#82

Its most likely the OLED. Ive built 20ish OC/Temps and the OLEDs are somewhat prone to failure (compared to the rest of the hardware). I think ive had 2/20 OLEDs give up in the past ~2 years

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#83

You don’t need to choose between the two! The Hemisphere firmware just adds another app to the regular firmware.

(Though it does replace Meta-Q because of memory constraints)

(misinformation… keep reading!)

#84

The material of the faceplate is PCB (by Oscillosaurus), so it probably not a short circuit issue, but I will double check that and reseat the display if possible.

Yes. At first I thought it is bricked but then I realized CopierMaschine did working good.

Thanks.

#85

For the updated versions of Hemisphere Suite, the original O_C apps will be replaced except for the Reference app.

I think Hemisphere is more versatile and powerful than the original apps, but it really depends on how you demand for parameters controlling to fit your taste. Hemisphere is a swiss knife includes almost all basic functions you can imagine.

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#86

Wait, so after installing the Hwmisphere Suite firmware, can you still get back to the og O_c apps just re-installing the original firmware ?

I haven’t seen any mention of that on github or elsewhere, so thought I’d ask before changing anything ~

#87

Yes I think so, you can just load the hex file back by teensy loader if you use Mac. But all the saved settings will be lost tho. Calibrations seem not affected when interchanging firmwares.

#88

I like the original O&C firmware too much to outright replace it with the Hemisphere suite, but I do think that I will build an additional o_C for Hemispheres rather than the Temps Utile I had originally planned. Hemispheres offers all of the same things and much, much more. Yes, the number of channels available is cut from six down to 2-4 depending on the apps, but after having played with the o_C for a week, I’m pretty sure that a limited number of separate functions happening at once will be ergonomically and mentally far easier to handle and far more playable than six.

From the documentation, t_U seems somehow a little unfinished to me, especially for the time and expense (teensy $$$) required to build one. From anyone who has used both t_U and Hemisphere suite, I’d be curious to hear comparative opinions.

#89

My mistake! Thanks for correcting me!

I even went so far as to double check in github that what I was saying was still accurate, but somehow missed the huge:

“[Deprecated] Please see https://github.com/Chysn/O_C-HemisphereSuite instead for the active project”

at the top of https://github.com/Chysn/O_C-Hemisphere :sweat:

#90

I’ve built a lot of through hole stuff, mostly guitar pedals, is it possible to build O_C with a soldering iron? Or do you need special equipment?

#91

Totally doable. The SMD parts are all 0805 which are relatively big. The only semi-tough part is the DAC. The legs are very close together so it takes a little practice to make sure you don’t get any solder bridges.

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#92

As Cluckmuck said, yes, absolutely! A normal size iron is fine, but I would definitely recommend very thin solder, additional flux for essential reflowing, and solder braid for removing excess. Check out the EEVblog three part guide to soldering, the third part is about SMD but the first two are worth refreshing too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ Once you get used to SMD soldering, you won’t want to go back. I recently built a Befaco Rampage kit (all through-hole) after putting a bunch of mainly SMD stuff together and got extremely bored having to deal with cutting, bending, inserting, trimming and reflowing all the through hole parts.

My O_C worked perfectly first time despite me having bent a leg on the fiddly, delicate DAC. You can do it!

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#93

Hi, the t_U is not comparable to the Hemisphere as the tU is just six clocks that can be configured independently, that´s it really. No bells and whistles. Sure you have a lot of options and a multitude of fancy things to fiddle with, but they are for me way out there…I have one but think it will have to make place for another module, maybe even a smaller clockmodule.

#94

That is a good question. I call them experimental because I find them really hard to grasp. The Hemisphere offers more, lets call them vanilla apps, in a way that lets me just wiggle away. The original apps are all so brainy and fiddly, and as I only rarely get the chance to play with my modular, I am constantly checking the online manual. I thought about the oC as an utility module, but it is more of an speciality module. Its more a starting point than a mid-point, if that makes sense…

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#95

Makes perfect sense to me. I’ve really been on the fence about whether to install Hemispheres or not. My O_c doesn’t really get used that much, and I think would get used a lot more with Hemispheres on it. Basically for the reason you stated - I almost have to set out to purposely use O_c vanilla and create something with it, whereas Hemispheres looks more utilitarian - grab and use mid-patch. Mental block for me, I guess. That said, I really like some of the vanilla apps - piqued in particular but others too.

Shame it’s not easier to switch between vanilla and hemispheres - like hold a button when booting to switch modes. It’s just fiddly enough, with having to pull the module out of the case and such, to make me feel like I have to pick one or the other.

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#96

guys, if i can help you with anything re: o_c please ask, i’m very surprised by your words.

i’m in no way affiliated to the o_c team but i support it from very early and i cannot imagine my system without it.

only a couple of the apps are cryptic, for real. please feel free to ask me for suggestions, i’ll be very glad to help you guys out! i feel sad for your o_C’s :slight_smile:
no disregard for the maker of hemisphere, i’m sure he did great stuff but the original apps are almost genius for the majority of them…and can really glue together a system, especially regarding harmonies and orchestration.

3 Likes
#97

Thanks for the encouragement! I might give this a try. I need to find a kit for the first try.

What are the part sizes? Sounds like 0805 is good to start with. What other sizes are there for SMD?

#98

0805 means 0.08 inches by 0.05 inches, and in general SMD size names will follow that pattern.

3 Likes
#99

Barnaby covered a lot of what I was going to say. Get a couple cheap practice kits from ebay first to test it out. If you plan on DIY’ing more modules in the future it’s probably a good idea to learn how to source your own components. I usually plan a few builds in advance and then order all the BOM’s at the same time from Mouser. Since this is your first time you could probably stick to 0805, but a lot of the open source modules use 0603 parts. I am building a uO_C in the near future but I plan on using 0603 components since I already have the majority of them in that size. Check out these videos to see how others have built them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAokyZESHps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxqTvNf-Tkc

#100

Count me in the “wasn’t into Ornaments&Crimes but really like Hemisphere Suite” crowd.

I got it originally for Piqued, as a replacement for Peaks. It was powerful but fiddly IMHO, and I gave it up for analog envelopes. I wasn’t using any of the other apps enough to justify 14HP.

A lot of it is oriented to particular areas of generative music that are outside my radius of interest. For a while I was never using a quantizer for anything – in fact I was combining gates in a mixer for unquantized, freely tunable intervals, and then sequencing those gates (algorithmically or via MIDI).

And now I’ve got Marbles, Stages, Teletype, G8, Bin Seq, Mimetic Digitalis, Maze, and Hemisphere apps, plus MIDI, and that’s quite the toolset whether I’m doing linear or pattern-based sequencing, Cartesian, algorithmic or (more often) some combination of them.

I’ve honestly never gotten the appeal of quadrature LFOs. I could build a triangle or ramp version in Teletype easily enough, or I could use CV delays; I could use my E370 in phase mode with all four VCOs set to the same frequency source. Usually I’d rather just use unsynched LFOs, or modulation sequencing, instead.

Just about everything Ornament & Crime can do that I am interested in, I can cover more easily and/or more fully elsewhere.

I’m not saying O&C isn’t powerful or cool; certainly a lot of people find it useful. But it’s not universal.

I’m almost always going to have room for one or more of the apps in Hemisphere Suite – in fact I’ve already built a patch where I wish I had another one to run 3 or 4 apps side by side.instead of two :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#101

:point_up:

These literally cost a dollar. Destroying a few of these while you get comfortable is a lot cheaper than starting with actual modules.

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