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Natural State - Left channel not working

Greetings


I've acquired a SMD populated Natural State and the left channel doesn't work at all.


I've replaced all ICs with the exception of the TL072 op-amps and reflowed every component in the board. (in the left channel area).


I see that the left CTRL LED dimly cycles following the LFO rate at times, but that's about it for what activity I can see when the module is powered up.


Unfortunately I have not been able to use my multimeter because the power cables in my case are pretty short.


Apart from replacing the TL072 op amps. Any other ideas of what could cause the left channel to not work at all?


60 Views

Hey Enrique,

You’ve already worked through most of the recommended troubleshooting steps. It might be worth checking the orientation once more. Also, could you take a closer look at the sockets? A few of them appear a bit suspicious:









Thanks,

Stefan

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Increasing resistors for high brightness LEDS on Serial

Hi folks,


I got the presoldered PCB for the Serial module and my LEDs are super high brightness which usually need around 4.7k - which resistors would be correct to replace for lowering LED brightness?

75 Views

Hey Eric,

  • GATE Outputs: LR_1 - LR_7

  • PULSE Out: R70

  • LENGTH LEDs: R38-R41

  • CLOCK LED: R68

Best, Stefan

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Radio Reception

Any quick tips for improving Radio's reception? Usually it's fine when using a long patch cable (1.5m), but in some basement live settings, picking up any stations is difficult.

53 Views

Hey Andrew, The patch cable itself acts as an antenna, so a longer cable can improve reception. Beyond that, there isn’t really a workaround to achieve significantly better reception. Thanks, Stefan

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Help with Sum Mix and Pan module please!

Hi folks - grateful for any advice!


Just finished my second ST Module and have run into problems - as in no functionality at all!


It's Sum Mix and Pan and I've found there's a short in the power header between -12v and ground. As you can see from the picture there's was a bit of solder splash in the header pin attachments just above and to the right of the power header - in my attempt to clean that up I made it considerably worse so wondering if that's the problem? If so what would be the best way to go about fixing? If not any other suggestions gratefully received.


Thanks in advance, Matt



65 Views

Hey Matt, Are you referring to this area shown below? Please check the second screenshot to see how the traces are routed there. It’s possible that a short has formed, but to find a solution we need to identify exactly where it is. Could you provide a few more high-resolution photos of that section?

In the worst case, you may need to desolder the header and then re-solder only the top two pins (1 and 2). After that, cut the -12 V trace going to and coming from pin 4 of the header and run a wire from the Pin 4 header hole on the PCB below (the one carrying −12 V to the VCA board) to pin 4 of OTA1 and OTA4. Thanks,

Stefan



Edited

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CV Scan LED swap

Hi, building a pair of CV Scan modules. Tried to get clever and put in orange LEDs for the channel indicators at the top, but they are extremely quite dim. I thought it would be an easy resistor swap but it looks like the LEDs are fed by the multiplexer.


Anyone know if there's a way for me to swap some parts and get more current to the channel LEDs at the top?


Or do I just need to swap in red LEDs?


Thx in advance!

85 Views

Hey Maer, They are indeed powered by the DG409. You can replace the LEDs with ultra-bright LEDs or choose red LEDs - which are still not very bright, but ok - please refer to the demo video to compare brightness. Best,

Stefan

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Question about HH

Hi! I've recently finished my HH module.

I am noticing two things:

  • The Decay knob is quite sensitive (as in, the first 10% makes it sound like a closed or open high hat, after that it is just noise & more noise)

  • The color knob changes the loudness quite a bit, fully clockwise the sound is "normal" and the more anti-clockwise it is turned the lower the volume

I just wanted to check if this is normal behavior for the module.

Both pot meters are B100K.

104 Views

Hi Marvin,

The decay is intentionally quite sensitive, as this makes it easier to fully open it into noise, which is beneficial for live use. If you prefer a longer, finer control range, you could use an audio-taper (logarithmic) potentiometer and/or reduce the potentiometer value, for example to A50k.

The Color knob boosts or attenuates frequency ranges that our ears perceive as louder or quieter, so changes in perceived volume are expected behavior here as well.

Thanks, Stefan

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Tempco substitute? (Alstaden)

I'm putting together an online purchase of THT components to complete the build for my Alstaden prepopulated PCB from Calsynth. The BOM calls for one 2k Tempco 3300ppm/C. at R10, which uses a THT footprint. Since Tempco resistors aren't accessible from major distributors and are more expensive from specialist shops like Thonk, SynthCube, and ModularAddict, I'm wondering if anyone has tried substituting surface mount tempcos/termistors in its place. Has it been successful or not?


I found this SMT themistor at mouser: 660-LT732ATTD202J390. 2k ohm, 3900 PPM / C. So it's not exactly correct. But some folks on modwiggler have discussed how to wire themistors in parallel/series with regular resistors to achieve alternate temperature coefficient. I don't fully understand the math. If this seems like a viable solution, could somebody please help me calculate what value resistor to use to achieve 3300ppm/C, 2k ohm? Thanks!

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Do I need dual gang pots for the Stereo EQ?

Hi, wondering if I can just get by with single gang pots for the Stereo EQ and just short the connections where the dual gang pins would be>?

65 Views

Hey Eric,


This won’t work, as you would no longer be able to control one side of the stereo signal independently, and depending on what is shorted, the left and right channels would be improperly summed into a mono signal.


In short, there’s no workaround that would allow using a single-gang potentiometer for this module.


Best, Stefan

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Can't access BOMs

Hi, where can I find the BOMs for the modules? When I go to the support page, nothing seems to load, I've tried Firefox and Chrome on Windows. Thanks!

70 Views
Eric Gao
Eric Gao
Jan 26

Thanks!

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