Of course i will let you know ! Greetjes, Thomas
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Finished a Super Sixteen for my buddy, unfortunately the BOM kit was missing the 4 big buttons⊠it will remain âunfinishedâ for a bit.
Other than the missing buttons, it works great!
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Hi guys, long time no see! I did introduce myself a few months ago, and time went pretty fast ! I had the chance to get pretty consequent hollydays this summer so here is my buid progress.
I started by building a case largely inspired by @CTorp 's. I loved his design, so thank to his advices i managed to build one, not quite the same, i did a lot of mistakes but i learned a lot⊠(Isnât it always the point after allâŠ)
So here are some pictures of the build:
And the the finished case:
Then i built some modules to fill the case :
- 3 VCO
- 1 Performance Filter
- 2 Mini ADSR
- 1 VCLFO
- 1 Dble VCA
- 1 Buffered Multiple
- 1 Quad VCA
I was totally new to DIY and electronics but learnt a lot along the trip! I did a lot of mistakes, but didnt post anything here because everything was already asked and answered 
(what a great forum)
So now my case is almost full (im waiting for parts to build the midi to cv, and the triple splashback delay), i did my first stripboard module (not that difficult!) the ms20 lowpass (still need a panel tho haha) :
And im waiting for parts to build the 100 effects DSP module, to get some reverb on the bleep bloops.
For my next projects i think i want to get into Surface Mount, because im really insterested in MI modules (Clouds⊠<3 ) but i cant figure how harder this builds are compared to what i already did⊠I guess ill see !
Anyway thank you guys because i really love doing this, and without this forum i think it would be a lot harder for me ! And there is a lot of inspiration too 
See You!
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Brilliant! âŠ
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It looks great! A lot like how I designed my own synthesizer. Excellent work!
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Wow looks awesome man! Like the veneer a lot!
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This is a f******g awesome work, looks brilliant !!!
How did you make the silver stripes?
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You gotta get some community/Forum Member modules up in that beauty
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Beautiful case. Donât be scared of surface mount - but it does help to have a few specialist tools. A cheap hot air station (Like the 858D thatâs usally about $70), a good magnifier, some good fine tip tweezers (a lot of the hot air stations come with them free.) and a syringe of solder paste with some assorted sizes of luer lock tipsâŠadd in a little practice and youâll be set 
If you want to step it up then a video microscope helps even more than a magnifier, and getting stencils to go with the boards eliminates the need for the syringe and makes it a LOT easier to get the right amount of paste on pads. That was the hardest part for me - learning how to dispense just the right amount of paste manually. Stepping up from my magnifier to a video scope helped with that a lot.
The MI boards might be a bit advanced for a first SMD project though. Iâd suggest picking a smaller project or two to warm up on and get the technique down first.
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Iâve done only a couple of simple SMT builds. Two Eurorack modules both from PM Foundations, the Sample and hold and the Ring Modulator â low part count, pretty low density. Decided I had two complaints though. First they donât supply the schematics, which Iâm lately regarding as pretty much a deal killer for DIY circuits. Second, the layout places SMT components between board mounted jacks and pots, where itâs nearly impossible to get to them if you need to touch up a joint. I think better design would be to put the board mounted jacks and pots on the reverse side. As in for instance the Music Thing Modular Simple Eq, which is billed as a good first SMT project, has a published schematic, and is CC-by-SA. (But I havenât built one myself.)
I did those two modules with an iron. Iâve since looked into hot air, but having seen all sorts of heated* arguments online about proper technique and what catastrophic damage can allegedly occur if you donât do it ârightâ Iâve been reluctant to go there. Itâs probably easier than the contradictory know-it-alls make it sound, but itâs hard to know what tutorial resources to trust.
* no pun intended
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Nice ! What do you guys suggest as a first SMT build ? The difficulty is finding a 5U project as my case is Kosmo format and i dont plan (yet) to add eurorack format to my setup âŠ
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Nice ! Didnât notice this genius thread, i will look at it for sure! But indeed i already noticed some modules from u guys that catched my interest !
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Thank you ! So the « silver stripes » are sadly not made of silver ⊠
sorry to disappoint, its actually some aluminium strip, 2cm wide/2mm thick. I got it from a hardware store in the plumber section if i remember correctly. Was cheap af like you could get 2 meters for 2 or 3 Bucks. For the bent parts i Just bent it by hand but as itâs aluminium itâs really easy to work 
i then simply glued it with hot glue
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Again, very good job, I thought it was aluminum or stainless steel. So for my taste this is the prettiest rack Iâve seen here in the forum so far. Which of course doesnât mean that all the others arenât beautiful
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I havenât done any modular SMT builds so unsure of any to suggest as a first project.
But Iâve been building SMT boards off and on for 15 years. Up until about 2 months ago all with an iron. It was possibleâŠbut not much fun and I tended to avoid SMT as a result. Then I got some solder paste and started experimenting with that approach.
I used a cheap ~$10 heat gun from a craft store designed for activating embossing powder which I put put aluminum foil over the front of to create a more focused air stream. It workedâŠbut tended to be too much air flow and it was easy to blow things around on the board with it.
I also tried an old toaster oven - just putting the boards in and watching like a hawk until the solder started to flow - then turning off the heat. I actually got parts to add a controller to the oven ⊠but the results I got were lackluster enough I never bothered. Dealing with parts that tombstone is a big pain with this method I found. And I was still learning just how much paste to use and generally using too much which caused problems.
Finally this summer I had a project I wanted to do that was SMT and included some components that could NOT be hand soldered (due to pads under the package) so decided to step up to hot air. I found it so much easier. I could dial in the temp/speed to where I got nice hot air that quickly melted the solder - but didnât blow parts around. And with a finer needle on the syringe I was able to put just enough paste down reliably which helped a lot.
Itâs definitely something you can overthinkâŠand is technically an âincorrectâ way to do it. But like so much as DIYers we can get away with a lot of things that wouldnât fly in industry for a number of reasons. I wouldnât do it on boards for sale or in production. But for one off DIY boards itâs not that bad at all and very satisfying/fun to watch the process.
This was one of my first attempts with my cheap Amazon special video scope and hot air. My technique has improved since:
I actually find the process enjoyable enough I started seeking out SMT projects. And one other nice thing is there are quite a few parts that are only available in SMT packages now so it opens up a lot of possibilities being able to use them.
Iâve even found the hot air really helpful for re-working through hole boards. Like removing sockets and headers with a lot of pins without destroying them. Makes it possible to soften all of the pins at once finally.
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THIS is satisfying to watch! only thing im kind of concerned are the chips : can the hot air damage it ? I found some cheap hot air stations on aliexpress that look quite âgood qualityâ but idk
So I understand you correctly, you just use this solder paste and a hot air soldering stick? It looks so easy on the video! I feel the same way, I would also like to build a âcloudâ or something similar, but I donât dare to use the SMT technology. Even when Iâve seen a video where someone soldered easily with a normal soldering iron. The video is in German, but you can clearly see how easy it is to solder the chip with a normal soldering iron
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Iâve done this several times, take an old project and transform it into a module.
There I got the Rotary Dial Phone to integrate it into a future Trigger / Gate module.
And when the dial stopped, I didnât want the circuit closed continuously.
A small hole and a screw and voila, now I have a choice.
Simple but it works 
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Hot air can damage components, but the ICs are made for it and can take quite a bit. Just use low melting point paste and go to something like 300 Celsius and I bet youâll be fine.
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