DIY Kit Building - geeks r us.

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So then feel g33x, whatagwarn?

Ive recently built a bipolar PSU which is highly dull but essential for most synth projects. Its THIS ONE if you are interested, good because it uses a wallwart and hence risk of death is not huge (!) Hahaha I built it on stripboard, but you can buy PSUs.

Ive also nearly finished the liquid hihat module, which is a not very well documented noise generator and hihat/metallic perc generator. Just need to sire up a load of pots to check its working.

Other than, various bits of fiddling around but nothing competed.

Cheers
Was looking into all this recently. Been diggin live tweak sessions on youtube and vimeo. Any chance you have an acid-type song that features the shruthi-1 PDX? Wish there were more videos of it online....

And, I know it was touched on before, but from your experience, how daunting is it to take on DIY stuff with no electronics/soldering experience? I'm tempted since there's so many little toys to make, but I don't have a lot of time to spend on it anyways.... and my mp7 and ks4 are enough to make tweakable tunes anyhow...
Dustin_E Wrote:DOH! I hate fumbles like that. Great work Paradigm, shit looks nice and clean. I just got some new kits in myself that I'm drooling over starting. Picked up the highly liquid msa-p for midi triggering of my bent toys and tone boxes, as well as a bunch of random boards from synthrotek. SOLDER SOLDIERS!!!

this guys stickers are on a toilet @ one of the places I work at.
small world. Grin

I've been fiddling around with my KPR-77 again & I'm thinking that a fuzzbox would be useful to smash drum sounds to shit. anybody have suggestions?
sackley Wrote:Was looking into all this recently. Been diggin live tweak sessions on youtube and vimeo. Any chance you have an acid-type song that features the shruthi-1 PDX? Wish there were more videos of it online....

And, I know it was touched on before, but from your experience, how daunting is it to take on DIY stuff with no electronics/soldering experience? I'm tempted since there's so many little toys to make, but I don't have a lot of time to spend on it anyways.... and my mp7 and ks4 are enough to make tweakable tunes anyhow...

Sorry i missed this.

I was basically clueless at the start... its possible but slow going.

It takes up an unbeleivable amount of your time tho. And ive spent a fortune on parts/tools etc, and always not got the right bit Lol

If youre looking at it as a way of getting cheap kit, forget it, better to buy mass market stuff. But for a fun, unique and customisable kit, then its the way forward. And once the initial outlay is done, you can get some cheap bits.

Debugging is a bitch tho, when something doesnt work after weeks of work Icon_sad my x0x needs looking at.
Yea, it looks like a lot of fun to tweak those boxes, but I just don't think I have enough time to take on a whole other hobby.

And for what I'd spend to make a shruthi-1 and xoxbox (not including the more-than-likely troubleshooting headaches and ) I could get some premade kit (blofeld)...

Seriously, from listening to that live acid show recording you put up I would love to see some tweaking/jamming on your toys man.

-Sack
Yeah, im going to do a vid soon with my mate. Thanks Grin

Sorry, didnt want to sound too negative, but i wish id thought it thru first, kind of committed now. Ive prob spent about £6-700 on parts, tools, pcbs etc so far, it soon adds up. Now, in theory ive got loads of bits together to build loads of toys in the future, but i dont think the payoff is ever there against a mass produced bit of kit, and the time factor also plays a part.

I like to flick between the two 'hobbies', its very rewarding when something works and youve saved £20, 50, £200 on stuff. The x0x kit was free, but needs work. And TBH the x0x is loads better than the blofeld IMO, but then the blofeld is polyphonc, multitimbral and very good in its own way. Id never give up my x0xen, but then its a niche, acid toy Smile

Cheers
Looking forward to that! Yes

Yea, the xoxbox looks like a huge amount of fun, and I love the idea of tweaking a table covered with bits I've built myself.

Meant to ask before - From your experience, what do you absolutely need to get started, and are there any "beginner" packages that have most of the tools to put together some DIY kits? I've done some research, but I'm having trouble telling what's really necessary...

TIA and your setup looks quite fun!

-Sack
Anyone looking for a cheap, useful (ish) beginners project could do a lot worse than this;

http://www.bugbrand.co.uk/index.php?main...ucts_id=34

They go out of stock super quick so check it

Sackley; as a minimum you can get away with ;

Soldering iron and solder
Solder pump/wick
Small diagonal cutters
Needle nose pliers
Digital multimeter (£10 or so)

Loads of other things are handy, such as helping hands, set of jewellers screwdrivers, stripboard cutter, large sidecutters, etc... its a bottomless pit :P
Xyxthumbs

Thanks man.
SID chip on the way b2b sammmich! not the eating kind!
You'll have it built before I even master soldering!

You need 2 SIDs to get the best out of it mate.
really tempted to go fora sammich; but; given ive got the shruthi, and sids arent cheap, i think ill passa and get a load of analogue together.
Apparently there is 2 Smile Icon_yippee
Hmm, well having a bit of issue with latest two projects, one i just copied a stripboard layout without thinking so not really surprised that didnt work, need to have another go at it. Other one im having a (apparently) weird issue where ive got a 50k short to ground from V+ ! grrr! pissed me off.

Anyway, ive just ordered a pcb for one of these badboys too!

[Image: filtrex-fw.jpg]
http://www.oakleysound.com/filtrex.htm

Filter the sick.
well, that pcb has arrive, not quite as scary looking as i thought. And a front panel. Need to order some parts when i have some time and money... on the backlog pile atm.

Been working really hard on this liquid hihat thing; sounds amazing. Its 'proper' DIY - not a kit, have to source all the parts, and build an additional Envelope generator, VCA and other bits (LFOs for mods etc). I built a version based on the boss dr110/tr606 which sounds lush!

http://www.paradigmx.com/lhh/lhh4.mp3

http://www.paradigmx.com/lhh/lhhcapstest2.mp3 - this one has variable 'range' via a rotary switch and really adds to the sound.

Information is very sparse, its a proper diy thing, rather than kits, you can find some vids on youtube of the inventor demonstrating it ... he nuts Hahaha so been a challenge to say the least. The only real info is on his site, very helpful people there tbh, but very quiet (and very geeky). http://deathlehem.com/php/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3163 if youre interested.

ive spent ages researching various things, and trying different options, learnt a huge amount in the process. Half thinking of making some of these up to sell now ive done all the hard work.

Only thing to do now is to add a filter, probably a clone of the old WASP filter (reasonably easy). then box it all up.

Cheers
Throw up some sketch vids! I'm itchin' to see your kit in action! Still too daunting to take on, but more and more I want all sorts of DIY toys (Shruthi-1, x0xb0x, some DIY filter, dub siren, etc etc).

-Sack
crazy stuff Grin

btw, how did you get on with the 808 kick synth mate? its always in the back of my mind to try and tackle one of these, but i never found a definative schematic..

damo
Thats still awaiting drilling (PCB) got all the bits. Need to buy a drill press to drill the PCB.

Been spending time on that LHH (95% done now, need to transfer a PSU into it), and the Filtrex filter above (about 50% done).

edit - 2 very useful sites ;

eric archers 808 clones page - http://ericarcher.net/devices/tr808-clone/

microlarge 808 clones - http://xlargex.xl.funpic.de/

Xyxthumbs
ah man, been looking into diy kits all day, i want to start with something simple, or decided whether to take the step into the world of electronics...

any recomendations in what to start on, tool you wish you got etc etc. help me make less mistakes and stupid moves...
i wanna do some circuit bending too.
any good sites youd recommend too?? i get exited looking at all this stuff, i want to make a xox but i own one so its probably not worth it ey..


http://meeblip.noisepages.com/2011/12/13.../#more-983
would hte meeblip be too hard for a beginner ?
I think a fair sum up of the thread for your benefit mate is the following :

- Ideally get a temperature controlled soldering iron. But a decent branded normal iron will suffice with practice. Don't go cheap off eBay as they don't hold a constant temperature and probably won't stand the test of time.
- Steer clear of lead-free solder.
- Buy one of these http://bit.ly/yCFU9t to clean solder off the tip. It doesn't cool the iron down.
- Start simple. In my case, even though I've not yet started, I've got a load of stripboard and cheap resistors off ebay and practice hard with them. Then move onto kits.
- Watch this video on soldering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NU2ruzyc4 then watch a load more Wink
- Then practice.
- Get a helping hands device for a few quid.
- A good lamp will probably help.

I've lifted all that from this thread and PMs. Not yet done any myself! Wink
Paradigm X Wrote:Thats still awaiting drilling (PCB) got all the bits. Need to buy a drill press to drill the PCB.

Been spending time on that LHH (95% done now, need to transfer a PSU into it), and the Filtrex filter above (about 50% done).

edit - 2 very useful sites ;

eric archers 808 clones page - http://ericarcher.net/devices/tr808-clone/

microlarge 808 clones - http://xlargex.xl.funpic.de/

Xyxthumbs


thanks mate Xyxthumbs

i'm gonna have a go at the eric archer board. i like it because it's simple and i can hack it out on a piece of perfboard - it prob wont work but if i get any kind of noise out of it it will be a good start Grin i like these kind of things as you stand a better chance of understanding whats going on with the circuit compared to a more complex kit build - ive built a couple of bigger things and they're more a test of your soldering neatness than anything as the boards are so compact and the components so close together that it's hard to follow whats going on if your an amateur like me!

at the mo i'm doing a rom swap on a casio rz-1 drum machine - more simple-ish stuff with hopefully good results..

all good clean fun!
The more I keep looking at this stuff, the more I want to give it a shot. Found a voice changer kit for $15 I think I might order and take a swing at with a borrowed soldering iron. Dub siren, delay, distortion, shruthi (and the other MI toys), xoxbox, 808 BD clone, the list keeps growing! Roll

I need to figure out how to get from A to M though, it's hard knowing what the learning curve will be, so I think i'll take a shot at that simple kit and see how it goes...
distantminds Wrote:at the mo i'm doing a rom swap on a casio rz-1 drum machine - more simple-ish stuff with hopefully good results..

The battery has gone on my RZ-1. How easy is that to replace? I'm so inept with "diy" that I haven't even opened it up to look. Will I need a soldering iron (i.e. will I need to take this to someone competent)?
sackley Wrote:The more I keep looking at this stuff, the more I want to give it a shot. Found a voice changer kit for $15 I think I might order and take a swing at with a borrowed soldering iron. Dub siren, delay, distortion, shruthi (and the other MI toys), xoxbox, 808 BD clone, the list keeps growing! Roll

I need to figure out how to get from A to M though, it's hard knowing what the learning curve will be, so I think i'll take a shot at that simple kit and see how it goes...

Ive done a (that?) voice changer kit, surprisingly ok for the price, need to rehouse it into something more useful. Possibly with a line input as well.

Piece of piss to make tho. Good for practising Smile
Found this.... http://www.elexp.com/kit_star.htm which for the price looks like it's worth a shot. I found some post where a guy recommended that to someone starting out, saying that all the parts are usable for quite a good while.

Would throw this solder sucker in as well http://www.elexp.com/srp_0828.htm.

And probably this multimeter http://www.elexp.com/tst_s830.htm as per ladyada.net's recommended "basic"/"better"kits.

And once that little thing is complete maybe do an Atari Punk Console...

Thanks for the input PDX, I just don't know when to not try something Teef

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