1

CP5176 FET compressor / Re: wobbly pots

« on: November 18, 2021, 10:39:45 PM »

Not implying any reliability problem at all, that's just how the pot is constructed.
I will (carefully!) try to use some heat shrink tube, it will definitely be cleaner than what I have right now (the plastic straw parts are harder, and also just fall off as I take away the front panel).

If my next post is 'droopy pots', you know I had the heat gun too high :-)

2

CP5176 FET compressor / wobbly pots

« on: November 15, 2021, 09:19:15 PM »

Hi there,

I've got a working CP5176 (always fun when building it at a slow pace, and the lights come up in the right way :-)), but the pots are really wobbly: the diameter of the shafts leaves them a lot of play in the front panel, and with the pots' bodies quite a distance behind the front panel, they tend to move around, which (to me at least) feels a bit 'cheap'. 
I managed to fix this in other modules by wrapping a piece of plastic drinking straw around the pot shafts, but here I already put three layers, and they still wobble...

Anyone has a good idea on how to fix this reliably/cleanly?

Many thanks in advance!

3

EQ573 Equaliser / Re: EQ-573 II user manual missing

« on: October 13, 2021, 10:52:13 PM »

, thanks!

4

EQ573 Equaliser / Re: MP573 link cable

« on: October 13, 2021, 10:49:51 PM »

Brilliant, thanks!

5

EQ573 Equaliser / MP573 link cable

« on: October 09, 2021, 11:32:32 AM »

While I was assembling the MP573->EQ573 II link cable, I started to doubt: should both sides have an identical color order (shield/red/yellow, left to right when seen from the back of the plug), or are they supposed to be reversed on the other side? The assembly guide says 'do the identical thing on the other side', but unsure whether that includes the exact same order.

Thanks for clarifying!



Note that I don't have an MP573 (yet), so it's all hypothetical (I'm just assembling the cable, in case).

6

EQ573 Equaliser / EQ-573 II user manual missing

« on: October 08, 2021, 07:58:34 PM »

Hi there, I have a problem with this link: https://www.soundskulptor.com/docs/eq573-ii-usermanual-01.pdf (user manual from docs-21, but also others). Probably nothing changed compared to the EQ573, but I was checking the way the link to the MP573 was happening, and the MP573 was referring to a connector I don't have on the EQ573 II.

Otherwise again a brilliant kit :-)

7

MP512 Microphone preamplifier / Re: kit kudos and questions

« on: September 15, 2021, 11:26:31 AM »

Goodie. Thanks!

8

MP512 Microphone preamplifier / Re: kit kudos and questions

« on: September 13, 2021, 02:22:29 PM »

OK, excellent! Thanks for quick reply.

What about the piece of rubber/plastic? As I type this, I'm starting to suspect it should have gone under the input transformer (which I mounted with an (air) gap anyway).

9

MP512 Microphone preamplifier / kit kudos and questions

« on: September 12, 2021, 09:27:12 PM »

Hi there,

just finished assembling a 512 kit, and (coming from a background of Eurorack DIY kits), this beats everything I ever assembled: the level of the documentation, the smallest details in the packaging, the quality of the components, ... Amazing!

(full disclosure: I haven't tested it yet - but feel confident!)

A few questions/remarks:

• the 330uF caps are a bit fat for the build: there are two locations where they do not nicely fit side by side, so there's no way to mount them really vertically - a cosmetic thing, no more, I guess?
• the 1000uF caps are very high, and touch the closing plate, even though they're soldered flush against the PCB; is that a problem?
• there's a small piece of self-adhesive rubber in the kit - not a clue what that is for? If it's in the assembly guide, I totally missed it;
• in Eurorack kits, there's this repeated rule of *never* soldering a front panel component (LEDs, pots, jacks) until it's mechanically fixed against the front panel. The build guide for the 512 never even suggested to mount against the front panel before soldering. Can I assume that mechanical tolerance and precision is good enough here to sidestep that rule? To be honest, I cheated, and did check before soldering the LED,switches,jack, but it always fitted perfectly :-)

I hope my questions and remarks make sense!

Kind regards, erik.

10

XT500 Lunchbox connector extender / Re: XT500 Test Pins

« on: September 05, 2021, 04:34:37 PM »

A simple trick to get the test pins nicely vertical and aligned: first solder them up, then hold the board up (flat, horizontally), and re-heat the joint from below: they'll wiggle a bit, then magically fall into the right perpendicular orientation.
It's best to do them as the first components you solder, otherwise it's easy to touch the connector plastics with your soldering iron.