[sdiy] Newbie Bragging

[Tim Parkhurst]

 Congratulations Joe! Assembling, troubleshooting and calibrating just about
any piece of equipment is cause for celebration. Sounds like you made some
very good guesses on the cause of the problem. Good job!


Tim (still guessing) Servo

**************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Franko
To: Synth-Diy at Dropmix. Xs4all. Nl
Sent: 12/31/04 3:31 PM
Subject: [sdiy] Newbie Bragging

Okay, I realize this isn't much for most of you, but this is the only
place I can brag about this! 

I decided a few months ago that I really would like eventually to build
my own analogue synth. My soldering skills were rusty (like 30 years
since I soldered anything), and I don't know much about practical
electronics, except theoretically (I'm a mathematician). So I decided
that the PAIA Theramax was a good place to start, but that even that was
beyond me a few months ago. I decided that before tackling that I would
get some of the small Velleman kits to hone my soldering skills. Over
the last two months I've had lots of fun building 8 small Velleman kits.
After building the last kit I decided I was ready to tackle the
Theramax. 

A week ago I began putting the kit together. Finished it yesterday and
tried to tune it. Tuning the pitch oscillators went very well, but I
couldn't tune the volume oscillators. I was suspicious when I put the
kit together that one of the volume oscillators was faulty because it
didn't respond the way the others had to conductivity tests (I test
every solder joint after it's soldered in because I still don't trust my
soldering skills). Luckily when I realized I might need a replacement as
I was putting the kit together I ordered a couple of replacements from
Mouser. I'm still a little disappointed with PAIA over this, as I
couldn't raise them by phone and there has been no response to three
emails (I know, though, this is Christmas vacation and hope they
eventually respond at least to one of my emails). In any event, I
desoldered what I thought was the bad oscillator, and soldered in the
replacement from Mouser. Fired the Theramax up again, and was able to
tune both sets of oscillators. Did all of the diagnostic tests outlined
in the directions, and everything is working well.

I'm so proud of putting this first piece of analogue equipment together
myself. I know that this is a pretty easy kit for most of you, but it's
my first and hopefully not my last.

Looking forward to more DIY stuff this new year.

Happy New Year to you all...

Joe



***************************************************************************
This message is confidential.  The information contained in
this e-mail message is intended only for confidential use of the
recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended
recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in
error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this
message is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in
error, please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original
message.
***************************************************************************