@toneburst: Haha, I know the feeling, I always seem to forget some little detail (mostly cosmetic) and only realize when every little screw has been tightened and the case finished. For example, I forgot to solder the cap for the hot-plug error on the card reader, or even remove the screen protective tape. I am currently waiting for the trigger expansion in order to have an excuse to dissassemble the case and hopefully do everything at once!
Another finished unit here. Took me around 5 hours. Unfortunately I had one hour only to play with it so far. As I read the manual quite some time ago I didn't unleashed it's potential yet but love it's on-the-fly tweakability. Thank you Julian!
Finished mine last night! The attention to detail in the design, layout and documentation made the whole build a pleasure. I'm totally blown away by all the features. I think my TR909 is might get dusty on a shelf now the LXR is here.
I also finished making mine last night! Great machine. Thanks again, Julian! I can't wait for the weekend so I'll have more time to play around with it.
Assembled my today, only issues were pushing down the plastic on the Male 16 Pin header for the display. I had to put insulator tape on the switches to keep on the buttons on firmly. but that was no problem. Also, the case doesn't have holes on the faceplate for the 5 black hex screws.
Apart from that, it was a real breeze! Very easy to follow the instructions for assembly. Thank you very much! Now to go for a JAM on this new baby.
refinished - had a bad MIDI OUT Jack (yes, this happens....) which i never discovered beacuse i slave everything to my Cirklon but wanted to take her with me to hollidays as Master Clock Device. So Display removed, Display cleaned up, MIDI Jack removed + cleaned up, soldered new jack, resoldered display (4th time on this machine - what a mess), put everything back into the Case. With proper MIDI out its double the Fun! ;-)
Did anyone else have no holes for the black hex screws for the front plate? The marking are there, I may have to drill the holes myself. But I guess the 5 knobs are holding it down 8-)
Those switch caps are a problem - I did the tape thing, but they're not sitting too well, and it affects the feel a lot. If anyone finds caps that work for these switches, please let the rest of us know where to order them. Maybe we could do a group buy somewhere so we can get the colours right.
Fuck, is this thing ever fun though. You've made a pretty great thing here, Julian. Congratulations.
@borfo: Make sure that the tape stripe is wide as the switch tip it self. Also make it short so it covers the switch tip only and doesn't go under the cap. Then it stays clicky-clacky. It also helped to keep those cap square brackets aligned with the tape like this [=] where "=" is the tape.
I've just retaped them all and they're a little better. This time I used tiny pieces of rubber tape about the outside size of the [ ] on the cap. This tape is typically used to temporarily seal leaks in copper plumbing... It's basically just really stretchy, sticky rubber without any adhesive backing. This stuff works ok for mounting the caps - way better than duct tape, since it sort of squishes to fill all the available space. Still far from perfect though.
Button feel would be improved with a proper case that's cut to fit the buttons exactly, I guess. Maybe I'll laser cut a faceplate for mine sometime.
Again, if anyone finds any decent caps for these switches, please let us all know where to get them.
These caps are still a problem though (the only problem with this whole device apparently - the more I play with it the more I love it...) If anyone's reading this before actually building the LXR, you should consider using different tact switches - if you're not planning on using a case, you might want to go with the more button style tact switches and not use caps at all. Try the fit of the caps on the switches before soldering the switches onto the PCB, see whether you think you'd prefer not to use them. If I'd tested the cap fit before building I probably would have used different switches. It'd be pretty arduous to desolder them all and resolder new ones in once you've put them all in though.
hmmm here the buttons feel absolutely fine. not different then the ones on my xoxbox or shruthi. :-/ I did not use gaffa tape, but this electricians insulation tape
Without tape, my caps don't hold on the switches at all - do yours? .,.like, they don't even slightly click into place and if I turn them upside down they would fall right off. I think electrician's tape would have been too thin for mine.
With tape they're ok, but I had to really carefully tape and retape each one until they didn't slide right off. After switching to the rubber tape and spending a bunch of time getting each one right, I can almost lift the LXR by holding the buttons and they don't fall off. They're pretty much ok now, but they're not perfect - some of the buttons sit at weird angles. Other switch caps I have are much more uniform and secure without any tape at all. None of my other caps fit these switches though - these switch heads are much smaller than any others I have.
I think having Frank's laser cut case would help a lot since the button holes are cut to fairly close tolerances and would support the buttons. My ghetto case leaves a lot of play in the buttons.
Anyway, it works, and the LXR is amazingly fun otherwise. Not a big deal, but if I was building it again I would have used different switches.
Part of the Game is putting as less power as possible into the Material, in your case the thickness of the Top Panel might be a bit on the positive side, so the Protective sheet underneath didnt get cut 100% so it glues the Cutout Circle to the Panel.
If you wonder what happens with to much energy - the Material heats to much which leads to thermal stress which can start small cracks somtime - in 20 years or so.....
@Borfo: my caps fell right off, too. But electrician tape did the trick without any issue - you just have to check in which orientation your caps are tighter.
I used gorilla tape. That's all I had around. A couple of tight buttons required me to trim the tape down so the buttons move. It was a matter of the cover being tight around the buttons and the tape making the button rub the edge of the button holes.
Two buttons didn't click. A little readjustment then the click was back and the buttons work better. The tape for all buttons was put in <-> this direction with the cap like this [ ].
I would be really happy to find other caps that fit tighter! The TL1100 buttons currently used come with a 3.4mm plunger I think they would be also available with a 3.8mm plunger from another company. But regardless of the plunger size, I find it very hard to find matching buttons and caps. Especially when you don't want to pay 2€ per button
Superb kit, great instructive build instructions, beautiful case from fcd72 and rumpelfilter, loads of features, great UI and ergonomy, and of course, amazing sound !
Only issue I had was a missing green led in the kit, nothing big.
I'd be really interested in the CV expansion kit, btw
Thank you Julian for that brilliant project ! It is really a work of love and beauty !
I just finished my kit. Sounds awesome! This being my first electronic project, and keeping in mind that two weeks ago I couldn't solder two wires together without breaking a sweat, this was a relatively painless process. (Actually, the enclosure was the hardest part in some ways) Thank you, Julian!
Everything seems to work right away, although I need to do some in-depth testing to make sure.
One thing though: I'm left with this mysterious part that doesn't come up in the building instructions (unless I missed something). Know that haunting feeling where you've just finished an IKEA bookcase and you discover you have one leftover screw?
Comments
Thanks for making the kits and putting so much thought into the documentation Julian. Since this is my first post Hello everyone!
Assembled my today, only issues were pushing down the plastic on the Male 16 Pin header for the display.
I had to put insulator tape on the switches to keep on the buttons on firmly. but that was no problem.
Also, the case doesn't have holes on the faceplate for the 5 black hex screws.
Apart from that, it was a real breeze! Very easy to follow the instructions for assembly.
Thank you very much! Now to go for a JAM on this new baby.
Thanks to Julian – great work!
(Und viel Spaß auf dem Sauriertreffen)
I did not use gaffa tape, but this electricians insulation tape
The TL1100 buttons currently used come with a 3.4mm plunger
I think they would be also available with a 3.8mm plunger from another company.
But regardless of the plunger size, I find it very hard to find matching buttons and caps.
Especially when you don't want to pay 2€ per button
Superb kit, great instructive build instructions, beautiful case from fcd72 and rumpelfilter, loads of features, great UI and ergonomy, and of course, amazing sound !
Only issue I had was a missing green led in the kit, nothing big.
I'd be really interested in the CV expansion kit, btw
Thank you Julian for that brilliant project ! It is really a work of love and beauty !
Everything seems to work right away, although I need to do some in-depth testing to make sure.
One thing though: I'm left with this mysterious part that doesn't come up in the building instructions (unless I missed something). Know that haunting feeling where you've just finished an IKEA bookcase and you discover you have one leftover screw?