x0x 231 -- Complete

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c0nsumer
 
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x0x 231 -- Complete

Post by c0nsumer »

Image

x0x 231, my x0xb0x, is complete. After a fair bit of work and a lot of waiting (mostly for the new artwork to be printed) it's done.

If you would like to see photos of various phases of my x0xb0x building -- including stuff relating to the new artwork -- please head on over to my x0xb0x photo gallery and have a look around.

As you can see, I made some new artwork for my x0xb0x. I ordered a few extra pieces, and most of them have been reserved by others, but if you'd like one, email or private message me. I have three pieces left, and as I am making no profit on them, I will not be placing a second order.

The cost for one of the panel overlays is US$41 and includes US Postal Service Priority Mail within the US, and one of the red keycaps you see above.

As far as the rest of my x0xb0x goes, if you'd like to make your x0xb0x like mine, you also need to do the following things:
  • - Add a power switch.
    - Replace R1 with a 200 ohm resistor to make the PS a bit more noisy.
    - Replace all LEDs with red diffuse ones. (Digi-Key Part 67-1105-ND)
    - Replace all the resistors tied to the LEDs with 820 ohm ones (Mouser Part 291-820-RC)
    - Paint the rear panel black.
    - Design a new overlay for the front panel and use a red keycap for the RUN key. (As if this one wasn't obvious...)
    - Replace all 'important' transistors with ones with 'high beta' ones as follows: Q10: 338, Q9: 338, Q8: 349, Q36 & Q38: 335, Q27: 337, Q33: 331, Q1 & Q2 & Q31: 327
    - Replace the rotary switch knobs with knurled matte black aluminum ones. (Digi-Key Part 226-4090-ND)
And... That's all I can remember for now.

I must say, though, I'm glad it's done.

-Steve

DigitalKnobTwiddler
 
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Post by DigitalKnobTwiddler »

Well it looks sweet,

I thought the black maybe a little too dull but it seems quite nice with the glossy finish.

So what do you think of the 200 ohm 'dirtiness' - can you hear a difference?

Also how did the kit compare to the FatMan?

stevenclements
 
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Post by stevenclements »

Looks fantastic Steve!

louvega
 
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Post by louvega »

Looks really good. How is the front panel printed? Paper?

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c0nsumer
 
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Post by c0nsumer »

louvega wrote:Looks really good. How is the front panel printed? Paper?
Nope, it's 10mil Lexan with three color printing on the back side, then 3M 467MP adhesive laid over that. It's the exact same process used for industrial control panels.

I must say, I think they are really nice... Hopefully everyone else who buys them will agree. :)

(For what it's worth, there are now two not spoke for. Let me know if you want to buy one.)

-Steve

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c0nsumer
 
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Post by c0nsumer »

DigitalKnobTwiddler wrote:Well it looks sweet,

I thought the black maybe a little too dull but it seems quite nice with the glossy finish.

So what do you think of the 200 ohm 'dirtiness' - can you hear a difference?

Also how did the kit compare to the FatMan?
Thanks, I'm really, really happy with how it came out. There's a few things I would have done differently next time*, but for now I like it.

I don't notice anything with the extra 200? in R1. Probably didn't need to do this, but I figured why not?

The kit is... Oh... Well... The FatMan's flying wire style of connecting the front panel (because the board for it is a cheap single sided one) is a pain, but the x0xb0x has lots of parts. Generally, both are pretty easy kits, in my opinion. The x0xb0x is about 4x 'bigger', though. (I can't wait to see how long the 9090 will take me... Although I always find the panel / board assembly to be the easiest part. Designing / building enclosures is where the niggling bits always show up.)

Funny you should mention the FatMan, because on Friday I finished up my rebuild of a rather trashed FatMan. I'm really happy with the results of this one as well. Here is a photo of it.

Because of some modifications I made to it (subharmonic generator and VCO sync -- both of which are excellent modifications) and the considerably improved case, I decided to call it the 'PAiA FatMan Plus'. Yes, it's derivative, but since it's still a FatMan inside, I don't think it is too bad.

I still have a few things to do to the FatMan, and those should be taken care of this weekend or so. I want to replace the mono 1/4" jack I originally put in there with a stereo one, just to make plugging it into my desktop speakers easier. I'm also going to replace the optoisolator as a hopeful solution to it occasionally seeming to get weirdly stuck notes. The friendly guys at PAiA suggested that it may be a bit slow and not able to keep up with very rapid MIDI commands, and I think this is the case. Hooking it to my x0xb0x and turning the tempo way up is almost guaranteed to case the problem.

Oh, I just babbled a lot. Sorry.

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