Cheap and dirty power distribution busboard (part 2)

A quick update about the power distribution busboards. I removed all the modules from the case, and removed the old power rails.

The pictures above show a case with the old power rails, and won with them removed. I left the reverb tank in place for now.

I used the old mounting holes to attach plastic cable tie mounts, and fastened the busboards using cable ties. Not the prettiest method, but the result is quite stable.

PAiA 4700 resources

Some internet resources that I have found useful:

PAiAs own forum: http://paia.com/talk/

Another 4700 blog: http://obsolete-synthesis.blogspot.com

Obsolete synthesis document links: http://obsolete-synthesis.blogspot.com/2010/11/paia-documentation.html

 A collection of synth documentation: http://sonic.net/mjones/archive/docs/index.html

4750 Control oscillator/Noise

A quick exploration of the LFO/noise module shows some issues:

• The LFO output is clipping, making the bottom part of the sine waveform flat
• The LFO amplitude varies considerably over the frequency range

In addition to the issues R20, the resistor in series with the +18V supply voltage, has been changed from 100Ohm to 4.7kOhm. This dampens the LFO output voltage to approximately 5V p-p. I'm guessing there is some other issue causing this that this change kind of fixes... I will have to get back to this later.

The frequency ranges indicated on the panel are quite accurate.

4771 Power supply

Just a quick note about the power supply module. The unit in my synth has been heavily modified. From the beginning I noticed that the power was wired so that the power switch did not switch off the 18 volt line, just the positive and negative 9 volt lines. A quick look under the panel shows that the thing is quite ugly below the surface. The kludge mounted directly on the transformer seems to be an 18 volt regulator.

Apart from looking ugly, and the power switch issue, the unit actually delivers clean voltages on all lines. That being said, I still plan to replace the unit with my own design. with the following design goals:

• The front panel controls shall function as the original unit
• Keep the original face plate and transformer
• Use a fuse
• Use a voltage regulator for +18V
• Add OP-amp buffers on the control voltage outputs

To be continued!

4740 ADSR

On ADSR modules the manual trigger was unreliable. Sometimes the envelope would not start when the button was pushed, sometimes there was multiple triggers. I replaced the trigger push-buttons with new ones. The Elfa number 35-080-42 is  the same or very similar. When replaced, the behaviour was a lot better but I still get the occasional double trigger. I guess this kind of switch is kind of low quality and have some contact bounce.

One of the modules was missing the attack LED, so I replaced both the Attack and Decay LEDS with nes ones. I didn't find exactly the right type, but the ones I used fits in the panel holes and looks OK from the outside. Unfortunately I forgot the exact part I used.

I attempted to trim the modules. It was easy to set the peak level to 5 volts, but I could not get the sustain to go all the way down to zero. Also, when setting the sustain near maximum, the sustain voltage was not stable but slowly rising above 5 volts. I will have to get back to this later.

4720 VCO

The VCOs, like most of the modules, needed some love. Here two of them are removed from the case.

I attempted to trim the waveforms to approximate the ideal shapes by using the trimmers mounted on the PCB. The oscilloscope pictures show about the best results I could get for the triangle and sine outputs. As you can see there are "spikes" at the bottom of the triangle wave that also is visible on the sine wave since that is derived from the triangle. The cause of this is the non-ideal (non-zero) reset time of the sawtooth waveform since the triangle is created from the sawtooth by "folding" it over itself.

I will have to decide later if I will try to improve this behaviour. Perhaps it is a part of the design and contributes to the PAiA sound, and in that case I probably leave it as it is.

Cheap and dirty power distribution busboard (part 1)

One of the first things I realized when I started working on the PAiA was that I needed to do something about the power distribution. The power wires to the modules are soldered directly to the power bus lines, so if I want to work on the modules on the lab bench, I have to use wire cutters or a soldering iron each time I remove a module. I decided to make some simple power distribution busboards that connects to the modules using Moles connectors.

First I made strips out of ordinary 160x100 mm veroboard, each strip being 4 copper lines wide. Then I used metal wire to solder the strips together in paris. On one end of each strip I soldered a spring loaded terminal block.

 

Next I will order the Molex connectors from Elfa and mount four or five headers on each strip. More about that in a later post.

Oh yes, here are the Elfa part numbers for the connectors:
Cable connector: 43-804-16
Pin header: 43-808-12
Crimp terminal: 43-805-98

Some pictures of the system

Here are some high resolution pictures of the system for your viewing pleasure.

Making pin patch cables

The 4700 uses pin sockets for the CV signals and 1/8 inch tele jacks for audio signals. I need a few new cables of the pin type, so I decided to make them myself.

I ordered parts from Elfa which ships to some european countries. Perhaps it is possible to the same parts from other distributors. This is the parts I use:

Cable:
Part number 55-502-54. This is a nice flexible cable that seems to work well with the choosen plugs

Plugs:
Black pn 40-005-01
Red pn 40-005-27
Blue pn 40-213-10
Yellow pn 40-213-11
Gray pn 40-213-12
Green pn 40-213-13

Soldering is straight forward. Just don't forget to mount the hoods on the cable before soldering the plugs!

Starting the PAiA 4700 restoration project

I recently bought an old PAiA 4700 modular synthesizer. There are som known problems with my unit and while I spend time fixing it, I plan to write about the expericence here.

The modules included are:
2 4710 balanced modulator
1 4711 4/2 mixer
1 4712 reverb
3 4720 VCO
1 4730 VCF
2 4740 envelope generator
1 4750 control oscillator noise
1 4771 regulated power
1 4780 sequencer

The modules are mounted in a 4761 case and there is one 4782 keyboard.

The work will include (but are pbably not limited to) the following:

• Fixing the non-working keyboard
• Replacing old capacitors and possibly some othe components
• Fix some bad wiring
• Trimming the modules. The signals from the oscillators does not look like the ideal sine, saw, triangle and square, and the filters frequency response is weird
• Adding missing screws
• Making new pin cables

Let the work begin!