Telex: Teletype expanders

[infovore]

You can also shave some space with low-profile headers, or soldering the Teensy direct. The former is probably a better option…

[pathein]

these machined pin header will prolly be useful to reduce the depth

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=machined+pin&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X2.54+machined+pin+header.TRS0&_nkw=2.54+machined+pin+header&_sacat=0

[bpcmusic]

YES! I’ve used them on a few projects (oC) - but they are hard to find in bulk and thus my personal stock is low. Thanks for these links - they will help me load up for the build!! Hadn’t thought of looking on eBay.

This is definitely the way to go. :)!

[bpcmusic]

12/26/16 - UPDATE

The Reserve List for Fully Assembled Modules is Closing Soon

I’m getting ready to lock down the reserve list for the TXo and TXi “production run”. There has been healthy interest - which means a lot of modules for me to hand build. Boards, parts and panels will be ordered soon. Anyone else that wants on the reserve list, PM me ASAP. More details on the list are above in this post. (It is a “no money down/no promises” kind of thing.)

Just Posted the Open Source Stuff

I’ve updated my two repositories at Github today with the latest versions of all of the firmware, boards, panels, BOMs, and so on. I’ll keep them up to date when I make any changes.

• Teletype TELEX Firmware Branch
• TELEX Modules Firmware, PCB, BOM and Panel Files
• Handy Command Reference

With the Teletype operator reorganization, my impact to the codebase is minimal. The TXo code is in place and solid. For the TXi (and Ansible), I’m going to open up another thread to discuss some II/i2c irregularities that I’ve been coming up against in the TT codebase. Suffice to say that I don’t feel that integration is 100% yet. I’m hoping to get some bigger brains on the problem as it is an issue that the Ansible is also having.

[Leverkusen]

This sounds very promising and I would support the better fitting panel too. But as long as teletype i2c is so unreliable I am hesitating investing in an oversea purchase.

As I understood DIY is not as easy on this as on the 5U through hole stuff I normally do so I wonder if there is any chance for a second run when things have settled and one can be sure that teletype will reliably work with the expanders?

[bpcmusic]

Hey @Leverkusen - here are a couple of long-winded (sorry) answers to your above post.

Teletype i2c Reliability

I’ve been hammering at the TT all year and have found it to be incredibly stable when it comes to sending commands out via i2c. My testing was extensive - running 16 additional TR and 16 additional CV outputs with ridiculously fast metronome events. I was cruel to the poor thing and it resisted my most violent torture.

Whatever has happened in the latest code should be considered a small regression and is common to all software development. @tehn, @sam and others have been putting a serious amount of effort in hardening the codebase and making it easier for all of us to extend the module.

I felt this first hand when I went from touching files all over the place in several projects to make my expanders work with the pre 1.3 teletype to simply adding a couple of files and updating three others to get up and running with the 1.3 codebase. Such an amazing improvement - and so very appreciated.

Being able to read values reliably has always been a problem for me - as has been the issue of what happens when accidentally addressing non-existent modules. But this is also to be expected as we are just starting to push the boundaries of where we can extend the Teletype. I expect these issues to be cleared up shortly - certainly during my build process.

Go ahead and reserve units if you are interested, I am not planning to ship anything or hold anyone to their reservation until these final nits are resolved.

DIY

This is an advanced DIY project. It utilizes some of the smaller SMD components and a tiny DAC for the output expander. To make it easier, though, I’ve spread them about the board a bit so that they aren’t all bunched in together.

I don’t want to completely scare you - in fact, I’d like to encourage you. I had only done one other SMD build before this one (Ornament + Crime) and learned a hell of a lot about the technique during the process. I’ve not had one SMD build go south yet - and I’ve built a bunch of modules by hand now.

I’ve added solder paste stencils, a toaster oven hacked for reflow and a fish tank pump pick-and-place tool to my arsenal now and it is amazing. I prefer SMD to through hole now and can’t imagine going back.

Additional Runs

I’m not anticipating doing any runs past this one unless there is overwhelming demand. Everything is open source and up on my GitHub account, however, so there will always be a way to get a unit built.

[Leverkusen]

Thank you, @bpcmusic, for the very elaborate answer. I am looking forward to see all this working and send you a message. I’ll try the DIY then…

[bpcmusic]

Good news on the panels; I just gave MPC the go-ahead to the exact same metal and printing spec as the TT. They should look amazing next to it! (Thx goes out to @Galapagoose once again for all of the help on this project; wouldn’t exist without him.)

Here are the final mock-ups:

The GitHub repo has also been updated to add PDFs of the schematics for those that don’t have Eagle (in addition to the files for the panels).

I’ll be building a few more beta units over the next few days before I consider the BOM 100% locked. At that point, I’ll close out the reserve list and submit the parts order to Mouser and pull the trigger on the PCBs.

If you want in on the build - please PM me to get yourself on the reserve list in the next 24-48 hours.

[bpcmusic]

Quick Update: PCBs are now on order. I need to order the BOM in bulk; expect to do that in 24-48 hrs.

This weekend I’ve been assembling my last BETA units. I used up my stock of precision headers assembling the first couple units and am going to wait for a resupply to finish up the BETA units.

The good news: using these headers over the plain-vanilla normal ones, the modules come in at approximately 36.5mm. This is from the back of the panel to the outer lip of the Teensy’s USB connector. (The power and i2c cabling mount a layer below this and sit lower than the Teensy.) This means that it should fit in isms no problem with these headers!

Here is a shot of the assembled BETA unit with the precision headers:

Yay.

[bpcmusic]

Another BETA unit assembled. This TXo is running as outputs 17-20. This system has 20 total TR and CV outputs PLUS the TT’s original 4+4. Kinda nuts.

Brendon Cassidy

Loving the machined headers; just need more of them! Total Santa fail.

b

[nimmen]

Thanks for update, looking good

[bpcmusic]

tiny TELEX update

• Everything needed for the build is on order: panels, pcbs, processors, parts, pots, patch-cables, packaging, packing-materials, and precision-headers. All parts were in stock and on their way now; no backorders!
• A few BETA units will be going into the wild for testing shortly - might see some reports here from the guinea pigs.
• Updated the documentation a bit more to explain setting the device addresses.
• Will be revising the syntax for specifying longer slew and trigger times using a dot notation (TIME.S vs TIMES).
• Am about to add the “experimental” functions for the TR outputs; have had a couple of treats in r&d that I’d like to get in before i’m lost in the build. I’ll let you know when they are code-complete and tested.
• One small precautionary part change is likely in order to increase protection for the trigger outputs on the output module.
• If I get panels and PCBs at around the same time, they will most likely ship to the DIY folks in advance of my work building out all the other units.

So - the good news is that everything is on track from a timing schedule. Before you get too excited, two things are lurking that could hold up my ship date:

• First, we are still looking into the lockup of the TT when it reads values from external modules (TXi and Ansible). The good news there is that @tehn is on it and it sounds like he has a handle on things. Others are also joining in the hunt which is awesome!

• The second factor will be how long it takes me to make these things. My BETA build over the weekend was a bit of an eye opener that I need to increase my build speed by an order of magnitude. I’m creating some guide materials that will help me place parts more quickly. I’ve also 3D printed these awesome SMD Reel Dispensers so I’m not fumbling around with the tiny little parts so much.

Brendon Cassidy

I’ll keep everyone updated here as we go along.

[jasonw22]

I’m so impressed with the build speed necessary to keep up with a project like this. I find myself craving a DIY/Boutique Electronics Build Speed Master Class, hehe. But just getting this window into your process is fascinating and much appreciated!

[mDang]

Great news
Take your time teletype is already a great module by itself ! And good luck !

[laborcamp]

So awesome!
You are rocking it!

[bpcmusic]

Update - 9 Jan 2016

Things are moving along quite well with the project. It will still be a while - but everything is on track.

BETA UNITS

This weekend the first six BETA units left LA for my guinea pigs. Three pairs of TXi/TXo modules. This was an opportunity to create the companion materials like the printable command reference, II bus connection instructions, the USB/Eurorack power warning, tiny bags of washers + screws, Eurorack power cables, and bus cables. Still don’t have the antistatic bags or final environmental packing materials, but this was a good test run (and an eye-opener about how long doing all that stuff takes).

FIRMWARE INTEGRATION

There is another far more technical thread that is focusing on clearing up any lingering issues with the Teletype’s II bus. Massive progress was made over the weekend. We have been doing some pretty extreme tests to push the limits and help identify potential issues - in the category of “don’t try this at home” kinda stuff.

The best news is that we are now successfully reading from the TXi on metro events without locking the Teletype! That was a thorny issue that had me losing sleep for the last few months.

We also saw some amazing performance with write-only configurations. Here is a quick video of the Teletype driving 4 TXo modules and Ansible. It is running a 10ms metro script that is pulsing 24 triggers and ramping 24 CV values from 0V to 10V. This thing ran for hours (ignore my alpha units):

We’re still looking into read performance with lots of devices on the bus and have yet to work on a solution for typos that send commands to ports that aren’t connected to the TT. The hard stuff, however, seems to be behind us.

THINGS ARE ARRIVING

Shipments are coming in faster than had been expected. This morning the PCBs (and Potentiometers) landed in LA:

The majority of the parts arrived last week:

Still a few straggling bits that got pulled into the backorder vortex - but it is all coming together.

CONTINUING TO WORK ON BUILD SPEED OPTIMIZING

There is a lot to build here soon. I’ve been working on 3D printing some build helpers to make the process go more smoothly. These little guys will help me put solder paste using a stencil on the back of PCBs that already have components on the other side. Need to print and test them - but I’m excited at the prospect. The PCB rocks around so much that I struggle to get the paste on (or to do things by hand). This will negate that.

Also, I’m making some build guides that call out component placement so I don’t spend tons of time hunting around for and triple checking the locations.

Totally stole the idea from @c1t1zen - you should see what he does with a projector. Amazing! This as slides on a screen should save a ton of time and reduce errors significantly.

[nimmen]

Thumbs up. Great news. Already got some modules that are part of big teletype+tx* plan! This will be last pieces.

[Galapagoose]

This all looks great!

Are you making those build guides by hand? I’ve been looking for a process to help speed up our prototype assembly, but eagle is pretty woefully bad at helping with manual part placement. I imagine there must be a way to turn centroid files into something akin to your guides, but it feels like a massive undertaking to create it…

At the least I should get around to writing a .ulp to highlight all components with the same value…

Let me know if you’ve got any tricks!

[bpcmusic]

By hand in photoshop. I’m sure it could be automated in some way by setting up a layer in Eagle with custom objects that get exported - but I’m not schooled enough in Eagle to make it work. This was pretty fast for me.

Have you seen what @c1t1zen does with the technique using a projector? I ripped off the idea from him. It is AMAZING. Here he is doing a bunch of builds of Ornament + Crime:

🎛🔊🎶

🎛🔊🎶

I’m just going to use it as a helper guide on a screen or iPad.

b

[michael_matos]

That orojector technique is out of this world!