It’s 5 pins an the colour scheme on the cable is identical to the colour scheme on pexp1‘s cable. I am tempted to try hooking pexp1 up to pams pro! 🤣
-- nemoy
I would probably try tracing them with a 'scope or logic analyzer first, just to be sure...
(The signals would be always-present if it is the same, +5/run/x24/midi/gnd)
Oh wow, I just found the little side note about Pro Workout NOT being compatible with the PEXP1. damn.
Is it just a different connector, and could be somehow connected with a little bit of hacking and knowing the exact pin outs? or is it a completely different thing?Also, are we limited to one expander at a time? Like axon-1 only?
-- nemoy
The sales copy seems to indicate that the AXON port and the future output expander port are separate. The AXON ports on other ALM products only connect one at a time, as did the output expander port on PNW, so I'd expect it's one-of-each.
That case sounds dope though!
If it does all the things i'm imagining it certainly will be, but that'll be another thread one day! (Along with the little internal-expander backpack i made for the PNW)
This pro version doesn't seem that great tbh. A new screen and some new shapes that could have been a firmware update. Maybe I'm missing something.
The only vaguely compelling feature i've seen so far is the option to use an AXON for more CV ins, but i barely use the two that PNW has currently, so yeah it seems like mostly a "meh" upgrade for existing users. I wonder if they'll backport the firmware features or pull an apple there too?
Ah so that's why they were awful and condescending when i asked support about PNW's expander pinout recently...
-- justarandomgeekIf you care to share, what happened exactly? Treating people badly, especially ones that put food on your table, not so cool.
-- yeahivandalizm
I was looking for info to route the clock signals to ports on a custom case, so I emailed support and they just said "we don't have that information" and ignored any further replies asking for someone who does. So I contacted them on twitter and got told "well you should be able to figure that out yourself". So I got out my logic analyzer and did. By far the worst interaction with a eurorack manufacturer i've had so far.
(i'd list the pinout here, but apparently the Pro's is different so it would be misleading here)
Ah so that's why they were awful and condescending when i asked support about PNW's expander pinout recently...
so instead of trying to connect the PSU's parallel i am going to add another RT65B in this specific row and everything should be fine...
thanks again!-- modular01
Yeah, just adding another "power zone" is definitely the easier/more reliable solution!
If I remember correctly some Meanwell type of converters allow parallel use. They have a kind of current sensing wire and compensation circuit. I believe there’s also an application note available on their website.
-- BrumoD
yeah, for proper load sharing they need a little bit of sensing, but some (not all!!) dumb supplies are designed for parallel usage too, just with less-perfect sharing. I just don't know if OP's particular one is or not and can't quickly tell from its datasheet (usually a bad sign).
So, in theory you can do this, but in practice there are a lot of ways it can go wrong too. If the supplies aren't perfectly matched (far closer than normal usage would require, so they probably aren't) they won't share the loads evenly, so you won't get as much extra headroom as you'd think, and if they're very badly unmatched they might drive power directly from one supply into another. Also, depending on their design they may also develop resonance/interference between them leading to, at best, very unclean power, and at worst, equipment-damaging surges. You might get away with it, if you're lucky, but i doubt anyone on here will be willing to say you will get away with it. I certainly wouldn't encourage it.
I'm mostly in camp "by ear" too for signal levels too, as Jim says the worst that happens is that something clips off a bit of the signal. Definitely occasionally throw envelope signals into Mordax to get a look at what they're doing though!
IMHO though, other than tuning you really shouldn't chase all that much precision in signal levels! Let it be a little sloppy, it might do something cool!
I got as many blanks to close all the holes inside this 104HP long case.... and big surprise... I'm left with exactly a 2hp gap at the end! does anybody else ever noticed this additional space on their Skiffs?
-- gila_crisis
I don't have this specific case but i've noticed in some others (including my big DIY cabinet) that if i squeeze everything tightly together i end up with an HP or two left that "shouldn't exist" compared to distributing that space into a tiny gap between each module. I prefer to keep the slight bit of space between for easier mid-rack swaps when i feel the need.
I'm pretty sure you can use the es8 as a standalone ADAT expander - don't use the usb and connect the ADAT I/O to the ADAT I?O of your Motu... the extra channels will show up as part of the Motu in your DAW
check the manual - it's easily accessible on the ES site!
-- JimHowell1970
you know what i totally forgot it did this because i always have the usb plugged in to mine! But honestly, for use as an ADAT converter from an existing interface i would still probably go for the optx for the full 8x8 channel set...
I'm having trouble finding info on that specific model, but yes, if it supports ADAT then yes that's pretty much it - you'd just hook up the optical cable and use the extra channels. Do note that ADAT and S/PDIF use the same physical connector but are not actually compatible protocols, so be sure which you've got on the MOTU!
the ES-8's ADAT ports are additional channels of the ES-8. If you just want more eurorack jacks from an existing interface with ADAT ports you probably want something more like https://boredbrainmusic.com/product/optx/ and/or the ES-3/6
Oh. I guess that explains why I can't find PM Mutes anywhere... :(
Glad I went ahead and bought myself a second Arpitecht the other day too!
Euclidean Circles is another must-5v for your list!
Just a note on QoP sample switching. The SD card is on the back of the unit, so you have to remove your module to get at it, so this is not the kind of module for regular sample switching. ...
-- mbl77
I wonder how badly things would go if one were to use a little ribbon cable extender to break out backside microsd slots to a 1-2hp module with a frontside slot or two (or three? however many fit i guess)
Something like https://www.amazon.com/Chenyang-Memory-Female-Extension-Extender/dp/B07QXPG8HG ought to be a decent test if somebody wants to do some science...
Edit: probably worth noting though, modules with backside slots likely don't expect card hotswaps!
I would probably start with just a multimeter and test the rack itself, empty, for +12, -12, +5 where they're all supposed to be. If any of them are way out of whack, that's probably your problem. Given your source was only 12v in, it seems unlikely (but not impossible) that it failed in a way that damaged modules, so you probably got lucky there. Plugging them into another rack is a pretty good way to test them, and from what you've described so far i'd probably just be bold and go for it testing the modules (one at a time though) - but keep an eye for obvious trouble as you power it up and be ready to pull the input power quickly if needed!
Any answers you'll be able to get to this will be wild guesses unfortunately, without being able to lay hands on the equipment in question with some test gear to find out what's gone wrong. That said, my guess from your description is that something went wrong in the power supply, since it seems to affect all modules, not just a specific one. I'd guess that using a 12V input instead of the 15V intellijel calls for meant it pulled more current from the input to make up the power difference, and as you loaded it up that accumulated too high and cooked something.
EDIT: oh, or it's also possible that the 12v universal adapter you used might not have been able to supply the current the rack wanted and cooked that adapter instead
The main difference is that the Lunch Bus's power converter (the little MeanWell block) is half the power of the one on the Excalibus - if that still covers your needs, go for it! (In theory, the footprints are the same, so could put the 30W MeanWell on a LunchBus but as Jim says i've never seen one DIY...)
I also have several Excalibus, and apart from getting a little warm because I really need one more of them, they're great! I opted to add some cheap little heatsinks on the converters to help them out a little bit, but the datasheet also says that they're supposed to run a little toasty, so it's probably not really necessary.
When you view the rack's Datasheet, it gives a power sum per row, so you could use one super wide rack to represent multiple zones one-per-row
It would be super nice to be able to just tag power zones manually in the rack and have those sums instead/also in the datasheet
and/or manual on laptop/tablet/phone
-- JimHowell1970
https://distingquickguide.rustle.works/ is nice for a quick reference!
Supposedly the noise goes away if you put a dummy load on the 5V line, but you'll never get a straight answer from anyone online as to how to go about that (don't ask me, nobody would tell me, either) because everyone assumes you'll kill yourself.
-- milkmilklemonade
I don't have one of these supplies so I can't speak to specifics of the noise problem, but a dummy load is just a big resistor from power to ground to ensure there's a minimum load on that rail by wasting a little energy as heat. As a wild ass guess based on that supply's specs (https://www.meanwell.com/productPdf.aspx?i=484 - 5V rail 5A, and they want 20%->1A minimum load) I'd probably start with a 10 ohm 50 watt (like https://www.amazon.com/LM-YN-Wirewound-Electronic-Industrial/dp/B071Z8B9FN) which will be a 0.5A load, and experiment from there with a second/third in parallel. The actual amount "required" will depend on the other 5V load in the system, and if it does help you'll want the smallest load that solves the problem, to minimize the wasted power/generated heat.
The gated clock IS the output of the And gate. One and the same. So again this will cause a reset on each transition of the (gated) clock, and no division will occur.
-- jamos
"Gated clock" is just the signal in that particular patch example, where they are using the AND to combine a clock signal and a gate signal before patching it to the CLOCK input, instead of letting it go to the RESET via the normal (which is broken by patching RESET to 8)
My standard search has become Reverb/Ebay, then Perfect Circuit, Patchwerks, then "well who's got it in stock?"!
Edit: oh, and buying from makers directly where possible is early in that list too!
It's a shame they seem to have dropped the in-rack VCV Recorder module (to push people to buy pro?), that was super convenient...
Using S&H with noise is common because it gives you a nice stepped-random, but you can use it on anything you like.
Here's a few ideas:
* Use S&H to sample a fast sequencer output slowly to produce a related slower sequence
* Use S&H to sample a LFO to get a stepped effect instead of smoothly sweeping whatever the LFO controls
* Use S&H on an audio signal triggered at audio rates (if the module can do so, not all can) for a "bit crush like" effect, except it's a crush in time resolution rather than amplitude resolution
The +12V and -12V rails are separate power busses, they dont' add together - you should be okay with those numbers as stated, though the common advice is to leave some headroom between your usage numbers and the PSU's capacity numbers, so you don't want to push it all the way to 3A on either.
You can't directly daisy-chain modules, but you can either make custom multi-drop power cables yourself or buy some "flying bus" cables which plug into one socket and have more sockets on them for individual cables. In my rack I made a few custom multi-cables just to simplify the cable mess inside! You don't want to chain power-heavy modules this way though, only the "small" ones, my biggest grouped cable is 4 modules totaling ~600ma on the +12v.
Does anyone know if the 'mix' output on the Rample is mono or stereo?
-- rextable
With only a single jack, it's almost certainly mono. Basically nothing is TRS/Stereo except occasionally output modules to headphones/speakers, when stereo does exist it's mostly as pairs of mono jacks.
I'm in a home basement in the US so I assume 15 amps per circuit in general.
You don't really need to worry about the AC circuit's current - it's 120V coming out of the wall, so 1A there would make 10A at 12V (ish, minus a bit for conversion losses) when it comes out the other side of your power supply. You'll have to build a massive rack for it to need more than a regular household 10-15A AC circuit to plug in to! :)
