Doepfer

Hi all,

Since my friend was round taking snaps of the A117 mods, I got him to 
take a couple of my meter module, and I have posted them in 
the 'Photos' section - it's nothing special, but I thought maybe some 
might be interested in gauging the size of it in comparison to other 
Doepfer modules. OK, I know it does take a lot of real estate (it's 
20hp - gulp!), but on the other hand it is big enough to be easily 
read. Behind the faceplate the meter movement itself extends down 
about two thirds of the way towards the two switches - maybe just 
enough space left for a couple of LED bargraph displays (plus sockets 
etc.) for a VU meter!? (Or of course use a slightly smaller meter 
movement...)

That's it, for what it's worth.

Tim

hello tim,

i'm just curious ;-)
what is this module on the left side of the meter?

oh and i want to ask you about the added switches of the a127.
have you soldered the switches directly to the pins or
do you use wired jumper hats (don't know the exact word for this.
these can be found on most pc motherboards, f.e. for connecting
the harddisk-led's of a pc chasis).

best wishes

ingo



--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "Tim Stinchcombe" <timothy@t...> 
wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Since my friend was round taking snaps of the A117 mods, I got him 
to 
> take a couple of my meter module, and I have posted them in 
> the 'Photos' section - it's nothing special, but I thought maybe 
some 
> might be interested in gauging the size of it in comparison to 
other 
> Doepfer modules. OK, I know it does take a lot of real estate (it's 
> 20hp - gulp!), but on the other hand it is big enough to be easily 
> read. Behind the faceplate the meter movement itself extends down 
> about two thirds of the way towards the two switches - maybe just 
> enough space left for a couple of LED bargraph displays (plus 
sockets 

> etc.) for a VU meter!? (Or of course use a slightly smaller meter 
> movement...)
> 
> That's it, for what it's worth.
> 
> Tim

Hi Ingo,

> i'm just curious ;-)
> what is this module on the left side of the meter?

That's a Blacet 'Dark Star Chaos' module I finally finished a few 
days ago. I bought the bare PCB and the main chip from Blacet about 5 
months ago, and it took me ages to get all the bits together and work 
out how to make it into a module that would fit snuggly in with my 
Doepfer stuff. All in all it turned out pretty well, but 
unfortunately it didn't take me long to realise that even though most 
parameters are voltage-controllable, what is really missing is an 
attenuator pot on each of the inputs. So, I may yet have to make a 
another faceplate which has room for 4 more pots on it. I haven't 
spent much time exploring it yet, but it does make some pretty weird 
sounds, so should provide much fun!

> oh and i want to ask you about the added switches of the a127.
> have you soldered the switches directly to the pins or
> do you use wired jumper hats (don't know the exact word for this.
> these can be found on most pc motherboards, f.e. for connecting
> the harddisk-led's of a pc chasis).

Yes, I used the 'jumper hats' - 3-way 'PCB latch housings', which 
have 2.54mm pitch and fit nicely over the jumper pins (go to 
www.maplin.co.uk and search for bx97f to see the sort of thing - you 
buy the housing and terminal pins which fit into them separately).

Tim

hi tim,

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "Tim Stinchcombe" <timothy@t...> 
wrote:
> Hi Ingo,
> 
> > i'm just curious ;-)
> > what is this module on the left side of the meter?
> 
> That's a Blacet 'Dark Star Chaos' module I finally finished a few 
> days ago. I bought the bare PCB and the main chip from Blacet about 
5 
> months ago, and it took me ages to get all the bits together and 
work 
> out how to make it into a module that would fit snuggly in with my 
> Doepfer stuff. All in all it turned out pretty well, but 
> unfortunately it didn't take me long to realise that even though 
most 
> parameters are voltage-controllable, what is really missing is an 
> attenuator pot on each of the inputs. So, I may yet have to make a 
> another faceplate which has room for 4 more pots on it. I haven't 
> spent much time exploring it yet, but it does make some pretty 
weird 
> sounds, so should provide much fun!

i thought about that module too, but it isn't available
anymore. the blacet-stuff seems to be cool, i have ordered
some modules last week, but i have to wait some weeks for
them. blacet seems to be very busy at the moment.


> > oh and i want to ask you about the added switches of the a127.
> > have you soldered the switches directly to the pins or
> > do you use wired jumper hats (don't know the exact word for this.
> > these can be found on most pc motherboards, f.e. for connecting
> > the harddisk-led's of a pc chasis).
> 
> Yes, I used the 'jumper hats' - 3-way 'PCB latch housings', which 
> have 2.54mm pitch and fit nicely over the jumper pins (go to 
> www.maplin.co.uk and search for bx97f to see the sort of thing - 
you 
> buy the housing and terminal pins which fit into them separately).

many thanks, tim. i think i will do it the same way you did.
there are some more modules i want to modify with additional
switches, like a112, a176 and maybe a108.
the a108 seems to be a bit more complicated.
any experience?

best wishes

ingo

Hi Ingo,

> i thought about that module too, but it isn't available
> anymore.

The main chip in it is very hard to come by. I was curious as to what 
the module was, so when he came across a limited number of chips at 
the end of last year, I snapped one up. Buying just the board was a 
cheap way to do it, but expensive in terms of time: ordering the 
parts, working out replacement parts to use for those not easily 
available in the UK, and working out how to put it all together.

the blacet-stuff seems to be cool, i have ordered
> some modules last week, but i have to wait some weeks for
> them. blacet seems to be very busy at the moment.

I see he has 'Time Machines' available again - I'm tempted to go for 
one of those, but they are pricey.

> many thanks, tim. i think i will do it the same way you did.
> there are some more modules i want to modify with additional
> switches, like a112, a176 and maybe a108.
> the a108 seems to be a bit more complicated.
> any experience?

I don't have either the 112 or 176, but I have an A-108 which I have 
reverse engineered, and yes it is plenty complicated! Depending on 
what you want to do, I may be able to make some suggestions: if you 
want to be able to switch between the filter slopes, then something 
similar to the A-127 may work, but would require a different conector 
(because of the way the jumpers are arranged); if you want to make 
all the filter slopes available, this will require additional 
circuitry. Which leads me to an idea:

Dieter, if you see this, perhaps this would make a good candidate for 
the new 'DIY page'? - circuitry and PCB layout to extend the A-108 to 
output the remaining 4 filter sections. Should be pretty simple: 3x 
TL084, several handfuls of resistors, a power connector and some 
sockets, and means to hook into the A-108. I'm sure there are several 
people out there who would like to do this!

My happy thought for the day!

Tim

hello tim,

--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "Tim Stinchcombe" <timothy@t...> 
wrote:
> Hi Ingo,
> 
> > i thought about that module too, but it isn't available
> > anymore.
> 
> The main chip in it is very hard to come by. I was curious as to 
what 
> the module was, so when he came across a limited number of chips at 
> the end of last year, I snapped one up. Buying just the board was a 
> cheap way to do it, but expensive in terms of time: ordering the 
> parts, working out replacement parts to use for those not easily 
> available in the UK, and working out how to put it all together.

definitely too complicated for me. i would never get it to work,
because i have absolutely no experience with circuitry and
i have very bad soldering skills ;-)

> the blacet-stuff seems to be cool, i have ordered
> > some modules last week, but i have to wait some weeks for
> > them. blacet seems to be very busy at the moment.
> 
> I see he has 'Time Machines' available again - I'm tempted to go 
for 
> one of those, but they are pricey.

the time machine is one of the modules i ordered.
i was so excited that it is available again that i had
no clue :-)

 
> > many thanks, tim. i think i will do it the same way you did.
> > there are some more modules i want to modify with additional
> > switches, like a112, a176 and maybe a108.
> > the a108 seems to be a bit more complicated.
> > any experience?
> 
> I don't have either the 112 or 176, but I have an A-108 which I 
have 
> reverse engineered, and yes it is plenty complicated! Depending on 
> what you want to do, I may be able to make some suggestions: if you 
> want to be able to switch between the filter slopes, then something 
> similar to the A-127 may work, but would require a different 
conector 
> (because of the way the jumpers are arranged); if you want to make 
> all the filter slopes available, this will require additional 
> circuitry. Which leads me to an idea:
> 
> Dieter, if you see this, perhaps this would make a good candidate 
for 
> the new 'DIY page'? - circuitry and PCB layout to extend the A-108 
to 
> output the remaining 4 filter sections. Should be pretty simple: 3x 
> TL084, several handfuls of resistors, a power connector and some 
> sockets, and means to hook into the A-108. I'm sure there are 
several 
> people out there who would like to do this!
> 
> My happy thought for the day!

a176 and a112 have the same jumpers (2.54 mm), so it should
be the same procedure like with the a127.

the a108 mod sounds interesting. seems that i have to take
some soldering-lessons :-)

best wishes

ingo

One word of warning -- I bought a Blacet Final Filtre assembled a couple of
years ago and it's crapped out on me three times, requiring a return to
Blacet for repairs.  There's either a basic flaw in the design or a curse on
my particular module.  That said, Blacet was always very professional about
fixing his work.  Even so, I think I've probably only gotten a few weeks of
working service out of the module over the course of more than two years.  I
liked the way it sounded when it worked, very thick, heavily-coloring
resonance.  Have to send it back again.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: selfoscillate [mailto:synaptic_music@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 7:18 AM
> To: Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Doepfer_a100] Re: Meter module
>
>
> i thought about that module too, but it isn't available
> anymore. the blacet-stuff seems to be cool, i have ordered
> some modules last week, but i have to wait some weeks for
> them. blacet seems to be very busy at the moment.
>

must be very disappointing :-(
this is the first negative thing i've heard about blacet.
hopefully the other modules are more reliable (and hopefully
you will get your repaired final filtre back soon).
i thought about buying the blacet filters too, but then i counted
the filter modules i already have. i was a bit surprised,
because i counted 15 modules and there is still another
pre-ordered filter (a107) in the pipeline.
so i refused to buy another filter and ordered the
vco, miniwave, time machine and binary zone only.

best wishes

ingo



--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com, "unknown freak" <cgraef@n...> 
wrote:
> One word of warning -- I bought a Blacet Final Filtre assembled a 
couple of
> years ago and it's crapped out on me three times, requiring a 
return to
> Blacet for repairs.  There's either a basic flaw in the design or a 
curse on
> my particular module.  That said, Blacet was always very 
professional about
> fixing his work.  Even so, I think I've probably only gotten a few 
weeks of
> working service out of the module over the course of more than two 
years.  I
> liked the way it sounded when it worked, very thick, heavily-
coloring
> resonance.  Have to send it back again.