Muff's Modules & More

Rod Serling Fan Club · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 2:20 pm Post subject:

Julian, the zthee panel is different, smaller.

Rod Serling Fan Club · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 2:23 pm Post subject:

julian · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 2:28 pm Post subject:

julian · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 2:37 pm Post subject:

diophantine · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 3:08 pm Post subject:

Rod Serling Fan Club · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:22 pm Post subject:

On the 291 subject: I played with hole alignment with some real jacks tonight and 3 outputs would just be too close together. Arranging the holes in anything but a straight line looks odd and moving the print looks worse. So 2 holes it is.

diophantine · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:36 pm Post subject:

I talked to RSFC about it last week, but now that I've done a bit more work on it I wanted to follow up with the group re: the 245.

I've just been playing around with the Easel Pulser PCB to see if I can get all the functionality of the Pulser section of the 245.

FIrst, there's a few things that I'm not certain about, but where I'm making a few assumptions:
- What is the 245 Pulser's "ref" output? I'm not really sure, from looking at the 245 schematic, but I'm thinking it is the oscillator output, in which case we could connect it to the Pulser PCB's saw output.
- Is the Pulser connected internally to the sequencer part? I don't think so, given that the 245's "Pulse Out" jack is right next to the sequencer's "Advance In" jack. The original schematics are separate too.
- Is the 245 Pulser's PW range truly from 0% (never on) to 100% (always on), as the panel would indicate? I hope so.

So, the functionality missing from the Easel pulser board was: Pulse Width (manual + VC), Start (manual + VC), and Stop (manual + VC).

I have these all working now - the PWM part I've bread-boarded, but simulating the stuff on the board that I'll be changing. I also haven't fully tested the VC aspect, but all of the switches & pots I'm adding just supply voltages, so it should work no problem. While there's no trace cutting involved, there's a number of part changes, jumpers, etc. that are necessary.

What I'd like to know is:
(1) Is there enough interest in building a 245?
(2) If so, are you willing to make these changes, or would you prefer some alternative?

Bear in mind that I haven't looked too much at the sequencer part of the 245: most of it looks straight-forward, but there are a few oddities.

While I have the changes in full in my notebook, they're a bit messy so I won't publish them yet, but I'll summarize what the changes involve:

Omitting 3 resistors.
Omitting 1 capacitor.
Replacing 4 resistors with links.
Replacing 1 capacitor with link.
Changing the value of 2 resistors.
Adding 2 resistors (there's suitable pads).
Adding 1 diode (you'll have to use a bit of creativity).
Adding 1 cross-board jumper.
Adding 2 resistors off-board (for panel components).
Adding 4 diodes off-board (for panel components).
And, finally, lifting 1-2 legs from one of the ICs (so they're no longer in the socket), and soldering them to connections.

Is it ugly? Yeah. Could it be worse? Yeah. smile

Let me know your thoughts!

demian · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:21 pm Post subject:

I would be interested in at least 2x 245's. w00t

303monkey · Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

Did anyone mention a 227 applause

zoot horn rollo · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:32 am Post subject:

equalpyramid · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:16 am Post subject:

Yeah, that pulser circuit seemed like a really cool module. Personally, I'd be more interested in a module incorporating a bunch of small Buchla modules (Easel or not). Or maybe doing a 140-ish module?

Also, anyone thinking of resurrecting the 257?

dar303 · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:25 am Post subject:

I have a 245 at work, I can check the pulsewith and ref outs.
The pulser and seq are separate.

I would be interested in a 245-like module for my own system!

diophantine · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:28 am Post subject:

OK, sounds like there is interest here. I will continue pursuing this!

Bear in mind, panels are not up to me, nor are they in my domain. I'm just seeing if a 245 would be possible, circuit-wise!

3 things I forgot to mention:
- A gate-to-trigger converter will be pretty much be a necessity for the Start, unless you want the first cycle to be funny; I think that Ken Stone's design should be fine, and will test it.
- On start-up, the sequencer is running. I don't think this should be a big deal?
- I haven't played with the LEDs at all, which I believe were in the buttons of the original, and just indicated if it was running or not running. This seems like the least critical feature to me - I'm sure something can be figured out.

valis · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:29 am Post subject:

@ diophantine That is all really fantastic info. I have two of the Lanterman pcbs but haven't thought much about them. It is very interesting, like you pointed out, that Buchla has three different pulsar circuits. Thanks for all the research and reporting back.

PF · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:38 am Post subject:

245, yes

303monkey · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:54 pm Post subject:

303monkey · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 1:02 pm Post subject:

Or a 246

djs · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 12:21 pm Post subject:

not sure if this came up already, but how about a wogglebug panel? using the pcb from bridechamber? Might be an interesting complement to the 266.

Rod Serling Fan Club · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:20 pm Post subject:

batchas · Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:49 pm Post subject: