Nein Oh Nein

This post originally appeared on the SS-30M site on 22nd May 2018


During the winter months, I wasn't idle. One of two projects I started is complete and, what is more, I have tested out a couple of things which will be useful for the SS-30.

Eurorack has been a distraction from the SS-30M in the past. Now I'm trying to make it my winter activity and also, to limit the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) by only building and not buying.



This is a combined Rim Shot and Clap from the Hexinverter Nein Oh Nein range. These are exact clones of the TR-909 sounds. I got the PCBs from Modular Addict.

I wanted to try a few panel ideas out, so I made it quite hard for myself. The two main things were

1) Use the UV printing and threaded studs from Schaeffer
2) have a sub-panel so there are no nuts showing on the front-panel.

I would have made an exception for the socket nuts but then I decided that the other idea would be:

3) Make it look as close as possible to the TR-909.

That meant having to have PCB mount sockets. Of course, with the studs on the back of the panel, I could fix the PCB in place. But, I would have to make a PCB, which I've never done before.
The whole thing was quite tight on space too. I had to carefully select small enough sockets to leave space for the fixings.
I got the knobs from the folks doing Nava 909 clones and they are 6mm D shaft wich limited the potentiometer choices too.
With the PCB mounting to consider as well, it became a bit of a puzzle to align everything 'just so'.



Luckily a colleague is a regular at Fab Lab and he cut my front-panel and sub-panels in perspex so I could check everything. In the end, I decided to stick with the perspex sub-panel instead of getting one from Schaeffer.

I made a couple of errors on the sub-panel and I would have had a new one cut but the laser at Fab Lab broke. I couldn't wait so I re-drilled it myself.



The PCB was made by PCBWay for $5 plus postage but despite apparently getting everything right it was still a fuck-up.



I was so sure it was right but when I wired it in it was actually back to front. All the signals were grounded and vice-versa. Turns out, whoever entered the Lumberg socket part into Eagle swapped a couple of the pins around and I never noticed. Rather than get it redone I decided to simply hack it. Cutting tracks and soldering wires directly onto the pads. Better luck next time.



The front-panel was perfect though.



I think I stretched the UV printing as far as I could. It pretty good but the colours are OK rather than great and the detail is no better than a basic inkjet printer gets on paper.




The main thing I was happy with was the threaded inserts used to hold the sub-panel onto the front-panel.



Overall I am happy with it, but the UV print quality is a bit iffy. My next project is an 808 Toms clone. For that, I want a black front-panel with white legends, like the SS-30M. That should give me a better idea of what white and black is like. The Fab Lab laser still broken so that project is stalled for now though. 

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