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evaton technologies SDIY MDRONE Assembly Manual

Revision a - parts & pcb kit
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SDIY MDRONE
Assembly Manual
Revision A - Parts & PCB Kit
Introduction
Thanks for purchasing the SDIY
SDIY MDRONE kit is a battery-powered standalone tabletop drone synth that
can be built in just a few evenings. The SDIY MDRONE kit is available as just
parts and PCB (build your own case), or as a complete parts + PCB + pre-drilled
enclosure, for those who wish to get up and running right away
The SDIY MDRONE voice architecture consists of three independent square-
wave oscillators, which are mixed in a fixed summing mixer. The mixer output
is then fed to a semi-resonant bandpass filter, with adjustable center frequency
and bandwidth. A "Grit" setting allows overdriving the filter for dirtying-up the
sound and making a more hard-hitting timbre.
Output is a 1/4" mono (TS) line-level audio jack.
Skill Level
The SDIY MDRONE kit, while not necessarily aimed at the complete novice,
can be built by anyone with some soldering experience. All components are
standard, readily-available thru-hole components. The spacing of the
components on the circuit board is generous, so that no special tools are
required to install. These instructions assume you already know how to solder,
and cut and strip wires.
Precautions
Soldering irons are HOT! Be careful not to touch the business end of your
soldering iron at any time. Also note that components that have been soldered
will remain hot for a few moments. If you need to hold something to solder it, it
is recommended NOT to use your fingers. Wear long pants and long sleeves to
avoid solder splash from burning exposed skin.
1
Synthesizer Do-It-Yourself
2
If you purchased this kit as a complete parts + PCB + enclosure kit, additional instructions for the
enclosure will be included in your shipment.
http://www.evatontechnologies.com/
1
MDRONE kit from Evaton Technologies! The
200 School St
Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718
2
.

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Summary of Contents for evaton technologies SDIY MDRONE

  • Page 1 SDIY MDRONE kit is a battery-powered standalone tabletop drone synth that can be built in just a few evenings. The SDIY MDRONE kit is available as just parts and PCB (build your own case), or as a complete parts + PCB + pre-drilled...

  • Page 2: Tools Required

    Also Required: • 9V battery. Alkaline preferred, but heavy-duty is fine, too. A properly constructed SDIY MDRONE will run many hours on a single battery. • 1/4” mono patch cord (TS) Acidcore music is great. Acid core solder is not.

  • Page 3: Signal Flow

    While it is not necessary to completely understand exactly how the circuits in the SDIY MDRONE work, a top-level description of the theory is presented here, for those who’d like to get a little more acquainted with electronics. Please see the included schematic diagram to follow along .
  • Page 4 12, but it can drive a bigger load without the voltage being affected. The “virtual ground” of 4.5 volts is required because the SDIY MDRONE operates from a single 9V supply. Most op-amp circuits require a positive voltage supply and a negative voltage supply to operate.

  • Page 5: Kit Contents

    200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ Bandpass Filter The bandpass filter is an active filter that uses two op-amps and capacitors and resistors to filter out signals that are outside of its “pass band”. Frequencies of sound that are below the filter’s pass band are removed, and frequencies that are higher than the pass band are also removed, but frequencies that fall inside the pass band are passed through to the output.

  • Page 6: Assembly Instructions

    Assembly Instructions Note On Assembly Of Front Panel Components While most of the components on the SDIY MDRONE get soldered directly to the PCB, the front panel components are first soldered to wires, and then the wires are soldered to the board. Leave long enough wires to allow easy assembly at the end.
  • Page 7 200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ solder the resistors in place. When you are sure you’ve made a good solder joint on all four pads, cut the excess leads off. ____ 9V Battery Snap The 9V battery snap comes with pre-stripped leads. The red lead is the positive lead, and the black lead is the negative.
  • Page 8 200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ Now, flip the power switch. The meter should still read infinite resistance (open-circuit). Next, change your multimeter to the VOLTS setting. If it is a manual-range meter, make sure it is set up to read at least 9 volts full scale.
  • Page 9 200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ ____ 10kΩ Resistors Install the remaining 10kΩ resistors into locations R2, R4, R7, R8, R10, R18, and R22. ____ 1.1kΩ Resistor Install a 1.1kΩ resistor in location R14. There will be another 1.1kΩ resistor left over;...
  • Page 10 And Now, A Few Words About Potentiometers The next steps of assembling your SDIY MDRONE involve wiring up the front-panel components. As mentioned earlier, it’s best to wire the front panel components, and lay them out beside the board, rather than attempting to mount the front panel components first and then wiring.
  • Page 11 finish construction of the SDIY MDRONE! ____ 5kΩ Audio Potentiometer (Volume Pot) Solder one 6- to 8-inch wire to each of the three leads on the 5kΩ potentiometer. Bearing in mind the numbering scheme mentioned above, solder the other end of each of these three wires to pads 1, 2, and 3 of the potentiometer outline R11 on the PCB.
  • Page 12 200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ ____ 100kΩ Linear Taper Potentiometers Solder one 6- to 8-inch wire to each of the three leads on each of the 4 100kΩ linear (B100K) potentiometers. Solder the other ends of these wires to the pads for R1, R16, R20, and R23.
  • Page 13 final toggle switch. The Grit Selection is technically a “circuit-bend” -- additional functionality added to the circuit, after it was designed! The SDIY MDRONE is ripe ground for circuit bending; see the appendix for more circuit- bending ideas.
  • Page 14 200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ If you want to be able to select between Grit and Non-Grit, then install a 4.7kΩ resistor in R21, and also solder one end of a 1.1kΩ resistor to one end of the 4.7kΩ resistor. Solder the free end of the 1.1kΩ resistor to one of the leads of the final toggle switch.
  • Page 15 If not, go back and check your work carefully. ____ Assembling the Controls Turn off the power to the SDIY MDRONE. If you are using the optional pre- made case, follow the case assembly instructions in the case assembly manual.
  • Page 16 That’s it! The SDIY MDRONE is ready to use. Operating the SDIY MDRONE Using the SDIY MDRONE is easy and fun. Each of the three oscillators can be turned on or off, using the Osc On/Off toggle switches. The pitch of each oscillator can be controlled with the Osc1 thru Osc3 knobs.
  • Page 17 200 School St Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2718 http://www.evatontechnologies.com/ Filter Capacitor Hack This circuit bend is easy to implement -- simply install a 0.47 uF 16V capacitor into locations C9 and C10. Then, connect a DPDT switch as shown in the following diagram. Now, toggling this switch shifts the center frequency of the bandpass filter very low.
  • Page 18 More Circuit Bends Check back periodically on the Evaton website to see more circuit bending ideas, or, please join the Evaton Technologies user forums at: http://www.evatontechnologies.com/apps/forums And be sure to post up some of your own circuit bending experiments!
  • Page 21 OSC 1 OSC 2 OSC 3 Filter evaton technologies SDIY MDRONE OSC 1 OSC 1 OSC 1 Power Volume Grit OSC 2 Filter OSC 1 OSC 3 evaton technologies SDIY MDRONE OSC 1 OSC 1 Power Volume...