OSCAR - Open Source Console for Analogue Recording

[ruffrecords]

I've spent some time thinking about this and one solution that I don't think has been mentioned is using aluminum extrusion with slidable nut plates, so the modules can be fixed on whatever center spacing you like.

Easy to do with regular Eurorack tapped strip. As Abbey mentioned you do need some method to hold them in place to stop them wandering off.

http://microrax.com will cut to order and they're quite inexpensive. You can build just about anything out of them, taking into account the load-bearing limitations of the extrusion thickness. Thoughts?

They only seem to be available in USA. Is there something equivalent in Europe?

Cheers

Ian

Cheers

Ian

 

[pvision]

They only seem to be available in USA. Is there something equivalent in Europe?

I had a quick look online yesterday but couldn't find anything. It's a 10x10 version of the 20x20 standard which seems quite pervasive

For what it's worth, a few links

http://www.microrax.com/Profiles-Beams-Rail-c3/
http://www.aluminium-profile.co.uk/acatalog/Aluminium_Profile.html
http://www.vslot-europe.com/12-v-slot-profils
http://www.motedis.com/shop/Slot-profiles:::1.html
http://www.makerbeam.com
http://www.goodingalum.com/p10/c2/Aluminium-Profiles-Extrusions

Nick Froome

 

[ruffrecords]

They only seem to be available in USA. Is there something equivalent in Europe?

I had a quick look online yesterday but couldn't find anything. It's a 10x10 version of the 20x20 standard which seems quite pervasive
Nick Froome

yes, I have never found anything smaller than 15mm. 10mm is really a maximum otherwise you lose too much front panel real estate. I allow 10mm top and bottom in my Eurorack modules.

Cheers

Ian

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Easy to do with regular Eurorack tapped strip. As Abbey mentioned you do need some method to hold them in place to stop them wandering off.

At the time I used these, they were held in place with small nylon rings that were squeezed in the slot.

 

[ruffrecords]

Easy to do with regular Eurorack tapped strip. As Abbey mentioned you do need some method to hold them in place to stop them wandering off.

At the time I used these, they were held in place with small nylon rings that were squeezed in the slot.

Maybe some standard nylon washer would fit?

Cheers

Ian

 

[pvision]

I was envisaging a horizontal slot on the panel with a captive screw like this

If everything is sized correctly the screwthread screws through the slot and is then captive

If the threaded strip pitch is 5.08mm, and the slot is also 5.08mm, it will always find a home

Nick Froome

 

[ruffrecords]

I was envisaging a horizontal slot on the panel with a captive screw like this
If everything is sized correctly the screwthread screws through the slot and is then captive

If the threaded strip pitch is 5.08mm, and the slot is also 5.08mm, it will always find a home

Nick Froome

As long as the slot is long enough that should work fine, The nominal slot width in a Eurorack module is 6.1mm. You might need to stretch this to 10mm to allow 'odd' spacings.

Cheers

Ian

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Easy to do with regular Eurorack tapped strip. As Abbey mentioned you do need some method to hold them in place to stop them wandering off.

At the time I used these, they were held in place with small nylon rings that were squeezed in the slot.

Maybe some standard nylon washer would fit?

I don't know; the ones I used looked like they came from a tube, about 7mm in diameter and 0.7mm thick.

 

[ruffrecords]

Easy to do with regular Eurorack tapped strip. As Abbey mentioned you do need some method to hold them in place to stop them wandering off.

At the time I used these, they were held in place with small nylon rings that were squeezed in the slot.

Maybe some standard nylon washer would fit?

I don't know; the ones I used looked like they came from a tube, about 7mm in diameter and 0.7mm thick.

I think the slot for the tapped strip is just over 5mm wide so a 7mm diameter washer' would be squeezed into an oval shape. Do you remember if they looked oval when fitted? Nylon might be too stiff

Cheers

Ian

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Easy to do with regular Eurorack tapped strip. As Abbey mentioned you do need some method to hold them in place to stop them wandering off.

At the time I used these, they were held in place with small nylon rings that were squeezed in the slot.

I figure out it's difficult to explain. These were not washers, they were portions of tube. In other words, the depth was about 2-3 mm, and the difference between OD and ID was about 1.5mm.
Maybe some standard nylon washer would fit?

I don't know; the ones I used looked like they came from a tube, about 7mm in diameter and 0.7mm thick.

I think the slot for the tapped strip is just over 5mm wide so a 7mm diameter washer' would be squeezed into an oval shape. Do you remember if they looked oval when fitted? Nylon might be too stiff

Cheers

Ian

 

[pvision]

FISCHER ELEKTRONIK  HS1  Enclosure Accessory, Captive Screw, Insert Modules & Front Panels.

£8.68 for a pack of 1000!

http://uk.farnell.com/fischer-elektronik/hs1/mounting-material/dp/1858368

Nick Froome

 

[r2d2]

FISCHER ELEKTRONIK  HS1  Enclosure Accessory, Captive Screw, Insert Modules & Front Panels.

£8.68 for a pack of 1000!

....
Nick Froome

seen similar on neve prism v rack for fix modules to rack...

r

 

[pvision]

I just bought a Eurorack and an 10HE card frame with front panel. I have some card guides and a couple of NTP limiters so  can see how the system fits together

Mechanically, it's great. Alignment is dictated by the mounting rails and the rear rails. The connectors mount directly to the (predrilled) rear rails, and are naturally in alignment with the front rails. With appropriate card guides it all fits together like a jigsaw. Very impressive

The case is the one Ian posted about a while ago. A few links below

Schroff Case
http://uk.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=15001&langId=44&urlRequestType=Base&partNumber=1455794&storeId=10151

10HE card frame
http://uk.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=15001&langId=44&urlRequestType=Base&partNumber=1455897&storeId=10151

Card Guides
http://uk.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=15001&langId=44&urlRequestType=Base&partNumber=1370429&storeId=10151

96-pin DIN 41612 connector
http://uk.farnell.com/te-connectivity-amp/5535043-4/connector-din-41612-rcpt-96pos/dp/2452391

I bought the 160 deep case. There's no provision for lacing bars for cables when the case is the same depth as the card (160 mm) so a deeper case would be better. The connectors are not designed for cables to be soldered to them and I imagine they're designed to be connected to a backplane

Backplane board
http://www.verotl.com/en/product/21-slot-multilayer-backplane-for-96-64-way-connectors-part-number-222-27569

The 96-pin connector has three rows of pins. A 64-pin version is also available and would make the backplane considerably simpler and cheaper. I don't know whether the Eurocard standard dictates how the pins are to be wired - more research needed

Nick Froome

 

[ruffrecords]

For the EZTubeMixer project I use 32 way connectors with 0.2 inch spacing because of the high voltages used. You can buy types for backplanes, for wire wrap and with solder lugs. I started using solder lug types but found wring bus bars by hand was a PITA and I designed a backplane PCB. Note that the rear rails for holding a back plane are not the same as the ones for holding individual connectors.

I notice you got a 10HP (TE) card and front panel. The sub-rack is 84HP wide so 10HP does not divide nicely. 7HP (1.4 inches) will fit exactly 12 times across the rack and is close to the size of 500 series modules.

Cheers

Ian

 

[mikael__]

Hi all, bringing this ancient thread back up. Anyone know if anyone has done any work further on modular console design using the eurorack format ? Using the eurorack format for a modular console just seems like a very good idea for reasons stated above. The metalwork is readily available and highly configurable.

 

[r2d2]

The Paul Wolfe design looks very clever, using the benefits of a modular approach to enable a customisable shape

I think it's a worthy project. Although I am not a fan of 500-Series, due to the tiny front panel size, I can see the huge benefits of the standard

Although I quite like metal-bashing it eats up time and very few of us have the facilities for large-scale metal fabrication

Nick Froome

Just as little consideration regarding the actual large analog consoles market,
how many potential buyers might be willing to buy one of them ?
That type of modular project is certainly interesting,
but to be quality in terms of sound and components,
the cost will not be low, although as diy way.

 

[ruffrecords]

The beauty of a modular approach is you can make it as large or as small as you like. My EZTubeMixer design uses the Eurorack format with 14HP wide modules (6 will occupy a 19 inch rack width). This approach allows you to build something as small as four tube mic pres in a 19 inch lunch box or a large as Holger's 12 channel KrasseMaschine mixer.

Cheers

Ian

 

[abbey road d enfer]

The beauty of a modular approach is you can make it as large or as small as you like. My EZTubeMixer design uses the Eurorack format with 14HP wide modules (6 will occupy a 19 inch rack width).

An issue with Eurorack is that, although it's possible to find reasonably priced basic kits, accessories and fittings are outrageously expensive.
E.G. the kits including two brackets for affixing PCB to front panel, handle and necessary screws cost between 21 and 27€. I couldn't figure out the difference between those kits.
I used my 3D printer to make these accessories.

 

[DB_]

An issue with Eurorack is that, although it's possible to find reasonably priced basic kits, accessories and fittings are outrageously expensive.

There's an opportunity there...

The 96-pin connector has three rows of pins. A 64-pin version is also available and would make the backplane considerably simpler and cheaper. I don't know whether the Eurocard standard dictates how the pins are to be wired - more research needed

As far as I can tell it's a mechanical standard, though there are plenty of modular computer and instrumentation systems that build on the Eurorack form factor.

They tend to have analog i/o on the front and use the backplane connectors for power + data bus.

The power rails tend to be two positive rails, it's unusual to see 5V/±12V.

There is a chap in the UK who makes backplane PCBs for DIY projects, Gerbers and Schematics on his web site.

8-slot Backplane PCB - [eBay] £12.50 + £1.40 P&P (not pictured below!)

■ Two separate power rails and one single ground plane available. (Vcc, GND, GND, Vdd)

Looks like this can be adapted for +/- power, is considerably cheaper than a 4-slot commercial backplane PCB for £50-60!



That said, typical backplane connectors intended for high speed/high bandwidth signals (ie. lots of pins, density) when what we want for audio is minimal impedance, decent current, not so many signals... and something cheaper!

There are a lot of unused pins in all the various bus specifications, this drives up the cost unnecessarily if they were to be adapted for DIY.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

A 64-way DIN41612 socket costs less than £2. I don't know if there's much savings to do in reducing the number of ways.
I made a backplane with them, doubling the contacts, so designing the PCB was very simple.
For a mixer, it is good enough for 8-bus and 8-aux, plus the necessary rails and some. Just leave an area on one side for I/O's.