Thank you for the offer! I’m actually located in the US, so I’m sure shipping would be a pain! I’m really only looking for Kosmo modules at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll be branching out sooner rather than later!
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Check the BST Thread for other Kosmo module PCBs and panels some people may have for sale. I’ll be posting a bunch of modules in the fairly near future — hopefully a week or so.
You can also check out kosmodulargrid.com for links to Kosmo module designs, many of which have Gerber files available to get the PCBs and panels made rather cheaply (especially if you can find someone to buy your extras).
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Hello all, I’m currently building a synth from scratch mostly enjoying learning about electronics and hopefully gaining some musical ability on the way. Have made a PSU, 40106 oscillator bank, 4046 VCO and a LFO. Have a lm358 vco and a reverse avalanche built but not working and a 808 kick and lmncs big button built but not tested. Working on a coloured noise module this evening. DIYing it is very satisfying and I’m learning a lot, managed to design my own vco which was very satisfying. But the money I’ve spent on bits and bobs adds up fast! Aiming on making more drum based modules this week. I like drums. Still waiting on connectors so I can get all the power distributed across the case I’ve made then will be able to start doing some fun stuff I hope!
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Welcome! I’ve only been active on the forum for a short while, but I’ve already learned a ton from everyone here. This is definitely one of the best communities I’ve ever been a part of
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welcome aboard , lots of info here
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Cheers. Just tested my colour noise module and it was working great until I accidentally shorted the power rails with a stray bit of resistor. Tested it and found my +12v rail at 16v and my -12v at -8. Oops. Time for some new regs
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Hi
I don’t really know how to be a good forum member but I would like to try. I usually just lurk but tbh I can’t do this alone. Besides I owe it to Sam('s videos) for getting me into all this in the first place.
I’m not building in KOSMO format because for me it’s too expensive to source panels and also I don’t like rectangles. But they are KOSMO in spirit.
I hope to one day fill this case until it overflows:
Talk soon
Much love,
-Brian
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inspired by Juanito Moore I guess.
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He is my spirit animal
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Banana plugs? I love banana plugs.
And those knobs look like the ones on the back of my gran’s 1950s television. They had enticing names like “ripple”, “picture width” and “vertical hold.” I only went back there to find out how the little man who read the news managed to get in, but it was basically Narnia back there.
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Welcome to the forum with your nice round Kosmo modules 
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yeah he does have that effect , welcome to the forum .
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Those knobs are frequently called Bakelite although that’s a brand name attached to many things, like Kleenex. I have fun finding knobs for Kosmo that are probably replicas but look like much older knobs and they cost a fortune. For the reason of the price I’ll only use them on modules like #1113 and #1114 where performance is the feature of the knobs.
-Fumu / Esopus
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Yeah, bakelite was the universal knob material until the fifties. Even doorknobs and the handles of cutlery were bakelite. Other polymers like polythene, polypropylene and so on started to take over in the sixties but bakelite still has excellent heat-resistant properties.
Those old fashioned shiny black telephones you see in very old films (pre-dial types as well as the later ones with the rotary dial) were mostly made of bakelite. Originally, I think, the dials were metal but acrylic (under brand names such as perspex or plexiglass) became the norm. The plastics revolution saw the decline of bakelite, which is brittle and heavy.
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In case anyone’s curious, they are Davies 1400s from ebay:
I’m sure they are clones, but they’re really nice clones. They feel heavy and the brass set-screw is convincingly tarnished. The top is rounded and the material is glossy (but not too glossy). They come from the factory with faithfully reproduced “decades of wear”.
Tayda sells what looks like a bad clone:
To me that one looks totally wrong. The edge on top is sharp, not rounded, and the material looks more matte. They also look brand new, which subtracts.
Anyway, I’m not sure I’ll be able to justfy $1/ea for knobs anytime soon, not with The Circumstances.
Love
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I see a difference between clones and counterfeits, with the former being done with the intent to imitate while the latter are done with the intent to deceive, and that would include marking the product with a trade name not belonging to the manufacturer:
in this case Daka-Ware, a Davies trade name used in the 1960s:
and apparently while no longer used for marketing,
We still have tools that have the Daka-ware name on them, so chances are, you will still come across the Daka-ware name when you see a Davies knob.
So I’d say they’re either genuine or counterfeit. Could be genuine. Digi-Key sells Davies 1400 variants for around $2.50 each so I would not be very surprised if someone were unloading NOS at $1 a piece.
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Hello everyone, my name is Sam. I am from Scotland and still in secondary school. I have been interested in modular synthesis and electronics for nearly 2 years I think.
Last year I stumbled across Sam’s stuff (Yes, we have the same name which is pretty cool
) and really wanted to make my own mod synth. I had been saving money for a while and decided to spend most of it on wood and metal for the case and panels as well as all the components I would need. Most of the stripboard layouts I found on this forum- Mainly in the Verified Stripboard Layouts thread!
They are all 9v battery projects because I was a bit scared using mains voltage as I was still pretty new to electronics.
Recently, I was given a very interesting synthesiser that I had never seen before. It’s called the E&MM Spectrum Synthesiser. It mostly worked, however most of the keys did nothing and the envelope generator was a being a bit of a plonker lol.
I have cleaned all the pots and touched up any loose connections with my soldering iron. Booting it up again, most of the keys now work, but the oscillator controls are completely screwed.
As of now, I don’t have the schematics, does anyone have any idea on what I could consider trying? Faulty caps? Broken bit of wire?
I appreciate any sort of help!
Thanks, Sam
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Welcome, Sam. (Other Sam?) Sounds like you have a great find. The Spectrum was a hobby build published in Electronics & Music Maker, apparently a magazine published by Maplin. The whole series of articles on its design and construction are available online.
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Welcome to the forum
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