SammichSID - review and pictue gallery

[NickDelios]

Good evening all,

Embarrassingly, I made my first post on the boards asking a question which amounted to 'RTFM'. I'm pleased to say that after kicking myself in the shin, I quickly completed the sammichSID and I'd like to take a moment to spew off about the sammichSID as a 'kit as well as spam some images.

sammichSID is only the second kit I've completed, the first being a Speak and Spell MIDI-KIT from HighlyLiquid. It's also something of a dream to me, as I've wanted to delve into a MidiBox project but always found it a daunting idea. After seeing a post about the project on Matrixsynth, I jumped and sent an email asking to be included in the next batch of orders. A few weeks later, a package crossed the Pacific island to be delivered by Santa to my workbench.

I mounted the base PCB in my PCB holder and started planting resistors and IC sockets immediately. As soon as the sockets for the PIC and SID's were in place, I really felt like I was making progress. After reading the warnings on spacing the back panel items, I let out a sigh of relief when mine lined up satisfactory.

Moving on to the control surface PCB, I originally dreaded doing the LED's. the bold-faced warnings for solder timing had me a bit on edge - I've worked with LED's before and dreaded damaging a single one. But like everything else in the kit, it went together wonderfully. I eagerly moved on to do a volt test, and came out very relieved when every joint passed. Taking note of the advice of installing the bank-sticks and SIDs after, I waited until my girlfriend came over so we could both watch the Sammich come to life.

After the slight hiccup in progress that was my first post (ugh), I almost hit my head on the ceiling from jumping with excitement when I was able to get the sammichSID to show response to MIDI-IN.

Eagerly dumping in the v2 rc34 firmware, installing the bank sticks, adding patches and subsequently installing SIDs was a breeze. Within mere minutes I had a functional sammichSID grasped between the arms of my PCB holder just spewing out wonderful sounds.

Which brings me to a compliment for the case, and the whole design really - it's wonderful. As of right now, I haven't yet painted over the labels or removed any of the backing tape, but the way everything fits together is gorgeous. I can't wait to paint the labels, remove the backing tape and welcome a sexier sammichSID into 2010.

Wilba, you produced a wonderful kit. For newbies like myself, it's a great entry point into the world of MidiBox. Your documentation and design is fantastic and the end result is beautiful and well worth the money.

Thank you,

Erik Tinberg

[Nasrudin]

Nice Gloves! ;-)

[Wilba]

Thanks for the glowing review (and the lol for the gloves)!

[NickDelios]

Thanks for the glowing review (and the lol for the gloves)!

Wilba, thank you for making such a fantastic kit. :thumbsup:

Anyhow, here are images of it after painting and mulling about. I only with the color turned out a bit more defined. I know a lad on here did post about some method of panel detailing that involved a syringe and melted plastic (I think). Eh?

Oh, and I hope to do a brief review of the thing on YouTube in the next week or something. Cheers!

[Wilba]

It's good to see people are doing nice paint jobs, better than mine... I was worried that people would have trouble with this.

You can touch-up the paint quite easily with a very fine brush (size 000 or smaller?) and then scraping away the dried excess with a craft knife, the matte surface doesn't get marked with light scraping, but it will get scratched by a knife point, so be careful.

[Labelwhore]

haha I thought about painting the logo on my Sammich exactly like you did yours. In the end though I just did the whole sandwich in red and the lettering in white.

Edited January 6, 2010 by Labelwhore