Hot Lead

So I decided that today was a good day for some Saturday night soldering. I've been sitting on this Relatively Universal ROM programmer kit for a while, and I figured it was time to put it together.

All of the itty bitty SMD components come pre-soldered, and it's just the headers and the ZIF socket that need to be tended to.

For no reason other than"I felt like it", I went for the ZIF socket first.

The Arduino headers came next, and I used an Arduino as a jig to hold them in the correct orientation.

And the programmer goes on top, ready for soldering.

Once the ends of each pin header strip are tacked in place, I can take it off and do the rest of the soldering without the Arduino underneath.

And that looks a little something like this.

A few more bits get soldered on the other side. A L-shaped jumper thing near the ZIF socket arm, and a header for an OLED screen that I don't actually have but should maybe probably get.

Plugging it in reveals that things are basically functional, so far as I can tell without a ROM to plug into it.

Of course just having raw PCBs sitting on whatever surface I place this on isn't really the most ideal situation, so I'll go ahead and print out a low-profile case for the Arduino. This marks the first time I've ever printed a downloaded model, so let's hope it goes well.

While that's going, I have some tact switches that need to be replaced in a synth which I am not acknowledging the existence of because I haven't finished repairing it yet.

It's out with the old...

And I forgot to take a picture of the "in with the new". Well, just pretend it looks like the picture previous to this one, but with newer looking switches.

All told, I replaced quite a few switches.

57 of them to be exact.

Which makes for 228 solder joints that were desoldered and resoldered.

And just in time, the print is done.

As I expected from looking at the model, some of the overhangs and bridges didn't print too amazingly well.

But a bit of trimming with a hobby knife cleaned things up well enough to work.

And the ROM programmer still fits on top.

So I'll call that a success, and another project checked off the list.

When They Go High

We go low.

I don't own a bass guitar (yet) and so in order to continue not owning a bass guitar (for now) I decided to experiment with a different approach to producing bass-like noises (in the interim).

This is the Boss OC-5 Octave pedal. It takes a guitar (or other musical) signal in on the right, does some elven wizardry inside, and emits an octave-shifted signal out the left. It's quite fancy in the realm of octave pedals, having options to use a vintage-style tracking that warbles like a demon possessed if you play more than one note at a time, or the more modern mode that can track all six guitar strings separately and create a stable, octave-shifted output signal.

You can configure it to produce an octave-up signal, which produces a rather interesting chorused 12-string-ish tone when mixed with the direct signal, or produce an octave-down signal to get some bass-style tones. There's also an option for 2 octaves down, but it's only enabled in the vintage mode; in the modern poly mode that knob dials in how many notes it tracks and shifts.

So far I'm quite impressed. It's doing a basically transparent job of tracking the notes I play and shifting them, which is quite a bit better than the octave effect that's on my Zoom MS50G multi-effects pedal (though to be fair, I was having unrelated difficulties with power supply noise on that when I was testing, which may have affected the tracking quality).

Speaking of the MS50G, I'm thinking of putting together an actual proper pedal board with this, probably going for Zoom MS50G <- Boss DC-2w <- Boss OC-5 <- Boss CP-1x. This will allow me to run a Amp Sim <- Reverb <- Delay in the MS50G, get the chorus from the DC-2w, the octave effect from the OC-5, and a compression at the start from the CP-1x to even things out and bring up sustain. I probably won't run the chorus and octave together, but who knows, I can experiment.

Of course that does mean I'll need a pedal board to assemble this chain onto...

Why See

So the first hardware synth I picked up was, by chance, a Yamaha Reface CS, being unloaded for cheap thanks to those four sweet words "For Parts or Repair". It's an analog modelling synthesizer, based loosely on the old Yamaha CS synths. Later on I picked up a Reface DX on a similar deal, with its lineage in the Yamaha DX line of FM synths, followed by a Reface CP which emulates a variety of smooth, soothing electric pianos including Yamaha's classic CP line.

But there was one instrument missing from this lineup: the YC. So naturally I had to buy one.

Wait, wrong Yamaha YC. That one's not repaired yet.

There we go, the Reface YC. That's the one I was looking for. As the name implies, it's an emulation of a variety of electronic organs, including the old Yamaha models like the YC-20 that it's sitting atop, but in a much smaller, more easily portable form.

I'm a little sad that I couldn't find one for parts or repair, but the pain of the price tag will soon be a distant memory, and all that will be left is the joy of playing with a new(-to-me) instrument.

Tools, Glorious Tools

Got a few minor tool-related upgrades lately, so I figured I'd tally them up in one post for the sake of brevity.

First up, a while back I got this drill press vise, and then later got a drill press to stick it on.

It's a perfectly lovely vise, quite low profile, but it does have two minor inconveniences.

First, it has a flange on both sides to bolt it down to the table. This is nice when you want to bolt it down to the table, but quite inconvenient if you happen to want to work with something off the edge of the vise.

Second, it has a little radiused notch near the fixed jaw to reduce the stress concentration there, which is nice for keeping the vise from snapping in half, but quite annoying when trying to use a set of parallels to raise an item up off the base of the vise.

So I got myself a different style of vise, this time opting for a Wilton. Naturally, the first thing I did was fill out and submit the warranty registration card.

This style of vise is slightly less low profile, replacing the flange along both edges with a notch that you can stick a set of toe clamps into to secure it to the table. It also lacks the notch near the fixed jaw, which means that it's compatible with parallels.

So that's nice. It's always good to have more options than you think you'll need when it comes to work holding.

Next up is my hack saw. I got this hack saw ages ago and I've been using the blade it came with well past its best-before date.

I mean it still has teeth and they don't look all that bad.

At least until you compare them with the teeth at the end where they aren't as worn.

That's a pretty big difference, I guess.

So for the replacement I decided to go a bit bougie with some Starrett blades.

Thankfully these are standardized so they just drop right in.

Speaking of dropping in, the upper frame of this hack saw actually has a compartment for storing extra blades.

But sticking the extra 9 blades of this 10-pack in there would make the saw heavier, and make it rattle around when I'm using it, so I'm not sure how keen I am on actually storing them in there.

Anyway, last up I finally got myself a tool belt.

I've been going up and down ladders a lot lately, and figured it wouldn't be the worst idea to finally give one of these a try. I guess I'll see how it goes.

The Beat of a Different Drum

So it's time for the internet to whisper those four sweet words into my ear: For Parts or Repair.

This is the Roland TR-8 drum machine. It was, a few years ago, Roland's flagship drum machine, delivering accurate digital emulations of the classic TR-808, TR-909, TR-606, and with and extra upgrade the TR-707 and TR-727 drum machines.

This one, however, is feeling a little less flagship than it might have when it originally came out of the box, especially considering the layer of cat hair and grime it came coated in.

Well, the seller said that it suffered some water damage and wouldn't turn on, so let's have a look inside to see how bad things are.

Well those components are definitely covered in rust and corr- wait no, that's spider poop.

Ok, hang on, if I just plug this into my bench supply...

Right, yes. So the Roland TR-8 (and a few other boxes they made in this era) use a bit of a peculiar 5.7v center-negative barrel jack power supply. Most barrel jack power supplies are center-positive, and so if you try to plug into one of those due to, for example, misplacing the original power supply amongst a giant pile of cat hair and grime, then the reverse protection diode won't allow any current to flow backwards through the unit, and it will simply appear dead and unresponsive.

I guess I'll have less to fix on this unit than I initially expected, so let's get it cleaned up and put into service, starting with the spider poop.

Yup, that looks fine now.

The main panel PCB, upon a cursory examination, shows no signs of damage or spider poop.

Though it's certainly hosting its own collection of grime.

On both the faders and the potentiometers.

But it's easy enough to clean off. The pots just get a quick wipe with alcohol and a lint-free cloth, and the fader dust shields get cleaned by peeling the dust off using some scotch tape.

The case and knobs take a swim in some borax to strip off all the hand cheese and pet residue, and then things go back together as they came apart.

Except for one little problem. I was about to line up all the knobs to take a beauty shot when I realized that the knob for the snare drum compression effect wasn't turning.

Ah yes, there's the supposed water damage.

The rust on this pot here has managed to cake up inside the bushing and freeze the plastic shaft in place almost completely. These are just inexpensive 9mm pots, but I don't have spares on hand at the moment, so let's pop it out and see if it can be fixed.

And by "pop it out" I mean "struggle to desolder it for 10 whole minutes" since Roland didn't skimp on the thickness of the ground planes for this PCB, and all that copper was doing an impressive job of wicking the heat away from the lead-free solder. I did eventually manage to free it after diluting that higher temp solder with some classic leaded solder, but it took some doing. If I had to service more than one of these pots I'd probably invest in some Rose's metal to melt into the joints to really drop the melting temperature.

Anyway, it's out, so I just need to fold up the tabs on the bottom to disassemble it.

These will eventually fatigue and break off, but you'll get at least one folding cycle if you're careful, maybe two if you're lucky.

Once the tabs are folded up, the body of the pot can slide out of the frame and the shaft can be pushed out of the bushing (with some difficulty in this case).

And yup, there's some rust in there.

Luckily there isn't a ton, so filing away a bit of the buildup followed by cleaning out the rust grime is enough to get the shaft spinning freely.

And then, importantly, we add some friction grease to make the pot feel buttery smooth.

The reassembly is a little bit fiddly since the wiper is not solidly attached to the shaft, but placing it on the underside of the shaft (the right way up) and lining up the pins works well, and the body of the pot can be slid back on and the tabs re-crimped.

Then it's just a matter of soldering it back into place, with some nice shiny leaded solder. This is, thankfully, much easier than desoldering it.

Everything seems to be in good order now, so it can all go back together, for real this time.

And I can finally get that glam shot I was looking for.

Though I suppose I should probably get a proper power supply for it now.

But the important thing is that it works. Well, the important thing is that it's clean and it works.

And as a bonus, I verified that it does have the 707 and 727 models unlocked, which is sweet.