Production Diary of the FS1R Controller Batches

2021-Feb-11: received some 2-layer sample plates and engraved some examples. Material Transpli in black and blue. Melamin in glossy white. Black also is nice, but matt where I can see all finger touches. Blue is for the brave hearted. However Transpli is too flexible. Decided to go for rigid Melamin 3mm glossy white/black, surface is hard as glass, but difficult to work with, stubbing the CNC cutters.

2021-March-16: the last one has transferred the payment. I am closing the orders for the first batch. The production begins.

2021-March-25: Last parts have been ordered from the suppliers, in total over 400 single parts or components per controller! Hopefully they will not come too late due to Corona.

First parts arrived:

2021-Apr-05:

All ordered parts arrived. Now starting to assemble some of the cases. The whole device contains 4 separate front panels to reduce the risk of bricking the whole thing while machining. Still issues with the CNC settings and two of the panel plates destroyed already.

2021-Apr-14:

Case of first device is finished (Ser.#02, reserved for Kimmo). First panel board is also drilled and populated by potentiometers. Now starting with 2nd case and milling the second panel plate.

2021-Apr-17:

Finished milling redesigned PCB with MIDI-interface and voltage regulator, populated with all components.

2021-Apr-29:

First panel with all 4 boards completed in CNC milling and populated with knobs. Looks great, I am jealous about this 2nd hardware generation compared to my prototype. Who finds the differences?

Now will start the re-engineering of the electronics inside and copy the cabling to the new device.

2021-Apr-29:

Struggeling with the new TFT Touch displays, they are not compatible to my previous one. Looking the same from the outside, but different chip set. Needed over a week to identify the issues and reprogram the touch driver.

I have an idea how to integrate an additional MIDI merger, so that an external keyboard can be plugged to this device directly without an external merger. Cannot promise, if this works realistically fast.

2021-May-21:

It’s done! At least the first unit is finished and all tests done. The different display type caused strange side effects on the whole controller and it took me me days to find the reason. I also had the burning ambition to integrate an additional MIDI merger as an option to avoid an external merger unit. It was not possible to implement the merger into the existing processor and I had to use a third Arduino to avoid timing issues.

The back side of the unit has three MIDI connectors (3.5 mm plugs due to narrow space):

1. From Keyboard -> Controller

2. From FS1R -> Controller

3. Controller -> To FS1r

2021-May-29:

Bye-Bye Number #2, Don’t fall off the van!

2021-Jul-14:

Bugger! Number #2 came back to me with a lot of more stickers. DHL was not able to deliver correctly, although at recipient’s side a person was present all the time. He did not receive any message from DHL, nor parcel tracking worked. We even assumed that it has gone lost. What a bad service for 50€.

Will now resend it by UPS.

In the meantime number #3 is under final tests. This time with customer’s logo on a free spot.

2021-Jul-23:

Controller #3 is ready and waiting for pick-up!

Firmware improved, jittering of knob values should not occur any longer.

2021-Aug-04

First two devices arrived at customers. Feedback until now: “bigger than expected”… Yes, the dimensions are exactly 102cm x 29cm.

2021-Aug-17

Frontplate and mechanics of #4 is complete, now comes the cabling procedure. Changed the choice of voiced/unvoiced buttons to Skirt/BW

2021-Aug-30

BTW: #1 is my first silver prototype you have seen on youtube. So devices #5 and #6 are still to be done (for Krystian and Tobias, pls. be patient!)

2021-Sep-28

Number #4 now is being shipped to the USA.

2021-10-06

Number #5 is shipped.

Working now on device #6 “Inside Blue”. Changing the wiring of nealy all signal wires from magnifier-glasses-soldering to wire wrapping method.

2021-10-20

Planning a new batch of five units. Call for binding reservation is set to November 6th. Everyone who registered here has got some detailed information by email.

2021-11-25

Still not able to finish the last controller of the first batch because of missing potentiometers. I ordered a second time 4 weeks ago and they still hang in a delivery loop at UPS. Thanks to Corona.

Started with the controller cases for the 2nd batch. Redesigned the case and front panels to fit the unit into a 100cm shipping box. Redesigned the power supply board including 2 MIDI inputs.

2021-12-14

Controller number #6 is finished and ready to be shipped.

Now facing towards batch two.

2022-1-10

Finished first device of batch 2 with partly re-designed panels:

• Reduced total width to 100cm
• replaced part potentiometers and mute switches by LED sliders showing current part
• added LED display for formant sequence number
• name of Fseq is shown in touch display
• removed useless Tscale pots for Voiced/Unvoiced
• removed hold Part switch
• removed aluminium frame as useless design element.
• changed all pots to 10k for increase stability.
• Power LED now reflects MIDI activity

2022-2-1

Next candidate finished and on my test bench, this time in a brown case.

2022-5-16

Last two devices were delivered. Batch 2 is now finished, no further batches are planned.

Wire wrapping technique was used for the knobs and buttons