DIY kits

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Hello everyone,
my family recently gifted me a soldering set up for my desk!
its great! I’ve been using a wood burner and plank of wood to solder on ha

I’ve done a couple of small projects before, and i’m wondering what the most fun and interesting full diy kits are. I’m interested in eurorack modules and full synthesizers. The main goal would be to make something that I love using to make music. I’ll keep my eye open for the next dreadbox DIY kit for sure.

I also want to mod my monotribe in the future, which seems pretty simple.
I would love some resources!

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#2

For Monotribe mods there is a lot of info on modwiggler.

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#3

You probably couldn’t go wrong getting a couple DIY guitar pedal FX kits to practice on. Prices are in the 25-50$ range, would be low risk/high reward to start with, and you’d have some cool FX to route your synths through. Have fun!

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#4

currently looking at the stereo field diy kit which would save me a little money and be fun to use.

also deeply considering synthrotek’s erica synths kits (filter, and delay)

I would be really interested in building my own lyra but I have no idea how I would get the case made…

#5

Also finding out that Befaco has a large range of full diy kits.

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#6

Norns shield is full diy if you want to source all the parts, i have an extra cirrus logic chip which are hard to come by, paid $25 for a used one from hong kong, and then $50 for a m audio 2x2 interface which has same chip (admittedly kinda ridiculous but i was anxious for the chip and to start the build).

https://octopart.com/bom-tool/Q3rQej3x

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#7

Pay attention to whether your tools permit you to do surface mount or not and pick projects appropriately.

Have fun !

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#8

If your soldering station includes a sponge, throw it away. Use the dry copper spiral “sponge” instead.

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#9

I know I could do thru hole.
I don’t have a heated desoldering iron or a hot air gun for surface mount.
thank you for the heads up.
I think i will be ordering the erica synths bbd delay.
It looks like a really fun module and I like that it has an LFO and lp filter built in.
I’m looking over the assembly manual to see if it is feasible for me.

#10

you don’t like the sponge?

#11

For desoldering :
Solder wick, or solder sucker ?

I know it depends for what, i’ve seen techs get in extended discussions.

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#12

Use water if you want to accelerate oxidization of the tip of your iron. Or save money on tips and buy a cleaner that keeps the tip dry.

Water is an aggressive solvent, more so when heated and more so with the random impurities in tap water.

This is what I have, but brand doesn’t matter:
image
https://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_599b.html

Solder wick, but be sure to have the right kind of wick for your solder. I three or four different braids for lead & RoHS and usually have to try all of them to find one that works for a given project.

I have the big powerful sucker and a cheap one. They can be useful for getting rid of huge solder blobs, but I have better luck with the wick for getting that last bit of solder that is holding a part in place.

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#13

i have both (and enjoy neither! ha)

I just looked at the assembly for the BBD delay and it is all through hole. I’m gonna go with this one, unless someone has a better suggestion.

just to be clear too, i do have some experience soldering. this is def not my first attempt.

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#14

thanks for the tip! (pun?)
i’ll have to order one, my kit doesn’t have it.

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#15

The other thing i’ve seen techs talk endlessly on is ESD protection. Wrist straps, antistatic mats, antistatic clothing. There was a nut case, one place i worked that had a water can to water the carpets !

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#16

4ms Kits are good. I built the Euro Atoner and the RCD. 4MS helped debug a soldering error that I made on the RCD via email. I would absolutely buy from them again.

I wouldn’t buy another Euro kit from Synthrotek. I bought their PWR kit shortly after it was announced. When I found that the finished module would not fit between HEK rails, the Synthrotek dude calaimed that the HEK was a weird, unusual rack that no one used (false!). No help, no support. Now that I own a Dremel, I could grind the slightly large PCB myself, but I’m mostly out of Eurorack.

Synthrotek’s non-euro kits seem fine, and the Euro stuff is probably OK if you go in with the assumption that there will be absolutely zero vendor support. Specifically, the ring mod kit is good. I built several in small plastic lunch cube things.

You probably have to assemble the BoMs yourself, and maybe have PCBs made too, but the Shruti-1 and x0xb0x are both substantial builds that result in fun synths.

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#17

i have a esd mat, and we have wood floors… not sure what else i might use except gloves…

#18

ESD mat is good. Avoid fuzzy sweaters in the dry winter and you should be good. When I’m working with expensive chips, I’ll use a wrist strap.

I’m not sure gloves will help, and the lost dexterity would be bad.

Edit: the only reason I can think of to use gloves is if you are sensitive to flux or rubbing alcohol. I would think that the typical latex material would cause static build up.

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#19

I like a plain old wrist strap, but you need a good ground somewhere to plug into.

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#20

You only need a ground common to the part you are working on. All you need to do is avoid a voltage differential between you and the ESD sensitive part.

When I build PCs, I connect the wrist strap to the chassis, but disconnect before I plug in and turn on the power.

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