This is 16n, version 1.2.
Things that are working:
- USB MIDI out
- TRS MIDI out
- CV out
Things that are going to be tested by @bpcmusic when he’s got his board and built it:
I am pretty pleased that it worked at first build-up, not least because of the cost of prototyping this thing.
Great, so how much and when do I get mine, it looks finished!
Hold on.
Here’s what’s happening next:
- I’m getting prototype boards to @shellfritsch and @bpcmusic, who live about 4000 miles away
- They are going to build these and test they work too.
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@bpcmusic is going to test I2C and, worst-case scenario, do some more firmware coding.
- We’re going to test them more proactively - use them a bit, soak-test them spitting out 16x5V for a bit
If all is go then, what we have is a working prototype. What’s next:
- Enclosure (ie: top/bottom panel) design. Sounds simple, but there are some variables that might mean the PCB needs to be tweaked.
- Costing a production BOM. That includes the panel, which we don’t know the precise size of, let alone the cost of, yet.
- Finding a manufacture partner for the made boards: finding somebody, checking we don’t need to alter board design… and discovering what this costs.
And then we’ve got to source parts and build them. (I’ll tell you now: getting the faders for a production run will take about 3 months, because of the volume we need).
This is why I don’t normally talk about work in progress: look at the number of variables left! But because there’s no Kickstarter, no backers, no promises, we can be more transparent and say: this is what development looks like. That thing where it looks like it’s finished? Yeah, we’ve got a way to go. And most critically: we have no idea what this will cost yet, really. We have some idea of bounds (thanks to material costs) but we can only start finding out when the board is locked.
Fun fact: the board is already at 1.21 (fixing a silking error, swapping four diodes for two double-diodes). I’m hoping there won’t be too many more revs.
It’s going well, though. This is the point where I begin to hand over more jobs to @shellfritsch, too.
Update over!