I have sorted all my bits. I have separated 1% tolerance resistors from the 5% resistors, then sorted each group into order of resistance. I have separated the electrolytic, tantalum, and ceramic caps. I filled a 40-drawer storage box with IC’s, transistors, trims, switches, sockets, and other parts, each meticulously labelled. I have filled 4 storage boxes with the exact parts needed for the Noise and VCA modules, as these will be the 1st to be built.
I have literally run out of things to do while waiting for the PCB’s to arrive, short of preliminarily building the circuits on a breadboard.
Maybe I should have sprang for faster shipping …
USPS Tracking hasn’t been much help, having said “In Transit to Next Facility” for the past 5 days since the shipment left Customs in LA. Is the West Coast really that long?
Real life steps in and my weekends are looking very busy for the next month solid. My hope is to have this project built by start of classes, October 2nd, we’ll see if I pull that off!
The planned assembly order:
- Multi – because it is just a bunch of jacks, totally easy
- Noise Source – less parts than the VCO and still makes noise, helpful for testing other modules
- VCA – Everyone needs VCA’s, and it is another fairly simple module. I expect to build both at once.
- VCF – The 1st “>100 parts count” module. I plan to build the “C” version first, which is the LPF rather than the multimode version, due to a slightly lower parts count. I should review these projects together as it might be best to do them both at the same time if they are extremely similar.
- VCO – The big mamma jammas. I’ also plan to go ahead and build all 3 at once for (theoretical) efficiency’s sake.
All this means I also need to build the case, as my test rack case will quickly run out of room with only 64 out of 84hp available in my test rack after the power supply, audio input, audio output, midi input, and oscilloscope have been added. I have already purchased 3 sets of 84hp rails, so will go ahead and build a 9u x 84hp frame for this, though this may eventually move to a different enclosure later. I’m still trying to decide between a simple 3 row frame or a fancier angled panel of some sort. Here are some current sketches:
