Yep. Literally a guitar pickup soldered to a jack and plugged into the mikrokosmos.
Huh. Wonder how it compares to an actual Electrophone module.
I think it’s near identical. I suspect the electrophone is an ears module with a guitar pickup instead of a piezo on the switched input jack. I’ve already accidentally made a few of the sounds just having my phone near it.
You’re right, the Electrophone has a switchable fuzz circuit added but other than that it’s basically identical. Hadn’t realized that.
Tried a magnet table with the pickup yet?
what’s a magnet table?
Whoa. Not yet, but I did just get some magnets.
Soo, a few more thoughts on my first module that is not built on stripboard. Today I soldered in the resistors and it’s unbelievable how easy it is! In addition, I have good solder with 3.5% flux, you can really see how it flows into the holes and hugs the component on the other side. Absolutely great. However, none of this helps if the thing sounds shit at the end … we will see … and hear
you got this
If you are dialed in on stripboard, a well made pcb build is going to be a breeze! Some of the pads connecting to grounds are a little weird sometimes
@heckseven and @CTorp I have no doubt that I won’t be able to do it, rather that, if this module is just so much better than my self-made on stripboard, I will lose the desire to build stripboards. But I can’t afford any “real” modules. That’s usualy why I started with stripboards. But I am deeply impressed by the PCB mount technology, how well the potis hold on to the board and how stable it is overall, really great! To get there, I still have to practice a lot …
Or how about “I will gain the desire to design PCBs”? They cost more than stripboard but can still be quite cheap. The shipping can be a lot worse, but if you’re patient you can use the slow and cheap shipping, or you can hold off on ordering until you have several boards to make and spread the shipping cost between them. Designing PCBs takes some effort but it’s not that hard, at least not for something as un-demanding as audio. And of course there’s also the option of getting someone else’s PCB designs made, if they’ve put their Gerbers online for download.
Or you can etch and drill your own PCBs, if that’s how you want to spend your time…
Also, some commercial PCBs can be had, without parts or panels, for pretty low prices… $8 or so is typical for Barton and NLC, for instance.
Indeed, and it seems that you can amortize your cost by having a few extra boards made and selling them to fellow forum members.
My 3340 VCO/LFO build so far. Done with the core stuff, now need to think about If I wan’t to do anything with 3 extra opamps I have. Or remove the quad opamp and put a dual one. After that I’m designing and ordering my first PCB ever.
So there it is … the Skull & Circuits VCO-1. It’s a great device, but it’s not that far removed from my self-made ones. I will definitely continue to build on stripboard !!!
I made some stupid mistakes when building it. I soldered the Eurorack plug to the back from the start and thought how stupid it is that the trim pots are not also on the back and installed them as described … I would have listened to my gut feeling … . so it was really a pain in the ass to calibrate it. Then I wanted to unsolder the trimmpots again, and the solderpads also came loose … that’s really crap! So I leave it that way now, I can’t set the wave animator correctly, but I have to live with that. In any case, I don’t feel like scratching the circuit board to expose the conductor track in order to solder the trim pot again …
Oh, one thing that really annoys me is the limited space, you can’t completely encircle the knobs … that sucks!
I had a look at the panel design and that’s a very severe limitation with the 3U, 16HP form factor given all the bells and whistles he’s added to the basic 3340 feature set. Still the panel design is simple enough and you could probably put the switchgear onto long wires and fit them to a wider panel (or even Kosmo if you want) of your own construction.
It’s such a lovely feature set with lots of potential for experimentation, so it may be worth the extra effort.
That’s the Eurorack cult of slenderness for you. They probably have people complaining 16HP is too wide and if they used these pots with no knobs and rearranged things they could get it down to 12HP.
12hp is too wide. Replace all pots by a single encoder and do it in 8hp.
Oh yes, today a blue OLED screen, an encoder, a mCU and some jacks are all the hype.
Lets ADC-ize, process digitally, DAC-ize the analog signal in each “analog” module !
Actually that sounds like a good idea. I’ve been planning hybrid gear like that for months, because software is so incredibly versatile.