[sdiy] making 2 or 3 dollars an hour on synth building?

[Dan Snazelle]

FIRST OFF.... I WANT TO APOLOGIZE TO ANYONE ELSE WHO MAY HAVE BEEN OFFENDED BY MY ASKING FOR HELP



actually i did tell people i was working on something for a friend. i never tried to hide that. i am sorry if you feel offended by that.
i WAS also asking questions throughout the last 9 months (at many many times) for modules i was making for my modular. so please dont assume everytime i ask a question, it is for a project i am being compensated for. heck, in general i just ask a TON of questions. 

i have also been sharing my scheamtics with people. and i have been asking people if they think any of this is worth turning into a pcb project (i would most likely use electro-music for that)

the main questions i asked on here about my box were threads that actually often turned into long threads which many people jumped in on (the one about earthing for example) and i thought they stood on their own as actual questions. and if i had felt that i was taking advntage of people, i would have stopped. i wish you had said something earlier.

and i dont think i am the only person on here who asks questions about something they are building for someone else (or repairing)
in fact, i know of other people specifically who have asked questions in regards to something they are being paid for.  i dont see why that is a problem. I would not be offended if someone asked me a question on the list and they were being paid.

i WOULD only be offended if someone took my answer and built their whole product on that one answer and never credited me. 

my box had over 30 circuits in it. (many of which were asm2 circuits) my questions were usually about things NOT WORKING. or they were GENERAL questions about things like F TO V conversion,etc (which were also being used in my personal projets). or sometimes i asked if anyone knew of a schematic that was online that could point to some answers. or i asked how a certain chip responded (does the ssm2044 invert its input,etc)



AND i have never tried to hoard my circuits for this project.

 at any point if someone has asked me about how i am doing something, i have answered.

if i had thought it was against the rules i would have NEVER asked. but as i said..this was a ONE OFF project for a friend of mine who was simply paying me for my time and parts. It isnt like i am some giant business. And 75 percent of the questions were in the build phase which were troubleshooting questions. (power supply issues, earthing, getting the outputs to work, OR many many of the questions WERE ASM2 questions (since a large portion of the box used those blocks to replace blocks i breadboarded)


i am very sorry that i have made you feel i should have compensated you for your help. if you look at my youtube comments...it CLEARLY states how much i appreciate the HELP of SDIY, ELECTRO-MUSIC.COm, AND DIYSTOMPBOXES.COM

and OF COURSE if i ever planned on mass producing this, i would be getting clearance from Laurie and from whoever designed the WET/DRY circuit (i believe it is an electonotes circuit). But there isnt anything in this box that was used in a deceptive way. The filter is an SSM2044. it literally uses the datsheet values and FONIKS values for the CV in opamp. If i ever was to produce this, i would talk to FONIK first and do right by him.

Let's see..what else. THe tracking system uses nothing fancy. in fact it utilizes far fewer opmaps, filters, etc than most tracking systems. It uses almost standard datasheet values for the 4046. I am deeply grateful to some people over at DIY STOMPBOXES.com for helping me understand some specifics about PLL circuits. But i didnt steal any of their work either. 

the rest of the circuits are either DATASHEET circuits, are from electronotes, or are breadboard monsters that started out as cookbook/app note circuits and then were manipulated over and over until they worked for this project.

there was never a case where someone on this list gave me their personal scheamtic which i then copied and put into the box.and i think you can see from my post that it is NOT as if i made a big amount of money on this! NOt to mention that i have already been asking people if they might be interested in a pcb design of the tracking section. And isnt that what this forum is for? A place to share information, foster learning, and eventually, hopefully, create new circuits?

 it was in fact this list that recommened to me that i DO ASK FOR HELP.

and that i do use stock PCBS etc

and as i said...a TON of my questions were specific to the ASM2. which others on here will be building and those answers might help them as well.

i was under the impression that quite a few people on here make some money occasionally from their work with synths. and they ask questions when they get stuck.  

All my initial question today was, was trying to figure out was better ways to estimate the costs of a project, and a curiousty about the kind of situations that others have faced.


i truly apologize for any confusion or hard feelings i have created. I love SDIY and DO NOT want to be considered a slimy character.

thanks