alsace with Emmanuel Viau's team.</p><p>(Paywalled) <a href="https://www.dna.fr/faits-divers-justice/2022/01/17/une-histoire-vraie-dans-le-cockpit-de-l-airbus">https://www.dna.fr/faits-divers-justice/2022/01/17/une-histoire-vraie-dans-le-cockpit-de-l-airbus</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27TMjfftMLBIjGeAjrmv3TMe7m5LjAw97kpKO3P3pkouC0WFoq9GfcPBcVmoSWmPDOu4iVfSYqHICRET70mB3hc1jshv3cJzkrJlOULl96HCpqeXOCQNwzBIKT0rA5e3FF-WLhydJXXbquJzZmLCMgJUyCbtIBFYJvSatrmwl7RZficeQPaCQOwWg/s3416/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.57.00%20PM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1986" data-original-width="3416" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27TMjfftMLBIjGeAjrmv3TMe7m5LjAw97kpKO3P3pkouC0WFoq9GfcPBcVmoSWmPDOu4iVfSYqHICRET70mB3hc1jshv3cJzkrJlOULl96HCpqeXOCQNwzBIKT0rA5e3FF-WLhydJXXbquJzZmLCMgJUyCbtIBFYJvSatrmwl7RZficeQPaCQOwWg/w640-h372/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.57.00%20PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhKyXmsNniIwfITaw_1almNDV5dypU9X5SZIpdh7qQbM47I5Boa7Sy8GEtWV9k4FSlMN8S1PvGx4RasGU8y6T9PNIp-o4p6c0oS4e9A0M7zqUxTJs-n1Gl8ofpFodDnI1rq-mjTznaw7nmlmGpA4VnPOzX0lDCSuimH-4Kd_ujzItLifNMWsUCpr-8/s3418/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.57.30%20PM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1864" data-original-width="3418" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhKyXmsNniIwfITaw_1almNDV5dypU9X5SZIpdh7qQbM47I5Boa7Sy8GEtWV9k4FSlMN8S1PvGx4RasGU8y6T9PNIp-o4p6c0oS4e9A0M7zqUxTJs-n1Gl8ofpFodDnI1rq-mjTznaw7nmlmGpA4VnPOzX0lDCSuimH-4Kd_ujzItLifNMWsUCpr-8/w640-h350/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.57.30%20PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzaW56ajmBNu2wwIe6k2BnxdKlw5hC8G3K2JTiZRWPRJQRp-VHANd99s9eEgWY8S5Zc51ux28WtlYvdmafU5tqhaGADkq6SSEqyWU47W7E6JMfmCpxfFhtMYSUyJ4JQsU2wLqCBOFPIr7ckWDRBBx3E5R767ks2kQi1l99NFwEiQzxaXM_a2uOArd/s3412/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.57.46%20PM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1856" data-original-width="3412" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzaW56ajmBNu2wwIe6k2BnxdKlw5hC8G3K2JTiZRWPRJQRp-VHANd99s9eEgWY8S5Zc51ux28WtlYvdmafU5tqhaGADkq6SSEqyWU47W7E6JMfmCpxfFhtMYSUyJ4JQsU2wLqCBOFPIr7ckWDRBBx3E5R767ks2kQi1l99NFwEiQzxaXM_a2uOArd/w640-h348/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.57.46%20PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvDhxGYY1iFz4LjoSPJnmwE5_NY6OyM0dMmVIbjgUrRnc6EIYJ-yBBjuxSVGaRm7GZuYVLlf5DMF0mfzUiAnw9GPVoXS4AjQAjH5ZMf7GStcamrxqpSrJ4KP9sW31YONfd-UBw9XFEgcmfPRIIv_6P1ttJnUVeBRUvDTD5Ui1VSjozg2G27TRqtpAl/s3410/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.58.02%20PM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1860" data-original-width="3410" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvDhxGYY1iFz4LjoSPJnmwE5_NY6OyM0dMmVIbjgUrRnc6EIYJ-yBBjuxSVGaRm7GZuYVLlf5DMF0mfzUiAnw9GPVoXS4AjQAjH5ZMf7GStcamrxqpSrJ4KP9sW31YONfd-UBw9XFEgcmfPRIIv_6P1ttJnUVeBRUvDTD5Ui1VSjozg2G27TRqtpAl/w640-h350/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.58.02%20PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUA8UwcU3aO0qs38bG5HDlLYn7WINsoHYFQ3PBqJAO0FQVNeJFqCGc2CnL37mP2mHMo2KmRUEKM2fbxFthTjPYYzwHRF8GkYipI_9PgiUCTFrztus7FVQ1iblxCpH1qNz2abHvuB4hufw-buG2FoKOMmX5nai_a9XpkoyUlB_NJQF9uaquVRMrHlcn/s3418/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.58.16%20PM.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1862" data-original-width="3418" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUA8UwcU3aO0qs38bG5HDlLYn7WINsoHYFQ3PBqJAO0FQVNeJFqCGc2CnL37mP2mHMo2KmRUEKM2fbxFthTjPYYzwHRF8GkYipI_9PgiUCTFrztus7FVQ1iblxCpH1qNz2abHvuB4hufw-buG2FoKOMmX5nai_a9XpkoyUlB_NJQF9uaquVRMrHlcn/w640-h348/Screenshot%202024-01-27%20at%202.58.16%20PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-77548303562069543222021-12-01T09:57:00.000-08:002024-01-27T10:01:57.345-08:00Interactive dashboard for political surveys with Voilà<p>I had the chance to collaborate with Voilà on a dashboard project for an important client doing political surveys analytics. I can't disclose much about it. But it was a nice collaboration on a tool to filter stacked viz.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7GPkFk4WGeK1tSdLG1sC5j6eJqcJ-mZptflRf0cCpq1fQQz8Oc-njgOY2WTyaFRm5je4zlLRugP-wnZWJWptm78ch44ynaXhAZe1Cd06hWPLJ8CsrHA_uQk0A6F4CZum8xmFejoXNe6OddFaYv_nLQgdGGfTrvjoUSBBtzaV-NZfcWZi0SbJeb6vp/s1718/image6.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="968" data-original-width="1718" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7GPkFk4WGeK1tSdLG1sC5j6eJqcJ-mZptflRf0cCpq1fQQz8Oc-njgOY2WTyaFRm5je4zlLRugP-wnZWJWptm78ch44ynaXhAZe1Cd06hWPLJ8CsrHA_uQk0A6F4CZum8xmFejoXNe6OddFaYv_nLQgdGGfTrvjoUSBBtzaV-NZfcWZi0SbJeb6vp/w640-h360/image6.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-6653298035372487282021-03-08T06:01:00.002-08:002021-10-18T20:14:55.555-07:00Camp Fire project<p>We made a prototype to visualize the 2018 Camp Fire, "the most destructive wildfire in California's history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses" [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)">Wikipedia</a>].</p>
<p>The Landsat pictures are stunning.</p>
<img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidS0T2HxtAmf78BjJxlLIs9_ac4qEaHKtbYJBcK7LGuNuMXIrFrWaSVM784U4TSNhAobcAGClSN-NCADBTfeLrl4dhGo-YVTsdGyWWvX6PO_NSa-6MDkeh-LhkGzrOKu_CRHOVK-HlLw/w640-h426/2560px-Camp_Fire_oli_2018312_Landsat.jpg" width="640" />
<p>We needed a precise view of fire damage with vegetation fire index as a context.</p>
<img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="1462" height="578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuDHGI4qUWV-Q8uOOnn38JySyu6CxRept5ERSTgZpTHr1r2Me5g7MkOOEi89__LkfVnaC6XcgEgLU3CguXDFqzkG739xy_WJYFJkU43XgdrJGyBr1fU_IArDgCVb2jda3_LAjHMzsI7A/w640-h578/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2019-03-15+a%25CC%2580+15.09.01.jpg" width="640" />
<p>The dataset is pretty big, but zooming and filtering on large dataset on maps is one strength of the OmniSci platform. So we can filter by damage level and zoom down to individual buildings.</p>
<img border="0" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="2048" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ1q2GKDRu3DBP3F8gpaWXLoilTcLQs3X9JFBUsnYLDkGr2nN5OWMPnmUIPwXnjG3yHy3JrHsUBjwcSO6QNo-GtuvXj0WFVOqyjEcS08jYDK5VlGL27smC9TTEESDVyMaPP0E6v3pNKg/w640-h398/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2019-03-15+a%25CC%2580+11.14.56.jpg" width="640" />
<p>Switching to a sattelite basemap, we can see how much the shapefiles match the buildings. This tool could be used in rescue missions or even to prevent fires in the future by scheduling maintenance or turning off parts of the electrical grid in high-risk areas.</p>
<img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1000" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrQtH2JATEnPgDckQ-nX55CfEPZNBCuA0Dx1NxIt3DQyF0VtsAxKRcWZAztyDPH4PNpzqiRcSC1LtNFkb6ClG_ZYK-HvgnuUnVKBgA3WEvYQUSOZgCSCMI9oBy132ffRGkQkQ_yHn59A/w640-h362/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2019-03-18+a%25CC%2580+12.21.00.jpg" width="640" />
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-53204345043145493562021-03-06T20:17:00.003-08:002024-01-27T07:23:27.198-08:00Sankey from a Google SheetFor a collaboration with the excellent information design firm Voilà, I needed
to generate some fairly complex Sankeys. I made this example of a Sankey pulling
data from a Google Sheet as a template to generate some of the visualizations
from the report Understanding the impact of a low carbon transition on South
Africa.<div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="2620" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0SM8x-qlh1RvWpPe41fhXl3DLpDvxvD9GphQBIPsHO7CzlWtTb9CuxS1Ks9lL-tXMHt3MVnWxHjGL8E_NtgotII2TJPEnHNGZ5ua0SRIYlfctc9rum77Z8wKMRhL_2SUlk_JCFEZWtQ/w640-h294/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-03-06+a%25CC%2580+23.06.19.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<p>
<img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="1664" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hl22NsvGChvga0KIqmqHSknO0GkcJ_T8N6U34zZWyP_ffT9NpSGGGC8gwcK_RvAu0626MSw_DR15s-_bcLXcfY-iK1t6uCqOUSk5567IpKL1n5_aOLVNyNrQRynlme-l44AIvL61Tw/w640-h508/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-03-06+a%25CC%2580+23.16.19.jpg" width="640" />
</p>
<i><br /></i>
<p></p>
</div>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-70834100632826158692021-03-05T06:10:00.006-08:002024-01-27T12:13:59.124-08:00SQL Editor redesign<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Immerse SQL editor is very useful to test some queries, build views, etc. It needed a redesign. Here are some details of the redesign process.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1112" data-original-width="2048" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyUP6oTtUm4FjfOIyWMzs8HsO49WrfzZDrSJIa_IXFIcVvb-7F9Osf2cR3dz-AAv1Hcd6ggUmYvttdlndM5B9ht5BTUvPIZ0g0TeziM7TSxr6hqM6tDBCFWNupAGOEdY7PpoX433iDg/w640-h348/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-02-24+a%25CC%2580+22.59.12.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<span></span><p>We needed some new functionalities like:</p>
<ul>
<li>
Better syntax highlighting, autocomplete, SQL formatting and validation
</li>
<li>Better table/column browser with filtering</li>
<li>Query history with preview data</li>
<li>Reusable query snippets</li>
<li>Run multiple queries in the same context instead of notebook-style</li>
<li>Notifications</li>
<li>Shapefile query results</li>
</ul>
<p>
So after the phase of requirements gathering and research, we started
wireframing.
</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1361" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymvuw6LKzTCDCLHNxx-6d1qappoFAn9xnwqJGY4mZfazcoyDfNgDTbkqWWwCtFb9cDr7qJOlojRsfpItSaqxqCNM9SMSWrwjJIcj0ZxwF2tm_dHL-1QEvarQN9DUL5U5gyNQl8EaE8g/s320/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-02-24+a%25CC%2580+22.51.46.jpg" width="320" />
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
At OmniSci, we maintain a nice set of Figma components that we use to compose
mockups quickly.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="2048" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJHRM75ln5Gamg3QbknOVkqMcrpQleKbtl8l6i6K9g6rtHJAB9tQSNWFg0axmZAdb7oUV4IEq5SMhgpnpf-xQLqgVQsjnFObbW5d243IKFQDf-gGZCRf8-wDQyZO7iUc36lWCGb6kzA/w640-h344/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-03-05+a%25CC%2580+22.38.29.jpg" width="640" />
</div>
<br />
<div>Here is the result of the SQL Editor redesign. </div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>Before:<br /><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1117" data-original-width="2048" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnoUrQZK9UvSfj_cRh7YjhucVFqXypYhVUeN8Y11K_wfhHq0BLDIMlRhKskntSVu_6WIUmCLACFb7wFk_yft5gZ7LGqk9nNFyY2zQk-jsgqVpTZJNiap7E6T9Mi8KCTWV1gxK-_EHZGQ/w640-h350/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-03-08+a%25CC%2580+09.16.31.jpg" width="640" />
</div>
<br />
<div>After:</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1119" data-original-width="2048" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCowjjojcCd88LqC0dix1y2XRROltRdlSVS_DMVq5rXGYGylHvpxvjYlfKpBx5_FidQM3GFcn2gouZwhfABEWGBi6XT0ceBTZTaewYVYyNJvFp0it8rl0qHZTUWOQxLlNC72KhOvppYg/w640-h350/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-02-24+a%25CC%2580+22.58.38.jpg" width="640" />
</div>
<br />
<div>
If you don't see a big difference, that's a good thing. All the barely visible
features that facilitate editing, like key shortcuts, notifications,
simplified flow, automatic formatting, validation, query history and snippets
makes a big difference in usability without adding much cognitive load.
</div>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-79485286792112456442021-03-04T09:33:00.000-08:002024-01-27T07:43:41.644-08:00Seashell pattern generator<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The beautiful book <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783540921417">The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells</a> demonstrates how an impressive variety of seashell patterns can be described with a fairly simple activator-inhibitor function. I rewrote the book's algorithms in Javascript and made an <a href="https://observablehq.com/@biovisualize/seashell-patterns-simulation-4" target="_blank">interactive notebook</a> for anyone to generate a great variety of seashell patterns.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1542" data-original-width="1962" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Tjyz1VrXSnjoQyAITOV_gcVk2DhhMYoQ9WaJa_ciL7PpgLC5BJIkwFokDr5qRGTqPj-8AOk1GmdTn8PbM3HaJHxJAkPyjZIwwyQPorSEMw38MgjgzmkkPHy_RDe1YoS71ELmUBR0LQ/w640-h502/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2021-03-05+a%25CC%2580+12.31.25.jpg" width="640" /></div><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-14694656243022014692021-02-14T06:46:00.000-08:002024-02-03T06:52:54.635-08:00D3.js 10th anniversary website<p>I started a simple website for the 10th anniversary of D3.js. For the occasion, I made an <a href="https://www.meetup.com/d3-online/events/275893710/" target="_blank">interactive timeline</a> listing some key moments, like our first tutorial, website, gallery, event, etc. I started a newsletter that I was not able to manage for long. </p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLanq8BHl_KOQTjdzOS2ec_o6LynxuqOU9QjF7rHdJdzq4LbduT3AGI2sZrpPWjOljKHAfRaTNXiX03scbmDvYWzQUST3oPYNMYxAbkbdNq_kqCCeEhdq_yDLYH9QIFUbm5qZ_NwCu5BkYWbmF3qehGZ2wloU-KjbKdYGZAn5efdYhS0gdftwqmMqJ/s1832/Screenshot%202024-02-03%20at%209.45.40%20AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1832" data-original-width="1538" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLanq8BHl_KOQTjdzOS2ec_o6LynxuqOU9QjF7rHdJdzq4LbduT3AGI2sZrpPWjOljKHAfRaTNXiX03scbmDvYWzQUST3oPYNMYxAbkbdNq_kqCCeEhdq_yDLYH9QIFUbm5qZ_NwCu5BkYWbmF3qehGZ2wloU-KjbKdYGZAn5efdYhS0gdftwqmMqJ/w538-h640/Screenshot%202024-02-03%20at%209.45.40%20AM.jpg" width="538" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-27998715380504497802021-02-03T19:16:00.000-08:002024-01-27T07:44:22.701-08:00Blip!<p> I'm doing a lot of scientific projects and tinkering with my kids. We started a blog to document them a while ago. It currently has more than 90 projects and counting. Check it out: <a href="http://www.blipblip.net/">http://www.blipblip.net/</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDlc4yIQvQ0nXQtHMP-x7Z3RpAMkvBvKUZqJEsEiWFfqjAMKsVEOTMqxLwyr6Ir32ChAhzymA5eRS25J3GRtiopj8K2W6iHKQTaHqugzPAsTzSVsR0mGslGWTgmiobrVpNprF4Yxccg/w640-h480/on-off.jpg" width="640" /></div><br /><p><br /></p>CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-28730076309675345902021-01-15T08:09:00.000-08:002024-01-27T07:45:47.506-08:00Looking back at my 1st project as Product designer at OmniSci<div>
I just celebrated my 3 years at
<a href="https://www.omnisci.com/">OmniSci</a> (formerly MapD). Looking back,
my biggest highlight was to move from Frontend engineering to Product design.
22 years ago, the same year I founded my UX design company BioDesign, I
started teaching programming, so I always had both interests.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
My first project in that new role was to convert the app to dark mode. I
always vaguely dismissed the request for dark mode UI as a trend. But then I
got a very specific use case: the condition for our app to be displayed on the
giant screen of the
<a
href="https://www.omnisci.com/news/speaking-appearances-at-nvidia-gtc-2019"
target="_blank"
>NVIDIA GTC conference</a
>
was that it needed to be in dark mode, light mode simply blasts way too much
on these giant screens.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
It was a Sunday and the conference was on the next day so no time for a new
build. I wrote some javascript to run in the browser console to override the
css on-the-fly. Here's the result:
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img
border="0"
data-original-height="1536"
data-original-width="2048"
height="469"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFKW35L1z-Q98t1Jz82at0bFSh1WTYwV0C9khGHe8IQRrw-AILkJaN7jbKV2qKJpPaHZDLJZ9UIjw_b9zBOk9gzqNq53p-VCjVx4t21ColqkgxMvThyphenhyphenT7kr8rc9syd2mPYAXJie0_fQ/w625-h469/Image+from+iOS+%25283%2529.jpg"
width="625"
/>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I developed dark mode screens before, mostly for monitoring apps where users
have to stare at it all day, to relax the eye. But my manager
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbaptiste/" target="_blank"
>Christian Baptiste</a
>
showed me how to use
<a href="https://material.io/design/color/dark-theme.html" target="_blank"
>Material guidelines</a
>
for dark themes which really added some structure to UI patterns I was mostly
improvising until then. From there I developed
<a href="https://github.com/omnisci/omnisci-ui" target="_blank">Omnisci-ui</a
>, which is our in-house theme for
<a href="https://rmwc.io/" target="_blank">RMWC</a>, an excellent React
Material library. We also developed, with Chrstian and my colleague
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncan-lane-3482ba63/" target="_blank"
>Duncan lane</a
>, a set of reusable
<a href="https://www.figma.com" target="_blank">Figma</a> components for our
mockups to match our javascript components.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img
border="0"
data-original-height="1080"
data-original-width="2048"
height="211"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0OvcY5M2wFnEO-fR6kPvO8C3aGlfKkwx4csWCV-ztPiPmUrW7l9gcknCaMf-EYxxazuwDRvKL5Cy9HD28LRFqbJK1rjC4yvBOI6el10RpsZYf73zl6BjEAr1sinW5n-Lgvuo9LDvJrA/w400-h211/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-07-12+a%25CC%2580+10.14.09.jpg"
width="400"
/>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img
border="0"
data-original-height="1075"
data-original-width="2048"
height="210"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOTyUim3iUDwxQ1fHwljtrkYGotYVmipCuDJD9Z_5LJUz5hb27ssCpfwyFwWdkwXZdyjdvjjL7C_Y10yjR4qf_ztM9zmDk97HyioLDorBHRNDBqcb-vAbTUiP0TiUM4I0IAyKVfHDXDw/w400-h210/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-07-12+a%25CC%2580+10.13.44.jpg"
width="400"
/>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I still need to learn more facts about the benefits of dark mode. But at the
end of the day, a big part of making our users successful is to make them
happy. We delivered dark mode with the next release of OmniSci Immerse and it
was a great success. So I have to thank a giant screen for forcing me to learn
how to properly design dark themes.
</div>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-8595641603307742512020-09-20T07:50:00.003-07:002024-01-27T12:15:07.647-08:00Graphiques Dégénérés: An Exhibition of Datavis Failures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Data visualization is the art of turning data into meaningful graphics. But sometimes, this process doesn’t go as planned. When it fails in style, the results can be surprisingly beautiful. I come from an art background, so I asked myself the question: can we present datavis failures in an art gallery and treat it as a form of Glitch art? That’s what we did. And it was fun. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="2500" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHXU_t1Lxeu7YQFja5qwDS7kQT3bRE1_WPyEEaO4Q3VU9kYT0XqtokjpqKHhbFob9mfGe2ICoPqyvN4nJfwepN8USlLoxRg16nHlRH3yWlr776p-nrfFvPaF32ffAVK0La8SSlKuLXw/w640-h262/1_YM_K8fVczf2HLuUReW1U1g.jpeg" width="640" /></div>
<p>
<a href="https://medium.com/@christopheviau/graphiques-d%C3%A9g%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9s-an-exhibition-of-datavis-failures-5bcb7f3bc705" target="_blank">Read the article on Medium</a>
</p>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-62996441553559756472020-09-20T07:41:00.004-07:002024-01-27T12:14:47.348-08:00A common language for product specifications<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A complete product development flow involves multiple people in interaction. Each stage of the process can sync-up by sharing specific deliverables. Typically, product managers will write down a set of user stories and feature lists, Designers will turn them into wireframes and flow diagrams, project managers will break the features down into tasks, etc. It can be hard to translate these documents across the pipeline. What if we could find a common language, so everybody can collaborate on building a shared vision of the product?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="1000" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9flr9KWr8V6hosJtPtwC7hwovu7WEycyZ1O6p4kjEx-V5lxEZweHNiGRssQQjTPJ_BibwZ4zB5dvybkngPYUuKkARNSOt_pbLCnxZlxvTcj5H5p_00LqqKTdjpLhBSnLS89uhhhwbVw/w640-h262/1_DBa885KYOnZduh7ryFa_xQ2.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<p>
<a href="https://medium.com/@christopheviau/a-common-language-for-product-specifications-a2f2d07e8" target="_blank">Read the article on Medium </a>
</p>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-32402275611907682932020-09-19T12:47:00.003-07:002024-01-27T12:15:38.776-08:00Get started making and modding guitar pedals for cheap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One of my hobbies is to build and mod distortion pedals. I really enjoy exploring how iconic guitar sounds are shaped just by varying a few electronic components. It's also surprisingly cheap once you know how to find cheap parts. Here are some of my tricks to get started modding and building.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="728" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgHAvSrsTmDRVwN2e0BueIENWmGFkgOpB2LqeiNfEi9WccV5p6ZVEvGG2hfRkKMXmoDGGIAxP4acC07_qbGilSVW4ImNTY-QuHHyHUwaFxpmGfSxUnZRZxZZCCLhhSoBH_LpH0QTmAA/w400-h394/rat_king2.jpg" width="400" />
</div>
<br />
<span><a name='more'></a></span>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">1. Start by modding</h2>
<div>
It's easier to modify a pedal than to build one. I suggest starting with
reversible mods like these wah and diode clipping mods.
</div>
<h3><br /></h3>
<h3>Behringer Hellbabe Wah mod</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HB01--behringer-hb01-hellbabe-optical-wah-pedal" target="_blank">The Behringer Hellbabe</a> (60$) is a cheap clone of the <a href="https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DB01B--dunlop-db01b-dimebag-cry-baby-from-hell-wah-pedal" target="_blank">Dunlop Cry Baby from Hell</a> (160$). One thing I didn't like about it is the course. When you press
down on it, the first part of the course does almost nothing to the sound and
the whole "wah" sound just happens on the very end of the movement. It appears
that this wah is optical and easy to hack with a simple utility knife, which
would not be possible with mechanical wah.
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGaRs-kKLupdrhzvNu-NViQGzIV7Qccjw_lHyrEhVcl2ucA39X1i3-MQOK6c7m_M1nZ80N5vJJsKsAFKDn_X8Eq0cNfGSmG9oSAYY8CYQ78oEbScgC5LsQptvqmCT_ezoqBaFY-odmw/s1024/1634D34F4E1D242827.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="1024" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGaRs-kKLupdrhzvNu-NViQGzIV7Qccjw_lHyrEhVcl2ucA39X1i3-MQOK6c7m_M1nZ80N5vJJsKsAFKDn_X8Eq0cNfGSmG9oSAYY8CYQ78oEbScgC5LsQptvqmCT_ezoqBaFY-odmw/w400-h249/1634D34F4E1D242827.png" width="400" /></a>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Picture from
<a href="https://www.tdpri.com/threads/help-with-behringer-bellbabe-bh01-mod.959931/" target="_blank">TDPRI</a>
<br />
<div><br /></div>
<div>
A wah is mostly a hi-Q bandpass filter. This one works with an optocoupler:
the amount of light a photoresistor sees determines the frequency of the
filter. So if it sees less light, you get the "W" part of the "Wah", and
more light gives the "ah" sound.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
The pedal moves a little panel with a triangular opening in it. This panel
hides or shows more light to the photoresistor. So if you change the shape
of that triangular window, you change the way the pedal movement will affect
the change in filtering.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLoWk54ASk" target="_blank">Here's a video about how to do it</a>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY55oUXGEElr7VojDV6vW25RFIx7jw9SbwJLA7ffV4U2r_d7hjx2he71_kIzR81epqa53Fsdz3TyeI7487MlK7iIUVbN3ZgZoqjYFwugz1jtfXqxqhR5X3On8ll4i73g7plMUTemZP7g/s1358/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-09-20+a%25CC%2580+11.32.05.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1358" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY55oUXGEElr7VojDV6vW25RFIx7jw9SbwJLA7ffV4U2r_d7hjx2he71_kIzR81epqa53Fsdz3TyeI7487MlK7iIUVbN3ZgZoqjYFwugz1jtfXqxqhR5X3On8ll4i73g7plMUTemZP7g/w400-h281/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-09-20+a%25CC%2580+11.32.05.jpg" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<h3>Boss OS-2 clipping diodes</h3>
My experience is that changing the clipping diode is what has the most
impact on the distortion/overdrive character. I bought a used Boss OS-2 for
20$. This pedal has in fact 2 separate circuits (hard and soft clipping)
with a blend knob. It sounded like garbage though. When I opened it, I
noticed that all the clipping diodes have been crippled. That's a typical
amateur move to just remove them and let the opamp clip. I simply replaced
them with a combination of LEDs and silicon. The variations I can get from
that pedal is crazy.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8z5tsKSgG5tpwVO6i6nxY4VXECEJ90yFlSoLzE8S1POUB2FaI4BscELqG0sL8Btu8myIupD_sFnJh57tYOguNOaOb8RTgbkQVhxCNiAm1WehibuSePxeM78p05OGQXvDolx8gWPe4iw/s2048/20200920_131316.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8z5tsKSgG5tpwVO6i6nxY4VXECEJ90yFlSoLzE8S1POUB2FaI4BscELqG0sL8Btu8myIupD_sFnJh57tYOguNOaOb8RTgbkQVhxCNiAm1WehibuSePxeM78p05OGQXvDolx8gWPe4iw/w480-h640/20200920_131316.jpg" width="480" /></a>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Avoid surface-mount electronics as it is harder to mod. The very compact
pedals and the cheap Behringer clones (even though they are excellent
pedals) are often surface mount. Also, be aware that the very latest Boss
pedals are in fact digital. If you want to be safe, try to find the
schematics online and advice on forums. Otherwise, in every used pedal I
opened the clipping diodes were easy to identify and change. They are even
often conveniently labeled. Just look for a pair of diodes so you don't
confuse them with an eventual protection diode.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">2. Expand pedals</h2>
<h3>Boss DS-1 and Tube Screamer mods</h3>
I wrote a separate <a href="http://www.biovisualize.com/2020/09/modding-ds-1-orange-boss-distortion.html" target="_blank">article about modding the Boss DS-1</a>. Here instead of just changing the clipping diodes, I added some toggle
switches to make any combination of LEDs, germanium, silicon diodes or opamp
clipping. I also changed the tone filter shape, the preamp boost and some
capacitors to filter the sound.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I also wrote a separate
<a href="http://www.biovisualize.com/2020/04/modding-18-tube-screamer-clone.html" target="_blank">article about modding a cheap Tube Screamer clone</a>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I see it as the next stage of pedal modding: not just replacing some
components but actually adding more functionalities. Also, it's not just
about swapping internal components but modding the enclosure to expose more
settings. Let's now move on to more involved pedal building.
<h2 style="text-align: left;">3. Build a kit</h2>
</div>
<div>
You can find plenty of kits to build your own pedal. I really like the
<a href="https://effectpedalkits.com/shop/stoning-distortion-kit/" target="_blank">Stoning distortion kit</a>. it doesn't come with an enclosure but I like to build my own anyway,
which I will write about in another article.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHSXD6qLnXGStmWTj705OGtBCAvsvW53z7OarXWGxJ9K_OLHnFBSKEVU3KiQA9daSmsvn-XFFaGWIY8oQSCC5GF-9nY8_4AxGJ9zUtaAqF1rAWxSMOC6EX21LHuRaaGke0PUvUMAp4Q/s1000/20200913_105504b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHSXD6qLnXGStmWTj705OGtBCAvsvW53z7OarXWGxJ9K_OLHnFBSKEVU3KiQA9daSmsvn-XFFaGWIY8oQSCC5GF-9nY8_4AxGJ9zUtaAqF1rAWxSMOC6EX21LHuRaaGke0PUvUMAp4Q/w480-h640/20200913_105504b.jpg" width="480" /></a>
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">4. Design your own sound module</h2>
<h3>Using a Joyo pedal as a base</h3>
<div>
What I advise to do is to use a cheap pedal as the base so you don't have
to rebuild the boring stuff like 1/4 jack connector, bypass switch, 9v
connection, LED and filtering, etc. These Joyo pedals sound very good,
especially this Delux Crunch. I was pleased to discover that this line of
pedal all use the same base so different pedals only have different sound
modules attached to it with a 4 pins connector. So I desoldered the sound
module and attached a strip ribbon to it. Every pedal I build simply
connect to that Joyo base.
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUSPARy56ovIF-3RXehTTpsVM3gqwEhr1p_J5oQY1HvSCm7_reKEbprO2nwotYsaxBw8m3l3pORGnN1q83PkYmqlw7R4nsNg30z4sgxoowvKZkNZrvoCuFAdxgnRK1de6YM3RmT3pkA/s1600/elektra_joyo.jpg"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUSPARy56ovIF-3RXehTTpsVM3gqwEhr1p_J5oQY1HvSCm7_reKEbprO2nwotYsaxBw8m3l3pORGnN1q83PkYmqlw7R4nsNg30z4sgxoowvKZkNZrvoCuFAdxgnRK1de6YM3RmT3pkA/w530-h640/elektra_joyo.jpg" width="530" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>Simple circuits: Elektra</h3>
<div>
One of the fun parts of building pedals is hunting for schematics. Some
circuits are so simple that it's hard to believe that they can sound so
good. For example, here's one called Elektra.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://forrestwhitesides.com/electra-distortion-diy-layouts/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTJftLnxusM8l6eqCpBjm49pugx_XE07oKh8a4dIWU98LnA95BkofejibN_Udg1QDuHLIIcgvXThLBzI1Q4ntgRElIWhIFewffk9ihcWfp72G5-2rJujlBACwuJMOcTirWxc3fQ8_hSw/s320/electra_sch.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">
From
<a href="https://forrestwhitesides.com/electra-distortion-diy-layouts/" target="_blank">this page</a>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
If you are not comfortable reading schematics, you can find many perfboard
illustrations that you just have to replicate. Otherwise, there are some
nice kits
<a href="https://buildyourownclone.com/products/electra-boost-module" target="_blank">here</a>
and
<a href="https://www.musikding.de/The-Electra-Distortion-kit" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />
</div>
<div>
<div>
For my version, I used
<a href="https://easyeda.com/" target="_blank">Easy EDA</a> to model the
circuit and see if I could improve it.
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoGSdNxM5jQHi-9NqbAoh0KEZuAL9pFV9u2SoWp5oWOTc1A2oc8MkxbXJdjUasLiLyouPlbZwz707aCwTY9VnsUlE2A5KaHHthc5w98jWH3e1FQ3YSuTaUbgda6MrXLOpXK0XzjygYg/s1600/Schematic_Elektra+distortion_Fuzz+Pedal_20200105022647.png"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoGSdNxM5jQHi-9NqbAoh0KEZuAL9pFV9u2SoWp5oWOTc1A2oc8MkxbXJdjUasLiLyouPlbZwz707aCwTY9VnsUlE2A5KaHHthc5w98jWH3e1FQ3YSuTaUbgda6MrXLOpXK0XzjygYg/s640/Schematic_Elektra+distortion_Fuzz+Pedal_20200105022647.png" width="640" /></a>
</div>
<br /><br />
</div>
<div>
My final version has a single gain knob going from clean to really saturated
in just around 8 components.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKJq94YQksYYVqENlf9Le0TL3EJoHNj1z2ppodbBb7Su_ApzWIrwVRxGa4sFvF4BnFdp7e8o_CQ1EqSo8CfGvPjm9MqV6kkK3SyrlGaGP2_ZpZX59EazGqXk-tN7gMmPr8QBfE3rVI0Q/s1600/elktra_board_large.jpg"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKJq94YQksYYVqENlf9Le0TL3EJoHNj1z2ppodbBb7Su_ApzWIrwVRxGa4sFvF4BnFdp7e8o_CQ1EqSo8CfGvPjm9MqV6kkK3SyrlGaGP2_ZpZX59EazGqXk-tN7gMmPr8QBfE3rVI0Q/s640/elktra_board_large.jpg" width="640" /></a>
</div>
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Typical opamp distortion: MXR Dist+</h3>
</div>
<div>
This circuit is a good starting point to learn about distortion (hard
clipping) and how to wire opamps. It's very easy to mod and is a template
used by most distortion pedals I know. Once you make a distortion, an
overdrive and a fuzz, and you understand the similarities and differences,
you see how most pedals are a variant of these 3 schemas, even the 1000$
pedals. <a href="https://www.electrosmash.com/mxr-distortion-plus-analysis" target="_blank">This article</a>
is an excellent explanation of that circuit and how to modify it.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I like to model my schematics using EasyEDA, but I use
<a href="https://github.com/mpue/blackboard" target="_blank">Blackboard</a> or
<a href="https://github.com/bancika/diy-layout-creator" target="_blank">DIY-layout-creator</a>
as simpler tools to layout my perfboard.
</div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwfHUp280-Kb3gwYt6T-63chykN8Jf2P7YFzEHeZQl7oIBkmURiXeW3Ge3NULBg-0W4KT8eLqOeIgaUkfbAc-EK1qHreqctYLQGXDeeksuQDfP_M66HnvvbM8kqsA6kHnxUZ2LpHvhtA/s1600/dist_plus_top.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwfHUp280-Kb3gwYt6T-63chykN8Jf2P7YFzEHeZQl7oIBkmURiXeW3Ge3NULBg-0W4KT8eLqOeIgaUkfbAc-EK1qHreqctYLQGXDeeksuQDfP_M66HnvvbM8kqsA6kHnxUZ2LpHvhtA/w367-h400/dist_plus_top.png" width="367" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<div><h3>Other simple circuits</h3></div>
<div>
Here are other simple but impressive circuits that I have in various
phases on breadboards: <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/FET-Distortion-Pedal/" target="_blank">Multistage jfet</a> if you like amp-like distortions, <a href="http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2014/01/matsumin-valve-caster.html" target="_blank">Matsumin Valve Caster</a> if you want a cheap way to get into tube circuits, <a href="http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2017/01/earthquaker-devices-bellows.html" target="_blank">Earthquaker Device Bellows</a> for another amp-like distortion that is simple but very powerful.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<h3>Pre-made PCB</h3>
</div>
<div>
One good alternative if you don't want to design your perfboard or print
your own PCB is to buy one.
<a href="https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/dist250/" target="_blank">PedalPCB</a>
as tons of very well made PCB for any type of pedal. You need to provide
your own electronic components though, they are not complete kits, just the
board. For this one I stayed very close to the original schematic, just
changed a few values and the clipping diodes.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiuLo5OyTMmFVA57vxnIQpRvNi8mJ6ljKuRnwozcAQ7osjXlWYaJAxg01wpT3NePANnFd60zbr4j5HcdY5gac_nwH0opWDSnq4SaXrlGcBFPY6WnchMlJePSysrdd8e6kVVKyjag8w5g/s1728/20210906_165010.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="1296" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiuLo5OyTMmFVA57vxnIQpRvNi8mJ6ljKuRnwozcAQ7osjXlWYaJAxg01wpT3NePANnFd60zbr4j5HcdY5gac_nwH0opWDSnq4SaXrlGcBFPY6WnchMlJePSysrdd8e6kVVKyjag8w5g/w300-h400/20210906_165010.jpg" width="300" /></a>
</div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7O4WXo2dSrT_T034xAZBikhQz0BSoC8B3ES-dHk3XGGjERmIe9EYb1-jO1WQg1HZWQYKE6sCRUQRZbJnZh441VsHdUDbvq4OkCA-yeUqIqx8tQJNr5TmiI2T0XrrxCh5jC1KWPNF1BQ/s1728/20210906_165506.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1296" data-original-width="1728" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7O4WXo2dSrT_T034xAZBikhQz0BSoC8B3ES-dHk3XGGjERmIe9EYb1-jO1WQg1HZWQYKE6sCRUQRZbJnZh441VsHdUDbvq4OkCA-yeUqIqx8tQJNr5TmiI2T0XrrxCh5jC1KWPNF1BQ/w640-h480/20210906_165506.jpg" width="640" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />The next one I'm building from
PedalPCB is the <a href="https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/fuzzfoundry/" target="_blank">Fuzz Foundry</a>. The typical fuzz schematic is very simple but can be difficult to do
right, especially when it requires germanium transistors which are hard to
find and often unreliable. I also have the <a href="https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/infinidrive/" target="_blank">Omni Drive</a> by John Hollis. This circuit has many toggles to try to mimic a great
variety of sounds from a minimal number of components. Impressive piece of
circuit design.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
I like how much resources you can get to build your own clone. For example,
I really like the Catalinbread sound. Here's an article about the
<a href="http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/search/label/Catalinbread" target="_blank">Catalinbread SFT</a> and a
<a href="https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/softii/" target="_blank">PCB for it</a>.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">5. Have your components ready</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">If you are building your pedal from scratch, you need to have some
basic components at hand. It can be very frustrating to just order the
exact list of components for your project and then wanting to modify it
and not have the right components. I had the basic equipment 20 years
ago when I started toying with analog electronics but I had no
components.</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">After much research, here's the cheapest bill of material I can
list </span>(all costs in CAD).
</div>
<h3>Base electronics components</h3>
<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01EV6LJ7G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">Breadboard</a> x3: 12.99$<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B015X8KAYO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">Perfboard</a> x10: 6.99$<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Lot-potentiom%C3%A8tres-rotatifs-K-100-broches/dp/B07WQFS5WP/ref=sr_1_12?__mk_fr_CA=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=potentiometer+kit&qid=1600628629&refinements=p_85%3A5690392011&rnid=5690384011&rps=1&sr=8-12" target="_blank">Potentiometers kit</a> x30: 19.99$<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/r%C3%A9sistance-16-valeurs-10ohm-1mohm-r%C3%A9sistances-Assortiment/dp/B07JHZFHTK/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_fr_CA=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=resistor+kit&qid=1600628691&refinements=p_85%3A5690392011&rnid=5690384011&rps=1&sr=8-2" target="_blank">Resistor kit</a> x400: 10.19$ <br /><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B019ERIJMA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">Capacitor kit</a> x150: 17.99$ <br /><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07T354FYF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">Gemanium diodes</a> x10: 3.91$<br /><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32556389326.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.15014c4dMjsPxH" target="_blank">Quad opamps TL074</a> x10: 1.24$<br /><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32844832768.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.15014c4dMjsPxH" target="_blank">Opamps LM741</a> x10: 1.50$<br /><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32845363925.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.15014c4dMjsPxH" target="_blank">Dual opamps TL072</a> x10: 0.99$ (9.99$ when not bought directly from China)
</div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32623389998.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4d7499f8OMkMR1&algo_pvid=1293bcb2-9b77-4389-9898-b938ee75efd5&algo_expid=1293bcb2-9b77-4389-9898-b938ee75efd5-0&btsid=0bb0623d16006284797366764e2f9e&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_" target="_blank">Jfet transistors J201</a> x10: 1.31$<br /><br />
Total: 77.10$
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Of course you need to add the basic tools required for electronics (pliers,
soldering iron and wire, multimeter). You can probably build more than 40
pedals with this kit (if you get more perfboards). That's less than 2$ a
pedal! Then you need to add the enclosure and fixtures.
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Enclosure</h3>
<div>For 1 pedal</div>
2 jack 1/4 sockets: 3$<br />dc socket: 1.40$<br />footswitch: 3.60$<br />enclosure:
5.96$<br />water slide decal: 1.35$
</div>
<div>
<br />
Total: 15.31$<br />
<br /><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32959001205.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.33c235b3z8yFFy&algo_pvid=dbbe1589-613e-498a-9efa-eb4fcbb474a4&algo_expid=dbbe1589-613e-498a-9efa-eb4fcbb474a4-9&btsid=f5d6fd47-b766-4129-ab05-03ef2ba92942&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3,searchweb201603_53" target="_blank">Enclosure 1590B</a>
= standard: (11.1 x 6 x 3.1) = 5.96$<br /><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32959001205.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.33c235b3z8yFFy&algo_pvid=dbbe1589-613e-498a-9efa-eb4fcbb474a4&algo_expid=dbbe1589-613e-498a-9efa-eb4fcbb474a4-9&btsid=f5d6fd47-b766-4129-ab05-03ef2ba92942&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_3,searchweb201603_53" target="_blank">Enclosure 1590BB</a>
= double: (12 x 9.3 x 3.5) = 7.15$
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
As you can see, the enclosure costs way more than the actual audio circuit.
You can even find
<a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32782502831.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.139f2e0eeq0PMI" target="_blank">these parts in kit</a>
for just 1$ more. But it's worth it. Here I printed a drawing from my
daughter on a waterslide decal to add on an aluminium enclosure that has
been primed.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVFCwUG1t9Cgy9cAare795vam2UMu__UIindZM5QjGSYzp29qO4esUViYmj9d67pkw7L8luHteA1TajicnAXzszmNXeXct2a3uvqIZSx_O2JVtT4HIvzCQH9EK9lZzCHi6uPXlAEPGg/s2000/pedal_decal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVFCwUG1t9Cgy9cAare795vam2UMu__UIindZM5QjGSYzp29qO4esUViYmj9d67pkw7L8luHteA1TajicnAXzszmNXeXct2a3uvqIZSx_O2JVtT4HIvzCQH9EK9lZzCHi6uPXlAEPGg/w480-h640/pedal_decal.jpg" width="480" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<div><br /></div>
<div><br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h2>
<div>
Modding and building pedals are fun. My goal here was to show that it
doesn't have to be expensive. But if saving money is your goal, I found
excellent pedals for cheaper than that, like this <a href="https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Ccdes-JF-34-American-Distortion-Guitar-Effect-Device-Pedal-for-Electric-Guitar-Electric-Pedal-Monoblock/2Z4JTIYILEDX" target="_blank">impressive Suhr Riot clone</a> for 11$. And they really do sound great. So why pay for expensive
pedals that most often are just glorified Tube Screamer clones? My opinion
is that when you buy a pedal you like, regardless of if you can build or buy
a clone, you also pay for the real thing, for these awesome creators that
are not just able to design impressive circuits but to manage a company, to
drive a whole industry, to make you dream and to inspire you. When I listen
to the folks at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/jhspedals" target="_blank">JHS</a>,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/strymon" target="_blank">Strymon</a>,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdVrg4Wl3vjIxonABn6RfWw" target="_blank">Wampler</a>,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9SfPLQuNnSTM1qHVsr8Tg" target="_blank">EHX</a>,
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/askdeathbyaudio" target="_blank">Death by Audio</a>, I always feel like my pedal modding hobby is like I'm painting by number
and these people are like Bob Ross. Look inside their pedals, hear how they
sound, look at the design, it's the same circuit, why is it so much better?
That's their magic.<br />
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
Buying pedals also encourages local creators. I'm from Montreal and we have
<a href="https://www.jonnyrockgear.com/products" target="_blank">Johnny Rock Gear</a>, <a href="https://mtlasm.com/" target="_blank">Montreal Assembly</a>,
<a href="https://fairfieldcircuitry.com/" target="_blank">Fairfield Circuitry</a>,
<a href="https://www.groundcontrolaudio.com/" target="_blank">Ground Control</a> and
<a href="https://solidgoldfx.com/" target="_blank">SolidGoldFx</a> to name
just a few.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
<div>
But before destroying a 300$ Wampler Triple Wreck I will practice on that
<a href="Triple Wreck clone " target="_blank">50$ clone</a>. And building my
own circuits makes me appreciate what these creators are doing even more,
like playing music helps appreciate what musicians are creating. I also like
that my errors are something that you can't get on a professional pedal or
in digital emulations, that moment when the feedback loop makes it
oscillate, when a fuzz is starved and starts to sputter, when a JFET
explodes in smoke at the right moment. At the end of the day, it's fun to
watch clipping sine waves on an oscilloscope, but it's even more fun to see
how it brings your playing into unexplored territories.
</div>
<div><br /></div>
</div>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-7739520516984941282020-09-18T15:31:00.008-07:002024-01-27T12:15:51.552-08:00Modding the Orange Boss and Peavey amp to sound like my 90's rig<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That orange pedal is a classic. That's the sound I had when I started playing guitar. Out of nostalgia, I bought an old Peavey from the 80's as well as a used DS-1. It sounds like the glorious garbage from my teenage years. But something was off. The amp was even worse. So I tweaked them. Here is what I did.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpYNmlLn5mo1ZNBzS1hOpoeVKE4ZvcXYoINq1kH6HzRN9JMSa_x6WH8vQR5eKabP0zaFeKrAgVG9Wcm906wV2q5j9bMeqswgFB6bikCjtCRUVxqP7SCsn0Y7wTyfop0k2MfQVjl3fpDg/w300-h400/toggles.jpg" width="300" />
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><a name='more'></a></span>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Boss DS-1 distortion pedal</span>
</h2>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AxH-5QNg8xtsgNeLAaH7EScLAvLH2TvLMZGXauwOez3ubGhGajWS8V9HD0AJvsISl3_nLP21SR96Q-SPvystCU2aVwweLqCsHzfMXTLFGKurORMBSSNCufkHRe1q7YCtYZLGpORXyw/w480-h640/peavey.jpg" width="480" />
</div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span>The problem</span></h3>
<div>
<span><b>First</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, I didn't recall the pedal tone knob to be so muffled on low setting and
shrilling on the high. </span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span><b>Second</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, it can't go clean. I'm more used to overdrives now so I have trouble
enjoying the fizz that a distortion adds to a clean sound at low gain
because of its hard clipping.</span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span><b>Third</b></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">, it's pretty compressed and fizzy, I'm a grown up now, I need more
headroom, more bass and more crunch.</span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The good news is that there are easy solution for all of these problems all
over the web. Here is my version.</span>
</div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span>Clipping diodes</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">My experience with modding pedals is that changing the clipping diodes has
the most impact on the gain structure. I started by breadboarding some
switches. The blue switches are for changing diode types: silicon,
germanium, red LED and 3 color LED (using half of it). That selection can be
done for both sides of the clipping (clipping the top and bottom of the
signal).</span>
</div>
<br />
<div>
Distortions often use silicon diodes. Germanium has a sligthly lower voltage
so they will start clipping sooner and thus compress the signal more. I prefer
LEDs, they start clipping at higher voltage so they give more volume and more
crunch. They also light up when they clip so you get a visual of the amount of
clipping. You can get quite fancy by combining diode types for some
asymetrical clipping.
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOSktt5a0WkGhMw-SOmLuoRiri7V9HsMo58vOx3h23Fnsmkzzn9CFS1GP0QSY7Po43Gx0FZSS8eML5UNnNZr4BTPY0-YJpssMR7sGhOYYW0GVrEbnn8nPvt-XGXmgeXsrxRNNgcatE_A/s1000/breadboard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOSktt5a0WkGhMw-SOmLuoRiri7V9HsMo58vOx3h23Fnsmkzzn9CFS1GP0QSY7Po43Gx0FZSS8eML5UNnNZr4BTPY0-YJpssMR7sGhOYYW0GVrEbnn8nPvt-XGXmgeXsrxRNNgcatE_A/w640-h480/breadboard.jpg" width="640" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span>Clean boost</span></h3>
<div>
The DS-1 amplifies the signal quite a lot before even hitting the opamp, so
you get clipping from the opamp itself. It's an interesting sounds and some
pedals are doing just that. But it also means that you can't lower the gain
enough to have a clean signal. So I added a switch to lower the transistor
amplification. Then you get a nice clean boost when using the level knob.
Combined with diode clipping, you get more headroom. I also like the opamp
clipping so the final iteration have the option to remove clipping diodes and
just get the opamp distortion, or just the clean sound.
</div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span>Tone control</span></h3>
<div>
I'm not sure how we are supposed to use the extremes of the regular tone
control of a DS-1 but they sound mostly unusable to me. A nice trick is to
change the tone filter curve to make it more flat. I use a switch to turn that
mod on and off because some diode combinations are still interesting with the
original tone on high settings.
</div>
<br />
<div>
I also experimented with some mods to raise the gain a bit more but it was
adding too much hissing noise.
</div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span>Packaging</span></h3>
<div>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">For packaging these mods, my first idea was to have a separate box
attached to the pedal. It looked like a motorcycle sidecar so I had a box
and a design ready.</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4YxFD9P04njN2lHLua8nfF_hlctEbrTa9seXJlYMbCOa25WPdj3pX4h3_WuZ9UUpZOeL9Rm4n7G3bNShzN3BZNJn_prOe3ZnUKtyHLe0Dd64DaoPJPiOGqw_oTpzyPHaTI5ldanqYA/s849/ds1_sidecar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="849" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4YxFD9P04njN2lHLua8nfF_hlctEbrTa9seXJlYMbCOa25WPdj3pX4h3_WuZ9UUpZOeL9Rm4n7G3bNShzN3BZNJn_prOe3ZnUKtyHLe0Dd64DaoPJPiOGqw_oTpzyPHaTI5ldanqYA/s320/ds1_sidecar.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div>
<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">But then I figured out a way to pack the 4 toggles inside the pedal
enclosure. So I decided to use some point to point soldering instead. Here
you can see the diode selector. One side has red LED and germanium, the
other yellow LED and silicon. The switch is 3 way, so the center is off, no
diode selected.</span>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipghtM95oX7i3E3JTCBr5JvXZ_S4GGZQdsVl6t0Y2cB7xYYItLfR_R70JzRaxwHAAWiB41cn92UK55-bHg5Es_a0LSbovM9TtEC52_4BXBqDFFesqJv4GV0x3ZrLQbVxM0ldsKOppzxw/s1000/clipping_diodes.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipghtM95oX7i3E3JTCBr5JvXZ_S4GGZQdsVl6t0Y2cB7xYYItLfR_R70JzRaxwHAAWiB41cn92UK55-bHg5Es_a0LSbovM9TtEC52_4BXBqDFFesqJv4GV0x3ZrLQbVxM0ldsKOppzxw/s320/clipping_diodes.jpg" width="320" /></a>
</div>
<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here's the final gut picture.</span>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb6BuO462Mr-ljm_owl5L10A3ACOn6azgSemaoSVPO5i86kj4rCBMEJBFcn0O-bmczsqkvJlSpWDSlya44WiDZS7Q83eQQOKHd0L46mxao7nFyzjy0rK6bA6bF9z8kTM5j7ayuXwmEVA/s1000/gut_pic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb6BuO462Mr-ljm_owl5L10A3ACOn6azgSemaoSVPO5i86kj4rCBMEJBFcn0O-bmczsqkvJlSpWDSlya44WiDZS7Q83eQQOKHd0L46mxao7nFyzjy0rK6bA6bF9z8kTM5j7ayuXwmEVA/w480-h640/gut_pic.jpg" width="480" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span>Some technical details</span></h3>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I experimented starting with these references:<br /><a href="https://www.electrosmash.com/boss-ds1-analysis">https://www.electrosmash.com/boss-ds1-analysis</a><br /><a href="https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/boss-ds-1-mods-1?page=2">https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/boss-ds-1-mods-1?page=2</a></span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Filter switch:</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;">Flat filter curve: R16=1K</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mid boost: R16=250</span></li>
</ul>
<div>Gain stage bias</div>
<div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Less gain: R9=25</li>
<li>More gain: R9=500</li>
</ul>
<div>Diodes</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Top: germanium, red LED, off</li>
<li>Bottom: silicon, yellow LED, off</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I also changed C10=.068uf to filter some shrills. </span>
</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Peavey amp</span>
</h2>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The amp Supersat™is pretty bad on that Peavey Studio Pro 60. Like for the
Boss DS-1, the sound I had in my mind had more crunch than that. So I had to
modify it too.</span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">This amp was only produced for a year so I only found schematics for the 50
and 110 versions, which appeared to be pretty different. I had to manually
trace the schematic to find the right diodes involved in the clipping. Th
egood news is that there's no difference between a pedal and an amp at this
stage. This one had 2 pairs of silicon diodes in the opamp loop. That
explains the compressed and fizzy sound. Easy to change.</span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Here you can see how a switch changes diodes and connects to the clipping
stage. I choose 3 gain structure: async germanium + 2 silicon, blue LEDs for
more crunch, volume and bass and a pair of MOSFET for even more headroom and
tube-like breakup.</span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMFTxvCi-YjqQ0VnzBiuoqZtzOx9FQ0-iOEB6a_VacrIeOwmCbzGSBLqMi9tK3OSObsXSzYlFnADM0wPbIGwZXQj9xncFm9esuS6mB6a8hKr9Z1PyeIjMkxONFNdp037gW369n-afSqw/s2000/20211017_205534_s.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMFTxvCi-YjqQ0VnzBiuoqZtzOx9FQ0-iOEB6a_VacrIeOwmCbzGSBLqMi9tK3OSObsXSzYlFnADM0wPbIGwZXQj9xncFm9esuS6mB6a8hKr9Z1PyeIjMkxONFNdp037gW369n-afSqw/w640-h480/20211017_205534_s.jpg" width="640" /></a>
</div>
<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">The 3 way selector is exposed in the back to radically change your
distortion type.</span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMQdU5FXJXBw0YBVVpxr2isamfXtVnXlkjErQpUZ6bv1x5ixrP3DU6pE1OIWBl04WL4vNOX8KEDUbSU8ph4BXlMYinL-sW1JoROn0NhDb9udAkIOku7AwwsYdRS3icHL1V9U6jyUr_Q/s2000/20211017_210356s.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEMQdU5FXJXBw0YBVVpxr2isamfXtVnXlkjErQpUZ6bv1x5ixrP3DU6pE1OIWBl04WL4vNOX8KEDUbSU8ph4BXlMYinL-sW1JoROn0NhDb9udAkIOku7AwwsYdRS3icHL1V9U6jyUr_Q/w640-h480/20211017_210356s.jpg" width="640" /></a>
</div>
<br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-42479228041474926732020-04-12T10:49:00.004-07:002024-01-27T12:16:05.026-08:00Modding a 18$ Tube Screamer clone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Tube Screamer (TS) is an excellent overdrive platform for modding. Some versions of it like that one are still in production. There's a cult around the TS and when you look at modern overdrive and distortion schematics, you will see that a lot of them are mostly glorified TS mods. If you want to get started modding pedals, instead of destroying a 250$ pedal, this 18$ CAD clone is very close to the original. In my case, I changed the range of the drive and tone, added more bass and replaced the useless switch to toggle clipping diodes instead, which completely changes the drive structure.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK7Zv8KCaj2YPi_5ZIfmpU0qsm094ZhGHx1DUWZwq2_L15BnO2hPIY9Uf0PJ53Lzei4T7_SGfCcn1Udks-cospaXPjlZuIcdmBdIrzld8k_R7fqKPEXhZViKgwIoOQpdiYWIzZ7eg25w/s1600/20200412_105819b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK7Zv8KCaj2YPi_5ZIfmpU0qsm094ZhGHx1DUWZwq2_L15BnO2hPIY9Uf0PJ53Lzei4T7_SGfCcn1Udks-cospaXPjlZuIcdmBdIrzld8k_R7fqKPEXhZViKgwIoOQpdiYWIzZ7eg25w/s400/20200412_105819b.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
First I verified all values against the excellent Electrosmash <a href="https://www.electrosmash.com/tube-screamer-analysis" target="_blank">analysis of the Tube Screamer</a>. And I didn't find any significant difference (aside from the clone to be true
bypass).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOWSnsMalBeeSvsa4URXXG5yvR2183Rw2Kng3ynCe6-8RBDZhBaitvZM33QFEE910eWmjYhISuSmDUS-KAVvNIAL_sWvNXkJ3E32TshGGJOT_RfY8_eZrln4jOsYwZl8oBL9AGBAC7w/s1600/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-01-12+a%25CC%2580+23.12.18.jpg"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOWSnsMalBeeSvsa4URXXG5yvR2183Rw2Kng3ynCe6-8RBDZhBaitvZM33QFEE910eWmjYhISuSmDUS-KAVvNIAL_sWvNXkJ3E32TshGGJOT_RfY8_eZrln4jOsYwZl8oBL9AGBAC7w/s640/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-01-12+a%25CC%2580+23.12.18.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Of course the components are not of the highest quality, but it sounds right,
especially when pushing a tube amp or as a colored boost in front of another
pedal. So we can really treat this clone as a Tube Screamer and make it closer
to what you want. I always feel that TS cuts too much bass, is not dirty enough
and doesn't completely clean off. I'm not alone, so it was easy to find how to
modify it.<br />
<br />
<h3>More clean, more drive, more bass</h3>
I like the mods from
<a href="https://www.tdpri.com/threads/a-tale-of-two-tubescreamers.673737/" target="_blank">TDPRI</a> and from Brian Wampler on
<a href="https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/13562-diy-mods-to-perfect-your-ibanez-ts9-and-boss-sd-1?page=4" target="_blank">Premier Guitar</a>. I wanted the drive to go down to totally clean and up to more distortion. I
like the mid bump of the Tube Screamer so I didn't change the shape of the
filter, but I added more bass. I also like to play with clipping diodes as it
has a big impact on the overdrive color. Here's a summary of the changes I
applied to the clone:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Cleaner at min gain: R6=1.2K</li>
<li>More bass (around 338Hz) and more gain: C3=.33uf, R5=1.2K</li>
<li>Better bass (reusing C3): C1=0.047uF</li>
<li>Clipping loop filter (for the change of clipping diodes): C4=100pF</li>
</ul>
<br />
Here are a few specificities of that clone. When I changed de capacitor C3, I
could reuse it for C1. The components I had were bigger than those on the
circuit board, but it was still an easy fit.<br />
<br />
One thing I noticed is that the labels on the switch between TS808 (100, 10k)
and TS9 (407, 100k) are inverted. It doesn't matter to me because these
components in the buffer stage do not have any audible difference, probably
just a change of output impedance. So what I did is that I reused the switch for
changing clipping diodes.
<div>
<br />
<h3>Convert TS model switch to clipping diode selector</h3>
So I repurposed the toggle to switch diodes in the clipping stage, which makes
a huge difference in the distortion type. It was a bit hacky but I wanted to
find a way to reuse as many components as possible. I left one original
silicon diode and the toggle switches between the original silicon diode and a
LED.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv6AjNDCKgcDmsVh8RXdN01S5IvWhffrUX4qRkBSbU2UHQ_25YSaFYoAHFWYkz-hikRmk8Y4o10ETMFfrN5GKCGHlyR8lAtTd6UT0sEq48k9blORS4KCmaobbxeJ-x4CepPjKYEDDRHg/s1600/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-01-12+a%25CC%2580+22.59.35.jpg"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv6AjNDCKgcDmsVh8RXdN01S5IvWhffrUX4qRkBSbU2UHQ_25YSaFYoAHFWYkz-hikRmk8Y4o10ETMFfrN5GKCGHlyR8lAtTd6UT0sEq48k9blORS4KCmaobbxeJ-x4CepPjKYEDDRHg/s320/Capture+d%25E2%2580%2599e%25CC%2581cran%252C+le+2020-01-12+a%25CC%2580+22.59.35.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
<h3>Result</h3>
Here is the end result.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivWsIPmOhtjWQqTreH_nlGyFcZrgmP7a7BqytmXXtGiKFc_qa0ZZVpowNkPMp5ZDc9vGbGT1XOxMcSRvdaJsjDuh5kxB88A-7qMeVsJLQs7jregXF05QBqS6eaLywLHUmP_ddnzHwP1Q/s1600/20200412_105956b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivWsIPmOhtjWQqTreH_nlGyFcZrgmP7a7BqytmXXtGiKFc_qa0ZZVpowNkPMp5ZDc9vGbGT1XOxMcSRvdaJsjDuh5kxB88A-7qMeVsJLQs7jregXF05QBqS6eaLywLHUmP_ddnzHwP1Q/w432-h640/20200412_105956b.jpg" width="432" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LYQGRFsOD4lQx55luKfuwB0bOecqbKRD5slY9c4ilKvoOye8QoSHsMjSIS8h4AGGzaNSvKtCv2oGDIy6w8vCo_QIETY7igtNYkytz1_sW0gOrM8KlcF3IqJBMEcKComRc6in1APdow/s1600/20200412_111255b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_LYQGRFsOD4lQx55luKfuwB0bOecqbKRD5slY9c4ilKvoOye8QoSHsMjSIS8h4AGGzaNSvKtCv2oGDIy6w8vCo_QIETY7igtNYkytz1_sW0gOrM8KlcF3IqJBMEcKComRc6in1APdow/w460-h640/20200412_111255b.jpg" width="460" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohMEMUK2yFmxdqQw25OPVOGhEvCtPbEIHnm2VY-xeWTt8tVpazHZjRxfcNpF8NeKouOqsrXHcXK-CGCY3AUa781745vsC3HpJx6zT8bJxBEkiFcZBU7CcQ9z8qlvRwnFY0wWEQ0x9eQ/s1600/20200412_111345b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohMEMUK2yFmxdqQw25OPVOGhEvCtPbEIHnm2VY-xeWTt8tVpazHZjRxfcNpF8NeKouOqsrXHcXK-CGCY3AUa781745vsC3HpJx6zT8bJxBEkiFcZBU7CcQ9z8qlvRwnFY0wWEQ0x9eQ/w640-h480/20200412_111345b.jpg" width="640" /></a>
</div>
<br />
</div>
<h3>Result</h3>
Update: Demonfx has
<a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002885192645.html" target="_blank">a new version</a>
of their overdrive with an internal dip switch to select the clipping diodes.
The TS9/808 switch is still useless so it could be used to expose the internal
dipswitch instead.
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-44742171560258121132018-06-01T07:46:00.000-07:002024-01-27T07:54:18.265-08:00MapD3I'm currently working on datavis for MapD Immerse and collaborating on a new
charts library codenamed MapD3. It's in an early stage, but we are already using
it in production and it's available on
<a href="https://github.com/mapd/mapd3">Github</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5CFSGlVmIC5WO8GlC6DUdGg8b1LYDex6lu41lAHs60LjvCWCwdiv9H6nGCx5EjeR9g_Mk6njI3UhUqvVdCfjI_Wx2ZhTqp6ySeq-PPnls1W1fDRaKRiTHIJA_hYVUfENg1X1gtB5SQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-06-01+at+10.42.47+AM.png"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
data-original-height="876"
data-original-width="1600"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5CFSGlVmIC5WO8GlC6DUdGg8b1LYDex6lu41lAHs60LjvCWCwdiv9H6nGCx5EjeR9g_Mk6njI3UhUqvVdCfjI_Wx2ZhTqp6ySeq-PPnls1W1fDRaKRiTHIJA_hYVUfENg1X1gtB5SQ/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-06-01+at+10.42.47+AM.png"
width="100%"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-90682033026932082602017-03-17T08:49:00.002-07:002024-01-27T07:53:27.974-08:00Insights from designing Datahub UII wrote a <a href="https://medium.com/planet-os/insights-from-designing-datahub-ui-in-d3-js-d8f0f5da0b82">blog post </a>about some code architecture insights I got from building the visualizations for Datahub-ui, a ui platform we are using at Planet OS.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*K9ObEK-9kOLcdtsgdVVDbg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*K9ObEK-9kOLcdtsgdVVDbg.png" width="100%" /></a></div>
<br />CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-3017884360905404972017-03-17T08:47:00.001-07:002024-01-27T07:54:45.210-08:00D3 ModularI wrote a
<a href="https://medium.com/@christopheviau/d3-js-modularity-d5eed78ba06e"
>blog post</a
>
about code modularity in D3.js, where I give some tricks I learned from 5 or 6
different charts library design.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/@christopheviau/d3-js-modularity-d5eed78ba06e"
><img
src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*RMDQcFWBux1Gw_hoABizSg.png"
width="100%"
/></a>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-32375810484535094962017-03-01T07:46:00.000-08:002024-01-27T07:54:53.607-08:00Chart optimizationI wrote an
<a
href="https://medium.com/@christopheviau/6-weird-tricks-for-insane-chart-performance-afd29f90f271"
>article</a
>
about optimizing chart performance, with tricks like canvas buffering,
progressive rendering, stream loading, using Web Workers, GPUs,
bisection/quadtrees, etc.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://medium.com/@christopheviau/6-weird-tricks-for-insane-chart-performance-afd29f90f271"
>
<img
border="0"
height="224"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57swUt2yMv-YR3p-_ZV5U53Ahs-4KKKikzyqeEvqQS0BNb7c5OkWrKPvrN0YGkXdf_tTOZ6ElXjFsvtLpQ4d0ewCQBqCfzfkDvzliSlGqSvvYFov5Ck35sFdkweeo0f1Q0DcmanusGQ/s640/bisect.gif"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-75430776566717374682016-06-03T07:11:00.016-07:002024-01-27T07:55:06.988-08:00Estonian diaspora visualization for the PresidentHere is a gift we made to the president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves. It's a
data visualization of Estonian populations around the globe.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOdiLaVBUNpWWpgfZEKlIIvmogEkzHlIQdg6J9D3yTC9eyxonPZ0jgOoTU2VxDKupQHpXXElwsBVH4ey9Xt2UIfkjXcvENowYNjcsBMiyTHe5eyX1QwUbxR3SV2rBgMVQz4fNp6CMks0U_SvZ_3CjF6A-zyW4HzA_dd2JZl2wH2DWJHD-OEnmQQ/s1080/13301388_1141235175898028_1833513432124492381_o.jpeg"
style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: left;"
><img
alt=""
border="0"
data-original-height="809"
data-original-width="1080"
height="480"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOdiLaVBUNpWWpgfZEKlIIvmogEkzHlIQdg6J9D3yTC9eyxonPZ0jgOoTU2VxDKupQHpXXElwsBVH4ey9Xt2UIfkjXcvENowYNjcsBMiyTHe5eyX1QwUbxR3SV2rBgMVQz4fNp6CMks0U_SvZ_3CjF6A-zyW4HzA_dd2JZl2wH2DWJHD-OEnmQQ/w640-h480/13301388_1141235175898028_1833513432124492381_o.jpeg"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-58369819334655280432016-03-07T07:01:00.003-08:002024-01-27T08:01:37.074-08:00Planet OS ExchangeWe delivered a search engine for environmental sensor data called Planet OS
Exchange.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFGWq8gY1576g8OZslQ1DML-7_7YQDGF-dnKP48y-4uPZUy885zJ6dtQwbcK5wac6_A22VSvnuHsXKfCYJQwC7s49WDn22rNrBRzaGAGv1DFbkcTt0UDK_MlCmXu7ffW6pmpIedveCA/s1600/Search_and_exchange_screenshot.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="412"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFGWq8gY1576g8OZslQ1DML-7_7YQDGF-dnKP48y-4uPZUy885zJ6dtQwbcK5wac6_A22VSvnuHsXKfCYJQwC7s49WDn22rNrBRzaGAGv1DFbkcTt0UDK_MlCmXu7ffW6pmpIedveCA/s640/Search_and_exchange_screenshot.jpg"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
I learned a lot about maps visualization and sensor data. Here is an early
prototype.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yEm_qtyzBWAD7zTVcvVvr7oRytGXASSASjzb7S1m8CAdI42gSn-9WgdGcdFAkv7GQYF7Rw-ubX9ej2t0qbnPcDO351X16BqMXbAo8mrST06NJmeKr85igw7I5ntWiVacoPL4eLi3pw/s1600/dataset_dashboard.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="398"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yEm_qtyzBWAD7zTVcvVvr7oRytGXASSASjzb7S1m8CAdI42gSn-9WgdGcdFAkv7GQYF7Rw-ubX9ej2t0qbnPcDO351X16BqMXbAo8mrST06NJmeKr85igw7I5ntWiVacoPL4eLi3pw/s640/dataset_dashboard.jpg"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
That's where I developed
<a href="https://planetos.com/blog/cirrus-js/">Cirrus.js</a>. Most data we
currently have is raster data, but there's always the occasional time series.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vpBszzOHaDZbT5nk9uxohhE46Lwl9Wk0Jh-XyUWaMlAumJXl7BKNKLP_4IzGl7Pz3Dm6kRnZdOYLIrf5-1ymtPaf14EPWdOsTXNhQXWpHFSX0291iUaHme5E8sXyR9Myb_8s9EQu7g/s1600/gaps1.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="352"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vpBszzOHaDZbT5nk9uxohhE46Lwl9Wk0Jh-XyUWaMlAumJXl7BKNKLP_4IzGl7Pz3Dm6kRnZdOYLIrf5-1ymtPaf14EPWdOsTXNhQXWpHFSX0291iUaHme5E8sXyR9Myb_8s9EQu7g/s640/gaps1.jpg"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
And temporal coverage chart.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcUGfxQExRpLBnxNxE3A0E9MSgtWHQGRPfALSQ0s26yptUUxQj3krTWnnvdPPp78ieiX9A6MaXy4wXEsJrbe1E6Rb1J6gXJdK4sk8tT2h_pOMf5oJuQTunq0CKN3fwMdtJy50Lhk1AtQ/s1600/Summary.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="520"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcUGfxQExRpLBnxNxE3A0E9MSgtWHQGRPfALSQ0s26yptUUxQj3krTWnnvdPPp78ieiX9A6MaXy4wXEsJrbe1E6Rb1J6gXJdK4sk8tT2h_pOMf5oJuQTunq0CKN3fwMdtJy50Lhk1AtQ/s640/Summary.jpg"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
But most of the visualization work is on map polygons and raster data. Here is
for example a screenshot of the colour palette dropdown.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGnFDFyctAk024DDC1J12xuk2UL4V9fyFD7ZYNiB0EkeOfrpHAveXvYfD2O5E3pzmTKvyohkTS1mq2vCLOqP8ApKzKuYLgX3U8HnXz6WFxYJVdH4R5h-pDlCb-S8N3MjQRJgNUL0OFA/s1600/color_scale_dropdown.jpg"
imageanchor="1"
style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
><img
border="0"
height="568"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGnFDFyctAk024DDC1J12xuk2UL4V9fyFD7ZYNiB0EkeOfrpHAveXvYfD2O5E3pzmTKvyohkTS1mq2vCLOqP8ApKzKuYLgX3U8HnXz6WFxYJVdH4R5h-pDlCb-S8N3MjQRJgNUL0OFA/s640/color_scale_dropdown.jpg"
width="640"
/></a>
</div>
<br />
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-44087866551977667112016-03-04T15:10:00.001-08:002024-01-27T07:55:33.017-08:00Bionic eyesScientists are developing bionic eyes to give sight back to patient with macular
degeneration. This visualization shows the difference between seeing the world
with a technology that provides a grid of 64 pixels and another one that would
boost the resolution to 1024.<br />
<br />
The visualization below is interactive!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<iframe
frameborder="0"
height="480"
marginheight="0"
marginwidth="0"
scrolling="no"
src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/biovisualize/c910680b9b087c94f39b/raw/6d30573453cca490d7624af2172aba154900cc6e/index.html"
width="420"
></iframe>
</div>
I also made an illustration for one of these bionic eyes company called
<a href="http://ibionics.ca/technology/">iBionics</a>.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<img
border="0"
src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2Qv_KDr2RaTOyAl9JkC_-X24VZU3p0_6cr68syEG0Lnp4fN9Licx7rOLoTMn1QuhXsHkcW9AkEjnJD_u1FX3smiburm1C62jVfrKhHwmfDK7ER4c9F2IbZ3FH0z7VdObs0AjxRbcTw/s640/ibionics_working_hi-res.jpg"
width="800"
/>
</div>
<br />
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2700805250300379735.post-79740856014011371022016-03-04T14:58:00.000-08:002024-01-27T07:55:44.909-08:00RadvizI implemented Radviz in D3.js. See the
<a href="https://github.com/biovisualize/radviz">documentation and examples</a>
for more details about this interesting chart type.<br />
<br />
The visualization below is interactive!<br />
<iframe
frameborder="0"
height="510"
marginheight="0"
marginwidth="0"
scrolling="no"
src="https://rawgit.com/biovisualize/a91f514aaf57eabf8e36/raw/e94e45d4931785956dc6bb3c00b0f83958480c16/index.html"
width="500"
></iframe>
CHRISTOPHE VIAUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260535145425146183noreply@blogger.com