Saturday, June 20, 2009

x0xb0x SS#01:Sequencer Part 2

I finally got my hands on the missing 16 pin DIP sockets and wrapped up everything in the x0x except the LEDs. Tack on another $3.45 in parts (6 x $0.50 plus Tax) which is not the end of the world but is thievery compared to the $0.07 / unit price from Futurlec. Lesson learned!

The manual isn't kidding about this being a long process and things getting tight in spots. I would have preferred to do all the resistors first (like they always say!), then caps, then dips and switches. It would have made life much easier. In any case the job got finished. Now the only task left is getting the LEDs set up and building the jump wires before we get to start closing this thing up!

As mentioned in my previous post, I opted for these nice flat LEDs I picked up. I diffused a set of them with a dremel for comparison but I'm finding that the clear glass look with really high resistor values is creating a very slick, low blinkyness factor that I rather like. I may regret it because if it doesn't really work visually, I'll be ripping out and replacing 40 resistors. I really hope I don't have to do that. The x0x's LED size is quite large, 5mm, but with this set up the LEDs appear recessed and about 2-3mm in size. It's rather unique looking. We'll see how it goes. The resistors are in so it's too late right now!

These are really high MCD valued LEDs so the resistor values I found that worked for this set up were as follows:

Purple UV - 2000 mcd: 10K
Blue - 5000 mcd: 47K
White - 8000 mcd: 68K

Blue is being used for Tempo and the tools on the left and right side of the panel. White is being used for all the notes and Sequencer steps: 1, 5, 9, and 12. Purple UV is being used for the remaining sequencer steps.

These are pretty high values but it looks elegant. I *think* it'll work. Next up: jump wires and then those LEDs!

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