Monday, March 15, 2010
MIDI Pedalboard!
Many months of silence. Too many exams! This new project comes from a real need of studying organ. Since I always dreamed of having a “real” organ all for me, and since Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ has made a “free” limited demo version of their program, time has come to build my own organ console.
The initial project was to build all, manuals, pedals, electronics and software.
The second revision consisted of just a pedalboard, electronics and software, and use a midi keyboard.
Since time is scarce, I managed to obtain a prebuilt pedalboard.
Since time is really scarce, I decided not to build myself all the electronics, but to use the excellent MIDIbox and make the pcbs myself.
Since… well you know, time is scarce I ordered (excellent) prebuild pcbs and components from http://www.mikes-elektronikseite.de.
Now I just had to build the electronics and modify the pedalboard to install switches for the pedals (todo…)
The first step is building the electronics, which I will document today. After all these months I did not even remembered how to turn on my soldering iron!
These are the PCBs, home made but very nice (almost as nice as the ones I make :-P )
First I start with the DIN (digital input) module:
Hey! get off of my box you cat!!
And then is the CORE module:
Half Built!
And finished:
Next time… first power on and debugging session! then software, then tests… eek!
My many thanks go to Andrea Macinanti and Brondino Vegezzi-Bossi Organ builders for helping me obtain the pedalbard!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Loco Digi and more Pierina
Thursday and Friday where train work days. And I forgot to put up the photos. Oops!
Well, first of all I digitalized the Roco V200 of FP. I found and interesting quote in the little manual that accompanies the loco (freely translated):
After 30 years of trustfully work the V200 series locos where to be decommissioned, useful only as spare parts. So they where brought from the italian FP to be put on regular service.
And then one wonders why local train service quality is err… questionable.
Well., on to the digi process! This loco is yery easy to open, but internally contains no space at all. Nothing. Nada!I decided firstly to remove the internal PCB, but then I realized it is part of the structure (!) so I decided to cut a hole in te pcb, which will not be used:
This is with the decoder in place:
I tried to wire everything in an orderly fashion:
And this is the loc almost finished:
The decoder is wrapped up in insulating tape, since it will be enclosed in metal:
This is the decoder closed in it’s enclosure:
Saturday was Pierina day. This time nothing special, just drilled some holes and made new handles (which where destroyed by me - oops!)
And these are two of them mounted:
I added some missing pipes:
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Oops! I broke it!
I have a nice TI extensa 500 notebook, which I still use for PIC programming (via serial!) and as a DCC contol station (SCRP, DDL, DDW & company).
This lil ‘putie worked very well, with the windows-software and the internets. Until the RCT battery died. For some strange and perverted reason once the RTC batt dies the computer dies too! It barely powers on! I had an external video attached, and the machine kept not powering up. An hour later and after much googling, I diagnosed the problem. Disassembling the machine is simple, once you now how to do it, and once you find the repair manual… The battery is a vulgar CR1220, wich, obiously, is imbossible to find in stores (in my city, at least). Fortunately a little search on ebay showed plenty cr1220 and a couple days later I had my replacement batt.
The first step is to disassemble the machine:
Simple, once you know how to do it…
Almost done…
At this point, the disaster happened. The RTC batt holder is made with very low quality plastic… and it broke! These are the remains (note that the batt did not come off…)
Obviously, the holder is SMD, so it is not possible to resolder it (at least, not that simple)… So it is surgery time!
The remains of the torn holder…
…and the sodered cable…
…and the holder glued back again.
This is how it looks with the battery:
Horray! it boots again!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Big Tube Delusion
Or: stay away from chinese tube amps!
We (me & peter) where on a big frenzy after reading some overwhelming positive reviews of some chinese tube amps that sounded wonderful. Like the famus t-amp. It is said that once you hear it, you throw away your 10.000 euro worth system (we tried it: the t-amp quickly found it’s way to the bin).
So we found a place near us that had these amps to try out. The entry level model, “just” 450 euros, sounds… HEMM… well… like my notebook… The seller tried explaining that tubes distort much more, that we have to listen more, that this and that… Well, it was a big delusion indeed. My old NAD will remain for much more time :) He even gave us (free!) and old panasonic cd player, wich (obviously) didn’t work… it was missing the laser lens! mah! A quick trip to the bin even for this…
To comfort ourselves, we started building another tube amb, this time based on a EL34 wich seems to be easyer for a newbie than te PCL82. I forgot the camera, but it turned out nice indeed, I’m sure it will work once finished :)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Train Control: Works!
…at least, it seems.
Today is a historical date: after almost three years of development, we (me & Peter) where able to test 1/4 (half of the second track route) of the Train Control System. And It Works! Smoothly and reliably! YAHOOO!!