Skip to main content

Mutable Instruments Ripples Clone -- My First SMD Project

SMD Soldering for Real!

As I mentioned in my earlier post I'm currently trying to learn SMD soldering. After successfully completing two dummy practice boards it was time to try a real project. I had ordered four Mutable Instruments clone boards from https://www.amazingsynth.com/ and Ripples was the easiest so it became the first victim.

Sourcing the Components

Sourcing SMD parts is all new to me. Capacitors have all kinds of weird material codes, resistors have unfamiliar wattages etc. Luckily amazingsynth.com provides mouser BOMs so you get almost all parts to the shopping cart with a click or two. I will eventually get familiar with SMD parts but at this stage I'd rather not add any more difficulty to the build by ordering wrong components. 

Unfortunately potentiometers are not included and jacks need to be ordered elsewhere. I happened to have plenty of thonkiconn jacks from Thonk and also some potentiometers. Unfortunately it later turned out that they were not suitable for the pcb and I had to order new ones in my next Mouser order. I considered getting the exact Alpha pots specified in the original BOM but ended up with these from mouser: https://www.mouser.fi/ProductDetail/858-P0915N-FC15BR10K They seem to fit perfectly and are a bit cheaper than Alphas.

Soldering

There's not much to tell about the actual soldering. It got easier and easier after every solder joint and in the end of the project the quality started to look much better. I learned how to make sure resistors sit nicely against the PCB etc. Somewhat surprisingly the most difficult components for me were not the tiny resistors but the big SMD electrolytic capacitors. Somehow I managed to get those in place too. More practice needed!
My first real project with 0603 SMD components. Most of the passive components in place.

Pretty much all SMD components soldered. Electrolytic capacitors were the most difficult for me.

Trying the panel on.

First test. I'm so proud everything worked immediately!

There were some rough edges in the aluminium panel. Made it smooth with a file.

Took the easy route with panel markings. Dymo labels and good old green potentiometer knobs.

Yet Another Filter?

I'm not sure how much I will use this module as I already have many filters. My main motivation for getting this was the easy SMD build. I do like the sound of this module and especially the fact that loudness doesn't drop when resonance goes up. For example the classic Moog filter in my Mother32 synth does that pretty heavily. Ripples also has VCA built in so this would be really convenient for a small Eurorack setup. Unfortunately my focus is on building a massive studio sized modular synth so space is not a major concern.

I'm looking forward to building the rest of the Mutable Instruments boards I ordered. I can warmly recommend these for learning SMD soldering. And they are brilliant sounding modules too!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waldorf Blofeld Encoder Fix

Waldorf Blofeld is amazing little digital synth with almost endless possibilities. Unfortunately the rotary encoders seem to start skipping and failing sooner or later. After couple of years of light use my unit started failing too and it became very annoying to use.  First Try I first tried to open one encoder and clean it from inside. It worked ok but these components aren't really meant to be opened and closed again and I never managed to put it back together properly. Encoder shaft was loose and wobbly and it would have failed again soon because the encoder wasn't tightly closed. Proper Fix Luckily it's possible to fix it properly as long as you know how to solder. Current price for the full set of encoders is less than 7 euros. I ordered new Bourns encoders from Mouser: 1 pcs of  https://www.mouser.fi/ProductDetail/652-PEC16-4220FN0024  for the main encoder, this one has detents so it "clicks" when you turn it. 6 pcs of  https://www.mouser.fi/ProductDetail/65...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunday Soldering: Akai Rhythm Wolf Drum Machine modifications

Sunday Soldering: Akai Rhythm Wolf Drum Machine modifications Akai Rhythm wolf is a cheap analog drum machine. It has a nice old school lo-fi sound but unfortunately Akai left out some quite useful features from the standard setup. Today I decided to modify my unit to better suit my needs. Here are the added mods: Added a resistor to the outer legs of the 'Howl' pot to make the range more useful. By default it's pretty much a switch between clean and a completely destroyed signal. I used 33k. Probably even smaller value would do. Added 3.5mm individual output jacks for all drums. The PCB has nicely marked spots where the individual signals are available but it's actually easier to take them from the volume potentiometers directly. The middle leg gives the signal after the potentiometer so volume also affects the individual outputs. It might have been a better idea to take it before the pot so that it would be possible to silence the signal from the main ...
1 comment
Read more

Uraltone Mixer and Spring Reverb (and some synth literature...)

DIY kits and literature Bjooks and DIY kits Every now and then I had seen pictures of the beautiful and super interesting Push Turn Move book by Kim Bjørn:  https://www.pushturnmove.com/ . Unfortunately it's not available as an eBook and the price has been too high for me because of the shipping costs. Some time ago Bjørn launched the Kickstarter campaign for his third book Pedal Crush . All the buzz it generated in social media led me once again to the Push Turn Move web page. This time I was delighted to find our local DIY music electronics store Uraltone in the reseller list. Of course I had to buy both of the already published "Bjooks" immediately and while at it I decided to buy some Uraltone eurorack DIY kits too. I have wanted a spring reverb since the days I got my first electric guitar and another mixer in my eurorack wouldn't harm. After a short bike ride to Uraltone I had my back bag full of reading and soldering! Support your local! Uralkit Spring...
Post a Comment
Read more