Category electronics

My first SMT!
(Click for more x0xb0x stuff…)

Well, this is the first photo I’ve posted from work on my x0xb0x (photo gallery retired).

In short, it’s coming along nicely, but I just simply don’t feel like writing a lot. Here’s some links for photos, if you’re interested in how it’s going:

· Main x0xb0x Gallery (photo gallery retired)
· 600dpi scans of the PCBs (photo gallery retired)
· The piles of parts for the x0xb0x. Well, all except the seven missing ones. Whoops! (They are on their way…) (photo gallery retired)
· The USB controller actually working!
· The completed (except for one resistor) I/O board.

Uhm… That’s all.

Oh, one thing to note… Except for testing the power supply and the USB stuff, this is all kinda untested. :\ I don’t have my new DMM yet, nor do I have a benchtop power supply. Nor all the parts. So, I can’t see how it’s working out yet…

Tomorrow (today?) I have to order the new LEDs, a few other parts, and find a power supply. In the mean time I might just assemble the rest of it… I think my soldering skills are decent, so hopefully I won’t screw it up too much.

Oh, and I also wish there was an easier way to remove flux. A toothbrush + isopropyl works well, but then there’s a thin residue of flux on the whole board. I may just have to wash the whole of the boards down with isopropyl again once it’s all done. Ah well, at least it’ll look nice.

[This is cross posted from here.]

Pictured up above is v1.0 of my x0xb0x main panel (600dpi version here).

I am going to be having ten of these panel overlays printed, and I will be making eight available to others who have made x0xb0xes as well. I’m not completely certain of the cost yet, but it should be around US$30 – US$40 each for a heavy plastic (5mil Lexan) label with all holes (bolt, switch, button, knob, and LED) cut out.

Current I’m waiting on a second set of samples from the printer to decide exactly which printing process I wish to go with, then I’ll be able to give a more solid price. As soon as I have a solid, final price and the order is placed, I’ll let people know then I’ll be able to accept payment for the labels.

With regards to cost, note that I’m not making a profit on these. The price I charge will be for the printing of the panel, shipping (to me, then out to you), and PayPal fees. I’m not interested in profiting here, just getting my panel design printed up for myself and others at a reasonable price. The per-piece price is going to be a bit high because of both the high printing quality low count of pieces made.

Or, conversely, if you wish to try printing the panel yourself or redesigning it, I’ve got the following files available for your use:

Printable:
– v1.0 @ 300dpi w/ bleed
– v1.0 @ 600dpi w/ bleed

Design:
– Adobe Illustrator CS file I put together for designing panels. (This will be very useful if you wish to design a panel overlay for yourself.)

All of the three aforementioned files plus a 600dpi version of the image up top are available in a bundle: x0xb0x_mainpanel_overlay_v1.0.zip

The Illustrator file requires two fonts, Interstate Bold and Stop. These are not provided in the bundle. The text is placed in the file both as laid-out text and outlines, though, so if you aren’t modifying the current text they won’t be needed.

Additionally, I should note that the all-seeing eye logo was appropriated (and modified) without permission from the side of a box of Steve Jackson Games‘s Illuminati: New World Order. I’m not sure of the legality of this, but hopefully it’s not a problem as no one is profiting from these panels and it’s of very limited use.

So, that’s it. If you are interested in a panel, please reply to this thread saying that you are definitely interested purchasing one. The first 8 replies will get the first 8 panels.

And yes, I’ll be certain to post a photograph of final, printed panel before I even begin accepting payment for them.

-Steve

Hmm, I think I need to build a kit to monitor my heartbeat and plot it on the scope. That’d be nifty.

Hmm, on second thought I may likely have these x0xb0x panels printed by the place which does really-nice-looking-lexan as opposed to the arcade game place. I can probably get 10 printed for about $30/ea, then i can sell them to other x0xb0x peoples…

Well, there it is. Beta 1 of the art for my x0xb0x panel. I think it looks pretty good, and there’s not much left which I can think to change.

Printing of the panel through ClassicArcadeGrafix will run about US$35 for an 18×29 image, so I can probably have the overlay for the PAiA FatMan I’m rebuilding printed on the same sheet, saving a good bit of cost. Even better, there is also likely to be enough room so that I can have an overlay for the rear panel (the one around all the ports and whatnot) printed, making the whole box have a nice, consistent look.

Mmm. I’m happy with this design.

Well, after a bunch of work over the past few days, this is how far I’ve come in the redesign of the front panel of the x0xb0x which I hope to build. It’s also come a long way from my original data sources, which were a DXF of the panel and it’s through holes (no text), a PDF which will become the instruction manual, part spec sheets looked up the BOM, and the TIFF used for the laser printed overlay seen here.

I also had to learn to use Illustrator, which is pretty darn useful now that I’m comfortable with it.

Now I’m going to go take a bath.

I’ll be letting the overlay ideas seen up above stew for a bit… As in, a few days or a week. I like what is there, but I want to be certain before I spend $30 – $50 to have it professionally printed.

Oh, I also have to actually receive the kit and confirm that the expected front panel size (as detailed in the DXF) is the actual size of the panel. If it isn’t I’ll have to… Do some adjusting. Or something. (I really, really hope this isn’t the case).

Today I also spent a good bit of time refreshing my soldering skills by stripping and partially fixing the PAiA FatMan seen here. It had been given to me about a year and a half ago, and it’s in really sorry shape. In short, it doesn’t work… The board is rather scratched up, there were a good number of bad solder points or mis-soldered parts, and most of the pots seem bad. So, I’m going to order up replacement pots and a new chassis, and whatever other parts I need to fix it… Then I’m hopefully going to make it work. I’d like to put it in a PacTec PT-10, which is what the x0xb0x uses, then the two could match nicely… That means there will be another CP to design… Ah well. :)

Oh, yeah. That’s enough babbling for now. I’ll go take that bath now.

UPDATE: Oh, yeah… I now have a nice, vector-based version of the all-seeing eye. This makes me happy. I’ve wanted such a piece of data for a while, and being unable to find one I just made one. I first scanned the logo from the side of a box of Illuminati cards, removed the word ‘Illuminati’, drew the lines around the bottom back in as needed, made it two colors, traced it in Illustrator, then used it. It was a good bit of work, but I’m glad it now exists…

Well, after one day’s work, I’m able to export that from Illustrator CS. This will (hopefully, eventually) be printed out similar to how an arcade game control panel overlay is made and applied to the control panel of my x0xb0x.

Provided I’m able to properly make the synth itself, I’d like to take what you see above and use it as a foundation for something really nice looking. Currently it is just the original CP, brought into Illustrator, broken out into layers for various parts, and the SAW / SQR waveform indicators replaced with waveforms that I just drew.

Currently everything, including the text, is vector, so it can all be moved / changed pretty easily. Tomorrow I’ll likely get going on the hardest part of the whole art portion of the job. That is, taking the TIFF file for the panel seen here and re-drawing it in a vector format. I also want to make the text in the TIFF consistent with the rest of the panel.

Then will come playing with the color of the whole thing. I think the keys should (obviously) be black / white. Everything around it… I don’t know. I’m thinking that (if I can) I may do the whole panel in black with white text. Then a nice red Steve Jackson-esque All-Seeing Eye could be placed in the blank space just to the left of the volume knob. Or… I don’t know. I’ll see what I find out when I talk to the print shop tomorrow. That is, if they can do it…

Do any of you have a copy of the font Bank Gothic? I guess it supposedly comes with Windows, but I’m not seeing it here… I need it for part of the x0xb0x layout I’m trying to do.

Thanks!

UPDATE: I should add that I need it in TTF for Windows. Thanks!