[HN Gopher] Erica Synths DIY Prototyping Breadboard
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       Erica Synths DIY Prototyping Breadboard
        
       Author : glitcher
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2024-06-14 16:26 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (cdm.link)
 (TXT) w3m dump (cdm.link)
        
       | byyoung3 wrote:
       | honestly breadboards with a power supply built in is genius. Usb
       | hub would be good too
        
         | pbronez wrote:
         | There's a kickstarter going for a fancy breadboard that adds a
         | USB power supply. It also has some programmable routing
         | features. I'm watching it but haven't backed yet.
         | 
         | https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sandwizz/the-sandwizz-b...
        
           | duskwuff wrote:
           | That looks more like it's trying to do some sort of fancy
           | software-controlled "breadboard" with internal routing. Neat
           | concept, but it's going to be fairly expensive and fragile.
           | I'm also concerned by the lack of discussion of parasitics.
        
         | stiiv wrote:
         | fwiw Global Specialties has been making "protoboards" like this
         | for decades. They're pretty expensive, though.
        
       | kalupa wrote:
       | for when your synth isn't modular enough
        
       | proee wrote:
       | I'm surprised electronic breadboards have not changed for over 50
       | years.
       | 
       | Nothing worse than spending an hour debugging a circuit only to
       | find the breadboard connection is bad. Lots of students in
       | digital logic class can attest to this.
        
         | DominoTree wrote:
         | FWIW, they cost a bit more than the generics, but I've always
         | had good luck with the BusBoard breadboards in particular
        
         | cjk2 wrote:
         | They're bloody awful and should be taken outside and shot. Even
         | the expensive 3M ones. First they are unreliable and wear out.
         | Secondly they melt when you inevitably screw up. Thirdly there
         | isn't a ground plane so it's basically a nice board of little
         | capacitors and inductors to argue with.
         | 
         | For the last 35 years both professionally and as a hobbyist
         | I've just soldered stuff to bits of copper clad board. On one-
         | off items like test rigs etc, these are then screwed to the
         | inside of the lid of a Hammond box.
         | 
         | Also see AN47-26 "breadboarding techniques"
         | https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/appl...
         | 
         | (check Appendix F in particular)
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | You got me curious, and I wondered what alternatives could be.
         | 
         | I found this interesting stack overflow answer:
         | 
         | https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3206/best-so...
         | 
         | unfortunately the question was closed:                 Closed.
         | This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting
         | answers.
         | 
         | Annoying that stack overflow specifically shuts this stuff
         | down.
         | 
         | Shutting down discussion makes it seem like a self-serving
         | answer mill instead of a community.
        
           | proee wrote:
           | This is a nice idea from that discussion, using machined
           | header pins.
           | 
           | https://makezine.com/article/technology/if-breadboards-
           | break...
        
           | joemi wrote:
           | I'm totally fine with that kind of question being closed
           | because of that -- that's not what that site is for. It's
           | supposed to be an answer mill... that's _exactly_ what the
           | site is for.
        
       | friggeri wrote:
       | Moritz Klein is the reason I got into synths, his YouTube
       | videos[0] are a really accessible intro. I'm super excited for
       | this, we need more accessible prototyping platforms/tools. I
       | ended up going down that rabbit hole myself a few months ago and
       | built this[1] but it would be a pain to commercialize.
       | 
       | [0] https://youtube.com/@moritzklein0
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/synthdiy/comments/14roaib/synth_bre...
        
       | elric wrote:
       | Moritz Klein, the designer of this project, is a genius when it
       | comes to analog circuitry. He's been making simple DIY synth kits
       | (with Erica Synths) for a good while now. They're all amazing.
       | They come with manuals that are much more enlightening than most
       | electronics textbooks. They're fun to build. And they sound
       | pretty great.
        
       | joemi wrote:
       | Moritz Klein is a pretty great explainer of DIY electronics for
       | synths. All his work with Erica Synths, including this
       | breadboard, is such a welcome (and needed) addition, especially
       | since the videos and manuals are all loaded with info and
       | available to everyone, whether they've bought a DIY module from
       | Erica or not. Props to both Moritz and Erica Synths for doing it
       | like this.
       | 
       | As to this breadboard, there have been a few synth- (or even
       | modular synth-) focused breadboards created over the years (such
       | as the one Bastl/Casper released a few years back), but this
       | seems like a particularly well-designed one. I quite like the
       | modular interfacing section (with its adapter PCBs) near to
       | bottom -- that's a nice way to handle adding more controls
       | easily/modularly.
        
       | chaosprint wrote:
       | I have every Moritz Klein module and highly recommend it
        
       | tempoponet wrote:
       | Bastl had a similar product called the OMSYNTH. They demoed a
       | eurorack upgrade several years ago but never released it.
        
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       (page generated 2024-06-18 23:00 UTC)