Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Monday, 19 March 2018

Mutant Bassdrum - Hexinverter

Some picks of this great module i just finished building.

These aren't really build notes but I hope it will help others in their quest to build one of these.
Its not a difficult build at all.
All through hole components.

There are 2 PCBs. ... this is the lower.
The upper PCB holds the LEDs, pots etc.



Below are pics of the build process... working backwards.


 Be careful with the orientation of the vactrol.


Now I want to build all the drum modules. :-)

LINKS:
hEXINVERTER

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For more Euro DIY builds click here:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/diy-index.html
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Sunday, 18 March 2018

Arduino - Print Commands and the Serial Port

All Arduino boards have at least one serial port (also known as a UART or USART)
It communicates on digital pins 0 (RX) and 1 (TX) as well as with the computer via USB
 
You can use the Arduino environment’s built-in serial monitor to communicate with an Arduino board. Click the serial monitor button in the toolbar and select the same baud rate used in the call to begin().
Serial communication on pins TX/RX uses TTL logic levels (5V or 3.3V depending on the board).
 
The Print command allows us to read info from the Arduino.
   
The Syntax is
Serial.print ()

Serial.print("Hello world.") gives "Hello world."
Serial.print(78) gives "78"
 
This command prints data to the serial port as human-readable ASCII text.
 
An optional second parameter specifies the base (format) to use
ie
permitted values are BIN(binary, or base 2),  
Serial.print(78, BIN) gives "1001110"
 
OCT(octal, or base 8),  
Serial.print(78, OCT) gives "116"
 
DEC(decimal, or base 10),  
Serial.print(78, DEC) gives "78"
 
HEX(hexadecimal, or base 16).
Serial.print(78, HEX) gives "4E"
 
------------
code 1



------------------
// variables
int j=1;
int waitT=300; //delay

void setup()
{
Serial.begin (9600);
  //baud rate
    // this sets up the serial monitor
}

void loop()
{
 Serial.print(j);
  j=j+1;
    delay(waitT);
}
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code 2


This is really poor programming, as it's printing across the page.
 
the fix is easy
Add "ln"
 Serial.println(j); 















code 3

// variables
int j=1;
int waitT=300; //delay
String myString="j = ";

void setup()
{
Serial.begin (9600);
  //baud rate. Use higher baud rates to make it run faster.
    // this sets up the serial monitor
}

void loop()
{
 Serial.print(myString);
 Serial.println(j); // adding ln ... prints to a new line
  j=j+1;
    delay(waitT);
}

-------------------------------------------------------------------

code 4

// variables
int j=1;
int waitT=300; //delay
int x=3;
int y=7;
int z;
String myString=" + ";

void setup()
{
Serial.begin (9600);
  //baud rate. Use higher baud rates to make it run faster.
    // this sets up the serial monitor
}

void loop()
{
  z=x+y;
  Serial.print(x);
  Serial.print(myString);
  Serial.print(y);
  Serial.print(" = "); // the quotes make it print =
  Serial.println(z);
}

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Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Arduino Index

 Index for all things Arduino
 
+ Momentary push buttons & Pull down resistors
+ analogRead command  
 
 
 
 
 
 
+ Tone() function - adding noise  
+ Functions - general - creating new functions, etc
 
 
+ i2c LCD Timer - stopwatch 
 
 
+ millis() function - blinking 1 LED

Wednesday, 21 February 2018

CMOS cookbook

Awesome book.

A post shared by jono (@dj_jondent) on
I think this is an essential text on all things CMOS.
The author is Don Lancaster.

"TTL Cookbook was equally solid!"

Others in this series are :
The IC opamp cookbook

 and Lancaster's "Active Filter Cookbook".

Notes:
+ CMOS page 
+ DIY page 
+ TTL page
 

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

dIVISION 6 - Business Card Sequencer

A very easy build. The PCBs came as a kit with components.
 I'll definitely buy the bigger one.

I bought this as a kit, with all parts including the microcontroller.




A post shared by jono (@dj_jondent) on
Links:
+ Division6
+ BOM and assembly

NLC Eurorack power distroboard.

Some pics of the nonlinearcircuits distroboard.

What is covfefe? The tweet by Donald Trump that baffled the internet ...

 (n.) When you want to say "coverage" but your hands are too fat and small to hit all the letters on your keyboard.

Back to the build.
Notice the noise reducing capacitors.  
These are decoupling capacitors. They filter out unwanted noise from power supplies.
"A decoupling capacitor is a capacitor used to decouple one part of an electrical network (circuit) from another. Noise caused by other circuit elements is shunted through the capacitor, reducing the effect it has on the rest of the circuit". (Wikipedia).

 In a eurorack system, each module shares a common path to the power supply.
So changes in the current drawn by one one module may produce voltage changes large enough to affect the operation of others. The decoupling capacitor works as the module's local energy storage. The capacitor is placed between the power line and ground. It provides a bypass path for transient currents reducing the chance of voltage spikes and fluctuations.

 I used 3.3K for the LED resistors

  the connector:
oo| GATE
oo| CV
oo| +5V
oo| +12V
oo| GND
oo| GND
oo| GND
oo| -12V 



-------------------
An good alternative eurorack bus board with filtering that I've built is the Synthrotek one.
http://www.synthrotek.com/products/modular-circuits/noise-filtering-power-distribution-board/




The build notes are here:
http://www.synthrotek.com/kit-assembly-instructions/modular-circuit-assembly-instructions/noise-filtering-power-distribution-board-assembly-instructions/

i ADDED +5V to this PSU using a simple 7805 voltage regulator and two 0.1uF caps.
The value of the caps could be 10uF or 1uF. I used 0.1uF mylar as I had these on hand.
If you decide to use electros, the negative end of the cap (cathode) should contact ground.





Another good alternative Power bus:
The Bastl instruments Juice Bus. This has onboard 5V


You may wish to add other voltages to your circuit. eg: 9V, 3.3V if you are prototyping circuits:
So ideas:



I haven't tested all these circuits, but notice that the input voltage is always higher than the output voltage.
Experiment with the capacitors
Most linear regulator datasheets suggest tantalum capacitors as they have higher ESR.
Remember that electrolytic capacitors (including tantalum) are polarized.
Best to read the datasheet and follow their instructions.



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Sunday, 11 February 2018

Bindubba sequencer - NLC build notes

This is a wonderful sequencer.
I have one of these in Serge format and can't wait to test the eurorack version.

The colour code for the 4U panel : Blue are inputs. Red are outputs.
This sequencer has two sets of inputs, a CV out, inverted CV out, glide out and 16 gate outs.
There are also two direction inputs to control forward and backward motion, and two reset inputs
Its interesting to have two different clocks. These will form complex patterns.

Here are some pics of the unbuilt Euro panel and PCBs.
The euro version of this sequencer, is designed to be used with the Divide & Conquer clock divider module (Divide and Conquer - build notes), though any two clocks will drive it. It's better if they are random, or running at different speeds.
The Divide & Conq, is also good for modulating the direction.
Something like the Triple Sloths, is good for modulating the horizontal / vertical jumps

The gate outs are useful for triggering drums, envelopes, pinging filters,

Plug modules like The Hypster ( chaos module) into the Slew inputs

Some NLC words of wisdom
Is this a reference to the 1997 film Con Air???? .... Nicolas Cage acted as Cameron Poe, the burdened soldier who just wants to go home. 

I'm using 680 ohm resistors for the LEDs.

I like to install the ICs first.
They are the fiddly bits. CMOS chips used: 4081, 4029, 4052
My vactrols have very variable off resistances....0.9M to 1.2M
I'll probably need to experiment with the caps. i'll stick with the 470nF caps for now as marked on the PCB.




 Protection against plugging in the module backwards. We have all done this once.


Line up the pots .. don't solder yet.

Jacks.



Another one done. :-)


Links:
+ NLC Build notes& BOM
+ NLC wiki - description & usage of the Bin sequencer
+ Bindubba 1 & 3 sequencers with Kilpatrick Phenol
+ NLC blog (old)

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