you have total flexible routing. you can set each channel to either left 1 right 1 left 2 right 2 stereo 1 stereo 2
aditionaly plugged in jacks are recognized. So if there is only a jack plugged into 'left 1' all other routing settings will be ignored and everything is routed to the connected jack left 1.
hey julian sounds fantastic. relating to what you said previously, do you think that it would be an easy enough user mod to add an analogue trigger out (e.g. for a home-brew bass drum module)? would you be happy to explain how if any of us wanted to put it in at the build stage at our own risk (makes more sense than desoldering things later...
you would not have to desolder anything. It requires a small firmware change (something I could possibly add. just a few lines of code) and some additional wires and jacks.
there are still some unused pins on the mainboard. They could be programmed to output 3.3V trigger signals. An additional 74hc4050 for 3.3V to 5V level conversion and pin buffering would be good.
Here's a quick question- may have been covered before.
Will some of the buttons allow for manual triggering of the drum sounds? If so, how robust do you envisage the tact switches being under long-term use/abuse?
in 'preformance mode' the first seven of the 16 step buttons are used for manual triggering. you can select between oneshot or clock synced multi triggering (1/32, 1/16, 1/8 etc).
If you are really concerned about the robustness of the buttons there are some footprint compatible omron switches available as rugged, rubber sealed long live versions. they have a 3.8 instead of the 3.3 square plunger though. So one would have to find matching caps first. they are available at mpouser, but i would have to search for the part number.
the B3F-5050 is the long servive life version and the B3F-5051 has gold contacts. then you could go for a sealed version of this button as well. then it is even water washable 10,000,000 operations min
edit: looking closer at the datasheet reveals these buttons have additional positioning pins on the bottom wich won't fit the PCB. maybe they can be removed?
Thanks for the rapid reply, Julian. I'd probably go for the standard parts, to be honest, just wondered...
Without velocity-sensitivity, live triggering buttons are a bit limited. Having said that, the buttons on the Monomachine/Machinedrum aren't velocity sensitive, either.
hi julian - thanks for clarifying that re the analogue outs. can only really justify one drum machine so that expandability would be very useful. quite fancy doing my first bit of reading up & perfboarding at a later stage to add an individual voice, although the Thomas Henry MPS http://www.birthofasynth.com/Thomas_Henry/Pages/MPS.html ;
@toneburst velocity sensitive buttons would be great! But in the end you need some silicone rubber pads or the like to have good trigger pads. But you have always the option to connect a pad midi controller. Should be fun, since you can record notes tothe sequencer patterns in realtime (even quantized)
I've got the front PCBs They look good on the first glance. I'm sorry but the camera is still on easter holliday with the rest of the family maybe I can provide some crappy mobile phone pics later on.
but having a "sturmfrei" weekend I made good progress on the firmware. Still some things to do, but at least the UI is nearly finished.
so the upcoming steps are: - wait for the camera - build+test a prototype with the new PCBs - document the process with pictures for the build manual - a little bit of firmware work
then maybe a very small pioneer/beta run. Very small because I don't have that many surpluss boards from this batch of PCBs. This is for the real eager people willing to beta test and assemble the units real quick, as I'll need the feedback and the complete kits will be available shortly afterwards.
When my prototype is working as expected, I will order the last missing parts and will find out how long it takes to sort all the parts into kits. So if nothing goes wrong and the feedback from the early potioneers is good (hopefully no big bugs left by then), I would expect the kits to be available around next month.
hmmm, maybe next week? I think I should have the camera again for next weekend. so hopefully I'll manage to finish the build instructions by then and try out the prototype. I'll have to order some AVRs for the frontpanel (I think you want preprogrammed chips?) and cleanup my BOM a little bit before publishing it.
I don't know about hard to source parts. most of the parts are available via reichelt (that's what i call easy to source parts). OLED displays and buttons/caps and some other stuff is only available at digikey/mouser. When the BOM is online maybe we can check what I should add to the pioneer run.
Parts cost - that's hard to say since my calculations are all made in bulk amounts only so far . It's below 100€ for sure, maybe even less, but I'll give you a better estimation when the BOM is up.
regarding pre-programmed avr chips : i suppose that a good number of potioneers will be stuffed with the required hardware to program chips. At least that's my case..
This project should be relatively cheap since there is relatively few analog circuitry, I expect it to be circa 200 € for a full kit?
Well, I'll do my possible to be in for the potioneer run...
edit : are OLED displays really required?
I have the impression that it's the same type of screens than shruthis.
OLED is not really required. The PCB has all necessary components for LCDs as well (trimmer and resistor) But since I'll ship the kits with OLEDs the default enclosure will probably have no cutout for displays higher than 10mm. The Kamami LCDs work, too.
Looks great! Think I'll wait for the first non-pioneer kit batch. I've just bought an Ableton Push, so shouldn't really spend any more on kit for a while..
Parts cost - that's hard to say since my calculations are all made in bulk amounts only so far . It's below 100€ for sure, maybe even less, but I'll give you a better estimation when the BOM is up.
I have to correct myself here. I just looked up some prices without bulk discount. part costs for the frontpanel are more likely in the range of 100-120 euro for single unit quantities. (with OLED) All those buttons really add up :P I haven't checked all parts and all vendors. So this is a rough estimation based on some mouser/reichelt prices.
Looks great! Think I'll wait for the first non-pioneer kit batch. I've just bought an Ableton Push, so shouldn't really spend any more on kit for a while..
Hi Julian great work, really interested just boils down to cost how soon I can get involved, so will check out yr BOM & if still space on pioneers run & enough brass in pocket will be up for it too otherwise hope yr kits are out by next payday!
For your orientation what will be needed I have an early BOM up online here - Link to BOM. please note: THIS IS NOT THE FINAL BOM! I have to verify it when I will build the next prototype. There may be parts missing, and I can't say anything about the LEDs and their resistors, yet. So don't order any parts until the BOM and your seat on the pioneer list is confirmed
a small status update: a parts order is stuck in customs for a while now. I started building the prototype and making the build instruction over the weekend, but now I need the parts I hope they arrive next week. So that I can finish the last prototype next weekend after the messe. then just software and the manual are left - yay
I'm back from messe and had 4 big boxes from the part suppliers waiting for me. Now half my workschop is filled with boxes Spend a nice evening with fcd72 <):) talking synth and discussing the further steps for the drumsynth release with someone with a little bit more insight into the DIY kit bizz was great!
So the plan is the following: I will first start the pioneer run a little bit larger than planned. maybe around 20 kits. Then I will wait untill I get feedback from the pioneers and if everything is ok the rest of the kits will be available in the shop. So the pioneer run will be very soon, the final release date will be about 2 months later, so the pioneers have time to build their units and report their found bugs back to me. I think it is better to do it that way, than to release the kits in the shop in a hurry. So I can be sure that most of the bugs are fixed when the first official release is due. We don't want to follow the trend of releasing unfinished products into the wild, do we?
Since I already have most of the parts here, I think I could provide the pioneers with complete kits. Or do you prefer self sourcing?
I can finally finish my current prototype this weekend and finish the assembly instructions. Then If it works i will give you more information about the upcoming pioneer run.
Comments
you can set each channel to either
left 1
right 1
left 2
right 2
stereo 1
stereo 2
aditionaly plugged in jacks are recognized.
So if there is only a jack plugged into 'left 1' all other routing settings will be ignored and everything is routed to the connected jack left 1.
It requires a small firmware change (something I could possibly add. just a few lines of code)
and some additional wires and jacks.
there are still some unused pins on the mainboard.
They could be programmed to output 3.3V trigger signals.
An additional 74hc4050 for 3.3V to 5V level conversion and pin buffering would be good.
Will some of the buttons allow for manual triggering of the drum sounds? If so, how robust do you envisage the tact switches being under long-term use/abuse?
a|x
you can select between oneshot or clock synced multi triggering (1/32, 1/16, 1/8 etc).
If you are really concerned about the robustness of the buttons there are some footprint compatible omron switches available as rugged, rubber sealed long live versions. they have a 3.8 instead of the 3.3 square plunger though. So one would have to find matching caps first.
they are available at mpouser, but i would have to search for the part number.
then you could go for a sealed version of this button as well. then it is even water washable
10,000,000 operations min
edit: looking closer at the datasheet reveals these buttons have additional positioning pins on the bottom wich won't fit the PCB. maybe they can be removed?
velocity sensitive buttons would be great! But in the end you need some silicone rubber pads or the like to have good trigger pads. But you have always the option to connect a pad midi controller. Should be fun, since you can record notes tothe sequencer patterns in realtime (even quantized)
They look good on the first glance.
I'm sorry but the camera is still on easter holliday with the rest of the family
maybe I can provide some crappy mobile phone pics later on.
but having a "sturmfrei" weekend I made good progress on the firmware.
Still some things to do, but at least the UI is nearly finished.
so the upcoming steps are:
- wait for the camera
- build+test a prototype with the new PCBs
- document the process with pictures for the build manual
- a little bit of firmware work
then maybe a very small pioneer/beta run. Very small because I don't have that many surpluss boards from this batch of PCBs. This is for the real eager people willing to beta test and assemble the units real quick, as I'll need the feedback and the complete kits will be available shortly afterwards.
When my prototype is working as expected, I will order the last missing parts and will find out how long it takes to sort all the parts into kits. So if nothing goes wrong and the feedback from the early potioneers is good (hopefully no big bugs left by then), I would expect the kits to be available around next month.
I think I should have the camera again for next weekend.
so hopefully I'll manage to finish the build instructions by then and try out the prototype.
I'll have to order some AVRs for the frontpanel (I think you want preprogrammed chips?)
and cleanup my BOM a little bit before publishing it.
I don't know about hard to source parts. most of the parts are available via reichelt (that's what i call easy to source parts). OLED displays and buttons/caps and some other stuff is only available at digikey/mouser. When the BOM is online maybe we can check what I should add to the pioneer run.
Parts cost - that's hard to say since my calculations are all made in bulk amounts only so far
:> I'm getting stoked. Nice to see that our usual case guru is onboard.
But since I'll ship the kits with OLEDs the default enclosure will probably have no cutout for displays higher than 10mm. The Kamami LCDs work, too.
I just looked up some prices without bulk discount.
part costs for the frontpanel are more likely in the range of 100-120 euro for single unit quantities. (with OLED) All those buttons really add up :P
I haven't checked all parts and all vendors. So this is a rough estimation based on some mouser/reichelt prices.
so probably I won't have time until after the messe.
please note: THIS IS NOT THE FINAL BOM!
I have to verify it when I will build the next prototype. There may be parts missing, and I can't say anything about the LEDs and their resistors, yet. So don't order any parts until the BOM and your seat on the pioneer list is confirmed
a parts order is stuck in customs for a while now.
I started building the prototype and making the build instruction over the weekend, but now I need the parts
I hope they arrive next week. So that I can finish the last prototype next weekend after the messe.
then just software and the manual are left - yay
\:D/ soon soon soon
:-))
Now half my workschop is filled with boxes
Spend a nice evening with fcd72 <):) talking synth and discussing the further steps for the drumsynth release with someone with a little bit more insight into the DIY kit bizz was great!
So the plan is the following:
I will first start the pioneer run a little bit larger than planned. maybe around 20 kits.
Then I will wait untill I get feedback from the pioneers and if everything is ok the rest of the kits will be available in the shop. So the pioneer run will be very soon, the final release date will be about 2 months later, so the pioneers have time to build their units and report their found bugs back to me. I think it is better to do it that way, than to release the kits in the shop in a hurry. So I can be sure that most of the bugs are fixed when the first official release is due. We don't want to follow the trend of releasing unfinished products into the wild, do we?
Since I already have most of the parts here, I think I could provide the pioneers with complete kits. Or do you prefer self sourcing?
I can finally finish my current prototype this weekend and finish the assembly instructions. Then If it works i will give you more information about the upcoming pioneer run.