one year... wow.

so its been almost a year since i started this DIY adventure into the land of sequencers and CMOS.. ive been working on the last one for a long while now.. i tested the heart of it last weekend. it was a horrible failure. i had soooo many things wrong and mis-connected. i couldnt believe what i was seeing. i also couldnt get the cd40193 to advance the count of the cd4514 multiplexor chip... in essense the sequencer wouldnt move from its initial step (0) . so there were soooo many bets hedged and gamed on the system., i thought i could just go ahead and wire everything and it would work. what a foolish idea. so.. i had to desolder the main control board and all connex to the panels and triggers/gates. no fun. actually it was demoralizing. but after a bit i looked at it as a step in the right direction. so i went back to zero: i ordered another control board and started at 0. im re populating it all very carefully and am going to hedge only 1 bet: the 4 bit control line hack/inversion. thats the only varaible i want to introduce new into the equation here. i also want to check EVERY switch and connection. i had all the dpdt switches for the gates and leds wired incorrectly.. so i had to undo that mess as well. anyway. i made a switch tester/simulator so i can check the hack mod without having it down in the studio itself and do it on the bench.

so as this project was moving slowly (now) foreward.. i had also gotten as present from my wife a DOEPFER DIY synth for xmas.. its a one of everything complete analog synth pcb thats assemebled and working. all you do is connect the power supply to it and wire all the pots and such and fabricate the case/enclosure to your liking. its incredibly patachable and has nice features. state varaible filter and nice mod points. so i was sending the ARP oddysey faceplate to the printers so i picked up the pace and added the doepfer to it as well. i named it the MINIMONO. since it has one everything. and its an incredibly small pcb. and had a good ring to it. so i sent that , the arp and a redone faceplate for a control voltage mod dual row unit out to the printers here in town. gotem back with the machining mechanicals. fan fuckin tastic. i have the control voltage (DSVC is its name) on and am beginning to clean out the holes and getting ready for harware install. the MINIMONO is all drilled. all parts have arrived (pots/ switches/headers) minus 2 switches for the env timand the lfo mode.. i have also made the case for it and have that just about ready. it sepelea endcaps with just 1/2 super finished painted black ply between. looks pretty nice and classy old school style. no 90's bad typefaces or anything. class. the MINIMONO and ODY will match design wise. both use the classic ARP styling from the last version of the ODY. i like that . i used black and orange with white letters and boarders. looks stlylish and scientific without being corny or cold. GENEVA was the typface that is almost 99% identical to the ARP stuff. love it. anyway.. heres pics of all the stuff.