My wife, soldered me, an x0x box.

An x0x box, for those of you who don't know what I am talking about, is basically a TB303 (which is a little monophonic synthesizer that makes awesome noises). You'll notice I am saying that it is basically a TB303, and not something like 'emulator' or similar.

The analog synthesis components are the same. There is one difference, and it is minor and easily fixed, if you can find that last piece.

So My wife, built me a TB303. Basically.

I mean, besides being a beautiful woman, an amazing photographer, a wonderful wife, an awesome designer... You know, just in case you didn't get it.

I fucking LOVE my wife.

Pictures and sounds are coming soon.

Right now, it's bedtime.

Last night we put harmony down, and basically worked from 9:00PM to 3:00Am. My Lungs are coated in a thin coating of flux and solder. (Mmmm! dangerous chemicals!)

We were waiting for the tantalum capacitor, but we finally got to the section where it was required, and Shell was all "Fuck it. Lets go get one." and off we went. Well, actually, I asked Jonathan if he had any at his work place (Mount Royal Collage) but sadly, no. However, he did hook us up with a much closer location to get one.

Soon, there will be a small package at our door full of one single cap. Oh well. Maybe I will frame it or something.

The headphone jack is un-attached, because the voltage regulator is too big, and it wont fit. No big deal. Who needs headphones?

We had a small disaster with one of the transistors as well. This time Shell put it on backwards. Instead of trying to desolder and re-solder (which was a complete disaster last time) we just cut the fucker off, and solder sucked the bits of wire left in the holes, and resoldered it. NO problem. The offending transistor was Q36 in the Envelope section. Accented notes were playing fine, but the decay was all screwy and non-accented notes weren't sounding at all. I found that out by reading the forum (someone else was having similar problems) and extrapolating, and generally being a good troubleshooter (if I do say so myself).

So the x0xb0x can basically do everything it is supposed to (I think). Tonight we finish off by soldering in the LEDs and putting the box in its case and we are GOOD.

Speaking of LEDs, Jonathan hooked us up with some blue LEDs and one multi-colored one. The Blue LEDs will be put on the 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th steps of the sequencer section—which is to say, on every quarter note. The multi-colored LED will be put in with 'Pattern Play' which is lit up when the sequencer is playing. So there will be lots of good multi-colored blinky goodness.

Barring any problems, this means not only will I be ready for the Listening Room, but I will have time (and inspiration!) to compose new music and patterns for it. Fucking KICK ASS.

Let it be said, nay, shouted across the land, nay, sung by a chorus of angels from the skies above. I Love My Wife.

We finished the Power Supply board last night. WHUTE! Have I mentioned I love my wonderful wife? She loves the soldering, and I love the putting together (when I do it right) and learning.

Apparently I have maxed out my flickr uploads, so no updates to the photoset until next month, unless I upgrade my flickr account for money. I hope to be finished the x0xb0x in 2 week. 9 Days if everything goes right. Which means, no flickr updates really.

Heh. Anyone wanna upgrade my account?

But instead, here is a pic. I took it myself, so it kinda sucks, but shell will hopefully take a better one. If you're using my picture as a guide, you should be aware that the 78l06 power regulator is different, because I busted mine. We also opted to avoid surface mounting, which I later found out that shell can do quite competently, so you are seeing some of the USB I/O components on there.

As you may have guessed, I was able to replace the regulator. I checked out the pinouts, was real methodical and careful, and Shell soldered it in. Turns out, for this particular regulator, we needed to solder it in backwards. But we were able to get it out, solder a new one in, and we tested everything, and it works like a charm.

According to the fab docco, this is what is going on:

The power supply takes the 9VAC from the power plug and doubles it to 18VAC which then gets regulated down to 12VDC and also rectifies and converts the 9VAC into 5VDC, 6VDC and 5.333VDC.

I am not entirely sure how all of this is happening to be honest. I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding the schematics (maybe I need to install the software and look at it there?) At any rate, I do know that the Op-Amp is boosting the current. Internally there are 2 (or, quite probably more) transistors that are joined together to do the job. the 5.333 VDC is used as a tuning voltage. Our multimeter only has 3 significant digits, so I'm at 5.33 VDC. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Today I pulled out all the components for the VCO, and labelled em on paper. Tonight before I get shell to solder em in, I am going to re check my work and make sure the transistors and IC slots are in the right way. You know. Attention to detail n shit.

Last night shell and I were working on the x0xb0x some more, and I put the voltage regulator in backwards. This resulted in a lot of attempted de-soldering, swearing, stress and eventually, a broken component. I learned a few things from this experience.

1. As shell says, I am not detail oriented. In fact, a bunch of my computer woes can be traced back to the fact that I am just not a detail guy. Time for change.
2. Double checking work is good. Self doubt in the context of building this thing is good.
3. Constant testing is hella cool. Finding out that something is b0rked is easier to cope with when you just finished soldering it in 5 mins ago.
4. desoldering sucks ass

Luckily the component in question is a rather common (I think) voltage regulator. I called Active Electronics, and they have what I need. I'm also getting some DIP (i.e. chip) sockets, and (hopefully) some SIP sockets. (there are a few 'chips' with one row of pins, instead of the standard two). Mostly so we don't destroy the IC's due to heat.

As promised, here is a flickr photoset:

www.flickr.com Jonnay's x0xb0x photoset

Theoretically, this should change as I upload more photos... so you can see the x0xb0x as it gets c0nstrux0red.

So, it's day one of the x0xb0x. I have every part laid out, and taped to pieces of paper with each component value written down and part number and/or value. That was a royal pain in the ass, but its dirt easy to find any component that I might need. I even have my capacitors sorted between the electrolytic and ceramic/poly. Once Shell got home, and helped me out, it went LOTS faster.

Originally I thought I was missing a few resistors, until when going through the capacitors, I realized that we got the USB pre-soldered. So .. um.. Duh. That is where the resistors are, plus a few small caps as well.

I may be missing a single 'dipped tantalum' capacitor (1uF 105). According to the BOM I need two. According to the fab docs "The one 'dipped tantalum' capacitor is yellow and blob-shaped ..."

I am also missing a 'Solid Gage Wire' (This shouldn't be hard to find) and a 0.22" LED Standoff. Seems to be used as a jumper and to 'staple' the rotary switches onto the main board.

Shell needs a refresher on all that she learnt at SAIT, and I have no freaking idea what I am doing. So here are some links that we both found.

Electronic Construction from A to Z - Geared toward HAM radio guys, but some really good, basic, useful info.

The Electronics Club - Shell found this. TONNES of great info and theory. Kick ass. This is being plux0red.

Tomorrow, the iron hits the board.

Whute! x0xb0x Delivered! Flicker Photoset coming soon.

Best one word email ever, from the good people making the x0xb0x:

shipped!

WHUTE!