#303

Nope. To clarify - You should not need to change wscript at all.

Just tested on my shield and my instructions above work just fine.

FWIW - I believe your build errors above were due to the missing ncurses package and the missing submodules

#304

OK great, that makes things simpler.

#305

Hello
I’m contemplating this build
Is it easy to get up and running ?

#306

This guy is asking the real questions. I’ve been monitoring this neotrellis build and the fates build religiously, and I’m curious about the difficulty of these projects. I’m a graphic designer with little soldering experience and no coding experience. So, I’m waiting for other builders to work out the kinks.

Maybe someone can put a walk-through together. I’d love to work together and design some easy to follow instructions.

2 Likes
#307

It really depends on your experience. It’s very straightforward to get a single 4x4 grid up and running and responding to user input, and that will give you the momentum to see it through to the end I think. Perhaps the trickiest part, if you haven’t done much soldering, is joining the neotrellis panels together. In terms of coding you might have to change a few numbers in a script to match the jumpers on your trellis grids, but it’s no big deal and nothing someone here can’t talk you through.
Enclosures are as simple or as complicated as you want to make them. I wouldn’t worry about the enclosure too much up front, just get the grid working first and you’ll be off and running.

1 Like
#308

It really depends on your definition of “easy”

For someone with some soldering experience, it’s pretty easy to put together. If less experienced, then I’m not sure what to say aside from “it depends”. However, there are entire Adafruit guides on using the neotrellis boards, so I’d say there’s already easy to follow instructions out there.

2 Likes
#309

whenever i joined this board, i had zero soldering experience. after poking around here and elsewhere (and reading that wonderful adafruit soldering guide that was linked), i built up the confidence to pull the trigger on a cheap iron from amazon and get on with it. first thing i did was repair a sampler i had, which just had me desoldering a few points, replacing a potentiometer, and then soldering it into place. after that, i built a fates and felt totally adequately prepared just from getting a feel for the soldering process by fixing the busted sampler. guess what i’m sayin is, if you’ve got the time, energy and physical ability, i highly encourage you to do it! i’ve got a pretty wild tremor from a daily medicine i take and i’m still able to solder just fine. :grin: the perceived difficulty of soldering is way over exaggerated. perhaps we should start a campaign to destigmatize soldering.

@okyeron put together a very detailed build guide on how to put together the fates; not to mention he provides incredibly quick and detailed support whenever you may need it over in the fates thread. i’ve found everyone here to be very kind, helpful and supportive at every wobbly step of my soldering and coding journey. there’s also like a million other things i’m sure i could learn from the incredibly talented folks here!

you got this! just remember to double and triple check you’ve got the right component in the right place before touching the iron to anything and you’ll honestly probably be way ahead of the game :joy:

5 Likes
#310

also @Tonybologna;

If I were to go back and start over again, I would definitely do this, which will certainly make it much easier (the only reason I didn’t was that I didn’t have headers and didn’t want to wait for them to ship :slight_smile:). I ended up using resistor legs, which worked OK, but was definitely much more fiddly.

2 Likes
#311

Video for the above mention here

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#312

I used your technique when I soldered my boards and it worked great. There’s a slight curvature to it, as if it were a small patch of a 2-sphere with a very large radius. Definitely locally flat enough though.

I ended up ripping off one of the SDA pads while removing the header plastic, but the board still works because it has two other SDA connections on the other sides. Thought I’d post about this in case anyone else rips a pad off and worries that it’s catastrophic.

image

4 Likes
#313

As I think someone else mentioned earlier (which is where I got the idea), joining the boards on the opposite side can flatten them out. I ended up doing all of mine, after starting out to try to correct the most obvious curvature.

3 Likes
#314

Is there any Trilogy/ansible compatible diy grid in 64 with the same keysize the post-40h grid have?

#315

My assumption is that you’d have to alter the firmware on your ansible. These neurons boards work due to extra coffee in the fates system to register them s as monome
Grids.

I could be wrong though.

#316

I don’t think so. Or I should say I don’t know of one, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

Ansible/Trilogy rely on the FTDI driver in the monome devices, so they won’t work with something that presents as a different kind of USB device (CDC, etc.).

This is some awesome typo action right here. :laughing:

1 Like
#317

Wow! My iPhone swipe keyboard truly knows me better than I know myself!!!

1 Like
#318

I just got the boards for a DIY grid, but am not going to be able to spend any time getting a ‘fancy’ case together, as I anticipate not having days off while the coronavirus situation is ongoing (at least 'till I come down with it).

My idea is just to mount the boards over a thin piece of aluminum or plastic with some standoffs. If anyone has some thoughts about a low effort stopgap case I’d love to hear them.

#319

if you can come up with some thin strips to support the pcbs along the between-board-seams (and around the edges) - that’s probably a good idea?

Something like this:

IMG_2921_supports
IMG_2921_supports1080×643 370 KB

4 Likes
#320

That’s very helpful. Makes much more sense than having to drill a bunch of holes for standoffs on the interior of the grid.

#321

I’m considering fabbing some kind of lattice-like structure, that I can bolt the Trellis boards to. I can then attach that to a base-plate with 4 or maybe 6 screws, which will be neater than drilling a large number of holes in the base plate itself.

1 Like
#322

The trellis boards have a number of holes which could be used for standoffs, etc.
I haven’t ever tried using them though.

You’d likely need to punch holes in the silicone button pads to use those.