Mutable Instruments Plaits DIY Eurorack Clone - Including V1.2 Firmware Update

[@HanVZulu]

Good tips about the SMD soldering. It's been a challenge to get it right for ICs for me, but your tricks might be what I need to avoid problems. Awesome.

[@TOILmodular]

Thank you. Happy to help.

[@cr0wland]

if you use a wide, flat tip on your iron, you can heat 4 or 5 pins on the tiny ICs at the same time and I find this will distribute any solder across all the pins evenly. I havent used this on the MCU style chips, but on TSSOP size chips and larger I have had excellent results.

[@TOILmodular]

Thanks for the tip. Yes, I tried that technique after having checked a few videos. Seems I am not (yet) good at that, since my first attempt ended with many solder bridges and a lot of effort to fix them. Maybe too much solder. At the moment I am too scared to try it again due to the chip shortage. Works also fine with my slow way. But I guess I will improve.

[@cr0wland]

@@TOILmodular yeah i think the solder is also a big factor, I have had MANY problems with bridges that went away when I changed to a different brand of solder. I tend to add too much solder, so as a fix for that I usually add solder to every second pin, then do the technique mentioned to spread it evenly to all pins.

[@TOILmodular]

Nice tip, thanks. Which brand would you recommend?

[@cr0wland]

@@TOILmodular The stuff I use is Japanese, called Hirosaki (60/40), although I don't really know if this is a particularly good brand, I bought some from a local market on face value and it has so far served me well.

[@TOILmodular]

Thanks. Since I am in JP, I might see if I can find it.

[@sirtexy4554]

For the LED resistors (I used green/red LED combo), I used 1K for the red, but no resistor necessary for the green. I used 270R for the 'LED' resistor. I did find it important to experiment, otherwise, in my case, I found the 'orange', ie both red & green on at the same time, would look the same as if only red was lit.

[@TOILmodular]

I made the same experience. If one-off the colors is too bright, the mix effect will disappear. One has to find the right resistor values for both sides.

[@sirtexy4554]

Hi Toil, great work - thanks for sharing. For the BLM18R, it may be worth mentioning 1K inductance value in the BOM ;-)

[@TOILmodular]

Thanks a lot for pointing that out, Sir Texy. You’re right, I adjusted the BOM.

[@werebel13]

Great project! Can I get the gerber data for the panels somewhere?

[@TOILmodular]

The thing is that I do not follow the HP width standard in my designs. Not a problem for sliding nuts. So I decided not to share any front panel Gerber files. But the panel layout with the hole coordinates for the front components is available at GitHub.

[@Differentunic]

I would reccomend looking into getting some solder paste and a heat gun for any SMD/SMT components. much faster, and usually works better.

[@TOILmodular]

Thanks for the advice. Actually, I do not want to spend more money for equipment, if not really necessary. And so far it works fine for me with a crappy soldering iron. I rather think about buying a good multimeter for calibration purposes. I am interested in Marbles, but the calibration seems to be tricky without high precision voltage measurement.

[@axeman2638]

@@TOILmodular you could also try drag soldering, you load the iron up and drag it along the rows of pins, the solder mask will keep it on the pins, if you get bridges clean them up with a dry iron. much quicker and easier than doing each pin individually.

[@TOILmodular]

Yes, I tried that, with not really good results. I hope, I can improve. At the moment I am too scared to mess up microcontrollers, since they are difficult to get. Waiting for another bunch of STM32F405s for Rings, Clouds, Elements, Warps... Ongoing DIY journey, quite exciting.

[@sirtexy4554]

Hi again Toil. I'm about to order the parts for this module - which LED's did you use ? Mouser or Farnell part no.'s would be useful, and then, did you need to use current limiting resistors, or shorted out the pads (0 ohms) ? TIA

[@TOILmodular]

Hi Sir Texy. Actually, I bought a bunch of these 2-color LEDs from some 3rd-party seller at Amazon. So unfortunately, I do not have any part number. The one resistor added in my PCB design is just a quick solution, if you want to dim the brightness of all LEDs. But that would of course not provide the possibility of having a more precise control over each of both colors separately. If you need that, I suggest you do it the way, I showed in the video. Then that resistor on the PCB needs to be bridged with a simple wire or resistor leg. Still, the best resistor values for the LEDs would still have to be checked with the individual LEDs. I usually just connect some wires to the connection points of only one LED on the PCB, solder resistors and LED to those wires, and test them by powering up the module. I the exchange different resistors to optimize the brightness. When I got the values for one LED, I do the proper soldering for all of them. Hope that helps.

[@manecolooper]

great video! which flux are you using? thanks!

[@TOILmodular]

Thank you. I use a local brand from a company called GOOT. The flux product is labeled BS-95B. I do not have an experience with flux yet, so I just picked one. Working fine.

[@sirtexy4554]

Hi Toil, have you used EasyEda for the design ? And JLCPCB for the PCB's ?

[@TOILmodular]

Yes, designs are done with EasyEDA. Then ordered at JLCPCB.

[@sirtexy4554]

@@TOILmodular have you considered using there smt production facility? Would you consider sharing your easyEda project files as I would like to give this option a go. It would be much better than hand soldering those smt parts 😉

[@TOILmodular]

No, I have not used that service. Actually, I do not intend to, since for me SMD is part of the DIY fun. Especially now that I get more and more experience. I am currently working on another project with another level of SMD soldering challenge. I hope I can make a video about it soon.

[@InterplainMusic]

Hi, I have made the module and just curious the box with the word LED? Is this to adjust the led brightness. if i put 1k resistor in it will this be what its for. I think i programmed it. I am waiting for a few parts to get it up and running. Just added the red and green resistors i am guessing i will not have to place resistors inline on the legs.

[@TOILmodular]

The resistor "LED" was meant to be a simple solution for a pull-down resistor for all LEDs. But it is quite likely that just one value would either make one of the 2 colors to bright or the other one too dim. You can try with just this one resistor. But I suggest soldering single resistors for each of the LEDs on both legs for the different colors. With that you can select different values depending on the color. If you do that, then just bridge the connections of the resistor "LED" with a wire.

[@InterplainMusic]

@TOILmodular Thanks for the reply, I guess I messed this up. I have just soldered the leds in with no resistors in line. They are red and green like the original and not blue like yours. So, I guess I will have to add the resistors in and bridge the led box. I am looking forward to using it.

[@InterplainMusic]

@TOILmodular Hello again, I managed to burn the firmware and get it working apart from the LEDS, the module works great. Changes the sounds and sounds great. Amy ideas why the leds are not working. About 4 volts on the led leg at the top. Could it be the ic that drives the LEDS.

[@TOILmodular]

Do you use the „Thonk“ version of the control PCB? If so, did you check about the labeling error on the PCB for the ferrite bead and one of the 0.1uF caps next to the TLC59281, which I mentioned in the GitHub readme file? If that is not your issue, then I would suggest checking all solder points of the TLC59281 once more. The legs are quite tiny with very narrow distances.

[@InterplainMusic]

@TOILmodular Yes, I checked that. The ferrite bead is at the top. It's labelled correctly on the board.