SN Voice PC Board Ordering

State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:58 am Post subject: SN Voice PC Board Ordering

Ordering has begun for SN Voice PC Boards for deliveries by the beginning of March, 2013.

Documentation is found here:
http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-53420.html

Extra great information Here:
http://www.birthofasynth.com/Thomas_Henry/Pages/SN-Voice_main.html

Price: $20.00 USD

Please add:

Shipping in the US $5.00 USD
International Shipping is $10.00 USD and $1.00 each additional board

My sincere apologies for hiking the price of shipping but the USPS have literally doubled their rates since January 27, 2013.

Paypal payments can be sent to: billnrob@optonline.net

Need a ready made front panel for your SN Voice? Then head on over to Bridechamber:

http://www.bridechamber.com/SN_Voice.html

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MuBase

Hiya Bill. Nice to see SN voice PCBs are back. I absolutely adore mine and i really appreciate all the help you gave me last year. Smile

Right now I am actually in the process of giving my SN voice a bt of an overhaul. For some reason the SN76477 chip (sdip type) has started popping out of the socket so I've got to find some way of securing it. My partner and I want to use it as part of a performance at her parents Golden Wedding celebrations next month . :S Sn voice gets around!
All the best & kind regards,
Steve.

State Machine · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 5:11 am Post subject:

Thanks Steve ! Appreciate the kind words. Is your SN Voice subjected to any vibration or temperature extremes? One thing you could try is pulling the chip, spreading the pins a bit to create some side force to hold it in place. You can even use thermal adhesive on the bottom of the chip to hold it down onto the PCB.

Alternatively, it's rare the chip will fail, just solder it in place OR replace the socket in the chance that it is defective (also rare).

Thanks again
Bill

wmonk · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:12 am Post subject:

If you don't have a SN Voice, get one! It's one of the coolest modules around. Very Happy

Do I need a 2nd one? Rolling Eyes

roglok · Joined: Aug 28, 2010 Posts: 124 Location: uptown

Just ordered a PCB! thumb up

Does anybody in Europe want to trade a spare SN chip or do I have to order from China?

wmonk · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:21 pm Post subject:

roglok · Joined: Aug 28, 2010 Posts: 124 Location: uptown

hey woody. that sounds great. please let me know when you get around to testing them. anything specific you are after? I could e.g. offer CA3046, XR8038 or MAT02/03

State Machine · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:26 am Post subject:

Thanks so far to those that have purchased the boards.

Just to keep you in the loop, I ordered the boards on September 23. It will take 10 business days to receive my order. I will start shipping by the second week of October.

Thanks ! Cool

Bill

RSFC · Joined: Sep 02, 2010 Posts: 65 Location: space lab

What are the PCB dimensions?

reggiechacha · Joined: Feb 21, 2012 Posts: 1 Location: London

Just orded 3 boards.
Will a SN76477NF work the same as a SN76477N???

State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:40 pm Post subject:

State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:44 pm Post subject:

State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:46 pm Post subject:

Great news folks !! The boards have arrived already this weekend so I will begin shipping your orders out beginning this Monday Cool

Thanks for your orders thus far !!

Bill
sMs Audio Electronics

State Machine · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject:

In addition to the build notes in the documentation, here are the IMPORTANT CALIBRATION NOTES .....

Calibration

Modulation Center Trim

The Modulation Center trimpot (R18) is set as follows: While listening to the pulse output and letting the LFO modulate the PWM, adjust trimmer for smoothest variation. Near the center of rotation, the transition is linear. Move away from the sweet spot and the modulation is lopsided or nonlinear.

Alternatively, one can watch the triangle wave on a scope and adjust this trimmer to give a +/-5V amplitude. This should correspond to the smoothest modulation, too.

Thomas and I have found that the voltage at pin 16 of the SN76477 will be between 0.5V and 0.44V.

Triangle Wave Offset

Observe the triangle wave output on an oscilloscope and adjust the Offset trimpot (R29) so that the triangle is 10V peak to peak and centered at 0V.

V/Oct Trim

Th SN76477 was never designed for a V/Oct response, so don't be surprised if you have to put a little extra work into it as compared to other VCO's. Thomas and I don't expect a whole lot of chip to chip variation - I tried a 'wide body' model and a 'narrow body' body SN76477, and Thomas tuned up a wide body SN76477 with a diferent date code than mine with similar results.

You may find that tuning by ear will render the best results.

First of all, the V/Oct trim should not be attempted until the Modulation Center Trim adjustment has been performed. Begin by setting the the HF trimpot (R58) for maximum resistance (1MOhm).

Tune the V/Oct trimpot (R2) as one normally adjusts a VCO. First tune the V/Oct trim between 60 and 120 Hz until as close an octave as possible is rendered with a 1V signal (IE, with the VCO at 60 Hz, increase the control voltage by exactly 1 volt and ensure the VCO is at 120 Hz). Next, tune for an interval between 60 Hz and 240 Hz, and so forth.

Get the best tuning you can up to 2 kHz - you'll most likely have to go around the horn several times to coax the best response out of the SN76477. Resist tweaking the high frequency compensation until you've gotten the best response up to 2 kHz.

Notes from Thomas Henry:

"I found in this VCO that the HF trim could be used to help straighten out the response somewhat lower than usual. My suggestion is to say: Ignore HF completely until you've done the best you can do. Then tune to 2KHz, augment with the HF trim and start dropping octave by octave and see what impact that had. Then start upping octave by octave into the 4KHz range and split the difference (things are probably going sharp by this point and need to be reduced.)"

"Of course, this may all change somewhat if we end up working from a PCB version. I noticed that the control current input wire on the breadboard was *EXTREMELY* sensistive to stray capacitance. I think a PCB is going to make this a lot more fun to tune."

netpusher · Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:57 pm Post subject:

Payment sent your way, Thanks!

synthcube · Joined: Dec 21, 2011 Posts: 28 Location: boston

It's an awesome module! The documentation could be better Wink

and mine is still not quite 100% right, but is getting there!

State Machine · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:56 am Post subject:

wmonk · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:21 am Post subject:

I just want to note that a great bunch of extra information / documentation is available on the website of Scott Stites.
http://www.birthofasynth.com/Thomas_Henry/Pages/SN-Voice_main.html

This is actually pretty well documented! Very Happy

State Machine · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 9:32 am Post subject:

Hi Woody

Yes, true, a well documented project but scattered somewhat. I just put the link you posted at the header of this thread thanks

It would be nice to pull of this information into one neat build document. For example, the calibration (in another area of this thread), theory, build, etc ... should be all into one single PDF document so that folks can download it after purchasing a board. This would make it easier for less experienced builders.

Thanks for your input ! Always appreciated !
Bill

loydb · Joined: Feb 04, 2010 Posts: 364 Location: Providence, RI

Ordered 2, thanks for doing these!

edit: Anyone know a current source for the SN chip? BGMicro seems to be out.

edit2: UTSource has a bunch, we'll see how they price out.

edti3: $4 each on 10-22-12.

State Machine · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:24 am Post subject:

wmonk · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:16 pm Post subject:

EMwhite · Joined: Oct 21, 2012 Posts: 2 Location: Middlesex Township

Hey Bill; ordered one of the boards via PayPal payment; just want to make sure you received it and I have not been contacting (and sent payment to) the incorrect address.

Was for one SN Voice board; transaction id is: 468511429R9355535

Thank you...

State Machine · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:33 pm Post subject:

This cross references a date of :

Date:
Oct 18, 2012
Time:
14:58:18 PDT
Status:
Completed

Correct ?

Bill

EMwhite · Joined: Oct 21, 2012 Posts: 2 Location: Middlesex Township

Yes, that's me. Thank you. Looking fwd. to it.

-Mike