21 February 2008

PAIA 9700S (Part 3)

I finished the PAIA MIDI2CV8 module now. On the left you see the finished front panel. Installing the IC's was very easy again. I encountered only a small problem. For the Eprom and the Microprocessor chip sockets are supplied. And while inserting the Microprocessor in the socket I bend one pin on it. But I noticed it just in time and was able to correct this. On the right you see the Eprom that holds the software for the module in its socket. With a Microprocessor and software this MIDI2CV8 module is actually a little computer. Can't wait to fire it up, but I still need to pick up an external power adapter for it.

The wiring on this module was also a lot less complicated than on the dual VCO module. And to my surprise here another wire type was supplied, that was a lot easier to strip. Something I previously complained about for the dual VCO module. Another thing I found out is that the MIDI2CV8 module also serves as the primary DC power supply for the other modules. This module received 12 Volt AC from the power adapter and regulates this to +15 and -15 Volts DC. The power regulators on the other modules take there power from here and stabilize it again. Basically every module has a power input and output again, so you can daisy chain them together.

Here on the left you see the finished module. Actually two wires where missing when I took this picture, but it was getting dark. And I wanted to update this part today on the blog. The missing wires are now installed while I write this. On the module there are some dip switches that determine how it operates. You can also put it in some test modes to see if everything is working OK. So I guess that will be the first thing to do when I have the adapter. I will try to pick it up tomorrow. This module looked quite straight forward so I can't imagine I made a mistake, but well you never know for sure until it proves to work ;) I guess after this I will start finishing the VCF module. That will be a nice subject for Part 4 then.

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