Monday, 11 January 2021

Rack & Pinion Steam Railway - Queenstown, Tasmania

 This Wilderness Railway is the Perfect Way to Access Scenic Views of Tasmanias West Coast. 
 
 


 It's a reconstruction of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway between Queenstown and Regatta Point.
 

The new terminus in Queenstown is on the site of the original station yard. The station at Regatta Point terminus has been renovated..
 



tHIS is
the only operating rack and pinion section in the Southern Hemisphere.
 

 The railway was the only way to get copper from the mine at Queenstown . Until 1932, when a Hobart road link was completed, it was the only access through to Queenstown...
 
rack-and-pinion railway ARE also known as cog railways, or cogwheel railways.
 
 The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with the rack rail.
 
 
The steepest gradient on the rack section was 1 in 12 (8.33%).
 

The railway ceased operation on 10 August 1963 due to increasing maintenance costs and the improvement of road access to the West Coast from the north..
 

Thursday, 7 January 2021

Friday, 25 December 2020

MetroModular Power 202 PSU

Some build pics of the MetroModular Power 202 PSU.
It's a eurorack power supply. Model number: MM1537 v0.1

The various voltage regulator specs are
+12V 1A
-12V 1A
+ 5V 1.5A

Justin's Power 101 board combined the PSU with the distribution board. 

It's a very easy build. There are a few surface mount components, but they are 0805 and 1206.

Justin may have an new version of this by the time of posting, so check his website for updates.

Mouser 894-shhd001a3b41z

Its a DC/DC converter 18-75V in. 12V out 1.3A

The next 2 regulators are 580-OKI78SR12/1W36C

 Non-Isolated DC/DC Converters 12Vout 1.0A VSIP
Input voltage 15V to 36V
 
tHE 5v converter
OKI-78SR-5/1.5-W36-c

Input voltage 7V to 36V

 

 
 

These diodes are important to help reduce voltage spikes (flyback).

Gotta love  the choke.
580-51105C
Learn more about inductors here:
 Inductors, ferric beads, noise reduction methods, etc
 

There are 2 capacitors used in this build.
A 10uf and a 22uF ... both SMD.
The caps have a very large footprint... tricky  to solder on.




Don't forget to solder the remote




I'm using this Meanwell PSU
709-gst60a24-p1J
 

It's output is 24V DC @ 2.5 A
:
90V AC to 264V AC


Some Links
+ Metromodular Facebook
+ Metromodular Youtube
+ Metromodular website  

Eurorack Format


Ornament & Crime - Piqued - envelope generator - cheat notes.

These are my cheat/summary notes For the O_C
A friend asked me to do a brief summary. This is for beginners so skip if you're famillar with the module. 
 
The "Piqued" app is a great place to start exploring the module.
 

 Piqued is a quad voltage-controlled envelope generator, based on envelope generator code from the Mutable Instruments Peaks module, but extending it with voltage control, additional envelope types, including re-triggering (looping) envelopes, additional segment shapes, adjustable trigger delays, and a unique Euclidean “trigger filter” which turns the app into a Euclidean rhythm generator which can output envelopes, not just gate or trigger pulses.
 
Selecting an App
To select the Piqued app use encoder 2 (right encoder).
(Encoders can be pressed or turned).
1. Long Press (>2s) encoder 2 to enter the App menu.
2. turn encoder 2 to select the app
3. Press encoder 2 to select the app.
 
 
 Saving your changes.
 (You must do this to save any changes).
1. Long Press (>2s) encoder 2 to enter the App menu. 
2. long press encoder 2 a second time to save the
     module state. 
     This will make the selected app the default at the next boot.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Tim Churches Video

 
There is also a “Euclidean trigger filter” included, which turns the Piqued app into a quad-channel Euclidean polyrhythm generator
 
There are 4 envelope outputs
A to D Outputs are the 4 jacks on the lower right corner.
 
The top 4 inputs on the left are for triggers
The bottom 4 inputs on the left are for CV 

There are two buttons. The top increases the values when pushed in segments of 32.
The lower decreases (in segments of 32) when pushed.
 

There are 2 encoders.
Encoders can be pressed & turned.
 
Encoder 1:  
Pressing it will toggle between Setting Mode & Duration/Visulation modes.
Turning it in settings mode will select the envelope type.
Turning it in Duration/Vis mode will select one of the 4 channels: A,B,C,D.

 

Encoder 2
Pressing it will toggle between envelope settings mode & envelope segment duration mode.
Turning it will either move the cursor (between the different env stages) OR
change segment duration.
 
There are lots of envelopes to choose from.
AR, ADSR, ADR, ASR, ADAR
ADL2, ADRL3, ADL2R,ADARL,ADARL4
A= attack
D=decay
S=sustain
R=Release
L=loop
 
These (ADL2, ADRL3, ADL2R,ADARL,ADARL4) are interesting.
The looping is an automatic retrigger.
Illustrations of these envelope types can be found here.
 

 
 Do let me know if there are any mistakes or omissions.
Over time (when I get a chance) I'll break down the other apps in this cool module (and the Utile Temps too).
Hope this helps.
Merry Christmas. J

 
 

Monday, 21 December 2020

DJs and modular Gear - SoundWave Live II - Carl Cox

 It was so cool to see Carl Cox perform with a modular rig last week.
He was part of Awesome SoundWave Live II in Melbourne Australia. 
(performing in his Garage)
He is one of my all time favorite DJs 
 



►Carl Cox
@christophercoemusic
(+ in Alphabetical Order)
@an_on_bast
@digitalafrika
@hannesbieger
@_honeysmack_
@theoolluu
@saytek_live
 
Sadly I wasn't there is person to see the set as NSW and indeed most of Australia have been opening and closing the borders faster than two shakes of a lamb's tail. 
Looks like Carl is using a Eurorack.Makenoise Shared System ,
Moog DFAM & Subharmonicon, Pioneer V10 mixer, Korg Monologue, Pioneer Toraiz SP16 (sampler), Behringer TB 3

 

Hopefully we will see more DJs doing live modular synth performances

Other DJs worth checking out who also use modular synths include Carl Craig, Surgeon (Anthony Child), Jimmy Edgar, Aphex Twin, Nina Kraviz, Mumdance, Zombie Nation, and Lady Starlight.

Saturday, 19 December 2020

Synthrotek Power supply - 5A build notes

 These are some personal notes for the synthrotek 5A PSU.
It's for eurorack systems.
It comes in 3 flavours
Red, Green & blue

This is a RED PSU.
 

Its ideal for small 1 row systems


I'm building a green PSU today
 

Its good for two rows of 104HP.

The Blue is suited for 3-4 rows of 104 HP


These are the voltage regulators'
-12V & +5V

I decided to install the switch and the power jack 1st since these hold the panel to the PSB


This is the USB connector


Orientate the LEDs so they sit nicely into the panel.


Don't forget the jumper



Caps-
square hole is positive
The orientation of the diodes and caps is slightly different from the RED PSU





Links
+ BOM

For the Blue PSU:




Korg WaveState - Modulation Matrix, Routing & Assignments

One of the best things about the Korg Wavestate is its modulation matrix.
Pretty much all the controls & screen parameters can be modulated.

Any modulation route is made up of three parts:
Source, destination & intensity.
To make a modulation route pick the destination first.

Once you have picked a destination (eg filter cutoff) , you can pic a modulation
source such as the joystick, the mod wheel, or a dampener pedal.
You can have many sources for the one destination.
 
Modulation Sources:
There are 5 groups. These consist of:
a} Controllers
b} Mod Knobs
c} Generators
d} CC +
e} CC +/-
 

a} The controllers are
+Mod Wheel CC 1
+Joystick Vectr JSX CC 16 
+Joystick Vectr JSY CC 17
+Damper Pedal CC64
+Pitch bend wheel
 
b} there are 8 white mod pots or Knobs.
These can modulate any number of parameters in its Program.
The knob names are just suggestions.
 

 Note the on/off button.
When this is on, the knobs control the Performance Mod Knobs, which can modify
 parameters in any or all Layers at once.
 

When off, the knobs control the values for the current Layer’s Program.
They are just called "Mod Knobs" in this case

Thus these 8 knobs have the potential to control up to 40 parameters.
 
c} Generators
+Filter/Amp/Pitch Envelope These are the three standard ADSR envelopes
+Vector Envelope A/B/C/D

+Filter/Amp/Pitch/Pan LFO . These are the four LFOs.
+ Filter/Amp Key Track .
   These are the Key Track generators from the Filter and Amp, respectively.
 

+ Mod Process 1/2. These are the two Mod Processors
+ Tempo. This lets you use the system tempo as a modulation source
 

+ Step Seq Lane. This is the output of the Wave Sequence’s Step Seq Lane.
 

+ Program/Performance Note Count and Program/Performance Voice Count .
These use the number of notes played on the keyboard, or the number of voices being played by the synth engine, as modulation sources. 

The Performance variations count all notes or voices in the Performance, while the Program variations only include those in the current Program.
 
d} CC + 
This is a list of all of the MIDI CCs, interpreted as unipolar signals. 
MIDI values 0-127 are zero to maximum modulation.
 

e} CC +/- 
This is a list of all of the MIDI CCs, interpreted as bipolar signals. MIDI value 64 is 0; values below 64 produce negative modulation, and values above 64 produce positive modulation
 

 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The best way to make a mod assignment is to 
press the MOD button and then the right arrow >.
It will say "add new modulation".
Then move a target knob.

To view existing modulation routings:
1. Hold MOD and press <.

This box will appear:
Use the arrow <> , value knob, and "enter" to activate the different sources and destinations

--------------------------------------
As an example: how to use the lower performance knobs as volume controls.
1. highlight layer A
2. Press MOD and >
3. Twist the AMP level knob
4. Twist 5/shape knob
5. Press enter
6. Change intensity to 100%
7. Repeat the above steps for layers B, C, D.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------