Four months later, my two afternoon project is done.
For certain values of “done”.
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Still not building anything but I was doing some thinking about AC coupling, why it distorts the shape of square waves so much, and why it doesn’t matter much (at least for audio frequencies). And then I wrote up what I was thinking about.
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I haven’t done much to the ShedSynth since the Synth-DIY meet in August, because…
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Did the fox show you the finger next which you cut from the video?
Do the fix pile first!
A small rule or guide of mine that keeps the to-do list short.
Today was the turn of the “broken-parts-only” Roland TD-3 drum brain.
Powers up but no noise.
Only 1 moving part in this machine and it is the master volume pot so i start there.
10 minutes later with the old Roland pot replaced it’s all good. Sadly i only had 10k linear pots in that footprint so it’s all on or nothing. (i will put the correct pot in when i find one.)
As im probably keeping it in the family i might just bypass the tiny knob altogether.
Roland make great gear but they do skimp on pots and plug quality. Now i feel sorry for the person who binned a perfectly good drum brain because a 10penny pot fell apart.
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Unlike certain people I don’t use my teeth to strip insulation. I have some simple wire strippers, and a while ago I bought one of these:
It’s worked fairly well, though the stripped insulation pieces tend to stick and not come out. Last night I was trying to dislodge one and broke this piece
It’s plastic and that screw is counterset so the plastic under it is very thin, I don’t know, 1/32" maybe? That’s where it broke.
I suppose it might be possible in theory to fix it with a 3D printed part but reverse designing it is beyond me.
I went looking on Amazon for another tool, found several other brands that are clearly identical to this one. There’s this which I think I’ve seen Sam use
but at $55 I don’t think so.
I’ve never owned anything by Engineer but I’ve heard good things about them, so I took a look at this
But then I noticed this
which aside from the crimpers between the grips is obviously identical, is higher rated on Amazon, and sells for 27% less. Though Klein says it goes down to AWG22 and Engineer says AWG30. I dunno.
Think I’ll go back to my simple non automatic strippers for a while. Occasionally I cut a wire instead of stripping it with them, but maybe that doesn’t justify spending a lot of money on something that’ll just break.
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These have worked well for me.
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I use this one:
BOENFU Automatic Wire Stripper and Cutter, 2 in 1 Heavy Duty Wire Stripping Tool Adjustable Eagle Nose Wire Stripper for Electronic and Automotive Repair (7-Inch) https://a.co/d/1nXLKTI
I like this style better than the ones you are using. I have the Irwin version, and the Amazon cheapos are better by far. Of course, the knipex version is probably worth the money.
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These are my tools of choice. If im using the orange RS a lot i get some candle wax on the edge to prevent tearing. Also it’s worth knowing what the adjust knob actually does.
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Try to do a “sprint” once every other night in under 90 minutes to feel productive and maintain momentum, but also not distract from other responsibilities. Even on the nights I’m not motivated I’ll go throw a few dip sockets on pending boards.
So, tonight! Placed 113 resistors, yay! That’s 226 holes on PCBs that are no longer holes!
However, across 12 different hero/sidekick PCBs, all still 15% populated, sad!
Has anyone seen the tour Hans Zimmer gave of his home studio, and he describes a full wall of Roland (I believe?) large format modules that he bought wholesale by the kilogram? He’s so happy to have them, and it’s something I think about as end goal of being so happy this has been my off-hour distraction over the winters instead of doom-scrolling on a phone or just playing doom. But yes, putting away the bulk bags of 10/100k resistors, a night that still feels like a reminder of a lack of progress.
yeah it is a lot of work putting multiples together . I built 6 sets [ 1 hero 2 sidekicks ] so 18 modules and it took awhile . but is defiantly worth it they are easy to tune very stable and sound good , analogoutput defiantly scored big with these modules.
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I, too, am regretting your decision to go with 3296P trimpots…
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Incidentally, when searching for bourns 3296p trimpots on google, this thread is on the first page 
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yeah the bourns trim pots were kinda expensive . for my second batch of side kicks I used the 3296p trimmers found at AliExpress $ 1.50 U.S. for ten . they seem to be ok its not likely you will be changing the adjustments more than once our twice so they won’t get much wear.
tried to link to the page but it wouldn’t , it takes a bit of looking but they are there on the AilExpress site .
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can’t figure out why 
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To quote shango066: “That looks baked, BAKED !”
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