Should we start a "kits, pcbs, products" type page?

[diyelectromusic]

Would it be worth starting a page on the Wiki where people can list and link to (ideally with photos) anything they have that others could use, either commercially, free or open source?

I'd be happy to link up to all the different PCB designs I have on GitHub for example if that was useful, and I know there are now a couple of commercial products based on MiniDexed, not to mention all the hardware configurations being added by @probonopd now.

It would be great to link to any 3D printed case designs, other PCBs, other tutorials/build guides, and so on.

All the usual "not endorsed by MiniDexed" disclaimers will apply of course if we do.

Kevin

[Banana71]

I think that's a very good idea. Questions about cases and PCBs have been piling up recently.

[probonopd]

Not against it as long as I don't have to maintain it ;-)

[diyelectromusic]

Ok, I've made a start, so I'll keep popping back to it over the next day or so and add anything else I know about or find in the discussions :)

https://github.com/probonopd/MiniDexed/wiki/Kits,-PCBs-and-Products

Kevin

[diyelectromusic]

Aww shucks... :)

Well it was crying out to be done. Just need to get some of my own boards on there now. In fact I might just go do that now :)

Kevin

[diyelectromusic]

Ok, I've added mine in now and also the DT-DX. I was pretty sure there was another commercial device somewhere in the discussions, but I can't find it now. If anyone knows of anything else to add, either send me a link or just add it in yourself.

Note, to get all the graphics lining up I've had to use img tags rather than markdown image tags.

Kevin

[probonopd]

Wow, very cool indeed. Maybe we should also have a column that mentions the matching file from https://github.com/probonopd/MiniDexed/tree/main/hwconfig?

[probonopd]

Quickly added 3 lines but they are not as nicely researched as yours, so if you have some time I'd appreciate if you could give them some thought. Thanks!

[diyelectromusic]

Just filled them in a little more. I moved the Pimoroni audio HAT into the Kits/Products section as it doesn't really feel like a PCB in the same sense as the others to me.

I'll have a look at the configs... maybe just a "config provided" Y/N indication would do (I'm not sure it helps to try to link as the configs are not stored - they are linked).

Kevin

[BobanSpasic]

Is the headless version worth mentioning?
#789

It is nothing special - all the parts are available online.
I like it, because it is my first choice when I want to try something quickly.

[probonopd]

I have a TX81z

There is an emulator... so in principle it could probably be ported to RPi...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj-n3HQNch4&t=2s

[BobanSpasic]

@probonopd I know MAME emulators, but just like the JV-880 emulator from other topic here, everything in MAME is about emulating hardware, and it is really "heavy" for CPU. Also, the ROM-file is a little bit kinky because of the copyrights.
MUSE for Linux has (or have had) a TX81z plugin. There is an abandoned project to separate the plugin from MUSE: https://github.com/ngeiswei/deicsonze , and this would be my starting point, but I am still fighting with C/C++, and developing under Linux is not a nice experience comparing to the developing environments under Windows.

[diyelectromusic]

Oh, I'd love to get a CZ emulator (my first synth was a CZ 3000 - I still have it!).

But apart from some generic code for the technique, and some closed source implementations, there isn't anything really. MAME has cpu-level emulation for the CZ101 but I don't see how I could really turn that into an "appliance" like MiniDexed. I think it would have to pretty much be a "from scratch" implementation and whilst I often spend an afternoon reading up on it all again, I doubt I've really got the understanding to actually do anything about it :)

I think the TX81Z was the rack version of the DX11, so that might be possible. We'd have to add waveforms to Dexed though and then drop it to 4 operators. I'm guessing there would be a different SysEx voice setup too. That is perhaps a lot more achievable than a CZ one :)

Aside: do electromaker.io delivery to Austria? Aliexpress just adds tax to UK orders so I'm surprised they don't do that for EU too... have you looked recently?

Kevin

[BobanSpasic]

As for the CZ, the starting point could be the Arduino project Dradique: https://www.evilturtle.nl/projects/dradique-v2
The TX81z came a little bit before DX11. It means, DX11 has some more features added. On the other side, TX81z in Performance mode can play 8 instruments (just like MiniDexed) instead of 2 for DX11. V50 (last synth from this series) has doubled the polyphony and added more effects, but the synth-engine is the same. So, is we take TX81z as basis, add PEG from DX21 and the additional things from DX11, that would be the ultimate emulator for the whole 4-Op series.
So, I am writing too much outside the original topic here, I apologize for doing that.
Kevin, could you write some instructions, how you do your developing on MiniDexed? I really struggle with that one. I wrote some compiling scripts etc. but it doesn't help much. I miss completion stuff. Which editor do you use?

[diyelectromusic]

Hmm. Yes - I'd forgotten about Dradique - I'll have to have another look. I seem to recall it being an implementation of the synthesis technique rather than an implementation of a CZ synth itself, but I'll have a proper look again :)

I don't do anything special for MiniDexed. I have a Ubuntu VM and just use whatever code editor I found - it was a Notepad++ like thing iirc (I forget the exact name).

Then basically get to the point where I can build a circle demo app, then add MiniDexed.

When I managed to corrupt my VM once, I ended up writing some notes for myself so I could get it back again - see https://diyelectromusic.com/2023/07/21/rebuilding-my-ability-to-build-minidexed/

So that is probably as much as I have at the moment?

Kevin