x0xb0x Etudes - pt 6

Ups and downs strikes and gutters...

Thursday night - lots of progress... digital section mostly complete, all leds in place, nothing to test so assumed was ok.

Friday night - lots of buttons soldered in, chips socketed, jumpers connected (still managed to get one backwards!!!), but finally, LIFE. Things sounded great, though a little off...the low notes were INCREDIBLY low .. I'm talking 15hz type ish...just sounded like clicking. Also, had something loose and a slight touch would reboot the thing.

Saturday - Determined the loose connection was the voltage regulator, which had gotten bent back and forth repeatedly over the course of moving this thing around and always using it as ground reference. I just broke it off and resoldered it onto the bottom of the board.

Much more stable now, but tuning is not going well. Turns out the octaves are just way off...it should not have been that low. One of the thermistors at R100B was blown, which was basically setting the base pitch way too low. Quick visit to the x0x forums and this is illuminated, along with the fact that I could replace thermistor for plain old resistor.
Power back on and BING the thing sounds great now. Much more like the tb-303 notes I was used to.

Of course though, I somehow managed to break the decay knob...so I've got to get another one of those.

Basically though, it's finished, it squawks, and I'm happy. Hoping to replace Decay knob soon.

-J