19 April 2008

ASM-2 (Part 3)

A little update on the progress on the ASM-2. I nearly finished mounting the components on the PCB that I got so far. I got some wrong components from the local electronics shop though, so this morning I went there to trade some stuff. I turns out that they couldn't deliver all the parts and they supplied me with some replacements for some parts. But not all off them meet the desired types and tolerances. Some they say they just can't get. So I will have to see if I can get them from somewhere else or maybe from Elby Designs.

I also got all the connectors that will connect the frontpanel components to the PCB. The connectors are pre-wired as you can see. Probably the wires are too short, but it is quite easy to extend the wires. That is easier anyway than soldering the wires to the little pins of the connectors. This reminds me that I need to order more stuff from Elby Designs. They sell a ready to go frontpanel that looks really great and a complete kit with all the frontpanel components like potmeters, jacks, switches and leds. It is a bit more expensive when I order from them I guess but them I'm sure that I will get the right stuff and everything at the same time. I also need to construct a power supply and a midi2CV converter were they also sell PCB's for.

On the left you see all the components I picked up this morning that I need to mount to the PCB now. I got some of the polystyrene capacitors that turned out they had anyway, but unfortunately not all the values. I also changed the trimpotmeters since the pin layout on the ones I got was wrong. I got one missing LM1497, but one TL081 is still missing. I got BC550's in stead of the BC549 that were in the pick lists. They said that the BC550 is the follow up for the BC549. I'll try that ou. For the 7915 and 7815 power regulators we found two heat sinks. I hope they will fit. They ordered the rest they could get for me. I hope to get these next week. All in all it looks like a bit more work to get the component especially compared to the complete PAIA kits. Construction so far is quite easy. But before I have a fully functional synthesizer will take a while I guess.

2 comments:

hpsounds said...

I am always fascinated by people like you who build and solder DIY kits to get their synths or MidiBox. I am impressed !

Regards,

Hedi K.

Synth.nl said...

Thank you :)