I started building my KOSMO over a year ago, inspired by my friend @heckseven’s awesome work. I bought various materials and PCB sets etc, but ran into a myriad of problems and idiotic mistakes. I managed to get the case together, but spent more than I should have due to a variety of factors, and then destroyed the Megadrone PCB. Very disheartening. Much sad.
My modular case has been a glorified shelf since then, but I’ve decided to crack on this year and actually build the damn thing. I’ve put together a video about my failures and aspirations in the hopes that it will force me to actually stick to the plan, and I’ll do some updates along the way.
p.s. sorry for the very bad YouTube thumbnail. I am only slightly taking the piss.
LOL so thats why I have 5 million half baked projects / hobbies . yes I can relate .
and you have some very good advise !
drop in and ask if you need help maybe someone can help .
Ha, love it. I see this and I feel suitably chastised.
I am glad to see that it’s not just me hah. I’m definitely cracking on now though… making plenty of dumb mistakes. I can’t wait for the next one that reduces me to a quivering wreck.
yes I get discouraged when I have built a new module and it doesn’t work
my trouble shooting skills are not that great and patience is not one of my best skills . luckily I have a friend who is a repair genius and helps me go through my stuff when he has the time , which does not help me learn as quickly as I could but hey just glad to get it working . usually find that its simple dam mistakes to .I have a few project modules just sitting because I need to learn how to load software
as far as the boxes / racks I have been a carpenter for 40 + years so I have tools / skills in that dept.
@unexpectedbowtie Do you have stripboard or breadboard and a 555 timer chip?
What makes me feel better when ive lost motivation cause of failure is a quick win. Make an atari punk console! You will have a thing you mad that works, and that way you can pivot to another thing!
I do actually. I have a bunch of them kicking about! I might give that a go. My KOSMO PSUs are pretty much done now too, which is wild. I’m just waiting on the AC plug to arrive to test (and inevitably for it to blow up haha)
You got this! I did completely wreck my first wallwart for my PSU early in the building process That’s because I had a short on the first module I was testing and didn’t have any form of circuit protection on the module itself. All of Sam’s PCBs have this so you should be fine. Though, I would still do a quick check for shorts among the +12/-12/GND rails before plugging in.
Had a sudden burst of progress and success, which I largely attribute to the helpful and encouraging words from both here and on YouTube, so thanks a lot I’ll do an update soonish… but things are looking good. Actually ended up with some working modules which make/output sounds, which is nuts.
Well, thanks to all the help and encouragement from you lovely folks and on Facebook/YouTube, I’ve made a fair whack of progress in the past couple of weeks. Here’s an update:
p.s. as ever sorry about the ridiculous thumbnail.
I just watched your video, it was so entertaining I really appreciate the honest review and I think you are a very good inspiration for all the strugglers out there.
I can barely imagine how hard it is to dive into DIY modular with little to no knowledge about electronics and/or a proper toolset and the experience in using them, so I have a huge respect for people who are just starting and learning it the hard way. Even if it’s “just” ready-to-populate PCBs, it can be nerve wracking to debug these things when (even tiny little) mistakes are made. Let it be a mixed-up resistor or bad solder joints.
What I can add is: make mistakes and don’t be scared of them, we all learn from mistakes. How do you think I (and lot of other people) learned that electrolytic caps explode when they are connected the wrong way? (I can still remember the “wtf”-moment when I was a kid and it happened)
…and of course as others pointed out several times in different forums: ask for help. This community is really friendly and helpful
Keep going, really keen on seeing your case in action!
looks great man , glad to hear you are getting things working . love hearing your adventure
" one thing less for me to f**k up " . it sounds somewhat familiar I am only a couple years into the modular thing , though I did come into it with some electronics experience and a extensive carpentry background . hope you keep sharing your ride with us .
Your Kosmo is alive
Me too only for a few years in the modular diy, and without any knowledge neither in electronics nor in synthesizer. But the motivation, the desire to learn, to succeed, did the rest.
Glad your project is progressing and taking shape !
pahahaha. Yeah. I sometimes like to experiment with seeing how far I can push the ridiculous thumbnails to take the piss a bit.
Thanks Dud! I’ve done other projects in the past but the KOSMO for whatever was escaping me. It feels great to make some progress finally!
Hey thanks a lot. Carpentry sounds like an amazing skill to have. I asked my pal who is a carpenter about the wood and he laughed for about five minutes solid when I told him I bought bolsa wood.
Oh god. I can imagine it now. Thanks for watching! The funny thing is that I didn’t expect the videos to get much interest, since it’s just me talking pish about my disasters, but it seems like everybody (or most folk) go through similar issues ha. You’re spot on the money that the hardest bit is debugging. When everything looks fine but there’s some wee rogue in there. I have a filter atm that I suspect could be a mixed up resistor and I am dreading going through to identify them all ha.
That’s because I had a short on the first module I was testing and didn’t have any form of circuit protection on the module itself. All of Sam’s PCBs have this so you should be fine. Though, I would still do a quick check for shorts among the +12/-12/GND rails before plugging in.
I’ll do an update soonish… but things are looking good. Actually ended up with some working modules which make/output sounds, which is nuts.
. it sounds somewhat familiar I am only a couple years into the modular thing , though I did come into it with some electronics experience and a extensive carpentry background . hope you keep sharing your ride with us .