Livingnote Buss limiter

[SSLtech]

This week I had a visit from Lukas (Livingnote) and his charming girlfriend. -They were passing through town on their way home to Europe, so I gave them the tour of where I am and what I do, as they passed by on the way to Kennedy Space Center to watch the shuttle launch.

Well, it seems that they had a few disappointments (apart from meeting me, that is!  ;D) not least of which was the storm clouds which rolled in JUST before the launch (I'd set my alarm clock to wake me so I could watch it from my house, because night-time launches are always spectacular) meant that they had to go home without seeing a lift-off.

...But worse than that, Lukas's 'pride and joy' version of the buss limiter had apparently been damaged in travel, and had sustained quite a mighty blow to the front.

-Now bear in mind that this front panel appears to be made from high chromium steel (certainly, it's untreated, unvarnished etc, yet it does not rust, even a tiny bit!) and that it's the thickest DIY front panel I've ever seen, and you might have some idea of how much it got banged up, when I point out that it was bent by about 10° down towards one end...

In addition, most of the front panel controls were destroyed. -The Lorlin switches were smashed, as were most of the pots. Some of the LEDs were also smashed/shattered, and Lukas had taken it apart to survey the damage, before apparently beginning to somewhat despair of putting it back together.

Now, being that I've ALWAYS been both particularly enthusiastic and especially impressed with this particular build, I pretty much decided that I just HAD to work on it! -Certainly, I think they would have had an impossible task of getting this on a plane back to Germany... Too many loose twisted wires and questionable bits of home-assembled circuitry for security-conscious airline personnel to EVER take a chance on flying, I'm certain!

-So after they left, I set to work on repairing and re-assembling the unit. Here's a couple of photos of what I've been up to in the last couple of evenings...

Some broken bits which were removed:

The re-assembled panel up close:

Right now I have to replace the (240V primary) power transformer, -I've ramped the power up gently with a variable autotransformer, and a 240V step-up... and so far everything looks pretty good, apart from one blue LED which is internally broken. (I'll have to try and source one which looks similar both illuminated and unlit). -But apart from that, I think I'll look into modifying the unit a little more.

I'm extremely surprised at how 'proprietorial' I've become towards this unit; it's turning into a true 'labor of love' -this might just be my favourite piece of DIY... EVER!

Extremely well done, Lukas!

-Keith

 

[SSLtech]

Also, here's a photo of the unit with a 120/240V-primary Talema transformer which I'll try in place of the existing 240V-only tranny currently in place. -It will drive most installations, but this particular one has so many LEDs plus turbo, plus crush-n-blend plus sidechain filters, plus relays plus sidechain drivers... I'll have to monitor the current draw rather carefully, to see if it will handle this monster!

Keith

 

[Rossi]

Holy Cow! That unit does look awesome!

 

[Ptownkid]

That faceplate is one of my faves!!!!

 

[livingnote]

Wow - now I'm speechless. This is so awesome.

I keep trying to find a way to express my joy but somehow
it just doesn't translate over the internet. Maybe there's a kind
of music that goes to the process, like here:

http://www.livingnote.com/Musik/First%20drumnbass.mp3

I'm extremely surprised at how 'proprietorial' I've become towards this unit; it's turning into a true 'labor of love' -this might just be my favourite piece of DIY... EVER!

Now that takes the cake. You've adopted it  ;D I'm sure it's gonna
love its new daddy. What an amazing thing to have happen, to share the joy
and see it do its own thing. And even by virtue of it having gotten broken,
its like a challenge, like a kind of open conquest going "let's see how
far we can get this thing". I have never been in a project that has become
so addictive, and it's like it's there asking to be taken to full adulthood,
so that not only the creativity shows, but you can use it in a multitude
of real-world situations and happily knob off once the lid is back on.

Really funny, how the same drive that told me to design the heck out of it
somehow moved me to give it to you. And how far it's come - nights of
sitting in front of the ultimate thread, untangling the logic, three entire
versions of the CnB, things distorting, going wrong, then working, large
and small victories, all in there, glowing and humming for everyone to see...

"look, here is what you can do with your creativity when you just go with it".

I can't say how pleased I am with what is happening, and am excited
to see what it's gonna do next.

Meanwhile, all this has given me the motivation to haul off and design a
"forum version" for other people to build, so we can share the joy of it
all. Currently, I am looking to give the meter an abs(a,b) circuit so that
rather than the sum it indicates the higher level channel at any given
time, that's really all you need a meter for, to set levels and spot the
overs - while I'm at it I'll give it a peak hold, too. BTW was that meter
thing you were talking about a channel difference meter?

Have a great time building, and I'm looking forward to what's coming,

Lukas

 

[desol]

Awesome. Your a good man Keith!

 

[SSLtech]

Currently, I am looking to give the meter an abs(a,b) circuit so that rather than the sum it indicates the higher level channel at any given time

I can draw one up for you... -no worries!

-As a general guideline, it can either do it by using two precision rectifier (half-wave) summing points; (one for each pole) or a single (fully-rectified) summing node... basically the same way that the turbo sidechain works (although -in that case- the forward drop of the diode is treated as part of the 'threshold' rather than being designed 'fully out', but generally the same.

Perhaps quicker if I draw it rather than explaining... Then you can feed the output into your R/C time constant, and then to the display driver.

Keith

 

[livingnote]

Ah great - I had seen one that does that on yusynth.net, here:

http://yusynth.net/Modular/index_en.html

Is that similar to what you were thinking of? One thing I still have
trouble getting my head around is the idea of why adding up in-phase
ac signals will be a higher sum than the parts, and DC - style stuff
will just take the higher of either as a maximum output  ???

 

[SSLtech]

You've got mail. -There's a number of options regarding deployment, so I let me know what you think works.

Keith