Monday, January 18, 2016

DIY Fake Modular Synth From Monotron Duo and Monotron Delay

I’m slowly working on a pile of unfinished projects from last year. I had played a little with some of the patch points on the Korg  Monotron Duo and Monotron Delay pocket synthesizers. DSCF3867DSCF3869 I had already soldered wires onto the pitch/Vrib connections and ground points. I should have left them on and spliced but… DSCF3871 I picked up this case at the Habitat “Restore” for a couple of bucks.DSCF3876 Some layout work.DSCF3882 I would need to assemble the Monotrons after the bottom shell was screwed to the case so I drilled holes through the battery compartment for screwdriver access.DSCF3885 Lots of wires were cut. If I could do one thing differently I would have used lighter gage wire. I used 22 and I think 24 orlighter would have been easier to deal with.DSCF3886 Solder, solder, solder.DSCF3888 The Vrib connection on the Monotron Duo did not survive desoldering the old wire, so I had to snake a tiny wire (ethernet cable wire, which is what I should have used for everything) around and solder it to the ribbon ZIF socket.DSCF3890 Holes drilled.DSCF3891 Snaking wires. The bottom half of the monotrons are attached to the case with #4 flat head socket cap screws.DSCF3894Held with nuts. DSCF3896 Easy? It takes a lot of care to get the wires massaged into place so the cases can close.DSCF3898 It’s important to label the wires.DSCF3901 #$@%!!!! Oh well. If I end up taking it apart I’ll put the battery covers back on.DSCF3905 Now to solder all the jacks and ground wires. This took a long time and was very boring.DSCF3907 I soldered wires to the battery terminals on both and terminated with crimp connections so I could attach AA battery packs or in the future wire it for a 3V wall wart.DSCF3908 All the grounds connected. I used hook crimps and I wish I’d used eye crimps.DSCF3910 DSCF3913So now I have the two Monotrons mounted and can patch them at will.

As you can hear, it’s sort of annoying but shows promise.