#381

I mean, not to be a total dork but I am beside myself at the thought of finally breaking into the norns ecosystem. Its almost on par with getting your first modular gear. I have an old 64grid that a friend recently gave me that hasnt been used, plus about 45 other ways that I am dying to implement it. I think its going to very much change/imrpove my workflow and i cannot wait.

3 Likes
#382

what techniques have u folks been using to solder the dac ?

#383

I put a bit of solder on the 4 corner pads. I then align the DAC on to the pads, making sure it’s properly aligned. I then carefully heat up those 4 pads, so the corners attach. Once it’s secure, I put a good bit of flux on both sides, all along the pins. Next, I have my chisel tip on my soldering iron, and I dab a very small amount of solder on the dip. With the soldered tip, I smoothly run my solder across the pins. The flux helps transfer the solder to the pins. I run it back and forth (like a paint brush, not pushing any pins around, but instead running over them). Adding small amounts flux and continuing to go back and forth to make sure it is evening between all pins and pads. I do the same on the other side, do an inspection to make sure all pins are connected to their respective pads and nothing else (especially each other!). Then, a good cleaning with rubbing alcohol and you’re on your way!!! There’s a lot of great YouTube videos that help with the visual portion of it.

2 Likes
#384

Just finished my Fates yesterday (case still WIP). Actually this was my first soldering project ever (apart from fixing some guitar jacks years ago) and it went way more smoothly than I expected.

Many thanks to everyone around here who made this possible and to @reijo for the help and guidance with building the project! :slightly_smiling_face:

5 Likes
#385

One thing to keep in mind is that the dac legs will heat up basically instantly when your iron touches them which makes it easy to only apply the small amount of solder needed

#396

i recently ordered a rasp pi 3 b+ for my build 1.4ghz 1 gb and wondering now if i should have gone with the rasp pi 4 with the 4 gb instead? any thoughts would be appreciated.

#397

You’re gonna be just fine with the 3b+ Remember, the Norns is built originally off of the 3b, so you already have a bit more horsepower under the hood (many people have upgraded the computer modules in their factory Norns to a 3b+, but that is besides the point).

The desire for the 4 is just in potential future proofing. ORAC 2.0 is not as curated of an environment as the Norns, and its future is more at the whims of the market, so to speak. So, a 4 is potentially insurance on that.

But, let’s be frank here, it’s REALLY easy to swap the Pi’s on the board and if some monumental new step forward comes along, you can just pop off your 3b+ and slap on a 4!

4 Likes
#398

ahhh thanks so much for the concise response!
makes sense, if need be a swap out in the future sounds simple.

1 Like
#399

got mine in the mail yesterday and put it together today. i’m a novice at soldering but never felt in the weeds while putting this together. i’m honestly real proud of it and stoked i got it all working without having to resolder anything! thanks again @okyeron! :grin:

image

23 Likes
#400

:tada::tada:

hope you didn’t lose those screws :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1 Like
#401

hahaha! i misplaced one and the other wouldn’t fit because i could only trim the top of the display header pins so low because i didn’t have the right tool. will have to pick up an extra 6mm screw and some better snips soon.

1 Like
#402

I just put 2 together last night and they work great, except that the “we” folder scripts don’t show up in the select menu. They showed up before I expanded the memory, and once I did, they disappeared. on my factory norns, each script that are in the folder show up. I cloned the ‘we’ folder again into my dust, but still nothing.

IMG_0869
IMG_0869.jpg3024×4032 2.49 MB

#403

this is a small bug in norns.

You should be able to pull the current norns version from github and get it fixed

So…SSH into the fates pi and do this

cd norns
git pull

(also impressed you were able to get a screw in there on the top left of the display - that’s tight fit up there :grin:)

1 Like
#404

haha, yeah it wasn’t easy, but the philips head was JUST about small enough:) i’m going to have an enclosure cut this week in pasadena and it’ll be all great. thanks again for the project!

1 Like
#405

Forgot a step above - you’ll wanna do SYSTEM>RESET or reboot after updating norns via the git pull

2 Likes
#406

thank you! yeah i just did that anyways by instinct. it worked, yay!

1 Like
#407

So I’m having a problem with a new SD card I reckon, I’m getting a SUPERCOLLIDER FAIL message.

so after I’m SSHed in

cd norns
git fetch
git pull
./waf configure
./waf

Getting an build fail error evwrytime

Rebooting the fates will run awake but no sound!!

Any idea how to fix this?

#408

couldn’t find any info about how thick the case is. I am trying to get a lasercyt plywood case this week, and need to know the thickness to source the right materials.

#409

3mm ( you can confirm on the design by looking at width of cutouts on top

2 Likes
#410

In the first post there is a photo of a Fates with 5 encoders (not 3, not 4).
Is this a new design?