With many boxes of components after abandoned DIY projects, really liking the look of this … even just to learn more about what some of them can do
Let alone with this expansion module
Wonder could you drop a Daisy onto that breadboard …
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anyone have any experiences with Labor yet? i just put in an order. i got inspired by this video below and im gonna try to go with custom wood panels with the rest of the modules i build. i figure i might as well ditch the kits and just go homegrown (from open source schematics) from here on.
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To answer both questions, yeah I’ve had great experiences with the Labor, and also I mostly use it by dropping a Daisy Seed on there 
I really love it! Having a power supply, amp, and little patch bay for pots and stuff does so much to lower the friction around an idea. It is, for me, like the difference between arranging samples on a timeline in your DAW vs loading them to a pad on a 404. The 404 is just so much more “immediate”. Same with the Labor. Having power and output sorted and a number of standardized ways to get CV… it lets me jump right to my idea rather than spending a day on setup.
It should be said this is certainly because I’m a hobbyist. If I had an EE degree, power supply, scopes, 4–5 half-built amps laying around, and a fishing tackle box chock full of components, I’d probably struggle to see the value. But as a noob with a soldering iron and a dream (and not a lot of space) it’s been fantastic.
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awesome to hear, thank you!
this is where im at as well. do you have any recommended resources for open source schematics? i havent done any digging yet but i have to imagine there are lesser known Web 1.0 diamond in the rough resources out there
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Not open source, but I think Moritz Klein’s youtube/patreon is a treasure trove. And he collaborated with Erica on the Labor, so there’s good overlap there.
Also, Thomas Henry wrote a bunch of PDFs called things like “Making Music with the 3080 OTA” or “Making Music with the 566” that have interesting circuits and explanations. I think most are available on Lulu but you might be able to find them elsewhere as well.
I’m sure there has to be some big cache of, like, service manuals and diagrams hidden in some corner of archive.org or something. But I haven’t found the right search terms yet. Do let me know if you do better!
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cgs serge stuff is floating around… it’s not exactly open source but it’s out there and old enough to be free to use. I haven’t used my labor much but it seems like it will be handy… although since I got it I kind of already gained the skills to essentially make all the key features on it myself, it’s a nice little package still, I would say maybe skip the oscilloscope add on and try to nab a cheapish decent digital scope on eBay. It will come in handy when you want to calibrate a more advanced diy. Pick up some pref boards for when you want to build out a design you made on your bread board.
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thanks for the input y’all, i will delve into those resources this week!
successfully completed the build, soldering all those connectors took a good while but we made it despite some wonky alignments
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This could belong here?
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I was looking into the DSP behind some old EHX pedals, and discovered the Spin Semi FV-1. Kind of a crazy cool chip. If you’ve wondered why so many FX pedals of the era have three pots and a program selector, this chip is probably the reason. It reads its instruction (from assembly) off an EEPROM, and even has a pretty cool graphic programmer (think Max) that exports compatible assembly.
Sadly, the programmer only works in windows, so I haven’t had a chance to do anything with it yet. But there’s an introduction at Getting Started with the FV-1 | Electric Canary
Anyway, this is all relevant to the Labor because the FV-1 has its own ADC/DAC, and pot inputs ready to go. Which makes it a great way to get DSP on your breadboard wrapped with Labor’s annalog inputs and outputs.
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This video introduced me the Erica Synths Labor.
I am thinking of buying one, the electronica classes at school are so fast, there’s not time for experimentation < > Labor looks like a good mix of 1) true electronica testing 2) sneaky synth-circuit explorations
