--- In
motm@egroups.com, "Nathan Hunsicker" <nate@e...> wrote:
> Since the price between the screens already made up and the screens
> yet
> to be made is minimal, do you think there is a chance that the
> drilling
> guides could be added to the 3 panels currently missing guides?
Also,
> does anyone else want to see front mounted midi jacks on the
> expressionist breakout panel? I'm looking to enclose the back of my
> rack and have all connections accessable from the front
In regards to drilling: the first screen was designed to be used with
a metal plate drilling guide that I had made up. The first panels
made were predrilled before screening. This caused the printer some
problems, so we have switched to the drill guides for the new screen
designs. I may be able to offer to drill the panels without drill
guides after screening, this one time - provided we don't have
hundreds of panels on that screen! In the future, it may be
economically feasible to make a new screen with drill guides, but not
this time, since it costs around $80 to burn and mount a new screen.
RE the Expressionist: just mounting the MIDI jacks on the front panel
doesn't allow you to close up the back of the unit. You still have to
hook up 8 CV and 8 Gate cables from the Expressionist unit's output
jacks. There is no space for those on the front panel, nor would you
want them there. A breakout panel typically brings all connections in
from the remote unit from behind the panel, and presents the
connections on the front panel. That is what I have done. My panel
terminates inside the cabinet to a heavy duty multipin connector,
which mates to another connector with 2 8 conductor snakes mounted,
plus the sync connections. The connector mounts to the back of the
cabinet, the snake plugs in and runs to a remote rack where the
Expressionist sits.
You could easily bring the MIDI connections to the front panel with
the others, I'm just pointing out that you'll have either a back
panel multiconnector, or cords dangling out the back.
Since this DIY module has several possibilities, I'll probably put up
a web page talking about it. There are at least 3 ways you could
build it electrically - Full output buffers and LEDs as I have done,
no output buffers, just transistor drivers for the LEDs, or totally
passive, leaving off the LEDs and wiring cables directly to the jacks.
Moe