Read pot value while in circuit?

[Golgoth]

I don't know if this is fact or legend, but allegedly an option for the 9098 desks provided a speech audio with Rupert himself saying something like "up...up" or "down....down" as you manually turned each pot.

I wonder what Rupert said when you matched the value! "That's the spot!" maybe?

 

[Brian Roth]

Maybe "quite right!" lol Or from Supertramp's Crime of the Century "bloody well right!"

Bri

 

[Brian Roth]

This 9098 desk didn't speak with Rupert's voice, but each and every pot had the extra gang for recall.

 

[Golgoth]

Amazing!

I now know exactly what to do for the input volume pots! I even found the reference I have in my mixer with dual gang!

The other thing I also planned to recall are the pan pots, which have a little more complex design than volume pots. Is it the same "extra gang" idea than for the vol pots? I checked the reference in my mixer and could not find an "extra gang" version of the pot. The pan design I have in my mixer has a pan knob and "true mono" toggle switch. I included a basic wiring scheme of the circuit present in my mixer.

I'd like to know if this is going to be recallable too as I won't get myself into the trouble of modding the volume pots only!

Best,
G

 

[Brian Roth]

The old school designs from SSL, Amek, etc. don't care what the pot is doing re. recall. Any given pot might be doing analog level control, pan pot setting, EQ.....whatever.

The extra gang is merely there to feed positional info into the computer which has no clue what the pot is actually doing.

Bri

 

[Golgoth]

The old school designs from SSL, Amek, etc. don't care what the pot is doing re. recall. Any given pot might be doing analog level control, pan pot setting, EQ.....whatever.

The extra gang is merely there to feed positional info into the computer which has no clue what the pot is actually doing.

Bri

So this is also a matter of finding matching components with extra gangs for measurement if I understand correctly. I'll look further into options for pan pots / toggle.

 

[sahib]

Amazing!

I now know exactly what to do for the input volume pots! I even found the reference I have in my mixer with dual gang!

The other thing I also planned to recall are the pan pots, which have a little more complex design than volume pots. Is it the same "extra gang" idea than for the vol pots? I checked the reference in my mixer and could not find an "extra gang" version of the pot. The pan design I have in my mixer has a pan knob and "true mono" toggle switch. I included a basic wiring scheme of the circuit present in my mixer.

I'd like to know if this is going to be recallable too as I won't get myself into the trouble of modding the volume pots only!

Best,
G

You can not have a toggle switch.

It has to be a non-latching push button which will control a relay in a push on / push off manner.

The relay will also have an extra set of contacts which will represent the status of the relay. Say when the relay is on you have mono. You store that in your program. Then when you recall, your program checks the status of the relay and takes action accordingly.

 

[Newmarket]

You can not have a toggle switch.

It has to be a non-latching push button which will control a relay in a push on / push off manner.

The relay will also have an extra set of contacts which will represent the status of the relay. Say when the relay is on you have mono. You store that in your program. Then when you recall, your program checks the status of the relay and takes action accordingly.

The OP is "only" looking to snapshot the desk for later 'manual' recall.
So will be fine with toggle or momentary switch. Toggle might be easier as can have the extra contacts on the switch rather than the relay itself.
Would of course be different if was looking for the computer to reset the desk but that's not the case here - there are no motorised faders or VCAs to allow those functions to be reset without manual control.

 

[sahib]

That will not work.

Imagine he toggled to mono then toggled back to normal stereo. The wanted to recall to mono. How is the system going to activate the toggle switch back to mono?

 

[Golgoth]

How is the system going to activate the toggle switch back to mono?

My hand is going to activate the switch haha

I guess that for panning I need to measure the difference between L and R pins to know if the toggle switch has been activated or not (true mono or stereo)

 

[sahib]

My hand is going to activate the switch haha

I guess that for panning I need to measure the difference between L and R pins to know if the toggle switch has been activated or not (true mono or stereo)

Then what is the point of automation if you are going to do it manually?

 

[Golgoth]

The project is not about automation but about being able to take a snapshot of the board and being able to recall it later. I don't want to use a phone to take a picture of the knobs and forget which session it is three days later or not be able to properly see the knobs alignment on track 16.

Plus automation would be completely out of my reach, and will probably be for a few years from now haha, also too much of a mod for the board!

 

[sahib]

Recall is automation.

If you want to take a snap shot of the potentiometer positions but not the switch positions then you still have to use your phone to take a picture of the surface, as you still have to know the switch positions.

 

[Golgoth]

Let's call this project "passive recall" if you insist

 

[sahib]

No, I have no interest in insisting. You asked the question if what you want to do will work, and I am telling you that it will not work. But it seems you already knew that it works and I do not see the reason behind asking.

The toggle switch is a static component. Whatever position it takes, it stays in that position.

As I indicated before, you toggle it to mono, take a snap shot, and three days later you recall the snap-shot, but the toggle switch is in stereo position.

Now your software has to check the current position of the toggle switch, compare it with what was stored and then somehow tell you that the toggle switch is not in mono position. You then manually set the toggle switch to mono position. That will work.

 

[Golgoth]

Now your software has to check the current position of the toggle switch, compare it with what was stored and then somehow tell you that the toggle switch is not in mono position. You then manually set the toggle switch to mono position. That will work.

That's exactly what I had in mind, I happy that would work! The recall module will have a simple led for each knob/toggle indicating it's in the correct position when comparing with what was saved.

My questions are more about the technical aspect of components and circuitry as I have very little electronical knowledge and don't want to mess my board up.

 

[sahib]

That's fine.

I am assuming this will also be the case for the potentiometers.

If so, then you have to think about how the recall will tell you what setting at a given potentiometer was.

EDIT: You already said that you had designed the system. It would be good if you could tell us how you have done it. Whether it is a stand-alone hardware that uses an LCD for displaying the settings or computer based with GUI.

 

[Golgoth]

The idea is that the computer has two modes: read and compare. When in read mode, the computer is receiving all the values and you can press "save" to take the snapshot. Then you switch to compare mode by loading the snapshot: the computer is also receiving the values but now it compares them to what was saved for each pot in real time. When you turn a pot and match the stored value a led turns on to inform you the setting is properly "recalled".

I already coded the program on an Arduino and tested with pots on a breadboard, but I had a very vague idea about how to do it with the real mixer's pots!

 

[Golgoth]

EDIT: You already said that you had designed the system. It would be good if you could tell us how you have done it. Whether it is a stand-alone hardware that uses an LCD for displaying the settings or computer based with GUI.

I would absolutely love to present everything in a thread when I get everything working and presentable in a clean way!

 

[Newmarket]

Recall is automation.

Not really. See SSL Total Recall on the 'Big Desks'. Faders automated but all those rotary pots didn't move themselves. Had to allow time for someone to do that manually. The point was they had the info to do it.