www.megadrum.info

Just opened my 2.7 board from Synthex, and what an incredible looking board it is!

I mean this thing looks like it was built to go fast. Its kind of a shame that I'm going to have to muck it up with my mediocre soldering. But of course the rest of my parts have yet to ship from Digikey as my piezos were on backorder.

When the rest of the stuff comes in I will take pictures during the assembly process and try to figure out how to post them here.

I can't wait!

spugnoid wrote:Just opened my 2.7 board from Synthex, and what an incredible looking board it is!

Thank you very much ! That pleases to hear that !

Yep, I just got mine and its a very sexy little beast. Super professional.
Great job Synthex, thanks a lot!

yeah the board looks amazing, nearly ready to power mine up, bit high from solder fumes i think! could anyone tell me if i want push to make or push to break buttons for the keyboard control?????

thanks synthex

zebedee398 wrote:yeah the board looks amazing, nearly ready to power mine up, bit high from solder fumes i think! could anyone tell me if i want push to make or push to break buttons for the keyboard control?????

thanks synthex

Push to make

Just soldering up my board now that my parts are in. Concerning the 47uf caps, is the square pad positive or negative on the board? I see two of them are marked but the one next to the 4 ICs is not.

spugnoid wrote:Just soldering up my board now that my parts are in. Concerning the 47uf caps, is the square pad positive or negative on the board? I see two of them are marked but the one next to the 4 ICs is not.

The square pad is positive.

OK, thanks.

I booted up my MegaDrum board for the first time last night -- everything looks great so far. I was able to see the bars on the screen jump as I ran my finger across the 32-input header on the board. I haven't built the keyboard yet, so I wasn't able to try any of the menus. My computer recognized it as a "USB Audio Device" as well.

I'm using Synthex's 32-input all-in-one board v2.7 with the 74HC4851's currently installed. I'm planning to include all of the features (MIDI I/O, USB, LCD, keys, ext. power jack). I almost got the 4.7k and 47k resistors wrong (didn't catch the "4k7" and "47k" silk screen right away), but I guess that's what happens when soldering after 11pm.

I'll be back with photos once I get the enclosure completed. I guess this means I need to build some pads too.


Jeremy D. (USA)

Finally got all my parts to put my kit together.

Just plugged it in usb and I seem to be having a problem with my lcd. The backlight comes on but no matter how far in either direction I turn the trimpot it doesn't change the contrast. and by not change the contrast I mean I can't see anything.

I haven't really tested if its being picked up properly as I'm on my macbook but the light does blink and it seems to be working fine.
I think I know what the problem is.. and I'm hoping its not the case but it seems like they sent me the wrong crystal in my order.

I ordered from futurelec (yes, I've heard bad things abotu them too) and they sent me the "low profile" crystals instead of the normal ones.

http://www.futurlec.com/Crystals/CRYLF20M000.shtml is what they sent me.

Are these possible whats causing the problem? I noticed they were wrong when I got my order but I didn't figure it would matter, that it was just the packaging.

If you don't think it is any suggestions?

Thanks!