Colormod circuit board

Hi all, I'm nearly ready to place an order for the new color mod circuit board and was wondering if anyone else would be interested in one. I would be offering these as an unpopulated circuit board so you would need to source the parts. This would not be for a novice! Once the board is populated it'll take a significant amount of wiring to potentiometers and switches to make this fully function. The unpopulated circuit board would have every component labeled right on the board (resistor/capacitor values and IC component ID's). I would also include a logical block diagram so you'd know how to wire the board to the panel switches and potentiometers. Again, this would just be an unpopulated circuit board, no additional parts supplied. I think the most expensive part on the board is the main oscillator (quantity of 4) which is available online for between $10 and $20 each. The circuit board is built from a working prototype so, to the best of my ability, I believe there will be no errors on the board. If I find any errors during the assembly of my board, I'd be sure to send you a detailed fix instruction document.

So here's the deal, if I order just my board, shipped it's going to cost me about $230.

2 boards would be about $140 each +Shipping to you
3 boards would be about $100 each +Shipping to you
4 boards would be about $75 each +Shipping to you
5 boards would be about $60 each +Shipping to you

So it would end up being a pretty good price break if 4 other folks were crazy enough to want to build their own color mod circuit. Once again, this really isn't for the faint of heart! It requires significant soldering and wiring. The circuit board measure 425mm x 80mm is being designed to mount to the back of a 2U panel. Take a look at this post to get an idea of the number of switches and potentiometers required to make this work: http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...697#post308697

The board requires +/-15VDC

I'm hoping to kick the order off by next Friday so I can get my board done in time for FLEM. If you commit to buy one, I'd probably need payment by next week and would ship the board to you as soon as I receive them.

Thanks!

Attachment 46298

Well.... duh! :)

Now, the question is... for us Z-5 owners, was the plan to make/sell/integrate these into the Z-5 or, is the plan now that we have to buy the board and source the parts and put it all together? Just looking for clarification.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bradfo69

Well.... duh! :)

Now, the question is... for us Z-5 owners, was the plan to make/sell/integrate these into the Z-5 or, is the plan now that we have to buy the board and source the parts and put it all together? Just looking for clarification.

---

Hey Brad, that's not a bad idea at all. Hadn't thought of that! Yes, the ultimate goal is for folks interested in a Z-5, the Z-5c would become an integral component. For folks already owning a Z-5 I plan on offering a way to retrofit the unit to support the Z-5c. At this point I have no clue how much it will cost to retrofit an existing Z-5, it will obviously take a change of enclosure and an additional power supply, which could be mounted within the enclosure instead of the lower 2U panel where the ILDA connectors exist.

So basically, if you were interested along with 3 other folks in either getting a bare board or "reserving" a board for me to incorporate into a Z-5c for an existing Z-5, then it would end up taking about $170 off the final price. Shall I sign you up?! Again, I don't have a clue yet what it'll cost to retrofit your console, it's something I'd certainly like to do for you but until mine is completed it's difficult for me to come up with an "action plan".

Let me know!

Of course! Maybe I've been mistaken but, I "thought" this was the grand plan all along anyway. :) I've just kind of been watching and waiting to find out the price. I've sort of mentally figured for months now that I needed to be sure to keep a big chunk of money kept aside for the release of the new ILDA splitter and color mod upgrade to the Z-5 since they seemed to be coinciding with each other. Believe it or not... I've refrained from a lot of spending recently since I'm expecting like a $2000 phone call or PM from you one of these days! Lol

ha! Thanks Brad!

It is indeed the "Grand Plan" to get this in the hands of current Z-5 owners!

Not trying to make an excuse but when I initially made this post, I've been up since yesterday babysitting a datacenter during major power changes. I managed to get about an hour of sleep on the computer room floor earlier this morning before I decided to get some work done on the board and the idea came to mind to make this post. So I'm not thinking straight at all, just looking forward to getting home sometime... tomorrow!

Anyway, with me, you and another person thru PM, I have 3 boards reserved. If we could get 2 more that would great. The price difference between 5 and 6 boards is just under 10 bucks. So to hit at least 5 would be perfect.

I'm in for a board, even though I don't have a Z5 I can mod this into my Eurorack modular synth setup pretty easily!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DZ

Not trying to make an excuse but when I initially made this post, I've been up since yesterday babysitting a datacenter during major power changes. I managed to get about an hour of sleep on the computer room floor earlier this morning before I decided to get some work done on the board and the idea came to mind to make this post. So I'm not thinking straight at all, just looking forward to getting home sometime... tomorrow!

---

Know all about it. There are times I try to return e-mails at the end of a 17 hour day here and the fingers don't work, the monitor goes blurry, and you re-read it the next morning and say "whoops!"

You can put me down for one as well. I would be in the category of reserving for a retrofit.

Seeing your pics on the Eye Melty Abstract topic has produced drool in this mouth a few times.

-Sal

Perfect! Currently at 5 boards. I'll give it till Tuesday before I close this out and send some PM's.

Thanks guys!

David,

Just seeing all this.. Am I too late to get in on this reserve a board deal? If so, no problem...

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark,

Not at all, I'm still cleaning up the component ID's on the board, I should be done either tonight or tomorrow night and will send out PM to all who signed up. So with 6 signed up we're looking at $51 a board. One more board would drop it to $45 each.

Fantastic... I'm so excited about this project.. Trying to think of anyone else that would benefit from this. Mike Dunn comes to mind but, I'm not sure if he uses analog anymore since he has DigiSynth..

As this is a DZ product, I have this strange "feeling" that I should be investing a little money here to squirrel a board or two away. Let's go with the one (I'm hoping) you're going to put into my Z-5 and two extra boards to hide somewhere and gather investment dividends. Someone else WILL eventually want one of these. So that should put you at 8. :)

Lol... That's probably a great investment.. ;)

"DZ Creations" Only things in this game that seem to increase in value! :)

Ha! Thanks guys, I really appreciate it! I'm just having fun building this stuff!

Ok, so at 8, we are down to $41 per board. I'm going to have to say last call on this. I've just finished cleaning up the board and I think it's ready to go. I'll submit the order Thursday night and send out some PM's.

Thanks guys!!!

By the way, here's the results of some playing last night *retardo

Attachment 46336

Attachment 46335

For what it's worth, these were created with one oscillator in square wave at near max speed and the chopper running a sine wave.

They look amazing... Lol.. I'm soooo hooked!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bradfo69

"DZ Creations" Only things in this game that seem to increase in value! :)

---

Yes, in part because DZ underpriced them in the first place. Get 'em while you can!

David

This may not look like much but I'm pretty proud of the fact that I was able to get the sync side the circuitry to work and this pic is a great representation of that. What's happening here is that OSC1 is set to output the color red and locked onto the quadrature oscillator from the Z-5 and drawing red for 1/2 of the circle. OSC2 is set to output green and is locked onto OSC1. OSC3 is set to output blue and is locked onto OSC2.

Attachment 46441

It just looks neat and I thought I'd share. Still waiting on the circuit boards. Unless I run into some major problem the completed unit will be at FLEM for folks to play with!

I posted this to FB, but for folks here that aren't on FB, here's an abstract I created the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23G5...h40tNc2PXi3mYw

Looking forward to it! Thanks to your link... I "fell down the rabbit hole" on YouTube last night and discovered all your videos explaining the various sub sections of the Z-5 and what they do. That was really helpful to begin to grasp a better idea of the flow of things and what each individual knob and switch is supposed to control. I'm anxious to watch them again a few times in front of the console and hooked up to a laser. I think once my head is wrapped around "what" each knob and fader is supposed to do, it will be easier to use. For example.... when you're explaining it in the video... you're able to say, "And by turning this knob to the right it adds more...." "moving this slider down causes it to do...." and then you see it on the laser output. I'm looking to at least get to that level when I can explain the board to someone... including myself! :)

Thanks Brad! Glad you are finding the videos informative. Even Ash mentioned that the best way to learn the console is to lock yourself in a room for a couple hours and just play. The most important part is understanding how to get back to the zero or home position!

Sometime I find myself wondering, "why the hell is the abstract doing that?" and I finally realized I've left something on.

I "play" from time to time but, without a real clue as to why what I'm doing is having a particular effect or... why turning something ISN'T having some sort of effect. The videos I think are going to help with that a great deal. :)

The boards are in! I soldered up the first board and I'm about to start wiring it to the panel. Hope it works!!!

Attachment 46623

Attachment 46624

Attachment 46625