Hey guys. I really love when I come to the thread and find things happening. it always gets me motivated. Anyway, here is what I have for you today. The latest prototype of the basic mixing board. This is all tested and is in good working order. I just need to move one or two parts for a little better clearance and maybe tweak some labeling. I'll be ordering a batch this week. Once that order is in, I will re-list the white market thread and start taking orders.
So what's this version like? It is back to the basic summing mixer like the mark4. This will, in fact, be the mark5 and the larger more complex mixer will be the next version. From the mark4 to this you get two big changes. First, each channel gets it's own set of decoupling caps and diodes for better channel separation. The second new feature is the more interesting (if you ask me) the fader and pan pick off points have been arranged so that they can be wired as they have been in the past with terminals connecting to wired off controls, OR you can mount the controls directly to the board for LCR pan and a fader per channel. Now using both on every channel in the board mounted setup will make for a cozy fit on the controls, but my thinking was that many of these summing mixers are built with only some sort of LCR pan so this will simplify that greatly. Then I also thought that these are summing mixers not consoles. If the controls are a little snug it's not the end of the world because most people won't actually riding the faders or doing "moves" they just need a variable attenuator so they dial in there outboard. So extending that logic even further made me think a good build for many studios would be to do 4 channels fixed center fade only, four channel LCR and fade, and as many channels of LCR only as you need.
This brings me to the other difference from the mark4, the mark5 is 4 channels. Probably not shocking if you have been following the progression of this project. With the board sized as they are you should be able to get 3 across a standard 19" box. So 24 channels in 2RU with the controls mounted directly to the board will be possible.
test channel with hard wired controls
showing the wiring options for controls
I'll post again once the white market thread is open again.
Don
p.s. oh yeah, the boards will be blue, as always. I was trying out a new fab house for the prototypes, so no purple (even though I do like them)