Doepfer

Hiya!

I'll have a go at answering this too.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

When you use the front pitch and gate outputs on the A-190, does it still send the signals to the bus as well, or are they mutually exclusive?

If it still sends to both, then yes, what you suggest should be fine.

If they're mutually exclusive, then the signals will have to travel a bit further over many wires: from the A-190 in the first case to the A-185-2 (or an A-185-1 for that matter) in the second case then back from there to the two A-110s and up to two gate controlled devices in the first case.  This will work, but it's a bit cumbersome (and uses up more leads!) compared to having an A-185-1 or A-185-2 in both cases, and linking the A-190 to one, and that to the other, and you're done.

Also bear in mind that without a *buffered* multiple like the A-185-1 or A-185-2 talking to the oscillators, you can only control up to about two before the tuning goes off, which is another reason it's good to have an A-185-1 in each case: in case you want to have more than two oscillators in the first case one day.

Does that help?

Thanks,
Zoë.

Just to answer the question: yes, if you plug cables into the cv/gate 
outputs on the front of the 190 it still sends those signals to the buss.

So, right now I have my envelope generators on the same buss as the 
190 and they get the gate signal through the buss. But I also take 
the gate and CV out of the front of the 190 to a 185-1 on another 
buss where my oscillators are housed. The oscillators get the cv 
through the buss, but I can also use the outputs on the front of the 
185-1 to control other modules at the same time.

Scott
www.scottfromcanada.com


At 04:31 AM 11/6/2013, you wrote:

>When you use the front pitch and gate outputs on the A-190, does it 
>still send the signals to the bus as well, or are they mutually exclusive?

Brilliant!  If the signals come out of the 190 into both the bus and the front at the same time, and you only have two oscillators in that first case, then yes, you'll only need an 185 in the second case, the first is already fine.  Excellent! ^.^

I connect my G3 bus to my G6 bus by way of a Molex connector that my partner rigged up, but don't tell Dieter Doepfer. ;)

> There are VERY few modules that connect to this bus which is very disappointing.

Seriously, "disappointing" is the last word I'd use to describe any Doepfer modules.  Have you *heard* them?  And such flexibility!  For such affordability!  In fact, why am I here instead of making beautiful music on them?

Cheers,
Zoë.

Ah, fair enough.  Are plans for such mods available anywhere online?  I could do with giving my A-142 bus-based gate in...  (At least, I'm assuming it doesn't have it.  The Molex connector my partner hooked up doesn't currently support CV/gate either, heh...  And I thought my synth was nearly finished...)

The conversion of modules takes a little DIY skills but is typically not that hard to do. All the jacks that Doepfer uses are normalizing jacks. You look at the Gate or CV input jack and see if the normalizing leg of the tip connection on that jack is connected to anything. Often this leg is shorted to the main tip leg. If so you will have to cut that connection using a drill or xacto blade. Sometimes this means removing the jack to even be able to get to the trace on the PCB. After cutting that connection all you have to do is wire that leg to the correct pin on the bus. What I have don in the past is use a standard two pin jumper like is used on computers and other modules to program them, you know the little jumpers that go on the header pins. Some of these are designed in a way that allows a wire to be soldered onto them easily. Then all you have to do is plug it on the right pins on bus board header. You can also make a cable like the one shown on the Doepfer DIY page, section 4.1.4 on this page - http://www.doepfer.de/DIY/a100_diy.htm  This cable can connect both CV and Gate if your module can use it. Most modules that don't use the CV or Gate bus will only have a 10-pin connector on the module end and a 16-pin on the bus end. This cable can replace that. If the module has a 16-pin on both ends but still doesn't connect to the CV/Gate bus (very rare) you can just wire to the unused pins on the module's connector. 

The hardest part is often getting to the traces to disconnect the shorting between the switched legs and the unswitched legs. I am sure Doepfer did this to make a sturdier mounting surface for the jacks but it does make these modifications harder. Using the normalizing pins on the jacks allows the bus connection to easily be disconnected when you want to run the module from a different source while using the bus for something else. 

-James

On Nov 6, 2013, at 3:36 PM, Zoë Blade <zoe@bytenoise.co.uk> wrote:

> Ah, fair enough.  Are plans for such mods available anywhere online?  I could do with giving my A-142 bus-based gate in...  (At least, I'm assuming it doesn't have it.  The Molex connector my partner hooked up doesn't currently support CV/gate either, heh...  And I thought my synth was nearly finished...)
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> Yahoo Groups Links
> 
> 
>

James is right.  It's not terribly difficult to do, and in a few rare cases the pins are not connected by a trace.  I've done it with a drill as he mentioned, a Dremel tool actually with a 3/32" or 1/8" drill bit.  I just drilled through the trace, but not necessarily all the way through the PCB.  I prefer the downward pressure of the drill than trying to control an Xacto.  

Zoë, I did this with my A-142s and 141s, and thought Shawn posted the mods on the Analogue Haven site.  If you look for it, there were a few "coming soon" mods that never came, well, were just never posted.

I did some other normalizing of modules in my system, like chaining two mixers for a stereo mixer (mixer1/input1 feeds mixer2/input1 unless interrupted) and likewise with a pair of A-125 phasers.  

I sort of wish there was Master Clock and Reset on the system bus too.

Nick

> On Nov 6, 2013, at 7:35 PM, James Husted <james.husted@mac.com> wrote:
> 
> The conversion of modules takes a little DIY skills but is typically not that hard to do. All the jacks that Doepfer uses are normalizing jacks. You look at the Gate or CV input jack and see if the normalizing leg of the tip connection on that jack is connected to anything. Often this leg is shorted to the main tip leg. If so you will have to cut that connection using a drill or xacto blade. Sometimes this means removing the jack to even be able to get to the trace on the PCB. After cutting that connection all you have to do is wire that leg to the correct pin on the bus. What I have don in the past is use a standard two pin jumper like is used on computers and other modules to program them, you know the little jumpers that go on the header pins. Some of these are designed in a way that allows a wire to be soldered onto them easily. Then all you have to do is plug it on the right pins on bus board header. You can also make a cable like the one shown on the Doepfer DIY page, section 4.1.4 on this page - http://www.doepfer.de/DIY/a100_diy.htm This cable can connect both CV and Gate if your module can use it. Most modules that don't use the CV or Gate bus will only have a 10-pin connector on the module end and a 16-pin on the bus end. This cable can replace that. If the module has a 16-pin on both ends but still doesn't connect to the CV/Gate bus (very rare) you can just wire to the unused pins on the module's connector. 
> 
> The hardest part is often getting to the traces to disconnect the shorting between the switched legs and the unswitched legs. I am sure Doepfer did this to make a sturdier mounting surface for the jacks but it does make these modifications harder. Using the normalizing pins on the jacks allows the bus connection to easily be disconnected when you want to run the module from a different source while using the bus for something else. 
> 
> -James
> 
> 
> On Nov 6, 2013, at 3:36 PM, Zoë Blade <zoe@bytenoise.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> > Ah, fair enough. Are plans for such mods available anywhere online? I could do with giving my A-142 bus-based gate in... (At least, I'm assuming it doesn't have it. The Molex connector my partner hooked up doesn't currently support CV/gate either, heh... And I thought my synth was nearly finished...)
> > 
> > ------------------------------------
> > 
> > Yahoo Groups Links
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
>