Vector art of modular synth panel

A

AnalogOzerik

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I design Eurorack synthesizer modules as a hobby, and I'm DESPERATELY trying to get my post count up (used to be seriously into hardware but lost my account in whatever data loss thing happened years ago)

so anyway, here's a mixer I'm designing. Inkscape is my tool of choice, since I'll always go with whatever FOSS option is available. Panels can be made of PCB material, so I've got texture to play with, by changing the copper layer, the color of the solder resist, the silkscreen, and if I want to get fancy, exposed metal of solder-covered copper or ENIG coated copper, which looks so rad.

Anyway, this mixer is 8 channels plus one, has pan knobs for stereo, and the plus-one channel "turns down" the other channels depending on amplitude, for that pumping sidechain sound that so many people dislike but I think is *so rad*
 

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Seems like it'd be better to do this in CAD or 3d modeling software, then export one of the views into a 2d format if needed. It would be more accurate, and allow exporting into formats usable by 3d printers or CNC. There are open source options there too, although the learning curve maybe a bit steeper than inkscape.
 
Nobu said:
Seems like it'd be better to do this in CAD or 3d modeling software, then export one of the views into a 2d format if needed. It would be more accurate, and allow exporting into formats usable by 3d printers or CNC. There are open source options there too, although the learning curve maybe a bit steeper than inkscape.
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I've used Inkscape SVGs with 3D modeling software well... Tinkercad haha.... and they work well. Circuit board material is a great material to make modular synth panels from since the precision needs to be sub-mm accurate to work with fine-pitched ICs, so holes, slots, silkscreen, dimensions -- all these are dead on. I can specify a 2.9mm hole to fit a 3mm LED and the squeeze-fit is always perfect.

Having said that, I should give some CAD software a try.
 
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which is why i asked. hasnt posted in 4 years, now "DESPERATELY trying to get my post count up".
theres a reason those limits are there and it sounds, imo, like someones trying to open a personal store front....
 
Geez just looks like a member posting about their hobby. That's is what a fourm is for.. and is the proper way to get your post count up vs just spamming nonsense. If he didn't post that one line you guys wouldnt be triggered and his thread could stay ontopic.

Pendragon, half your stuff just seems like your going for post count anyways.. not every thread needs a screenshot of the "Google this" button, a claim it's in the wrong subfouum, or a less then relevant response like "why".
 
It would be interesting to see pcbs designed with a focus on aesthetic. I would also enjoy diving farther into pcb design cad software as all my breadboards have been handmade thus far.

When you say vector art are you talking about illuminated led stripes representing amplitude vectors of various frequencies? That seems to be commonly done as a project with an arduino. What microcontroller does the synth use? I've been curious to try and make a fpga based synth but have minimal music background.
 
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cdabc123 said:
Geez just looks like a member posting about their hobby. That's is what a fourm is for.. and is the proper way to get your post count up vs just spamming nonsense. If he didn't post that one line you guys wouldnt be triggered and his thread could stay ontopic.

Pendragon, half your stuff just seems like your going for post count anyways.. not every thread needs a screenshot of the "Google this" button, a claim it's in the wrong subfouum, or a less then relevant response like "why".
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GoldenTiger said:
He just said he's spamming to participate in FSFT :rolleyes:.
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It's not spam it's a post about his hobby that it appears he has interest in replying to. Also say a old member lost their account and want to get back into participating in this community including the decent fs section. Why is it wrong for them to actively try and post more.

He's not the one spamming in this thread
 
cdabc123 said:
It's not spam it's a post about his hobby that it appears he has interest in replying to. Also say a old member lost their account and want to get back into participating in this community including the decent fs section. Why is it wrong for them to actively try and post more.

He's not the one spamming in this thread
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Then he could contact an admin for help, or let time take its course and the posts arrive when they arrive. He specifically said he's trying to post a ton of stuff. That's shady sounding to a lot of people *shrug*. It's not the right way to go about it as michalrz said.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Then he could contact an admin for help, or let time take its course and the posts arrive when they arrive. He specifically said he's trying to post a ton of stuff. That's shady sounding to a lot of people *shrug*. It's not the right way to go about it as michalrz said.
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He's not posting a ton of stuff. Look at the posts, they are all thought out, fairly lengthy, and relevant to the topics. 100 simular posts and he would certainly be activly contributing to the conversations on this forum. That is much different then when people come here and spam posts to get access.
 
cdabc123 said:
He's not posting a ton of stuff. Look at the posts, they are all thought out, fairly lengthy, and relevant to the topics. 100 simular posts and he would certainly be activly contributing to the conversations on this forum. That is much different then when people come here and spam posts to get access.
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What he's doing isn't the same as what he said he would ;) which is why people had reacted poorly, including myself.
 
oops, kicked a hornet's nest LOL -- I want to participate in FS/FT boards because I wanna buy good used hardware at reasonable prices from knowledgeable people :p Luckily, I "profile messaged" (whatever that is) a user with something I wanted and they PM'd *me* and I just got the stuff and it works GREAT

Maybe I should contact the admins -- good point. And yeah, it's challenging to find posts to legitimately participate in when my interests and knowledge have strayed away from overclocking and system building. I'm still capable, fortunately (my kid's installing all the softwares on his new-to-us Ryzen 7 system).


Heh -- I love designing and building synth modules, but I'm famous in my small corner of the internet for being *HARD* to buy stuff from. I need to be hassled (possibly on multiple platforms) before I will sell you a mixer (what this post is about) or filter or drum voice or sequencer.... so don't worry, I'm not gonna spam anybody about buying my synth modules
 
cdabc123 said:
It would be interesting to see pcbs designed with a focus on aesthetic. I would also enjoy diving farther into pcb design cad software as all my breadboards have been handmade thus far.

When you say vector art are you talking about illuminated led stripes representing amplitude vectors of various frequencies? That seems to be commonly done as a project with an arduino. What microcontroller does the synth use? I've been curious to try and make a fpga based synth but have minimal music background.
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Sometimes an aesthetically designed PCB is actually functionally better, but sometimes not. With analog electronics, trace length and resistor placement and grounding are all VERY important, and sometimes a nice straight symmetrical layout works within those constraints, sometimes not. Digital high-frequency PCB design is something else entirely, and all those wandering traces with length-equalizing squiggles are something I do NOT understand well but for my 20KHz-and-lower purposed, it doesn't matter.

I do enjoy using vias as a design feature sometimes. And I've just stopped using 45 degree bends in my routing, so my PCBs do have more bendy traces now... if you just wanna dip your toes into the EDA scene, try EasyEDA. Runs in a browser, requires so setup, and while there's a learning curve and there's always a glitch or two, it's pretty amazing for my purposes.

I would LOVE to make a color organ or hystogram-style module -- I've used addressable LEDs with Arduinos, and one of my collab projects has a primitive oscilloscope (AVR128DA plus monochrome OLED)

FPGA chips are another total mystery to me. My sequencer-based modules use the Arduino platform (Nano) and my audio projects use AtMega's newer AVR128DA processor which is *so easy to design for* (requires just the chip, some caps, and pin headers for programming and BAM, complete microcontroller) and I'm learning to code for them. They're just barely fast enough to do basic 10-bit digital signal processing, but the onboard ADC and DAC are nevery gonna be all that great.

I've heard people talking about FPGA synths, and with the power/flexibility you can get out of those, yeah, it's a great thing to pursue
 
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