2019 a year in gear (what have you/are you bought/buying?)

[goldenanalog]

2019 is going to be a different year for me....

I'm planning on putting together a small-footprint 'repair station' & (re)buying some tools that I used to have: oscilloscope; volt meter; soldering iron; a few hand tools for circuit board repairs, etc. If anyone would like to make some suggestions on which way to go, I'd appreciate it, actually.

A rig that would hold a circuit board steady would be a *huge* upgrade from what I'm used to (basically just a tech bench with AC and a soldering station) - nice bright easy to handle spot-lighting would be cool.

Just an FYI: my agenda is to repot a virus B & install a LED display (I've had the parts for years) - put some new memory batteries in a couple of synths - maybe replace a touch screen on my Korg M3 - repot and replace the encoders on an Arturia Origin desktop (*WHY* do some synth companies insist on spending a few cents less and use garbage 'moving parts' when they build stuff? That's been a question of mine for like, forever -)

[goldenanalog]

I'll be putting together a live Rig from scratch, so a lot of purchases

Ableton Push 2 or Maschine 3 + Jam
Kaoss Pad
1-2 Akai Fire Sequencers
A Mixer, possibly from Presonus
New Monitors, possibly Adam
A quality Midi Keyboard, possibly Roland System 1
New PC, Possibly Dell XPS 17"
Other stuff

I have a rough idea of what I need but I'm stuck on the first choice, Push 2 or Maschine 3.

I can get M3 plus Jam both together for the price of Push 2, so it's a touch choice.

https://www.thermaltake.com/products-mo ... C_00000234

It's been a few years, but the rig I used to have was a computer that I had partially upgraded & moved over into a Thermaltake LANbox - The original design had a handle on top which made it extremely easy to move; it also had a small motorized retractable touchscreen.

Once it was optimized, it worked basically flawlessly live.

[goldenanalog]

This is what it looked like:



The CD bay on top held the touchscreen mechanism (it's easily removed)

[Touch The Universe]

Interesting. Right this second I was just searching for laptops and or desktops for live use. I like the idea of using a laptop but If I can somehow make the desktop more portable, I'd get a lot more bank for my buck. If the numbers really look better, I might go indeed go this route. On that note, dell xps 17 does't even exist anymore They aren't even using the latest i9 processors, even in there gaming laptops. That's fine. I'll probably go custom, for either a desktop or laptop, specifically for music production.

[Touch The Universe]

2019 is going to be a different year for me....

I'm planning on putting together a small-footprint 'repair station' & (re)buying some tools that I used to have: oscilloscope; volt meter; soldering iron; a few hand tools for circuit board repairs, etc. If anyone would like to make some suggestions on which way to go, I'd appreciate it, actually.

A rig that would hold a circuit board steady would be a *huge* upgrade from what I'm used to (basically just a tech bench with AC and a soldering station) - nice bright easy to handle spot-lighting would be cool.

Just an FYI: my agenda is to repot a virus B & install a LED display (I've had the parts for years) - put some new memory batteries in a couple of synths - maybe replace a touch screen on my Korg M3 - repot and replace the encoders on an Arturia Origin desktop (*WHY* do some synth companies insist on spending a few cents less and use garbage 'moving parts' when they build stuff? That's been a question of mine for like, forever -)

Good luck! Is this for a side business?

Just recently I had to buy a new midi keyboard since my alesis v49 broke a b key. It was a pain in the mikta to try to repair. 30 dollars for the part and 30 for repair, and I'd have to do it myself. If it doesn't work afterwards, it'd be a waste. I decided to buy a refurbished one for $80 which turned out pretty good. It would be nice to be able to repair simple things like this instead of having to replace it. Unless it's a 1000 dollar machine, the shipping charge wouldn't make much since for cheapo keyboards.

[JCJR]

I don't keep up, dunno what might be good for holding big circuit boards for rework or stuffing. Haven't done it for years except rarely.

For small to medium circuit boards I used a panavise with nylon faced jaws mounted in the center of a 2x2 foot piece of lamimate-faced half inch plywood. Didn't wobble and could be easily moved around. Actually it still works fine after decades. Useful even for holding xlr plugs at just the right angle for soldering.

I used about a 8 inch diameter magnifier on a swing arm, the old kind with a circular flourescent bulb surrounding the lens, which gave decent shadow free magnified illumination. Lately I was using it on a mini lathe but after decades it seems finally dead, need to get another. Nowadays maybe better choices. If doing surface mount maybe an electronic low power macro camera microscope driving a video monitor could be better?

A couple years ago got hot to put together a modernized electronic bench and found a few sites with what looked like good tools for good prices but thought better of it . I don't recall good web stores offhand.

I always spent a lot of time breadboarding and found a couple of sites with nice big modular breadboard modules not real expensive. Maybe mount a few on a big piece of plywood along with a small power supply.

The lunchbox size digital scopes have got affordable.
Small, light, dsp functions, Screen physically bigger than old fashioned "big" CRT scopes. Was tempting but my old scope still works and it rarely gets used. The new small light ones more user friendly than even old "small" scopes. Not that much bigger or heavier than a multimeter, take the scope to the work like with a meter, rather than taking the work to the scope. Potentially more productive anyway.

[goldenanalog]

2019 is going to be a different year for me....

I'm planning on putting together a small-footprint 'repair station' & (re)buying some tools that I used to have: oscilloscope; volt meter; soldering iron; a few hand tools for circuit board repairs, etc. If anyone would like to make some suggestions on which way to go, I'd appreciate it, actually.

A rig that would hold a circuit board steady would be a *huge* upgrade from what I'm used to (basically just a tech bench with AC and a soldering station) - nice bright easy to handle spot-lighting would be cool.

Just an FYI: my agenda is to repot a virus B & install a LED display (I've had the parts for years) - put some new memory batteries in a couple of synths - maybe replace a touch screen on my Korg M3 - repot and replace the encoders on an Arturia Origin desktop (*WHY* do some synth companies insist on spending a few cents less and use garbage 'moving parts' when they build stuff? That's been a question of mine for like, forever -)

Good luck! Is this for a side business?

Just recently I had to buy a new midi keyboard since my alesis v49 broke a b key. It was a pain in the mikta to try to repair. 30 dollars for the part and 30 for repair, and I'd have to do it myself. If it doesn't work afterwards, it'd be a waste. I decided to buy a refurbished one for $80 which turned out pretty good. It would be nice to be able to repair simple things like this instead of having to replace it. Unless it's a 1000 dollar machine, the shipping charge wouldn't make much since for cheapo keyboards.

It might end up being! - but I'd want access to the service manuals and part values of what I work on - I tend towards the 'over-prepared' direction vs the 'flying blind' one -

Repair, as long as it isn't surface mount stuff - isn't that hard most of the time. The trick is knowing how you go into something - and then knowing the reverse of that which is usually a mirror image (how to put it back together)

Not a lot of rocket science involved; although you do have to be careful of especially easily broken pins associated with wiring harness connectors - those ime are the worst. YouTube can be a godsend - a lot of people generously share their experience verbatim.

Pot & encoder changes are usually simple - although they often have to be lined up fairly precisely with the front panel - the Origin and Virus are going to be like that. But the end result is that you've added life on to the instrument - and gained confidence that short of a meltdown, you can replace internal parts without sending it off somewhere.

[goldenanalog]

I don't keep up, dunno what might be good for holding big circuit boards for rework or stuffing. Haven't done it for years except rarely.

For small to medium circuit boards I used a panavise with nylon faced jaws mounted in the center of a 2x2 foot piece of lamimate-faced half inch plywood. Didn't wobble and could be easily moved around. Actually it still works fine after decades. Useful even for holding xlr plugs at just the right angle for soldering.

I used about a 8 inch diameter magnifier on a swing arm, the old kind with a circular flourescent bulb surrounding the lens, which gave decent shadow free magnified illumination. Lately I was using it on a mini lathe but after decades it seems finally dead, need to get another. Nowadays maybe better choices. If doing surface mount maybe an electronic low power macro camera microscope driving a video monitor could be better?

A couple years ago got hot to put together a modernized electronic bench and found a few sites with what looked like good tools for good prices but thought better of it . I don't recall good web stores offhand.

I always spent a lot of time breadboarding and found a couple of sites with nice big modular breadboard modules not real expensive. Maybe mount a few on a big piece of plywood along with a small power supply.

The lunchbox size digital scopes have got affordable.
Small, light, dsp functions, Screen physically bigger than old fashioned "big" CRT scopes. Was tempting but my old scope still works and it rarely gets used. The new small light ones more user friendly than even old "small" scopes. Not that much bigger or heavier than a multimeter, take the scope to the work like with a meter, rather than taking the work to the scope. Potentially more productive anyway.

Thanks very much, JCJR - you def. got me thinking. Btw: is there a sub-forum here to discuss this more in depth? Anyone? I don't want to hijack our friend vurt's thread -

[vurt]

no problem here, i find it interesting.
but there is a diy forum

viewforum.php?f=180

[vurt]

and i suppose i should retire to bed, make sure i get up for the first delivery of the year :yay:

[donkey tugger]

and i suppose i should retire to bed, make sure i get up for the first delivery of the year :yay:

You haven't had a dump since last year?

[vurt]

its a good way to save both cash and the environment by using less loo roll or flushing the loo so often

[thecontrolcentre]

[vurt]

[resynthesis]

New PC here too. Maybe an oscilloscope so I can get away from just building fuzz boxes and try something a bit more grown up

I'll probably try to rationalise my pedals at some time especially WRT delay and reverb. If I flog some of the 10e4 crappy and middling pedals lurking around here I could probably settle on a handful of nice things.