Massive Midlife Modular

jford · Post by **jford** » Sun May 10, 2015 8:49 pm

drip.feed wrote:It almost sounds like you know what you're doing. Watching this thread fo sho.

I'm watching this too. Fascinating, given I'm building a handful of modules, and only just getting them done.

Nice thread count by the way, Drip Feed.

drip.feed · Post by **drip.feed** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:21 am

jford wrote:Nice thread count by the way, Drip Feed.

Yeah, I'm all about taking the talk instead of walking the walk.

AlanP · Post by **AlanP** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:59 am

Flippin' hell. It's really nice to see MU size stuff that has an artistic flair (Another guy did whitefaced MU panels with Art Deco styling, I forget the link though...)

How are you getting on with the solder-sniffing part behind the beautiful panels?

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Mon May 11, 2015 8:23 pm

Powder coating is very chip resistant. Chips are rare and never too large for inserted hardware to cover. Still it's best to drill in bursts so long curls of aluminum cant spin and scratch the surface.
No soldering yet still sourcing parts. Have an insane cart going at mouser. I'm trying to order everything at once for 35 modules. I have all the IC sockets, so those will go in soon.
Working on cosmetic structure so far mainly. Planning out the cases and power supply. I just laid out a power supply PCB for an 8 channel mic pre for a customer that I can scale up to 2.8A per rail buy using a larger toroid (that I already have) that should be plenty for all three cabinets. I am going with a design similar to the dot.com studio cabinets (two 44MU slant cabs and a 22MU straight cab) except with butterfly latches to hold them together and with white sparkle tolex with silver hardware.

Back panel from another mic pre and the larger toroid I'll use in the same manner next to it.

tolex. the blue sparkle roll is to practice on a smaller cab ( a combo amp for the friend who will help me construct and cover the giant cabs) first before the larger ones. I've tolexed before but not with this cloth backed vinyl so i don't want my first time to be with a 14 foot strip.

buttons for the ADSR triggers arrived.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Tue May 12, 2015 5:04 am

All the IC sockets soldered into the boards for 24 oakley modules.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Tue May 19, 2015 10:17 pm

I soldered in all the parts I had on hand. Close to 50% parts population on all the oakley boards. I had a drawer of 2u2 63v films that fit great in all the electro positions, i'm skipping the small film caps in parallel to these. I did not have any problems using larger polystyrene and silver mica caps either.

Full size paper layout of the sides to the cabinet. Red outline is the dimensions of the center supports. Approximate location of butterfly latches.

werock · Post by **werock** » Wed May 20, 2015 3:47 pm

fantastic apparatus wrote:
buttons for the ADSR triggers arrived.

Very cool buttons!

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:21 am

i started a thread in the DIY section https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewt ... p?t=139254 for the non oakley aspects of this build. so, all the cabinetmaking that's coming up soon will be shifted over there with the non oakley modules. i didn't want to keep bumping this with off topic stuff as the build progresses.
so, in oakley news, i just placed an insane order at mouser that has all the remaining parts for the 24 oakley modules. i got an email saying my card was declined because the order was apparently to large for the part picking software which made the order split in two somehow automatically behind the scenes which requested the same funds from the credit card again in two amounts after it had put a hold for the total amount. fixed fast with phone call, but i didn't think i could make mouser sweat. going blue/ yellow for the bi-colors LED's (green at audio rates?) and some exotic pinks and purples along with whites and blues for the other LED's, clear fresnel lenses for every position. hand wiring all jacks and using switchcraft 12A's because i have an irrational bias against enclosed jacks but still want to be able to experiment with complicated normalization.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 5:35 am

had a marathon bench session monday and got all the mouser parts soldered in, completing all board mounted parts on 24 oakley modules, save a few backordered trim pots/odd resistors and two 4.7v zeners to replace the 14.7 ones i bought accidentally. i also have 10 mystery bc557 transistors that i don't remember what i ordered for in this order.
most of my 50k pots are backordered until next month so thats a big setback in prompt completion. i drilled out some faceplates and have the first three oakley modules ready to wire up to completion.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 4:01 am

five modules fully wired up now. i screwed a paper mock up of the bicolor LED PCB i'm adding to the VCO controller into a standoff- fit is good. ill get deep with the equinox after the standard version tests out. i only got 17 of 120 50k pots so this is all the oakley modules i can complete until late july unfortunately-activity will shift to the other thread until then.

AlanP · Post by **AlanP** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 5:05 am

Your wiring is beautiful. I don't know how happy they'll be that close together, but it looks really nice

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 4:34 am

pots came early from mouser. finished drilling 22 more panels and installed the jacks out on the back porch because the weather was great.

the other seven VCO's are ready to wire up now.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:01 am

10 more modules ready to wire up.

lowacid · Post by **lowacid** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 1:37 am

AWESOME

What an impressive job... Looking forward to see the next posts.

jford · Post by **jford** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 1:43 am

Can I just say that you're putting me to shame and that you need to slow down a little? I'm assuming you don't have a job/wife/kids/house/dog to slow you down... :youkids:

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:22 pm

ha, no dogs or kids the wife and i dislike both. 75 year old house (current issue is leaking hot water tank i've been shopvac-ing up while researching replacements) and a cat that demands our servitude. i am very lucky to have a flexible job and an amazing wife. don't worry the building is going to stop for a while after this current batch of modules when i switch to researching and designing the four sequencers.

on another subject, i found that no oakley modules will fit in the top row of my top slanted cab due to interference with the board and the top of the cab. this means they will not fit in a dot com studio case in the top row of the 110 system. they fit fine in the bottom cab because the jacks are facing the acute angle. i didn't have any oakley's planned for that top row so it is not an issue for me (though i ran into the same problem with the reverb modules i made to go in that row and have to move them down one).

jford · Post by **jford** » Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:14 pm

fantastic apparatus wrote:... researching and designing the four sequencers.

Very keen to see what you do with sequencers. I'm slowly (see above) working on some sequencer ideas that are still only half-formed.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:47 am

all oakley modules mounted in the cabinets except the two SVF filters (they will be directly to the left of the transistor ladder), as i need to reprint those panels.

HowDoIKnow · Post by **HowDoIKnow** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:38 am

What a fantastic build

fantastic apparatus wrote: i am very lucky to have a flexible job and an amazing wife.

I always thought the secret to a happy life was an amazing job and a flexible wife......

hdik

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 9:51 pm

midiDAC finished and functional. just need to calibrate.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:15 am

calibrated and tracking great. truly amazing products tony.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 9:06 pm

quick first patch. two VCOs and the midiDAC calibrated. next up is calibrating the VCO controller and normalizing 2 groups of four VCOs to the two busses.

neandrewthal · Post by **neandrewthal** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 10:01 pm

Amazing work on an epic project! Looks like it'll be done in no time at all.

Almost the exact same dimensions as my system too (5x24 1.75"U) but mine took 6 years.

fantastic apparatus · Post by **fantastic apparatus** » Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:04 am

calibrated VCO controller and two VCOs normalized to the controller and inter-modulating.

Blake Smith · Post by **Blake Smith** » Tue Aug 11, 2015 4:54 am

Impressive project. Does the powder coating require some practice before a person can get a decent finish? Or is it an easy process?

MUFF WIGGLER

MUFF WIGGLER

Massive Midlife Modular