Parts shipping update

• digi-keys parts have arrived (I’ll take some pics and get them up somewhere)
• shields from 4pcb have shipped
• Sparkfun buttons, pcb’s and arduino chips shipped last week and are due in a day or so

Hopefully, fun can start end of the week. Need a new solder kit. I’m off Thurs and Fri for 9/11 so maybe I’ll start doing some figuring out and early soldering then.

update:

My resistors are completely wrong, double checking now.

OK, so I have a reel of 5,000 resistors, and I’m totally at a lose as to why I brought these.

I also notice that the shopping list is missing diodes. So now I’m a bit lost, I know I probably need atleast 1 resistor, and I think I need 64 diodes, but I have no idea which ones. I’ll go chance some info on monome.org forums and the bricktable posting I’m using.

Just saw an interesting post over at synthtopia.com about the ITM midi-lab free iphone download app. Going to check that out tonight when I get home.

The other thing I’m adding to my wish list is the Korg DS-10 synthesizer. Apparently due out Oct 14th (according to Amazon). There is a ds10 blog, although it’s all in Japanese (although that can always be translated).

At last I might have a very good reason for owning a DS.

See Also Here

(this is not a definitive list, I have more things I need, that I will post about. Once I have confirmed I have everything I need, I will post a sticky page with the full list and where I got them from.)

I set about finding the parts I would need for my DIY arduinome monome clone port.

Heavily led by the excellent post over at bricktable.

As mentioned in the comments from the above post.

Digikey does not have the ED90053-ND in stock currently. However there is a RoHS non-compliant version in stock.

digikey # ED3124-ND

Both are IC SOCKET 24PIN MS TIN/TIN .300

I also went for this alternative.

Digikey

** update, I have no idea why I ordered 5,000 tape mounted resistors. I know I need at least 1, and I think I’m missing diodes, but I need to try and find which ones I need. Be aware if you brought what’s on my list, you can return the resistors so long as you don’t open them and fiddle around with them, just like I did

* note, thanks to wilcox for pointing out that the max led display driver can be got for free as a sample from the manufacturer.

Sparkfun

4pcb

You need to ask for order number #4pcb_Owen.

For 4 boards + 1 free one there is a deal of $33 each on a 5 day turn plus shipping and handling.
So the total cost would be $132 + shipping and handling ($15 if you go Ground).

I’ve been told, that the best person to speak to is Ryan. Ryan Schlecht – Sales Associate, Advanced Circuits. 800-979-4722 ext. 1304, ryan@4pcb.com He was able to redirect me to my local sales assisant.

As far as I can tell that’s my complete shopping list for the hardware (not including the USB cable – which I have hundreds of spares and the enclosure.)

I have ordered double quantities of everything for two reasons, I’m paranoid and an assuming that something will go tragically wrong with the first attempt, if everything works I’d love to have a spare to give as a gift or have at work.

From what I can see you have three basic options if you want to go DIY for a monome.

Option 1:

You buy an official 40h kit from Monome.org and follow the instructions. You would at the end have a piece of hardware that should match exactly the 40h that is built and sold by monome.org.

The kit comes with everything you need (aside from an enclosure and the leds) for just over $250. The issue with option 1 is that the supply if very scarce. There is currently no indication of when they might be available again.

This is my ideal approach, but not knowing when they might go on sale again puts this on the back burner.

Option 2:

Buy all the parts and make your own 40h kit. This was an option I considered early on. But I was just very unsure about what bits I needed and assembly how to’s. The hardware areas I was confused by were where to get buttons from (could I just use the sparkfun ones, the monome ones are custom made for them), was there a pcb available for people to buy outside of the kit, and did I need anything else that wasn’t in general availability.

Option 3:

Build a clone hardware and use the ported firmware based on the arduino chip. I was able to find 3 or 4 step by step guides on building this. All of the hardware was easy to find on digikey and sparkfun – I was able to use the sparkfun buttons which are very available. The firmware update seems to be getting a large number of revisions (so I’m confident that it’l keep growing). Finally the arduino chip is supposed to be super friendly to program. So worse comes to worse I could always make something different.

My personality is very much in need of near immediate satisfaction. So Option 3 was the only real path where I could see I could have a functioning Arduinome (monome clone) in the next month without pay $1000 for one on ebay. So that is the route I will be taking.

If there are any “easier” routes to doing 1 or 2 I’m all ears, I’d love to here more.

Next post will detail what I will order, from where and how much.

I have finally decided that sitting on the edge of the Monome world watching really isn’t going to get me anywhere. I’ve been lurking on the main forums, reading blog posts and watching video snippets of people playing with these intriguing devices for over a year. Enough is enough.

After some recent research and discovery that I probably won’t find an authentic new Monome of any size until well into 2009. I attempted to look on ebay and the monome trade forums. After seeing the base 40h model go for $1000 (well over twice) and 256 models on there at buy it now price of $2,500-3,000 it all looked very bleak.

So I’ve decided to build my own.

This blog will document my steps, the process and hopefully the wonderful outcome at the end.