DIY: norns shield

[ldezem]

Hi, I got my PCB from there and assembled a well working unit. Shipping was fast. The PCB I got from them is an older design, which has left and right channels reversed. This can be corrected following these simple steps.

[Whatwatt]

Great! Thanks for the help!

[ascaand]

Update on CS4270-CZZ:

I tried to buy a bunch of them on aliexpress but the seller wasn’t able to ship them (I’m thinking that she/he hadn’t the chips in stock).

At the moment i think that i’ll have to wait the big resellers to have them back in stock again.

[threedaymonk]

I was unduly sceptical: I now have a CS4270-CZZ in my possession.

I’ve also ordered 5 from AliExpress, so I might end up with a glut. Once they arrive, I’ll be happy to post one to anyone who needs one.

[bezier]

That would be very appreciated!

[threedaymonk]

Soldering that crystal was no fun at all, but the rest of it was straightforward enough. It all seems to work fine so far, but it’s midnight here so I’ll have to wait to try it out properly!

[rheslip]

For those looking for a CS4270 codec:

I ordered one from Ebay seller E-best_trade (62557) for $4.80 US plus $3.00 shipping. Took about three weeks to arrive in Canada. It works! I’m happy!

[kyanrinner]

I’ve been having some ground loop noise issues with my norns shield when trying to record into ableton and I’m wondering if anyone has insight as to what could rid the noise. I have seen others post that a portable battery bank usually takes care of the issue (I was previously using a raspberry pi power adapter) so I purchased one and it still doesn’t seem to be getting rid of the noise. it’s not extremely loud but is just loud enough to be a bit annoying trying to record with something like bounds which starts to loop the ground noise whenever I open it. it doesn’t seem to have this problem with headphones (that I can hear), but when trying to record the norns into ableton I can definitely hear it. I am recording into an apogee duet interface and connecting the norns to that with this cable, and am now using this battery bank (which didn’t seem to help):

RCC-10-3528 Black Series 3.5mm TRS to Dual 1/4" Y-Cable - 10FT

Amazon.com: External Portable Battery Charger for Cell Phone, 10000mAh Power...

any insight as to what the issue might be?

[alley_cam]

Usually noise issues are from USB. Any controllers plugged in?
If Bounds is catching it, it could be further up the signal chain, what are you recording into Norns from?

If USB related: https://www.expressivee.com/14-ground-loop-adaptor is reccomended

[kyanrinner]

I do have a midi controller plugged in at times but the noise occurs regardless of whether or not one is plugged in. I’m usually recording into norns from an alesis micron or a critter & guitari septavox. when recording with the septavox I’ll use this cable instead of the roland one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081H317LH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

with the bounds example I’ve tested it without any sort of audio input plugged in and I can still hear it start to loop the ground noise right away. again, not hearing this problem on headphones if that is any help, it seems to only be when trying to record into ableton. thanks for the adapter recommendation, I will definitely look into purchasing one of those.

[Shiftr]

I got these CS4270:

US $2.0 |1pcs/lot CS4270 CS4270 CZZ TSSOP 20 New original In Stock|Relays| ...

and confirmed working

[sophie]

I’m also having a ground noise issue with my shield. I noticed it first in Barcode (with headphones) but managed to minimise it by taking ‘in’ on the levels page right down and turning up the ‘mix’ and ‘post gain’ on the Compressor in Params page.

After reading about your problem I opened Bounds and am hearing the ground noise too, sadly my solution above doesn’t seem to help with this script. If you turn the ‘in’ down the script doesn’t receive audio.

Has anyone else suffered and solved this problem?

[Jonny]

I was getting a little bit of 60 cycle ground hum using the wrong power adapter (2000ma instead of 2.5 minimum for raspberry pi 3). Currently using a 3000ma psu to be safe.

I’m still getting a tiny bit of noise, some of which is explained by the datelines bleeding due to the shield’s lower cost board/circuit design. It’s not really a big problem for me if levels are set right.

One other thing – I would imagine that the factory Norns enclosure blocks some noise by shielding the circuitry.

[michelstirner]

wanted to know if anyone tried to do the complete DIY norns shield in europe? a lot of the links here connect to US based suppliers so i wondered if it is possible not to get all the parts and especially the circuit board from overseas? i’m a complete newbee in the monome universe, but everything here is so inspiring and i’d love to give it a shot building a norns shield myself.
so, anyone already done this in the EU (or germany) and can give some advice on where to get parts and how to approach? any advice appreciated!

[fblang]

I built one and am located in Germany. In the first post are links to the BOM on octoparts and from there you can get a cart on Mouser with all the parts. They ship to Germany with also quite low shipping fees (if I remember correctly). The PCB I ordered on Aisler which is also located in Germany.

[threedaymonk]

I’ve just built one using a PCB from Pusherman (in the UK, still in the customs union for a few weeks, but L/R are reversed on their PCBs) but I got all the parts from Mouser. There aren’t really any suppliers I know of any closer that don’t have prohibitive minimum quantities.

But Mouser is a pleasant ordering experience: as long as you meet the minimum order value (£33 before VAT for the UK, not sure what the Euro minimum is) you get free delivery, it only takes a couple of days, and they handle all customs formalities so there’s no VAT or duties to pay on receipt.

[forestcaver]

I ordered my own pcbs from jlcpcb (gave away three and buit two for myself) and parts (mostly) from mouser with no issues…

[kbra]

If you’re in Europe and want to use EU PCB houses, Aisler in Germany (or Netherlands?) is nice. Price of 3x Norns shield PCBs (minimum is 3) was very reasonable, the quality of boards was good, and shipping fast. It feels like they’re trying to be sort of OSHPark of EU as far as convenience and pricing model etc. goes, this was my first experience using them and it was a good one.

Mouser is good and fast as far as component stores are considered. TME in Poland is probably the largest EU specific one with a good selection of parts, but Mouser does have offices in EU as well, shipping is painless (Fedex, and they pay all the taxes & VAT for you in advance) and so on.

[Y0ud]

Hi all, I am noticing a bit of noise on the shield, where should I look first for “things that may cause noise”?

[ym2612]

I ended up ordering a few CS4270 from eBay, to play the numbers game.

I received two from e-best_trade that have the Cirrus Logic logo in the wrong font, so I’m going to assume that they’re fake.

I ordered one from domoki1988, installed it, and it works fine. Shipping took just under two weeks.