Yes, I should make less pictures and start soldering…
A few components are still missing. Knowing more or less for sure that I wouldn't get these e.g. in town, I have now also ordered jacks, tempcos and potentiometer at Thonk. Let's see when those arrive.
For some unknown reasons Mouser had split my single order into two parts. The first, largest part arrived today. The rest should arrive soon, too. The box is just a box:
Well, there are a lot of components inside, packed in two larger bags:
Inside, in yet smaller bags, are all the components:
Meanwhile I have ordered a long list of components at Mouser. Together with the TTSH order confirmation, a link to a project at Mouser was provided. This project has 138 positions, of which unfortunately a few items were not in stock. The Mouser project, however, also is not complete: A number of (rare) components must be obtained elsewhere.
Interestingly, Mouser offers two of the required rare transistors: 2N3954 for over €20 and 2N3958 for over €12, both listed as end-of-life.
As source for a number of missing components I have found:
Since I will be using my own power supply, I removed a number of components from the Mouser project. The power supply I have available is from a long time ago, from my youth when working with some Formant parts:
The 9V transformer in blue (for the 5V part) is new, but not needed for the TTSH. I have mounted the power supply with its transformers on an aluminum frame. It weighs 2.5kg in total and may offer some stability to the case that I will be adding later.
On Saturday, February 14, 2015 my long desired delivery arrived:
It arrived in good condition, postal services did a good job. Let's take a look at the contents. Carefully bubble wrapped there is the front panel:
Next, there is the main circuit board:
Music synthesizers… I think I was about 10 years old when I first heard Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygène on the radio. Ever since I have developed a strong interest in electronic music. Well, maybe not all kind of electronic music. Also having interest in electronics and later doing an electronics (plus computer science) study, in my youth I have been working on my own analog synthesizer. The first trial in the early 1980's was kind of primitive (no comments…):
Later, mid 1980's, I started over with something based on the Formant DIY modular synthesizer from Elektor magazine, but never finished. Here you can see already the power supply, which I'm planning to reuse for my current project:
Unfortunately I haven't made that much more photos at that time, so not much to see.
Time elapsed…
Early 2014 I came across information about an scaled ARP 2600 remake as DIY kit from The Human Comparator in Sweden, called TTSH – Two Thousand Six Hundred. Hey, that looked nice, why not give it a try! Unfortunately it was (and still seems to be) quite difficult to get the printed circuit board and front panel that the kit exists of. [Update 1/2016: As of early 2016 the TTSH kit is sold out and seems not to be produced anymore.]
Early February 2015 I was lucky and was able to order the TTSH kit. Meanwhile this is version 2, with several improvements and fixes over the initial version from 2013/2014.
The ARP 2600 was a famous semi-modular synthesizer in the 1970's. The Vintage Synth Explorer site shows some details on it. Just search the internet to find more information and e.g. demo videos. Likewise you should be able to find more on the TTSH. Some forums deal with it, like the ones at Muff Wiggler and Sequencer (in German). Also DSL-man (in Germany) does a good job on the TTSH.
Here is mine:
Following is the story of my TTSH build…