working hard for the modules

While i've made minimal posts here of late i've been rolling
Thumbs up to having a job now .. income really helps sdiy progression
Deliveries started hitting my door a while back and been busy getting my system all together
I have to say i love packages hitting my door
A little surprise inside each one, well almost

Here are the knobs and rotarty switches i ordered from Allied Electronics. I also bought 25 vtl5c3s hehe, you will soon see why!



After a dabble with clay based photo paper i have realised that pnp blue is really worth every cent
Ink transfers onto copper and aluminium is SO much easier.
Quicker, more reliable and a better outcome every single time.

The paper technique meant that you had to wear away the top layer of paper above the laser ink and this was a time consuming problematic process. i spent a few nights trying to get a couple buchla 291 pcbs done and only 1 worked and the outcome was 60% good at best/ props to kids who can get this method working. But at the quantitiy of pcbs i have to make i have realised that Pnp Blue is the only way. I bought a bulk amount from tom (BugBrand) who was nice enough to sort me out with a good price, still expensive though :/ . Tom is such a champion!!

The other thing i have worked out is that Staedtler Lumocolour pens are the best resist touch up pens for Etching. In some cases i've found it to be sturdier than the laser toner! It is a hell of a lot harder to clean off the etched pcbs, that is for sure. I found out about the use of these pens while trawling the internet, (as all of us sdiy kids do :), and some collective tested a bunch of resist mediums and this was meant to be the best. So that is confirmed, seriously use your sharpies for drawing on sleeping people and go buy red lumocolour pens.


I've been lots etching pcbs for people recently
I think I've spent about 10 hours at the drill press over the last month
In fact i'm writing this post while procrastinating drilling more :/ :)

Still got a bunch more pcbs to go, some for me, some for others
here are the 4 of 6 buchla 291 pcbs i have to make ( 2 for me, 4 for others )
and also 10 of the 12 buchla 292 pcbs (none for me, i have 4 of the pro pcbs made by thomas white .. but these lpg designs by matthias fonik have the resonance modifications from the t.white design, just no input mixers)




So i'm finally at the stage to etch my panels. I etched a panel with Fe2 last week and it came out a bit dodgy. I learnt that Fe2 reacts with alu pretty in a very noxious way, the Fe2 mixture turned into a bubling mud steaming with intense gas !!! It ate through all the spots that i had touched up with shapie and so the panel came out pretty acidalicous :) The module was a tube vca and i made a pretty smooth looking frac panel design for it, i think the tube gods wanted it to look a but meaner hehe.


So at the moment i'm waiting on final deliveries to finish a bunch of projects. Just some rare stuff. Need to get a bunch of more panel compoenets. While it is going to be expensive, i know i am going ot enjoy every single delivery :) heh

so...

Waiting for panel:
2 x cgs vco
4 x buchla 281 envelopes
2 x thomas henry vca
4 x thomas white/buchla lpg
klee sequencer
cgs Wavemultipier (recently fixed)


Needs more components:
mb808 (finished up Seq, just need to complete a few more drums)
box'o'trix (waiting on hard to find parts, next week hopefully, apart from the that4301 $)
mbhp PIC burner (regulator and PIC + sockets)
1 x buchla 291 (rare transistors and zeniers)


Need to etch:
2 more lpg boards
2 x buchla SOU (1 set for me and 1 for a friend)
3 more buchla 291 pcbs
gameboy midi interface (i just designed a pcb for it)

Currently working on:
pcb layout for buchla 257 cv processor
my modular case

TAU PHASER STOMP DESIGN

since im making the krautrock phaser within a stompbox format for a friend i thought that i would like one myself. i really regret not making one of the mini-modular cases for myself. unfortunately i don't have another krautrock phaser module (yet) so i made a similar design for my tau phaser.

here is the result

buchla and haible

got some more bits rolling after the huge futurlec order arrived
ontop of this i also finished a few modules on the 808pcb and 1/2 populated my mankato vcf




im about to mock up my case for the krautrock phaser
the case will be similar in style to a moogerfooger box
here is the panel design ready to cover some alu

box'o'trix case design

here is my revised and completed first draft (click for bigger)
it measures 1.5' high, 4.5' deep, 12.25' long
the power plug will be on the side or i might remove a set of the common ground plugs and put it on the back

i am waiting on a big shipment with almost all of the remaining parts, only a few to go after that so i hope that this box will be completed about the same time as my 808. if all goes well this will be within 3 months.

update

well i just started at a new job so i can finally think about building my projects again as income is slowly trickling back into my account.

next projects im about to order are

seb francis' box'o'trix (1/2 built as i had most components in stock)
mb808 bd, ac, sn, noise and finish dout/din/main out
low pass gates (4)
th mankato
th vca 1 (2nd one)
buchla 291 bpf (x2)
tau phaser (1/2 build)
krautrock phaser (2/3 built)

im also starting to stock up on the chemicals for the electro etching
and i have a laser printer on the way so i can start simplifing the pcb and panel etching process


and here are some tracks i have been working on

tubby-sans (dub)

Sans-tubby by prblmchild

gingermiss (deep techno)

gingermiss by prblmchild

boxotrix distortion box

got the design rolling for my seb francis boxotrix
im going for a super low profile version
since i am using bananas it makes life a bit easier

here is the faceplate that will sit ontop of a box no wider or longer than it and prob only a inch high to accomodate the filter caps in the psu. i might put bananas on the front and back of the box so it can be plugged in no matter where it is sitting next to your gear






i still need to finish some pot measures for the compressors
but i want to wait to see how the unit works before i commit to anything yet

another new tune

Feedback trails by prblmchild

feedback trails