#324

option 4 - put your headphones on backwards (…kidding)

i apologize for the confusion… what i was originally suggesting was @zebra’s option 2. i’ll test and make a howto.

3 Likes
#326

Option 3 is not stupid - I’m building quarter inch breakouts, and those are easily used reversed. It’s mainly a headphones issue, being honest.

Of course, modifying that script means it will be overwritten on every update?

My instinct would be to somehow add something like an environment variable to flag the board as a DIY one pre-revision (reversed), which then branches code in the official script. I presume Supercollider can access environment variables, of course. But that would have minimal affect on everybody else, and be a change that persists over updates.

I appreciate this affects a small amount of the norns ecosystem, but right now it’s not insignificant imho, and it’s a feature of an officially released thing, hence trying to work out how to solve this with minimal alteration but in a relatively robust way.

#327

I’m just about to order shield pcbs. It wouldnt be much hassle to change the L/R ins/outs on the board before ordering but I dont want to do that if there is going to be a software revision that detects the diy shields and swaps them in sw!

Is there a consensus as to which way this is likely to go? (From a personal point of view it would be nicer in hw so that eg orac would be supported as well !) I’m also guessing that from a sw maintenance point of view it would be easier to use a custom adapter cable on the existing shields and keep norns and diy shield in sync with no branches.

#328

I’m using a shield. If I want something on the right, I put it on the right…
The visual feedback we generaly have is just a number.

#329

will do! this is a super easy fix and will not interfere with updates

details forthcoming with the fix

2 Likes
#330

@tehn quick question: will this kit work with a Rasberry PI Model B v1.2 (2015)

Read that "B+ ups the speed of the CPU to 1.4GHz from 1.2GHz in the original Model B

Will this significantly effect the performance of Norns?

Thanks!

#331

fixed the stereo swap issue

prior to new update release, git pull from ~/norns

then touch ~/reverse.txt (or add reverse.txt to /home/we/ — contents don’t matter, just existence)

@MDN 3B is fine. actual norns is based on CM3.

6 Likes
#332

So I finally got my shield and spent my morning putting it together, but in the end I didn’t manage to make it boot…

I’m using the 200106 disk image, flashed it successfully on a couple SD cards, tried both zipped and unzipped. When connected to power, the oled shows no sign of life, the Raspberry (model 3 B+) shows red and green leds flashing alternately in different ways and after around 30 seconds the red one stays still (although flashing randomly with pulses and pauses. I tried connecting the Pi to an external screen via the HDMI and it shows a rainbow gradient square (wich I assume is what it’s supposed to show with the Norns image?). I’m using a phone charger to power up the board, could that be the issue?

I attach a couple of pictures here, seeking for a little help :slight_smile:
I wish the solution is being me forgetting something easy to fix…

IMG_1220
IMG_12203024×3024 1.51 MB
IMG_1219
IMG_12193024×3024 3.19 MB
IMG_1218
IMG_12183024×3024 2.09 MB

PS. I know my soldering skills are not the best, but I got quite a prior experience and, even if it’s the first time I solder through hole components, I made sure to double check everything looking after shortings and found none.

#333

I would give the through-hole connections another go with the soldering iron. It looks as though there are quite a few cold-joints particularly around the screen header connections.

4 Likes
#334

as @dianus said, i would suggest reheating every single solder joint you’ve done. make sure they flow smoothly.

2 Likes
#335

@dianus @tehn Thanks a lot for you help.
if I understand correctly I did put the iron wrong and it’s not connecting the components in the right way. Does it need to flow all the way through the hole? (sorry for the dumb question, I’m learning a lot by doing this project)

#336

I’m planning to connect a Blokas Midihub, send MIDI from Norns to my eurorack with CV.ODC, and get MIDI in from Digitakt and an Akai controller (another USB port). How is MIDI handled by Norns? Would this configuration work?

Also, is there a way to get a pad MIDI controller into a Grid? Sorry if this is going off topic, couldn’t find it anywhere else.

#337

The trick is to heat the component pin and the pad (the exposed metal area on the PCB) at the same time, and get the solder flowing smoothly between them. The solder doesn’t need to flow all the way through the hole, but it’s fine if it does. Avoid blobbing on too much solder though. You can also use a little bit of flux from a bottle or flux pen to increase conductivity.

1 Like
#338

Components appear to be in the correct positions. Check out this diagram which illustrates what a cold solder-joint looks like

10 Likes
#339

@Lemmy sounds like a technique I completely wasn’t aware of, thank you!
@dianus this diagram is perfect: now I clearly see I made a mess by trying to reinforce everything. I’m gonna clean everything up and restart almost fresh. Thanks a lot for your help!

#340

When I was teaching myself to solder, I ordered 3-4 cheap test projects on Amazon (an LED Christmas tree, a radio, etc) so that I could get a lot of reps on without worrying too much about ruining anything. I would highly recommend it, as I’ve found that making a good joint is one of those “muscle memory” things.

2 Likes
#341

to begin with, don’t worry too much about ‘starting again’ - many of those joints have about the right amount on, but it’s not flowed at all. work with @lemmy’s technique - iron into the pin/pad joint, and watch as the solder you have heats up. if it doesn’t “flash” around eventually, add a tiny bit more solder (because really, you’re wanting the flux out of the core of the solder). You’re looking for the “little volcano” shapes, exactly as in the diagram @dianus shared.

(PSU isn’t the issue here, but once you’ve got the board functioning right, you might want a meatier one than a phone adaptor - the Raspberry Pi likes current, and the official Pi power adaptors are 2-3A, rather than the ~1A of most phone psus).

4 Likes
#342

Does anyone else have an issue with their input volumes being super low? Taking Modular levels directly, turned all the way to 0db are still below 50% bar height on mine.

1 Like
#343

inputs are line level— sending full 10V modular signals doesn’t seem like the best idea. have you tested with other sources? mine tests fine with an OP-1 as input.

1 Like
#344

Yeah I’ve tried line level and have to run it through gain on my mixer or MI ears before getting to a decent level (which is still very low). Tried line via op-1, and RIP. Wonder if maybe I burnt out the input amp or something via a static shock or something. It’s very dry in Colorado :desert:

Everything else works as expected.

I’ll take a closer look at the board near the input and beep out everything with a multimeter tonight.