More commentary here if you want to read more.

theferrett showed off his box, so here's mine

Threw this together on Sunday:



It turns out I made a horrific error- the sides are outside the top/bottom - they should be inside, and now it's too short to support the MOTM/dotcom/MFOS 8 3/4" height panels. I've decided the obvious solution is to use this cabinet for wacky homebrew designs, and build a second one for the modules with fancy-pants panels (such as this one).

Also, now that I've actually tried it once, I hopefully will make fewer mistakes the second time. And get a proper miter box/saw - the bottoms of the sides on this one are terribly cut.

More details (and another video) here.

I apologize for the extremely crappy quality here. I shot it with the Treo, and I'm kinda tired after working on this for ~4+ hours straight tonight:



Next step is to get it mounted in the dead scanner chassis, but that can wait until tomorrow. Or rather, later today. oof.

Went to Home Despot, and got some 1/8" hardboard.
Mark. Mark. Cut. Cut. DrillDrillDrillDrillDrillDrillDrill...Rough into scanner chassis:



You can see a bit more of the process here.

(That front panel page is not the finished product. I guess I'm going to print another one, maybe do something about the measurement guides, and then laminate and carefully cut holes.)

( And now for some bonus beats )

Current Mood: content

I guess my Sound Lab won't have an awesome plexiglass front panel:


Now I'll have to find a thin enough wood sheet and cut to fit, or something.

Dammit all to hell. Now what do I do tonight?

Current Mood: aggravated

Pocket Piano Arduino Shield - I saw this when it was first announced, but now it's available for sale.

Of course, I just spent a bunch of money on everything I need for the Sound Lab Mini-Synth PLUS, so it's gonna have to wait.

But next month - it's on.

John Simonton, Founder of Paia electronics died last friday.

And I had just gotten my Theremax nearly done too...

I had wondered if something was up, since the website hadn't been updated in a fairly long time.

The website does indicate that the company will "under the guidance of someone who knows the full history of the company and its products...", so there's something. They have a few more kits I'm interested in, like their Stereo Mic and Hot Springs Reverb.

Current Mood: sad

It is capable of producing sound, and in fact did produce some tones reminiscent of an actual theremin. However, I'm pretty sure the following things are all kinda bad:

1. I think I broke two of the tunable coils trying to tune it. They don't tune any more.

2. The volume antenna should not operate as both a pitch and volume antenna at the same time. (this is actually sort of covered in the Theremax FAQ here, so it should be fixable, especially once I replace the coils I broke...)

3. It makes the same kind and amount of sound whether or not IC1 is on the circuit board. This is really, really bad, and explains all the noise when the Timbre control is all the way to the left. Looks like IC1 needs to be replaced.

Luckily, the replacement cost of the parts is about... $3 from Mouser, so it's not really the end of the world, but it is the end of my being able to play it for the neighboorhood on monday. I may also use the order to also get parts for Your First Wacky, Zany, Weird (and possibly Odd) Sound Maker Project which looks a bit easier than The Sound Lab.

Current Mood: frustrated

( ...and it actually (mostly) works! )