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Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

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June 24, 2004


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Well, it’s finally done. I got the PAiA FatMan finished. yay! It turns out that the problems with it were related to a bad EPROM, the bit that holds the program for the MIDI to CV conversion. I got a replacement chip, and everything was (eventually) good. There were only a few additional bumps, namely the replacement chip having it’s pins bent as hell. Fortunately it made it here, as the package it was in hadn’t been sealed. But, it’s here, assembled, and all is good. Take a look at just over a page of wonderful construction pictures here.

Or, there’s a few treats for you to listen to. Namely…

· PAiA FatMan Filter Jam (Just some random filter masturbation…)
· Eric playing the Super Mario Brothers 2 Theme Song

So, yeah. It’s done. I’m all happy about it and stuff. Now, as long as it gets good use and happy tunes are made with it, well, woo!

Also, it makes a surprising variety of sounds. You can tune it all different, have the two oscillators offset by all sorts of nifty amounts, all sorts of neat wacky filter goodness, etc.

Now, time for Luna! Woo!

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournalmusic

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June 20, 2004

So, Friday morning, or was it Thursday night, I received a bunch of information (two massive pieces of email, in fact) from Scott at PAiA about troubleshooting a FatMan. After running down voltages and checking to be sure I didn’t have any cold solder points, I decided to swap EPROMs with another FatMan I have here. (It’s a friends and I’m looking into fixing it up.) I had tried swapping the microprocessor earlier, because I had suspected that to be a problem, but it wasn’t. This time, on suggestion from Scott at PAiA, I did, and poof, the problem was gone. So it looks like either I have a blank, or at least misburned, EPROM.

I just sent off some email to PAiA asking for another EPROM. Hopefully this one will work fine… Thus far I’m finding them to have great customer support and nice kits that are easy to assemble, but a bit of a problem packing the orders. Missing parts, unburned EPROMs, etc. They seem good about replacing bits as needed, but it still shouldn’t happen in the first place.

So, as soon as I get the new EPROM, I can get the thing tuned up and ready for use. Whee!

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..oo..

June 7, 2004

Today I feel defeated by…

…a synthesizer kit!

I’m trying to think of what to check, but it’s just. not. coming.

All ICs seem to be receiving appropriate voltages on the pins you’d expect power to be coming in on.

Something seems weird with the voltage regulator ICs, but I might be metering them wrong, I think.

< sigh >

Next is to ask the smart people at PAiA for help.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

..//..

June 1, 2004

So I got the PAiA FatMan assembled… And it doesn’t work. The power LED lights, the MIDI LED blinks when a signal is sent, nothing smokes, but it just doesn’t work. Needless to say, I’m slightly disappointed. I’m going to email PAiA with a link to all the photos. Hopefully they’ll be able to help me out or something.

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May 26, 2004


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So, the PAiA FatMan arrived today. Of course I had to start on tonight…

Well, after 176 solder points and a few hours of work cataloging parts, writing down what’s missing (this frustrates me to no end), cutting, bending, and soldering, this is where I’m at. All jumpers in place, all resistors (except the couple which I’m missing) in place, ready to start placing the caps tonight. Hopefully PAiA will come through right-quick with the replacement parts. I’m missing things like the socket for the CPU (for the MIDI bits), a set screw for one of the knobs, an op amp, etc.

Oh well, at least there’s parts of the kit to work on in the mean time. :D This is fun.

electronicsmaking thingsmoved from livejournalmusic

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May 21, 2004

Can anyone recommend a good brand/model of digital multimeter? I’ve got a decent Radio Shack-braded Fluke knock-off, but I’m having mild concerns about it’s accuracy. I don’t want to spend too much, but some nicer tools would be handy.

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May 3, 2004

Due to a lack of something to do, I’m *really* tempted to pick up a Paia Fatman (with the desktop case) and putting it together. Hopefully it won’t take too long… I think it’d be kinda disappointing if I wrap the whole thing up in ~8 hours. heh.

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April 25, 2004

[Crossposted in .]

It’s been a little while since I wrote an update about this, but my kitchen flooring project has progressed nicely and I’ve got some more pictures to show.

· Kitchen floor, all grouted. Just waiting for another day of curing and sealing.
· Kitchen floor, from start to finish.
· The whole gallery of all the stuff I’ve been doing to the kitchen and related areas.
· Obligatory before and current photo.

I’m just waiting for the grout to cure for another day, then I’ll get the sealer applied, moulding installed, and move the appliances back in. Whee!

Oh, and the grey boogers from the dust in the air when mixing grout is just squicky. (Although when working with wood they are whatever-type-of-wood colored, drywall is white, etc.)

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