Author Topic: Question to all forum members - project direction (participation requested!)  (Read 13441 times)

waltzingbear

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I have a feeling the smd card assembly and the rest "DIY" will turn out to be similar in cost to full leaded full DIY. By that I mean upfront end user cost, without assembly cost factored in. Making it pretty much a no brainer to have the cards smd fab'd. 

The numbers you mentioned for the smd assembled vs leaded card with BOM included in the comparison certainly lead me in that direction as an end user choice.

I have enough blank cards around.

Alan



Alan Garren
Waltzing Bear Audio

PelleG

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I'm curious how you plan to keep the firmware DIY friendly?
Are you using boot loaders? Or is your goal to reach a super firmware that is locked forever?
I never succeeded myself to make the system updatable from host. Without a serial programmer that is.

Artur D'Assumpção

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Pelle,

Yes firmware is upgradable by the host via custom bootloader. That part is already taken care of. Of course if you want to update the bootloader itself you need to re-flash the entire chip.

Cheers,

Artur

PelleG

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Ok. Cool. How the hell did you solve that for the micros on the IO cards?  It's easy to boot load the first micro but to daisy chain it further down the line?

Frank Cross

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I have all the tools and experience to do all SMD's. If you did end up offering it as a DIY SMD solution, I could build boards for whoever wanted them in US/Canada.

Anyway to get on a proto list? I have access to several 4k's, and about to install a 6k here.

Artur D'Assumpção

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Hi Frank,

We will definitely be opening a close-group beta program for those who want to be early adopters and help us with this mission! :D

Cheers,

Artur

BN1studio

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Each system will have multiple VCA i/o boards, and most systems will have 5 or more, so there is a benefit of scale with them. I'd build them SMD and have them shipped 100% complete & tested

The rest of the boards are one-per-installation so I'd make them through-hole

Nick Froome

Artur D'Assumpção

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Thanks for your insights! We are now currently assessing all these variables! :D Your input has been very valuable! :D

brewery

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hi arthur,

bit late to the party, but here are my thoughts:

if the basic functions and workflow of the old software is not 100% there, i would not be interested.
outside engineers need to be able to work without a learning curve, and expect standard 4k automation.

to me the biggest benefit would be to loose the computer rack / psu, and have something small, reliable & not power hungry.

being able to store auto data on the daw computer would be great, as would not having to stripe / work with smpte. (should still be an option in case tape is involved)

i guess tr graphics could do with an update (i'm kinda nostalgic about them though), but i would like to have the main screen unchanged.
same goes for soft keys.

it shouldn't feel like a master/slave scenario, you need to be able to go between daw and ssl computer flawlessly. konnektor does this really well, but the transport could feel more responsive. also the tach data is still not 100% if you do long winds. jump to the beginning of track / loop should be easy and accurate. again, konnektor already does this but could be better.

writing ssl rides into the daw could be cool, not so much in a daw controller way, but to be able to copy rides into the session in case you have to continue work on the road. this means the fader law of the ssl faders must be matched to the daw (which might differ from tools to logic etc)

are you planning on keeping all the diagnostic functions? definitely needed for ultimation!

now the fun stuff:
i like the pong game on the 9k, should be easy right? :)
some better motor tests, like on flying faders!

i like the idea of through hole, because that's what i'm comfortable with, but fine with smd if it's remarkably cheaper and reliable.


vancalot

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I'm very interested in this.. I would want an non DIY solution.. I need it to work out of the box..
my 2c..
v
Vance Powell
Sputnik Sound
408 East Iris Drive
Nashville TN. 37204
vance@vancepowell.com

Dan Korneff

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I could see the benefits of both ways. One one hand, the SMD version would work right out of the box. On the other hand, learning to build the thru-hole board will help with troubleshooting in the future when it breaks down.

Clip6

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Agree already done and tested from my pov.

Druhms

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Re: Question to all forum members - project direction (participation requested!)
« Reply #27 on: September 13, 2017, 04:40:05 AM »
I'm very interested in this.. I would want an non DIY solution.. I need it to work out of the box..
my 2c..
v

Amen

perfectsnd

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Re: Question to all forum members - project direction (participation requested!)
« Reply #28 on: September 18, 2017, 07:30:17 PM »
It seems the interest is very, very high on this project.  Let's us know if there is anything that the community can do so we can bring it to fruition.

A replacement computer is very much needed.


Artur D'Assumpção

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Re: Question to all forum members - project direction (participation requested!)
« Reply #29 on: September 18, 2017, 10:57:11 PM »
Hi guys,

Sorry for being so silent on this project. I can assure you we're working on it, simply we decided once more to change the design to improve things even further. We count on have a new prototype anytime soon ready for field test as usual.

This uses completely new technology, and we reverted back to use AD/DAs (much like the beta 2), since we tried to give a new go to the S&H approach but once more weren't confident with the results in the lab (they were better, but not THAT better). In the meanwhile we found an awesome AD/DA chip with the number I/O that exactly fits our needs and is configurable programatically, which is great. We are finishing the new prototype design in the next couple weeks with this chip. This also allow us to reduce even further the total number of board components and this translates later on the price.

Also this new design have the advantage to be fully compatible with VCA and Ultimation without radical changes, which is great since we can later roll out quickly the Ultimation hardware.

I know you guys would love to see me give you feedback more often, but the truth is that this is a super slow process since we're doing this on our free time. Like before, I can assure you we didn't gave up and the project is far from dead or cool down. I'll try to post more news soon and often.

If you guys see I am super quiet here try to reach me through my facebook. I don't always notice I have messages here:

https://www.facebook.com/adassumpcao

PS: Mattia thanks for the heads uP!!! :D

Cheers,

Artur