Custom Half-width Buchla Modules

I was asked to design and build a pair of custom half-width Buchla modules for some clients. They each had two half-width slots spare in their custom built cases and wanted to fill the spaces with Euro to Buchla CV and gate translator modules.


The brief was simple (and the same for both clients): 5 channels of 1V/oct to 1.2V/oct CV translation and 5 channels of gate boosting to Buchla levels; the Buchla stepped pulse was not required, just big pulses (10V or more).

This was a great opportunity to use the Synovatron Proto range of prototyping boards which accomodate 5 channels and offer stackability if more circuitry is required than will fit on one board; see below.

The Proto range of boards

As the Proto boards are designed primarily for Euro there was space on the 4U Buchla front panels to add some extras in the form of a passive attenuator. Here are the front panel designs that we agreed on:-

CV and Gate modules

To keep costs down it was decided not to have panel marking as the functions are obvious.

The CV module design used a straightforward precision amplifier with gain of 1.2000 (yes that accurate), 1M Ohm input and 0 Ohm output impedances. The gate module used comparators and output and LED drivers. The outputs each have diodes in series allowing them to be wire-ORed by just connecting outputs together (common to Buchla, wish it was used on Euro).

The CV module electronics fitted nicely on a ProtoJax board with plenty of space as you can see:-

For the gate module I decided to put the input comparators and sockets on the ProtoJax board and output buffers and LEDs on the ProtoXp board and stack them together (it  probably could all have been put on one board but it was simpler to make use of the space). The stacked ProtoJax and ProtoXp boards can be seen here:-

The gate board was powered from an MTA connector and the CV board took its power from the gate module (hence the 10-pin ribbon headers for a linking ribbon cable); this was at the client's request as they only had one spare connector (these are very low current modules and daisy chaining them didn't cause any crosstalk issues). 

The finished panels looked pretty good; they were made by Schaeffer using Front Panel Designer http://www.schaeffer-ag.de/en/front_panel_designer/the_idea/.

  
If you are interested in the Proto range of PCBs or in having a custom module built then please contact me at synovatron@btinternet.com

Eurorack DIY Prototyping Cards Rethink

Post updated 3rd July 2018

The Synovatron Eurorack DIY Kits have now been discontinued. Because many of the kit components are easily available from online retailers it made sense that Synovatron just provides the unique (e.g. PCBs) and harder to source parts (e.g. pot brackets). This provided a great opportunity to reassess the PCB designs rather than just reorder more of the same.

What has emerged is a revised and rebranded Eurorack prototyping solution that is more usable and more elegant than before. The revised product revolves around three PCBs in the Synovatron Proto series: ProtoPotz, ProtoJax and ProtoXp. 

The new Proto PCBs' holes line up with each other to allow each board to be stacked one on the other using header plugs and sockets; allowing power and signals to be routed between boards without resorting to linking ribbon cables. Here is an example board stack-up:

ProtoJax, ProtoPotz and ProtoXp boards stacked together

Examples of headers and sockets used to stack the boards

ProtoPotz

ProtoPotz is the direct replacement for DIY1 PCB (as used in DIY Kit 1 and DIY Kit 2). It is designed to hold up to five 16mm P160KN series pots using brackets. What's new about it?

• Plated-through holes for robustness and convenience, essentially it's a double-sided PCB. 
• Better supports the A-100 bus with dedicated positions for 10 or 16-way open or boxed headers, small electrolytic capacitors and protection diodes (to protect against reverse power connection.

ProtoPotz pot breadboard PCB

Here is the range of pots available from Mouser that Synovatron recommends for use with ProtoPotz:-

ProtoJax

ProtoJax is an evolution of DIY2 and DIY3 PCBs. It is designed to hold up to five Cliff CL1384 3.5mm mono jacks. It is almost identical to ProtoPotz except it has footprints for jacks instead of pots and another two rows of breadboard holes. What makes it more advanced than DIY2 and DIY3 pcbs?

• Larger breadboarding area. 
• Supports the A-100 bus similar to ProtoPotz.

ProtoJax jack breadboard PCB

ProtoXp

ProtoXp is a completely new PCB. It is an eXpansion board designed to add more breadboarding area to ProtoPotz or ProtoJax boards. It's features are:-

• It has a cutout that allows the A-100 bus ribbon cable connector to fit without fouling on the ProtoXp board. 
• The same ±12V power bus structure as the ProtoPotz or ProtoJax boards.

ProtoXp expansion breadboard PCB

DIY2 jack breadboard PCB

 

DIY3 jack breadboard PCB

Another custom built Euro to Buchla Translator module

I was recently commissioned by a client to build a custom Euro Buchla interface module, similar to the two I previously built, but with offset switching. The previous two designs both had fixed offset and gain and were intended for use with envelopes, LFOs etc. In other words there was no 1V/octave to 1.2V/octave scaling required just offsetting to ensure the Euro signals stayed in the 0-10V range of the Buchla (you can refer back to my earlier post here).

This module is intended to be used alongside my client's CVGT1 module (which provides the ground reference connection) and adds more CV channels. My client uses Expert Sleepers' SilentWay software for pitch sensitive CV and was not interested in scale conversion as the software does the necessary recalibration however he also wanted the flexibility to be able to interface envelopes, transients and LFOs and so wanted to be able to DC shift signals when he needed to.

The spec was 4 channels of Euro to Buchla (scale of 1, 0V or +5V offset) and 1 channel of Buchla to Euro (scale of 1, 0V or -5V offset); so 10 connectors a 5 switches in 8HP.  

My 8HP prototyping panels proved to be difficult as the existing hole positions meant that the connectors and switches would have been too close to each other plus I only had a few left and found they were scratched; they got binned. I used Schaeffer for a quick-turnaround panel; not cheap but very well made. In a moment of madness I got 5 panels made, including engraving (which the original 2 modules didn't have).

Euro to Buchla CV Interface Module

I was commissioned by a client to design and build an interface module that allowed his Euro synth to modulate his Buchla synth and vice-versa.

Format Jumbler?

Euro uses 3.5mm mini jack sockets and Buchla uses 4mm banana sockets (which are colour coded). However this design is not just a 'format jumbler' because aside from the connector differences the signal ranges are different.  Buchla uses CV signals in the range of 0V to +10V and Euro uses nominally ±5V (well actually anywhere between -11ish Volts to +11ish Volts).  My client wanted 4 channels of Euro to Buchla and 1 channel of Buchla to Euro. 

Design Spec

The design spec I settled on was ±5V in (Euro) gives 0V to +10V out (Buchla) on channels 1 to 4 and 0V to +10V in (Buchla) gives ±5V out (Euro) on channel 5. As you can see the inputs and outputs both have 10V swings and so a gain of 1 is required but with a 5V offset (-5V one way and +5V the other). The input impedance of 100k and output impedance of 1k was used as it's fairly standard.  I used clamping diodes on the Buchla outputs so that an input more negative than -5V didn't cause a negative output to the Buchla. Because there might not be a common ground reference between the two synths a GND socket was also added to the design. Note that Buchla colour coding uses black for CV outputs and ground connections, blue for CV inputs.

Implementation

As the job was for just one module I used one of my standard 8HP front panels (order code 8HPP) and a new DIY prototyping PCB (order code DIY3) to build the design onto. 

The 8HPP front panel has 10 3mm pilot holes which had to be opened out to fit the 4mm and 3.5mm sockets plus a new hole for the GND socket. I settled on the position for the GND socket equidistant between the four lowest connectors really just for best spacing; I looked at putting it below the lowest two connectors but decided (incorrectly) that there would be not enough space to get fingers in and also avoid the mounting rail.

8HPJ (left) and 8HPP (right) Front Panels

The DIY3 is a bigger version of the DIY2 prototyping board and allows more complex circuitry to be realised due to the larger breadboarding area, power rail support for op-amps and A-100 Bus support (it is effectively a hybrid between DIY1 and DIY2 boards). The idea behind DIY3 was to be able to do more with jack-socket only designs such as buffered mults and attenuators, amplifiers, logic and gate/trigger circuits etc.

DIY3 Prototyping Board

The First Module

Here is the first module which I'm pleased with. It showcases the DIY prototyping board's capability nicely. The client was happy too.

The Second Module

On the back of the first order another client expressed an interest in the same functionality but preferred the GND socket to go below the lower two connectors. There was enough room to clear the mounting rail but pushes it closer to the channel 5 connectors than is ideal but still looks ok.

Further Modules?

I have another two expressions of interest for these modules especially if they were production rather than prototype versions. One suggestion was for front panel graphics to be added using the same font/style as Buchla which I like the idea of. Another thought is that not just CV translation is useful, gate/trigger translation would be useful too (as they are not compatible between the two 'standards'). I could also provide these as very basic kits (all the bits you need, a circuit diagram and a layout pattern). If I can get a few more interested parties to make it viable I would consider a small production run with purpose designed PCBs and a screen printed front panel. So if there is any interest out there please make your thoughts known to me.

New file hosting for Synovatron Downloadable Documents

The latest Synovatron documents can be downloaded from these links following difficulties some people had with the Google Docs links.

CV Tools Build Info Rev 3

The build info gives you a good idea of what is entailed in building the kit. Further build info (schematics and items list) is available when you place an order for the kit.

CV Tools User Manual Rev 1.5

ASM2DB Adaptor Fitting Instructions Rev 1

DIY Prototyping Kit Data Pack Rev 3

Please contact me if you have any problems downloading files.