[This is cross-posted from here because I am too tired / whatever to write a new post for here right now.]

x0x 231, my x0xb0x, is complete. After a fair bit of work and a lot of waiting (mostly for the new artwork to be printed) it’s done.

If you would like to see photos of various phases of my x0xb0x building — including stuff relating to the new artwork — please head on over to my x0xb0x photo gallery (photo gallery retired) and have a look around.

As you can see, I made some new artwork for my x0xb0x. I ordered a few extra pieces, and most of them have been reserved by others, but if you’d like one, email or private message me. I have three pieces left, and as I am making no profit on them, I will not be placing a second order.

The cost for one of the panel overlays is US$41 and includes US Postal Service Priority Mail within the US, and one of the red keycaps you see above.

As far as the rest of my x0xb0x goes, if you’d like to make your x0xb0x like mine, you also need to do the following things:

– Add a power switch.
– Replace R1 with a 200 ohm resistor to make the PS a bit more noisy.
– Replace all LEDs with red diffuse ones. (Digi-Key Part 67-1105-ND)
– Replace all the resistors tied to the LEDs with 820 ohm ones (Mouser Part 291-820-RC)
– Paint the rear panel black.
– Design a new overlay for the front panel and use a red keycap for the RUN key. (As if this one wasn’t obvious…)
– Replace all ‘important’ transistors with ones with ‘high beta’ ones as follows: Q10: 338, Q9: 338, Q8: 349, Q36 & Q38: 335, Q27: 337, Q33: 331, Q1 & Q2 & Q31: 327
– Replace the rotary switch knobs with knurled matte black aluminum ones. (Digi-Key Part 226-4090-ND)

And… That’s all I can remember for now.

I must say, though, I’m glad it’s done.

-Steve

Not having a TR-808 or TR-909 or whatever, I’m having a hard time coming up with the concept for a control panel for my step sequencer. The first step is figuring out exactly what buttons and LEDs are wanted / needed. Thus far I’ve got a run button/LED, 16 buttons/LEDs for the various steps, a 16-position BANK knob, a 16-position MODE knob, a 16-position INSTRUMENT knob, and a detented rotary encoder for TEMPO.

Maybe a three-digit seven-segment LED display so tempo can be shown numerically?

The completed PAiA FatMan Plus
(Click for more…)

Well, there it is. It’s done. No, not the x0xb0x (photo gallery retired), that’s still waiting for the front panel, but the PAiA FatMan Plus.

Today the new panel overlays came in from a guy in Ypsilanti named Chris Lowell who owns a sign shop there called Lowell Sign Designs, Inc. I met him on ladyada’s tea party as part of my posts about the < a href="http://www.nuxx.net/gallery/v/stuffivemade/x0xb0x/frontpanel/">redesigned x0xb0x front panels which I’ve been working on. Earlier in the week I sent him my final design for the PAiA FatMan Plus front and rear panels. He gave me a great deal on printing them and they arrived today. They are inkjet printed vinyl with Lexsaver over them, so they don’t look quite the same as the Lexan-only panels from MaverickLabels.com, but they still look good.

If you are curious, here is a high resolution scan of the front panel, and here is the rear.

With having a working synth and acceptable artwork, I set to finishing it all up. First I pulled the panels, then I cleaned them up and painted all the edges which could or would be exposed with a nice black paint pen. Next I applied both overlays and cut out all the holes. The holes for through-hole parts didn’t need to be perfect, so I just generally followed the metal at the edge. For the countersunk holes for the corner screws I didn’t cut all the way to the edge, that way the fit around the hole would be nice. The rear holes were a bit tricky, but I think I managed.

Then it was time to get on with the final assembly. I refitted the rear power switch to ensure it was solidly mounted, mounted and connected the LEDs, reinstalled everything else in the rear panel, fitted the rear panel, bundled all the wires so it would fit nicely.

After screwing the case shut for (hopefully) the last time, I gave it one final test with a MIDI keyboard before calling it finished.

And now? It’s done*.

So, what was this mess in this case (yes, I like the rusty metal look too, it was just unusable and non-functioning) a few weeks ago is now this not-mess in this enclosure. Thanks to the Hard Sync and Subharmonic Generator additions, it’s capable of producing even more interesting sounds, too.

If you are interested, there are more photos of my PAiA FatMan Plus available here (photo gallery retired).

And now, with this done, I go to bed.

Goodnight.

* There are a few more tweaks I may make, like replacing the optoisolator (it may be causing me some problems responding to very frequent MIDI commands) and possibly some range adjustments, but those will come later, if ever.

If anyone would like to see it, here is a PDF of the exposure mask I made up for etching the Casio SK-1 MIDI Mod PCB: https://nuxx.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Casio_SK1_MIDI_exposure_mask.pdf