Something is done. Kind of. Not a synth component, though.
After the first attempt at the USB sound module didn’t work, I hastily tossed together the second one, using more-or-less parts on hand. This time, I didn’t do the flood-and-drag technique on the SSOP IC. I did something a lot less electrically unsafe – I fluxed the board, laid solder on the pads, fluxed again, carefully placed the IC on the pads, and then used my craft heat tool to solder it. I then tested pin-to-PCB connectivity, and hand-soldered the three or so pins that didn’t get connected by the heat gun. The board is noisy sounding, but it works! I think I’m going to try desoldering the first one with the heat tool, and maybe trying it again that way. If it doesn’t work then, I’ll have to write off the IC as dead. (Update since I wrote this earlier today: did the desolder/solder thing. WORKED! Now I’ll have to get an enclosure for this one. With any luck it will be quieter (better parts, better grounding), because this second one is noisy as hell.)
Other stuff worked on:
SN-Voice- giving me lots of headaches. It’s all together, but has some very odd problems. I have gotten the LFO to produce sound under certain circumstances, and I think I heard the output of the noise generator once, so, it’s progress. Ran into a problem that appeared to be a bad socket. trying to fix that led to all sorts of issues that aren’t quite resolved yet, but getting there.
Gristleizer – poked at it a bit, but no real progress. I may try putting one of the other boards together, see if it works any better.
Upcoming projects:
The “Where’s The Party At?” 8-bit sampler – it should be arriving Monday.
A SoftRock Lite Software-defined Radio – picked this up at Notacon.
Some monitor speakers – I got the cabinets already, and now figuring out appropriate drivers/crossovers/whatnot. Then I’ll have to build some amplifiers…