DIY Project Recommendations

[Cementimental]

Thought this is probably a good place to remind people about our workshop in Brighton this sat. Suitable to complete diy-synth beginners or more experienced electronics experimenters alike. Come along and build our odd + noisy light-controlled psychogeographic synth/audio-chopper circuit the Fort Processor: https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/isntses-fort-processor-workshop-sat-march-23rd-2019/

[fahmi_m]

I got this module DIY synth kit from Common Ground Berlin (Koma Elektronik).

Anglerfish is a 6 square oscillator noise and dronemaker for experimental and drony sounds! Use the light controls with the built-in LED or use an external torch to modulate the pitch! Drone on! This DIY Kit is suitable for beginner solderers. Anglerfish is the first self-released DIY Kit by Common Ground, designed by Bridget Ferrill.

*My friend helps me for solder and assemble it.

• Video demo soon (w.i.p.)

[P1505]

I just ordered my first kit. I have no iron or solder yet, but hey I now have a reason to research soldering irons for far too long!

I ordered this as they say it’s simple. I’m fine with soldering done it on circuit boards for years, just terrible at knowing what goes where.

Ginkosynthese – Grains – Full DIY Kit

I want the granular sampler kit but wanted to ensure I got something working before investing more. I’m very excited.

[xenus_dad]

I just ordered my first kit. I have no iron or solder yet, but hey I now have a reason to research soldering irons for far too long!

I really like my Hakko:
https://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_fx888d.html

It’s a little expensive as they go but my understanding (and limited experience) is that spending a little more on your iron pays vast dividends in speed, fewer mistakes, less frustration.

[xpm]

I’d echo that. I’ve recently started down the diy Road, jumping straight into smd. My Hakko fx 888d has been great.

[eyeiaye]

Has anybody tried out Bastl 60 knobs? Does it play well with monome stuff?

[claasp]

any tips for someone embarking on a build?

[junklight]

(I know most people on this thread are old hands but spotted a couple of comments on soldering up above - this helped me so much https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ - 3 parts and quite detailed but I found it really helpful )

[soggybag]

If you have some experience building through hole projects Give surface mount a try. I found it easier than I thought it would be. Stick with the 805 and 603 sized parts you can solder these with an iron.

If you haven’t built anything before start with a through hole kit. The meth amp is probably the easiest thing I have built. The Robaux SWT 16 was also pretty easy and super functional. The Befaco projects are through hole.

If you feel unsure about your abilities and have never soldered before, I’d start with a guitar effects pedal. There are plenty kits available. Get an easy one like a fuzz face or tone bender, overdrive. You can get some practice on something with fewer parts before tackling a larger project with two PCBs and many more parts.

Good luck!

Just a note, the Robaux SWT 16 is not too hard a build and the end result is incredibly functional. It probably the best bang for buck project I’ve built.

[adrianf]

I’m not sure if this is the right place but can anyone help me troubleshoot my Music Thing Spring Mk ii build? It works with the tank but with some high pitched noise, it doesn’t work with the brick at all. I will post pictured of the pcb if anyone is up to help?

[claasp]

thank you for the info. i do have some smt experience. curious about the 3.5 mm jacks. the thonkiconn style jack has 3 pins that match up with the pcb. i’m assuming that top pin is there for security as the the center connects to ground and the bottom connects to the resistors. wondering if a 2 pin vertical jack would suffice as i already have a set of 5 of those.

looking forward to getting this going:)

[delmerdarion]

I built one a couple of months ago which works fine. Post a picture and I can see if anything is obviously different to mine?

[adrianf]

Thanks for looking. Did I goof?

[bunkbeds]

has anyone here made a spin fv-1 based effects pedal? kinda thinkin about giving it a shot.

[mutedial]

I can’t see anything obvious on the board although you could use 99% isopropyl and some kind of brush to clean off the flux (I use a brush with bristles cut down or a toothbrush sometimes).

For troubleshooting the muffwiggler thread would be a great place to look. Usually someone else has had the same problem. Unfortunately search is down on MW and the thread is 46 pages , so you either need to ctrl +f or google for the problem and the thread.

The 4th page of the schematic has the circuit for the digital tank so you could check the components in there are correctly placed or there’s no shorts (nothing connected to something it shouldn’t be).
Have you checked the brick is seated correctly?

High pitched noise with the tank could be interference; sometimes it can depend on positioning the module and tank away from your power source.

Sorry couldn’t help, I’m sure it’s solvable.

[soggybag]

Start with a multimeter and check you’re getting power at all of the places your supposed to have power.

Start around where power comes into the circuit. Then move to the op amps. These have power + and -. You’ll need the schematic.

You might try making an audio probe. This is my go to tool for debugging effects pedals. I haven’t used it with eurorack but it should work.

The tool

Take a 1/8” jack and solders one lead of a cap to the tip. The size of the cap is not too important 0.47uf should work but you can use any size. The other lead of the cap is your probe.

Using the probe

Connect the jack to a cable and connect the other end of the cable to an audio output like your mixer or whatever you use to hear audio in your system.

Use other leg of the cap to probe your circuit by touching it to points along the audio pathway on the pcb.

Using the cap prevents Dc current from harming anything.

Start by feeding audio into the circuit. Then touch the audio probe to the tip of the input jack. You should hear your input signal. Look at the schematic and follow the audio through the circuit.

At some point you may run into a location where you know you should have audio but you hear nothing start trouble shooting here.

[adrianf]

Fantastic advice @soggybag and @mutedial. I will try it all out and report back. That audio probe trick is a good one!

[bmoren]

if you have a multi meter, you can use the continuity mode for basically the same thing without building anything:

(this is also a good video for learning general multi meter functions)

[simonvanderveldt]

So I built my first SMD module yesterday. It was 0603 (mm), which to be honest was a bit smaller than I was expecting
Still, it was doable and whilst it partially works I do have some issues with it that I could use some help with.

The module I built is the Antumbra 6mix (http://antumbra.eu/modules/6mix) and whilst the left part works perfectly the right part of the mixer gives off a high pitched noise when it’s muted.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this and find the source of this issue.
I’ve already checked a bunch of things (checked for shorts, measured all relevant resistors, checked if the switch wasn’t fully closing etc) but haven’t been able to identify any issues so far.

I also noticed there’s a bit of bleed on input 4 (J4 in the schematic). If it’s fully turned down I can still hear it’s input. This is not the case for the other channels. Not sure if that’s relevant or not.

This is the part of the schematic that relates to the right side of the mixer. SW2 in the middle of the image is the mute switch.
U2 and U3 are a TL072CD op amp.

The full schematic can be found here and the build guide here.

[bmoren]

I also noticed there’s a bit of bleed on input 4 (J4 in the schematic). If it’s fully turned down I can still hear it’s input. This is not the case for the other channels. Not sure if that’s relevant or not.

I’d double check R10 and Pot6 in this case, measure the resistance of pot6 and r10 using a multimeter and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing! (the video I posted above should help if you don’t know how to do this)

otherwise the screech makes me think it’s a opamp going into oscillation, I’d re-flow the op amps with plenty of flux. (or re-seat them if they are socketed)