Sasha

Jason, will you be offering other colors of button knobs or just black? I think gray ones would be nice contrast to black panel.

That is pretty common knob and you don`t have to sand anything off as there are clear caps in various colors.

Yes, I know all about Mouser, but as far as I know shipping is not expensive just to non EU countries, it is expensive to Europe. The cost of my buttons depends of many things. I`m not sure have you checked my flikr set for all of test versions I`ve tried by now. Here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fibra/sets/72157604779953384/ Check it out and tell me what kind of button would you like and also the size, material thickness and quantity. I might can cut/engrave you the panel too if you need it. You better send me as detailed drawings as possible and I can check with my laserman about the costs. You should decrease the resistor value to maybe 75R. Do some experimentation. I don`t see why you can`t continue with schematic as you don`t know resistor value.

I didn`t know it is famous, especially among the guitarists, but I really like how it sounds. Having it available for external audio would be just great! :D There are some converters available but I cannot afford it. I expect reeds and MB would be cheaper way. I just need to figure out how to hook the 16 reed relays and emulate the matrix instead of having 61 relay :o I know button/LED matrix is the answer but I`m really far from ability to customize the code for my needs. I must relay on ready made MB solutions. I was thinking of stealing the D0-D7 signal across the diodes and join it to one connection that is connected to the 9th relay so for each register relay activated in pair to the individual outputs. I have to do some tests to know is it plausible. It must sounds funny to you programmers I`m trying this way. :-[ Not with Juno. I`ll make shorter version of master keyboard out of it. Probably 3 octaves as I have some damaged keys and contacts to have full, 5 octaves version. I really like the keyboard! Yes, that would be great, but I guess I have to go the harder and more expensive way. Those reed relays arn`t very cheap, but MOS photo relays sneakthief used for his Jen SX1000 are also pretty expensife as you really need it a lot. :( Thanks for the offer but I wan`t be need it as I wan`t be needing DCB port itself. I know, so that is why I cautious. I dont have to touch the keys anway. I just spray it, shake it and left still for some time and that wash it out using shower.

quoting myself from flikr

Mike, If I can restore it to the original shape for cheap I would, but it is pretty damaged. I hope I`ll have some decent housing results worth Juno-60. What kind of input are you talking about? MIDI. I know DCB is kind of MIDI but I don`t believe I could just hook up MIDI to it. If you have any tip how to MIDIfi it cheaper (I`m going with reed relays) I would be grateful. In what condition is your Juno? If you need some cosmetics or button domes, I could send you for free. Here is what I`ve got... volume knob is damaged, rest is pretty fine. I cleaned it all. This offer worth for the other too. ;)

History repeating... as don`t have all the parts to finish my almost finished 9090. I`ve decided to put some attention to my dust gathering Juno-60. I bought it from a Gypsy on a local flea market long time ago in not so perfect shape. Until few days ago it was gathering dust in my basement. There were mising some slider knobs, button caps, few keys are burned with cigarette, few key contacts and pots are busted too... a list goes on. The metal part of casing is rusty, and wooden cheeks are damaged, so not much of it`s outer beauty left, but it`s soul is fine. As I`m not a keyboard player but midiboxer, I couldn`t accept gear I cannot control externally with MIDI, so my old plan was to MIDI-fy it and to give it a new body. This is how it looked when I got it. On this picture it don`t look so bad. :) As it was in basement for a some time it gathers a dust even more than it was, so I thought only way out is blowing it with compressor. I really expected better results, but it is covered in some mixture of dust, dirt and everything else... so blowing it didn`t gave expected results. You can see main board in all it`s shine and glory. :P I was surprised that control surface boards looks much better. This picture I took after dusting. As already mentioned this synth I bought from Gypsy, and Gypsies music has a lot of "bending". This is the result of hard core usage. I conclude this Gypsy has very sweaty hands. :P Before I dismantled it I tried it for a last time to make sure it still works. Juno-60 has 3 big boards. 2 CS PCBs and one main board. Main board is widest of all and it will direct me the width of the synth. I`m planing to mount the boards on the separate shelves one of top of other to make this synth as compact as possible. This is left control surface board. I decided it would be much cheaper to use roto pots instead of sliders. Sliders are also harder to get for me locally. These old PCBs are really fragile. I didn`t wanted to damage the traces trying to desolder the mechanical parts, so I cut the leads off. I left switches alone as they don`t make any connection when depressed so I can just solder the wires in parallel to them. This I/O board looks pretty dirty too, so I`ll probably make another one or mount the those jacks to back panel. I don`t have any service manual nor schematic for Juno, so I needed to lable the connections so I can put it back again. This keyboard is pretty nice. The keys are big and have nice feeling. I`m not planing to keep integrated keyboard. I will probably shorten it to just 3 octaves and use the rest of keys to replace those burned by cigarette. This keyboard will be connected to MIDIO128 and become nice master keyboard. :) It is connected as 8x8 matrix. I suppose all keyboards are connected that way.

Mike, thanks for an answer and pictures. I must admit I`ve never seen that tools. I know about and own just 2 types of wire strippers and I don`t like any of them. First one is this tool. Nice one, but not good for very thin wires. and this is the second stripper I know about. Not comfortable to work with, especially with thicker wires. I must search for some examples of using your tools to strip and wrap the wire so nicely. @ titled you must be smoked a lot of 6 wrap joints. :D

Stryd, original - Re`an knobs are but this is Multicomp, so I can`t be sure. the datasheet says plastic, but it isn`t specified are they hard or soft. EDIT: the datasheet gives not much info, but I find on the Farnel product page it says ABS, so they are definitely hard :( @rvooh You can`t expect to find all knobs you see on commercial gear in open sale. Some of them are made especially for specific piece of hardware. I don`t remember I`ve seen somewhere this CME knob for sale and obtaining it from manufacturer as a replacement part can be hard or more expensive. I`m always in hunt for nice knobs.

Molim, i drugi put. ;) Thank you. Which rubber buttons? You wanted to use some commercial gear replacement part like the ones from Electribe or something? I wanted to have rubbery buttons myself for a long time but I as I still don`t have good and cheap screen printing service at hand I rather use laser to cut and engrave custom text on acrylic. I could do it. NP

Heheh, it must be something like that. Good thing I quit on time. :)

I`m not sure why every knob manufacturer don`t offer all their knobs in version without pointer. AFAIK from known manufacturers only Re`an do it, but still, it is very difficult to get all their knobs variations in small quantity. I personally like their P670 model very much. It has so many advantages... it is soft touch, small diameter, small height, It has skirt that covers the nut, comes in variety of colors and it is cheap! :) Meny DIY people and commercial manufacturers use it for their units. But, they don`t offer a version without pointer. :( Recently I find on Farnell knob that seams exact clone of this Re`an knob, It is made by Multicomp and it has pointer-less version. :) But... there is always "but" datasheet says it is made out of plastics, so they are probably not soft touch. Here is the bad quality picture from Farnell datasheet: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/105152.pdf direct link at Farnell: http://uk.farnell.com/multicomp/cr-bab-6-d/knob-15-7mm-black-no-line/dp/1441143?_requestid=87898 Also, Re`an`s 10mm wide, soft touch P675 is perfect when dense packing is necessary.

Hahah, that is a cool trick. I love it! Is it common technique for stencils or you invented it? Have you got some pictures? @primate For panel illuminated you better search the ebay for some low profile wide angle super-bright LEDs. I get some very good low profile 5mm LEDs from China. Here is how it looks: And, here is the seller: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Wellton-Superbright-Led-Store To illuminate your ableton style circle around the knob you need minimum 3 wide angle LEDs. But, the area of illumination depends also of how far the led is from panel. Thickness of material isn`t very important, but the color is. If you are laser engraving you can use clear acrylic as the laser will diffuse the etched area, but if you are using some transparent film you will need to add some diffusion material under it. I did some tests with various acrylic and I find best is to use non colored icey acrylic as it can be illuminated with any color LED. Here it how it looks: Hope this helps.

Mike, nice soldering. :) How do you usually strip that wires? I`m sick just to think of doing it ...so boring. I used to strip the thin wires with teethe for ages when I was a kid, until I get myself thinking that I better start using some tools, even stripping it with teeth was much faster. I could easily feel the length of the piece that will be stripped by touching it with the tip of my tongue. Very fast and accurate way of wire stripping, but I still wouldn`t recommend it. Ofcourse I have never cut wires with teeth :P

It look more like art installation than real PCB. :)

OOps. I thought I did. Here it is: http://www.hanssummers.com/computers/newz80/

Check out this insane PCB wiring. :o

Agree. That is very valid argument, often prioritized over functionality. What can I say... I left my MBSEQ in final stage after TK released duo-color BLM. I just wanted to have it, more because it looks cool. It is not that I really need it. :P

Even I like how the displays look in center of sequencer, if I was you, I would always position display at top, so you never block the sight with your hands.

Very nice. And pretty fast! :)

When hotlinking from flickr you have to took out ?v=0 from the end of the link, and by using tags [img]your image URL[/img] you can embed the picture. Also, it is good idea if you post link for bigger images or link to your flickr account. ;)

I know it is not a final job, but for a dirty testing environment it is pretty well built. Honestly. I love how you mount everything together. Even for testing it is good idea to put some more effort as you did to avoid braking off some wires and short circuits.

Here is how I did it. This is the test. I have some finished rings. I`ll post the pictures when I back home. EDIT: This is what I did. I sprayed one side of transparent acrylic sheet with layer of primer and several layers of black paint than laser etched and cut the rings. Doing it with film makes not much sense as you are already using machine for cutting. Why not to engrave it when it is already in place? ;)

That would be great Seppo. I don`t believe I could get NG soon. @ cimo Good, dirty work mate.