Assembled Kosmo modules - interest?

KOSMO MODULES
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I’ve (surprisingly) had a couple of emails from people wanting me to build them a Kosmic Superspreader for them. I obliged and took the time to take some nice step by step build pics for the documentation. They said they’d be interested in having me build Sam’s 1222 oscillator for them. I put it together and sold it to them for materials+labour. This went down a hit.

I will have some more spare time soon due to work related stuff so am considering opening up this service to the wider community.
Hence the title - would anyone be interested in purchasing Kosmo modules in assembled form? If you could fill in the poll below that would be much appreciated.

  • I prefer to buy bare PCBs and source all components myself
  • I like building modules but purchasing all the components in one bundle would be nice
  • I’d like to buy a module that is pre built and works out of the box
  • Something else

0 voters

(yes I realise selection bias will probably take hold with this being a DIY forum.)

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From a seller’s perspective:

I have contemplated offering this as well, but ultimately decided against it. Yes, I sell my PCBs and enjoy the thought of people creating music/sounds with my designs, but at the end of the day it is a hobby for me. The design and conceptualisation of modules is the most fun part to me, and obviously I don’t mind soldering one up for my own use. But building modules for others to use, no that doesn’t sound fun to me and it not worth my scarce time, however good the money involved might be.

Offering component kits along side modules is something I am still in doubt on. I see how it would greatly increase the added value of the product, but still need to get a better grasp on the time and infrastructure required to do it efficiently.

From a buyer’s perspective:

The whole concept of my synth hobby is DIY, so I definitely am not interested in pre-built modules. Component kits… only if the BOM contains some hard-to-obtain components I do not have in stock or cannot easily source. Now I think of it, my ideal situation is to only include those more exclusive parts.

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While I do enjoy the design process, I find something strangely meditative in sitting soldering boards together. I’ve done small run production for other boards before. It’s something I wouldn’t mind doing again if there’s demand for it and people would benefit from it. Ultimately, it’s about getting more people into the hobby and into Kosmo.

My personal circumstances mean I’ve now got a lot more time with a soldering iron and a lot less time with resources (mainly a decent PC/internet) for designing modules. I feel it’s making use of time that would otherwise be wasted. My design time is short and valuable, my building time is copious and underused.

As long as I get back what I spend on materials and the electricity for the iron I quite frankly don’t care about profiting from this. I enjoy building modules and would rather they went to folks that would use them.

The magic trick to putting together component kits is disposable plastic cups. That makes it easy to count out 10 resistors, 2 caps, etc into each cup, then pour the contents of each cup into a bag. It takes me ~2 hours to put together 15 kits for a project with ~50 total components. I tend to stick a podcast on and time just flies.

Same here. However, for a significant number of people this isn’t the case. They don’t have any electronics experience, don’t feel like learning, and just want to make music. (I am very much the opposite). This being a DIY forum, that attitude is probably rarer than the wider synth community.

I don’t mind buying component kits as long as they’re not too overpriced. Sometimes it’s worth the hassle, especially if the module uses parts that are difficult to find from only one or two sellers. I hate having to order an IC from Mouser, pots from Tayda, rotary switches from eBay, switches from BitsBox, resistors from Arrow, a single SMD component from RS, and so on. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but paying £15 shipping to multiple websites to buy a single component from each is something I’m not too happy with. Kits eliminate all that hassle.

TLDR; yes I realise it is some effort but it’s an effective use of time if individuals and the community as a whole benefits from it. More people into Kosmo can’t be a bad thing.

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I’d love to see a non-LMNC Kosmo distributor, ideally one that’s collectivized.

It’d be awesome if somebody (or maybe one in the US, one in Europe) could handle manufacturing/distribution/dropshipping, and could pay me a small percentage or something every time one of my designs got sent off into the world. I think that’d bring a lot more variety to Kosmo and give some of the amazing designers here a little bit of reward.

I really want to see Kosmo thrive! Kosmo rocks!

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That does sound like a cool idea. I don’t know how much of a market there is for it though.

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Well, I don’t think there’s going to be any Kosmo millionaires any time soon, but it would help grow the scene and could end up being a nice little side hustle for somebody, especially if the inventory stuff is all outsourced like Sam does.

Having a place to do pre-orders could also allow modules to get enough capital to do SMD assembly at the fabhouse, which would enable some more complicated modules than we’ve got now.

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I voted for an available option above. sourcing parts can be :fire::zap::boom: any help appreciated

but i have one more proposal to improve Kosmo spread and user sattisfaction:
if possible all++ Kosmo modules should be listed and buyable in (atleast) ONE shop. i see so many great production ready modules in here, on par or close to :1st_place_medal:LMNC-level, making them more accessible (with creators consent) would be fantastic. this would not require much overhead in resources and or personal.

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I’m thinking of some kind of centralised storefront (like Tindie) that designers can send their designs to, a bit like how Teespring lets you send them clothing designs and sell them to people without ever touching the t shirt.

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The issue is not whether it’s possible, it’s whether the designer has the time and resources to do so. That’s a bit like saying every piece of software that runs on Windows should be compatible with Linux (it can, but the developer doesn’t want to :slightly_smiling_face:) That’s why this central hub idea is a good one.

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I saw those 2.5cm mineral-style modules and those joystick-thingies and …:eggplant::icecream: … with gerber files ready for the taking! I read the “howto on fabbing” and it’s gonna tek soem more time untill i’m ready to go down this rabbit hole too… but i whant these moduels! :angry::baby:

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I’ve been reading with interest about @ChristianBloch’s Euro-Kosmo venture and I gotta say, the prospect of building hundreds of the same module is something that would have me screaming in terror. I’m into synth DIY as a fun hobby — making it into a job would be something I’d not want to do. I’d have to find another hobby.

I haven’t bought a kit with parts in a couple of years now. It’s definitely true sourcing the parts can be complicated (not only for those not buying kits but for those putting kits together!) though it’s pretty rare I need to look beyond Tayda, Digi-Key, and very occasionally Mouser. (OK, I do have an order from Cabintech incoming.) It’s something I’m willing to do to keep the costs down. And given the last kit I bought (1) had SMD resistors, something the vendor hadn’t mentioned and I wasn’t ready to deal with and (2) was missing several parts because it was a revised PCB but they were still going by the first version BOM, at least I know if the parts are wrong it’s because I screwed up.

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@Sonosus It’s a cool idea, offeriing kits and premade modules, Not one I would use as I enjoy the making far more than the end product, but I could see a market. Kits would make life easier and premade Kosmo modules could be a good introduction, or price dependant, a budget alternative to eurorack.

As for selling pcb’s or kits of any of the third party designs, I think most are of an opensource licence, so there may be an avenue for a bit of beer money, and of course no need to pay any fees to the developers, This is of course what everyone knows if they release open source. TBH I would be cuffed if I knew someone was able to sell one of my modules. Not all the developers may feel the same as me .

This is a cool idea :slight_smile:

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Yeah, most of my designs are licensed CC0 which is approximately public domain. Since I don’t want my hobby to become a job, I don’t want to put in the time marketing and delivering and promoting them, especially since the Kosmo market is so minuscule, or into adapting them into Eurorack format. Anyone who does want to do all that is welcome to whatever income they can derive from it. I just enjoy designing them and building one or few for myself and seeing other people building their versions too.

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This ^^ +1, This is where I come to escape my job

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I do think it would be cool to have at least complete kits. It would just take time and the overhead of having to keep stock.

The main issue I see is that it would be difficult to keep enough variety of modules in stock to make it interesting to someone who doesn’t want to source parts, but would like to try building a complete synthesizer. If you have no way/no interest/no confidence in your ability to source parts, buying a built or full kit oscillator, for example, isn’t really that attractive of an idea. How would you get a filter and VCA?

On the other hand, that’s pretty much exactly what happened to me when Sam started selling the #1113 filter. There was nothing else for sale and I didn’t know anything about sourcing parts or designing modules and hadn’t soldered much since I was 12 years old. And look at me now! :joy:

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