Serge thread

[lsky]

Great, thanks! So the 75cm ones they are selling at Patch Point should be more than enough

[wselman]

73-75 panels are ~17 x 7 inches

[philmaguire]

they’re 17 inches wide.

[ht73]

For a single panel the 18 in Pomona should be fine. For up to three panels, 24 in.

[rycolos]

Has anyone built the eDIY kits from 73-75 (with all SMD pre-populated)? Very tempted. But I’m curious if anyone knows if calibration with an o-scope is still required.

[Jonny]

Yes, I’ve built both the Voice and Control panels. Both require calibration and you still need a scope of some sort. I used my MOTU software. I saved a little bit of money by using hammond boats and a frequency central PSU with the 5 volt regulator swapped for a 6 volt one. Additionally, there were 2 SMD parts that were not soldered correctly and fell short of the pads. This took about a day for me to figure out. There are no instructions, but most of it can be pieced together from CGS/elby or the homebuilt kit instructions. The fb group is also helpful.

The voice isn’t worth buying unless you want to add LEDs or do other mods, as you don’t save much if you buy the slim boats with PSU as well. The control isn’t available yet as prebuilt and things are delayed probably due to covid-19, but 73-75 as project has been very stop/start.

[lsky]

I’m also still a bit unsure about how many cables to buy for my 73-75 panel, so I just spend some time counting cables in some demo videos on Youtube

Definitely seems as if it can quickly get up to 20 cables or more per panel.

[rycolos]

Thanks! Do you happen to know if both of their boats can be powered by a single psu?

[Jonny]

I’m powering both with a Frequency Central FC Power with the 78L05 swapped out for a 78L06 regulator. I asked Rick at FC if this was ok and he said it was fine. The 73-75 design needs a +6 volt rail which is not common. If you go with the FC power, since it’s an AC-AC, you must use the plastic power jack recommended or a rubber grommet to shield a metal one. I ran 2 separate braided cables (each with +12,-12,+6, and ground) out of the FC power into molex connectors to join those up with each boat.

In my testing with my 5 or so added LEDS on full blast, both boats use less than 200ma and the FC power is 500ma, so there is adequate power. For reference, the PSU in each slim skiff that 73-75 sells is 200ma.

I have future plans to build 2 more panels and house all 6 in a zero halliburton case. I’ll power it all with the Elby 1.5ma psu, but will have to rig up a +6 volt line for that. The other 2 boats will be a CGS programmer and a panel of some of the other Serge/CGS circuits. This is quite a big project, so it may be a while.

[kuorinki]

Really great set from John Chantler here (starts 35 mins in), featuring Serge, nord micro modular + ?:

[rycolos]

Well, Serge is happening for me. Jumped on some R*S pcbs on MW. Starting off with a VCM/Res Eq and TWS/Ring. Bit of an odd combo but will combine them temporarily with a Maths and an 0Coast and external sound sources. I plan to eventually get a Carnivore and DUSG.

For a case, probably just going to go the cheap route and grab a Bud or Hammond, combined with a cheap euro psu like the FCUK or Beetle. Can anyone convince me that an R*S boat is worth it over a cheaper option with self-tapping screws?

[emenel]

The RS boats are very nice, but not massively different. They are finished better, in that there are no sharp edges vs the Hammond boats I have where removing the panels can be a bit dangerous.

If you’re not going with the RS style external power connection then you also don’t get that advantage of their boats, which are pre-drilled for their power distribution board.

[rycolos]

Great.

Can anyone advise what size self-tapping screws would work best with the 4x4 modules?

And the eternal question…power.

ETA: Ended up going with the BoardPWR. The others were going to be too (or close to) underpowered for a full boat.

I like the Beetle because it’s cheap and in the US. The FCUK is similarly priced but in the UK. Can anyone see a compelling reason to go with one over the other?

I’m no stranger to DIY, but I must admit that I’m a bit nervous about building a PSU. I’m also looking at the BoardPWR. It’s a fair amount more expensive but I do feel a bit safer going that route. Worth noting that the FCUK can also be bought prebuilt.

Open to other ideas if people have them. I’m trying to stay under 200 for power and only planning to power one boat.

Whatever I decide, I plan to just add 4x mta156 headers to some strip board for distro.

[philmaguire]

Does anyone know if the Elby/CGS EuroSerge and 4u modules use the same PCBs? Thinking about emailing LW about getting a 4u version of this made

[louwrens]

They are different. 4U ones are way too big to fit into Eurorack format.

[philmaguire]

i think for that one. had a google and this other version seems to be the 4u board and a daughterboard for the hardware so… in theory possible?

CGS Serge Resonant EQ Mk. II

[rycolos]

Another power question for the experts.

My psu has a single ground terminal. I had planned to attach two wires to that and then send both to a power distro board. However I just remembered that I also need to add a grounding jack to the case for outboard interfacing. What’s the best way to do this?

I’m thinking 1 ground wire from psu out to a busbar and then 3 wires out from that (2 to distro board and 1 to ground jack). All 18awg. Sound right?

[lsky]

Another technical question about interfacing Serge and Eurorack: I would like to build a little passive format jumbler to use Eurorack CV with my 73-75 Serge panel. Are there any incompatibilities or dangers that I should be aware of, or can I just safely plug any Euro signal into any Serge input?

I’m asking mostly because I’ve read several times that for example the Lorre Mill synths should not be used with any negative CV. It’s not Serge of course, but still got me a bit worried…

[wselman]

Personally, I’ve never had a problem. There may be some cv range differences (IIRC Serge cv signals are 8v and a lot of eurorack is 5v) so you will want to have an attenuator handy.

[Jonny]

I’ve read in several places that most Serge signals are +5 volts and audio is +/- 2.5 volts. This is from this pdf: http://www.serge.synth.net/documents/1976sergemanual.pdf. The next page says that the control voltages can be +/- 12 volts.