Nanogris big BOM mistake. Update for better range on Pots

If you have a Nanogris please update your boards. R31 needs to be replaced to 10k value. This resistor was wrongfully marked as a 100k value in the BOM. Thanks to Erik Mast for noticing and reporting it.

Resistor R31 is the same as R8 from the original schematics (bottom-right). It will calculate the reference voltage for the potentiometers. Replacing R31 only to 10k will give the pots the range they where intended with by Mutable Instruments.

This fix will result in:

  • max value on the speed pot. making it run more smoothly/slower. (better range)
  • potentiometers in the settings menu work


Bom for v041 has been updated

Store stock levels, Nanogris kits maybe?

I have been monitoring the store stock levels lately. As seen in my previous post my attention went towards my health. I have been sending out orders twice a week. But some products have run out of stock without me noticing.

The littleben kits have been order last week and did came in. The Nanogris 0.041 version run out, these have been ordered at the suplier. But it can take a few days/week for them to arrive.

If you do want a Nanogris the older version are in stock (only full black panels). The circle panels white and black have been ordered. The 0.041 version can be ordered but shipping will take place when they arrive from the supplier.

When I find the time I’ll will be putting up Nanogris kit’s also. full kits with all the part and some basic kit with the hard to get parts. I have to do some calculations on the prices but if you can not wait drop me a email and maybe we can work something out.

Some personal heath issues

Last year I had a hearth attack. Lucky I survived. Afterwards I had to do a lot of live changing things, eating better, stopped smoking and going to the gym. I’m felling better now but still not where I want to be.

I don’t sit behind my computer that much lately, time fly’s by and and I can’t keep up. So sorry if emails are responded a bit late. I hope to get back into the site and responding emails a bit quicker this year. But I’m taking my time to slowly getting there.

Prices for the Littleben kit, everything is getting more expensive.

When ordering new parts my purchase prices went up a bit. I had to make some adjustments to the prices in the shop. The pcb’s of all modules are still available for the normal/old prices as always. But when ordering new pcb’s I will have to do the calculations on them too, they might go up a bit also. For now only the kit price for LittleBen went up a bit. These worldwide chip demand are effecting the market. Sorry if you where looking for a Littleben kit and now face an increase in price (about 7 euro for the full kit extra).

Using Arduino’s with Kicad, the troubles and solutions (BOM, of LittleBen and NanoGris)

It happens a few times when I sell one of the Nanogris or Littleben’s I get some questions about the Arduino’s. Sometimes these questions are easy to answer and are understandable because I made a small mistake. Quite often these mistake have there origin with Kicad footprints. I am working with Kicad 6 now and have to check if the Arduino’s are all there in the library. Both modules where made with Kicad 5 and I had to download some footprints from the internet. I could have made these footprints myself but as there where available I got a bit lazy. That resulted in some unclear BOM’s. I work quite a lot with Arduino’s uploading code and error’s and warnings are easy fixes for me. Not everyone does work with these modules daily. So here are a few tip’s, explanations and trick for working with Arduino’s, Littleben and Nanogris.

Continue reading “Using Arduino’s with Kicad, the troubles and solutions (BOM, of LittleBen and NanoGris)”

Untamed the filter in the shop

A friend of mine send me a pcb for a 3350 Chip filter. This filter was based on the digisound 80-16. I was the start for me getting into a search for 3350 filters. This chip is used in the Sytron Syrinx and I really like the sound of it from what I could find. There isn’t much info on this chip and old filters that use it. But I did find someone that took the datasheet schematic and used it in his synth. PolyKit made a 8 voiced synth called the polykit-6 (check out his YouTube and GitHub).

I used his schematic as a base for the Untamed (with permission). Basically Untamed is the schematic from the datasheet of the AS3350 chip, with controls and a eurorack panel. It has it’s quirks but also a unique sound. I called this Untamed cause of the little quirks and raw sound that make it unique. I don’t think it tracks 1v/octave but it sounds awesome.

I would like to thank Polykit for his generosity and putting his work online. I will put the schematics up for everybody to look at. To comment on for further improvements and maybe come to a new module that is a bit more Tamed. The files for the pcb’s to order your own will be released after 10 sales.

https://www.quinie.nl/product/untamed/

Sample and Hold. First batch of dual YASH came in, testing it.

I didn’t have any sample and hold module in my rack. At first I didn’t think I needed one. But seeing a few video’s of what you could do with them I just wanted to have one. A sample and hold basically takes a voltage and when triggered it send the voltages to the output and keeps it at that level until next trigger,in theory. But being in a analog realm the capacitors used to keep the level at the output steady lose there voltage slowly and the voltage keeps dropping. This can be overcome making a digital sample and hold or just to use a quantizer and hope the next trigger will come before the next note is quantized. In practice the last option fits most purposes. So I decided to build a analog sample and hold.

Continue reading “Sample and Hold. First batch of dual YASH came in, testing it.”

Untamed.. Something new, a filter prototype

I have been working on a filter design. The design is based on a new version of the cem3350 chip. The cem3350 was used in the Synton Syrinx, Rhodes Chroma and a few more synths. It hasn’t been used that much and the chip is somewhat of a niche filter. This chip is in production again by Alfa as the AS3350. That gives opportunities to design a filter based on this chip. The design isn’t complete yet but the pcb’s came in yesterday, so I was able to do some testing. Found out that the cutoff knob is reversed on prototype. I have been testing it together with the reverb I’ve posted about last week, to give you all a bit of a teaser of what’s to come.

The patch is Braids “VOWL” into the filter to the Reverb.