Monday, January 28, 2008

VCO's and more getting shipped

Update from Paul Schreiber

I have finished 'real job' travels for this month. So, I will be able to begin VCO shipping later this week (probably starting Thursday). This is for *all* of the remaining 300/310 kits. It will take me a good 5-6 days to pack and ship all of the orders.

I have ~8 MOTM 2.0 orders that I will also have shipped by Friday.

The other high priority is to order the parts for the next run of MOTM-650s. The CM that does my SMT work is moving, and they will not be set up until ~Feb. 6th. That will allow time for me to gather up all the parts and take over there. It usually takes 2 weeks to get the boards back to me (I have to wait my turn on the machine, the boards themselves are all run in 2 days).

I will also see if there is a schedule for the V1.4 SW fixes, now that the new Europa code is released (the same person does the '650 and the Europa).

I will also ship 4 assembled MOTM-510s out this week (covers the backlog for orders <#399).

Paul S.

I hope that my backlogged VCO is among this shipment, that would be great, I've been waiting for it for quite a while now :-)

T J

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Power boards

Looks like I may need some of those beads I reported on earlier.

I received my MOTM-960 power distribution board a while ago, while I was traveling. The board is of the usual build quality, but one item you should be aware of when you order such a board, is that it does not come with any spacers , screws or other hardware. I guess this is not surprising, since there are loads of ways people may mount this board in their synths.
I ordered the board for two reasons:
-Future expansion of the synth
-Some cables are pretty tight, and are nearly under tension running from the power supply to the module.
I"m planning on mounting the board in the center TOP of the synth, so that the distance between the board and the various modules is reduced. The reason that I opted for the TOP is that it is much closer to a possible expansion cabinet that may (or may not) find it's way sometime in the future, placed on top of the current cabinet. And therefore be closer to modules fitted in that additional case. If you have any other ideas or suggestions in regards to mounting this board, I'd like to know, for my own benefit, and that of other blog readers. Cheers.

T J

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

MOTM update

The latest straight from Paul :

a) I am in the process of kitting up *all* of the remaining VCO, MOTM-510, MOTM-380, MOTM-850 and MOTM-890 orders. These will start shipping Jan 28th.

b) I'm having more connector boards wave-soldered this week (for the 900/950 supplies, MOTM-960s).

c) As predicted, real 'work' has most of my Jan. bandwidth. However, I am doing what I can as time allows. I have to do my taxes this weekend (takes about 12hrs). Always interesting to see what the postage costs (usually around $8,500).

d) My 10th MOTM anniversary will be Feb. 14, 2008! I hope to have module #8100 shipped by then. I guess the next milestone will be #10,000. That seems "out of reach" but then again I never expected to see #5000, either :) I suppose Doepfer is pushing #20,000 by now, which is about the same *sales dollars* as I am now. Not shabby as a part-time hobby out of the spare bedroom. Plus I've sold ~70 Frac modules and ~90 blank pc boards.
P S

I guess Paul will be busy for a while :-)

T J

Monday, January 07, 2008

Beads and craftshops



Jeff Laity send me the following tip to share with you.

I was shopping for hardware for my MOTM, and was amazed at what they were charging for .25" spacers. Nylon spacers were $0.25 a piece at my local hardware store, and aluminum spacers were more than double that. I shopped around a bit more until I had the idea to check a craft store. I found a solution that was the right size, very cheap, and a lot of fun all at the same time. I might have to add secret messages behind my synth boards from now on. :)

Thanks Jeff for sharing.

T J