Here a short update on the progress with the final Outmoded Sequencer project. I did the whole assembly of the final PCB and connected everything. You can see part of the soldering process in the following video: I accidentally cut a route on the bottom of the PCB, so I had to fix this with…
PCBite Arrived
I recently ordered a set of “PCBite”. These are special PCB holder as shown in the images in this post. To solder components into PCB I sometimes used one of this many “helping hands” products with two clamps, but they are no real use in most cases. PCBite seems to solve some of the problems…
Building a Magnet Matrix
I did many tests with the Outmoded Sequencer how to use steel balls as switches. While this is working very well from the electronic point of view, one problem was the steel balls tended to fall of the PCB easily and roll under furniture. To hold the small steel balls into place I am building a…
The Final Outmoded Sequencer PCB
The final black and gold PCBs for the Outmoded Sequencer arrived. They really look great with a nice contrast between the solder mask and the silk. The surface is somehow glossy and the routes are barely visible under the black solder mask. Now I really hope I will not find any further problems with this…
Steel Balls Arrived
Today the steel balls for the Outmoded Sequencer arrived. They look very nice. For the first version, I will use these steel balls to program the sequencer matrix. Below the matrix there will be small magnets to make them “click” into the right places.
Working on the Case
Today I worked on the case for the Outmoded Sequencer project. Originally I planed to use acrylic glass and laser cut it, but I did not found a service where I could cut a single piece cheap. So I am using wood, cut it to the right size using a Dremel tool, then sand it…
Everything That Went Wrong
As expected, there were many things that went wrong in the process from the prototype to the first PCB version of the project. I would like to share them here, maybe it will prevent similar mistakes in one of your projects. Wrong Values While drawing the circuit diagram, I copied all values from the components…
PCBs for Outmoded Sequencer Arrived
Today beautiful violet PCBs for the Outmoded Sequencer project arrived. I use them to experiment with different approaches for the matrix. The PCBs are ordered from OSH Park, which is a community printed circuit board order service. They put PCBs from multiple parties on one large PCB, which makes everything cheaper.
Outmoded Sequencer Music Demo
For the demo video in my previous post, I did not really choose nice melodies. So I created a small composition using the outmoded sequencer: For this music I connected the outmoded sequencer directly, after the potentiometer for the volume control, to an audio interface. Now I recorded the sound of the sequencer while I…
Outmoded Sequencer Project
I just started an interesting new project: The Outmoded Sequencer Project. It is an minimalistic music machine. You can use a 8×8 “programming” matrix to create simple melodies which are looping endlessly. This melody can be changed while the device is playing it. Here a short demonstration: The device is divided into several parts as…