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tjookum
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 360 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 4:10 am Post subject:
mosaic modular Subject description: a new modular format especially for lunetta"ish" circuits |
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Hi everyone,
It has been a while... Glad to see EM is still going strong!
I have been away for quite a few years, work and other interests kept me away from the whole SDIY world. But as many of you can probably relate, the current corona situation made me dig up some old projects.
Making Lunetta's was my first true experience with electronics in general and I have been hooked ever since. As a way to pay back some of the knowledge and motivation I recieved here I present to you a completely open source and free to use format to experiment with simple synth circuits.
I made a lengthy post on my website: http://jochemvangrieken.com/mosaic-modular/ but I'll go into a bit more depth here.
As some of you may or may not know, I build my first lunetta "headerstyle" lunchbox synth back in 2010-2011. While I really enjoyed the ease of building with perfboard and headers I noticed that it was basically unplayable by anyone but me. Over the years I have gained a lot of knowledge in electronics and mechanical design and I have been playing around with a new modular format for quite a while now. My opinion is that a lunetta should be simple and cheap initially but by combining multiple modules it can get infinitely complex.
So that is why I started on a new modular format based on these simple design rules:
Grid size of 50x50mm.
-Easy and cheap to produce with online PCB prototype services.
-Can be expanded in any direction.
-20mm m3 hex standoffs create a affordable and flexible way of mounting.
4mm banana sockets.
-Soldered directly to the PCB for a easy and reliable connection with a minimal footprint.
-Unlike the standard 3.5mm trs connector, banana jacks are stack able and much more reliable.
-All outputs have leds shining through the FR4 material from the underside of the board. Different colour or silkscreen cutouts can be used to visualize different functions.
-Silkscreen can also be used to indicate different functions of in and outputs.
The top side of the PCB acts as the front panel.
-This eliminates the use of a extra interface board and greatly simplifies construction.
-16mm alpha potentiometers are mounted directly through the board and simple slide or momentary switches can be used.
-This also leaves a lot of room for interesting graphics on the silkscreen layer .
The bottom side of the PCB acts as the main circuitboard.
-SMD construction makes the circuits smaller and leave the top side of the PCB completely blank for the actual user interact able components. It might be a little harder to solder but I have found that 0805 passives and most basic SMD components are easily done with a soldering iron and using a hot air station makes it really easy and fast.
Mounting corners double as ground connections.
-This means the entire modular acts as one big ground plane wich greatly reduces interference.
-VCC is supplied by simple smd mount terminals or by just soldering a wire to the pads. This has the advantage of being easily expandable and flexible. You can use modules to power other modules or mix and match different power supply’s.
For now I started with just a few modules to test how everything fits and feels.
-4060 clock source and divider with external input and high/low frequency switch.
-4015 shiftregister with the option to switch between 1x8, 2x4 or 2x4 with common clock.
4093 dual oscillators with gate input and a switch for high/low frequency for one of the oscillators.
-X-gate, basic gate with swappable ic. Works with 4011 NAND, 4070 XOR, etc.
-4069 double LFO with crude waveshape control and high/low frequency selector.
Modules in the process of being designed:
-4031/mc14557 TAP looper
-4053 2x4 multiplexer
-output module with basic mixer
-interface module with switches and controls for performance.
-MS20 style filter
Planned:
-R2R
-some kind of VCO, probably a simple 4046
-melody generator(or possibly the excellent chromatic generator by PhObos)
-ADSR
-VCA
-etc etc etc.
What I learned/like so far:
-Nanners are great .
-Using the FR4 as a led diffuser works quite well but I would like a bit more even spread so I have some leds on order with better viewing angles. It's also quite hard to solder the bulky 0805 leds the other way around but reverse mount gullwing type smd leds are surprisingly expensive if you need 20+ per board so for now this works.
-It's a lot stiffer than I thought it would be, 1.6mm FR4 with a support every 50mm feels great and there is zero flex.
-some modules like the 50x50mm X gate with 12 in/outs feel a bit cramped. It works and there is enough clearance but I am thinking of making everything a bit bigger so it's easier to patch.
Im still undecided about the best way to hook up power. The ground plane through the corner mounts works great. The terminals for the VCC work well but I don't like that it requires running wires. Any suggestions are more than welcome.
Currently it is mostly a pattern generator but if you want to see some blinky lights:
http://jochemvangrieken.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/VID_20200421_111859.mp4
The entire project will be free to use, abuse and copy by anyone for free! I'm hoping there are others interested in joining me in helping this format succeed in a sea of overly fancy and overpriced eurorack modules. For anyone not interested in the diy route I will make some pcb's and fully assembled modules available in the future.
Im still making some tweaks from lessons I've learned from the first prototypes but I'll be releasing all the EAGLE design files over the next few weeks. It also includes a verified library with the board layouts and everything you need to make your own modules.
Any feedback, advice or general rant is as always much appreciated!
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_________________ There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompson
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PHOBoS
Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5591 Location: Moon Base
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Steveg
Joined: Apr 23, 2015 Posts: 182 Location: Perth, Australia
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 6:37 am Post subject:
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Very nice looking. You you have a prediction on the price and availability yet?
Will they be fully assembled, kits, or circuit board only? |
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mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18197 Location: Durham, NC
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 4:15 pm Post subject:
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Looks wonderful. Stanley would be very excited to see those board, and the entire concept. _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
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tjookum
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 360 Location: Netherlands
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Steveg
Joined: Apr 23, 2015 Posts: 182 Location: Perth, Australia
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Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 1:40 am Post subject:
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I saw you had a shop for the min-organ dronor and I assumed these swish looking boards were a new product. |
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mph
Joined: Aug 25, 2007 Posts: 87 Location: France
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 4:47 am Post subject:
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That looks amazing!
What a clever trick to use board transparency to light up the sockets!
What about a kind of modular magnetic "bussbar" for the V+?
It could work with your design.
The idea is to connect the pcbs with a small buss (a small long shaped pcb) between each pcb on the "tracks side"; the buss would be stuck by magnets.
With this system the buss could be expanded in all directions by adding more small busses connected toghether by the magnets.
Only one buss would need to have a thru pad to solder the V+ wire.
Keep it up! |
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tjookum
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 360 Location: Netherlands
Audio files: 26
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 7:51 am Post subject:
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mph wrote: | That looks amazing!
What a clever trick to use board transparency to light up the sockets!
What about a kind of modular magnetic "bussbar" for the V+?
It could work with your design.
The idea is to connect the pcbs with a small buss (a small long shaped pcb) between each pcb on the "tracks side"; the buss would be stuck by magnets.
With this system the buss could be expanded in all directions by adding more small busses connected toghether by the magnets.
Only one buss would need to have a thru pad to solder the V+ wire.
Keep it up! |
Thanks! I must admit I took the fr4 lightpipe idea from the world of con badges, they seem to be all the rage these days
I like your idea of the magnetic busbar, that would make it very easy to connect power! I will look into it and see if it can work for this system. My main reason for the wires was to be able to use different powerrails. Some cmos ic's act wonderfully weird when they are starved of juice.
Another consideration was the fact that space is quite limited and it proved to be difficult to have the vcc connection the same on all boards. Compromises have to be made with such a limited set of design rules.
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I saw you had a shop for the min-organ dronor and I assumed these swish looking boards were a new product. Smile |
The project is completely open source but when all the testing is done I will definitely do a small run of boards or modules.
Im currently working on finetuning the eagle library and the basic design rules. I'll keep you all updated
_________________ There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompson
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PHOBoS
Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5591 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 8:08 am Post subject:
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nice perf!
Quote: | The project is completely open source but when all the testing is done I will definitely do a small run of boards or modules.
Im currently working on finetuning the eagle library and the basic design rules. I'll keep you all updated |
I'll see if I can do a NANDulator and/or maybe some other circuits. _________________ "My perf, it's full of holes!"
http://phobos.000space.com/
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mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18197 Location: Durham, NC
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 7:23 pm Post subject:
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Are you using 1/8" mini phone jacks?
Were are the leds mounted?
Are the dimensions compatible with eurorack or some other standard where one could use a commercial console.?
This is splendid! _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
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nrrrd
Joined: Jul 27, 2019 Posts: 4 Location: Oxford
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Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 7:06 am Post subject:
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I really like this idea and I'm just a little sad that it's for SMD, as I have 30 through hole CMOS chips in an old ice-cream tub.
It has inspired a thought, though. Something similar could be achieved using half-size "solderable breadboard", 9mm pots and Thonkiconn style 3.5mm jacks.
The controls could be soldered to the front of the board and the components to the back, as the good quality solderable breadboards have through plated holes. |
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tjookum
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 360 Location: Netherlands
Audio files: 26
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Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 10:07 am Post subject:
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https://github.com/Tjookum/mosaic-modular
Here is the first version of the github page. Im a bit of a github noob so bear with me and I'll do my best to make it a bit nicer over the next few weeks.
Quote: | I'll see if I can do a NANDulator and/or maybe some other circuits. |
That would be fantastic! I hope the github above gives you all the basics to start experimenting. If you have any further questions send me a pm!
Quote: | Are you using 1/8" mini phone jacks?
Were are the leds mounted?
Are the dimensions compatible with eurorack or some other standard where one could use a commercial console.?
This is splendid! |
I was hoping to plant some seeds in this community to get people excited, get those gears going on something new .
I am using 4mm banana sockets. I have doubted a lot about this because compatibility with other systems is high on my list. But in the end I really didn't like the jacks sticking out or having to do some wiring for every jack. And besides, nanners are just a great choice I think this format is very well suited to make some kind of pattern generator/modulator wich can then interface with your more classic modular. So a conversion board to eurorack 1/8" jacks and levels is definitely on the to do list.
The leds are mounted upside down on the bottom so the FR4 acts as a lightpipe. I will post some more detailed build pictures soon(ish).
The whole reason for this format was to make it cheap and flexible. I started with adapting this for the 3HP or 128.5mm eurorack format but at the time it was a lot more expensive to produce boards over 100mm. But that simple design constraint did mean I was able to break from the very linear and quite traditional rack based design and I decided to go with the more sprawling layout. I hope to one day have a square meter mounted on the wall .
That being said, I do have some plans to design some mounting "ears" so they can be used in more traditional formats.
Quote: | I really like this idea and I'm just a little sad that it's for SMD, as I have 30 through hole CMOS chips in an old ice-cream tub. Smile
It has inspired a thought, though. Something similar could be achieved using half-size "solderable breadboard", 9mm pots and Thonkiconn style 3.5mm jacks.
The controls could be soldered to the front of the board and the components to the back, as the good quality solderable breadboards have through plated holes. |
Thanks! And if you look carefully you'll be happy to know that only the passives on the bottomside are smd. I too have a huge bin of interesting and hard to get CMOS through hole IC's so at least for the lunetta designs I'll keep the IC's through hole
And your idea is actually really similar to my initial idea. I do like the sandwich construction of most modern eurorack modules with the 9mm pots and 3.5mm jacks but for lunetta modules I just can't justify spending over 20$ for a nice laser etched frontpanel.
I believe there have been other attempts(I remember eChuck by Less Hall) at making some kind of universal protoboard for simple CMOS circuits. Personally I didn't like the idea of the jacks and pots all sticking out of the pcb, that makes it really vulnerable to breaking and it will probably be hard to use when you start running a lot of patch wires.
Thanks everyone so far for your input! _________________ There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompson
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tjookum
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 360 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2020 11:27 am Post subject:
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I've been working on some more modules over the last week. To finish up the basic lunetta modules I designed a 4052 2x4 mux board wich is basically done. Im constantly updating the eagle library and Im working on a universal set of basic components. I will do a bigger update to the github page once I get my second set of boards made and tested.
Besides basic cmos stuff I'm also trying to see how far I can push this format and Im almost finished with a Jurgen haible wasp clone type filter. I did my own tweaks and I added a LM3914 VU meter circuit. Fitting all the passive smd components on the bottom layer with minimal traces on the top was a big challenge! The constraints of the format seemed very daunting at first but so far it's proving to be very flexible.
I want to try some more complex dual supply designs so Im currently working on a adaptation of the CEM3340 VCO and I have my eye on some classic VCA and ADSR circuits.
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_________________ There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompson
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bew
Joined: Oct 28, 2007 Posts: 3 Location: belfast
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2020 3:53 pm Post subject:
vcf |
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Your wasp filter looks really nice.
What software are you using for your designs? |
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tjookum
Joined: May 25, 2010 Posts: 360 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 10:48 am Post subject:
Re: vcf |
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bew wrote: | Your wasp filter looks really nice.
What software are you using for your designs? |
Thanks, Im using a combination of eagle for the pcb and fusion360 for the 3d stuff.
While I'm in the flow I've been working on some more modules for the format. I wanted to try some more complex dual supply designs so I designed a AS3340 VCO module and a triple VCA/mixer thingie based on the new AS3364. Finally having a decent VCO and VCA will hopefully help in developing some more analog goodness.
These designs are really pushing what is possible with format but it's a fun challenge to solve. I'm also planning on making some 100x100mm modules wich should help with making everything a little less cramped.
I still want to do a simple interface board and some simple things like a R2R and portamento circuit before I order the second batch. Hopefully I can get them done over the weekend.
Let me know what you think!
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_________________ There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompson
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mph
Joined: Aug 25, 2007 Posts: 87 Location: France
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 5:42 am Post subject:
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that looks great!
How do you assemble the potentiometers?
I don't see thru pads.
Maybe you could simply bend the pot's legs upward (shaft side) and put 3 thru pads to make a solid mechanical connexion.
SMD pots always seemed unreliable to me. But adding thru pads may ruin the aesthetics of your boards. |
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