[sdiy] Newbie Bragging

[harrybissell]

There is no shame in building something simple and having it work... even the
experts can get screwed up with simple circuits.  I had one yesterday... the
original
prototype worked, the new copy didn't. Then I found a piece of wire that 'might'
have
been shorting out... but I really don't believe it was. I added a component...
and it started
working. Perplexed, I removed the component and it STILL worked, just like the
original !

So go figure. Was it a bad solder joint ??? who knows

Congrats on your new synth !!!

H^) harry

Joe Franko wrote:

> 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
>
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