Analogue-sequencer

Hello,

My studio got caught in a time warp.  In fact I packed it up in the garage when we had kids and moved to a bigger house, and I've just started to rediscover everything.  One of the things I discovered was my P3 boards, they are postmarked 11 AU 03 !!!  

I'm jazzed about this because I had thought they had gone lost/missing.  

Forgive me for asking all this here so far after the fact, but I have a few questions.  If anyone can remember back to building theirs I'd really appreciate any tips or pointers.

The CPU has P3-016 on the tape on top.

I have 7 circuit boards:

MIDI IN/DIN Sync
Upper Pot Board
Lower Pot Board
Key Func/Pot Finc
Keypad
Main Board v1.3
Unlabelled (S1 thru s16, D17 thru D32 and D1 thru D16)

Hopefully everything I need is there.

I have found some build instructions at <http://www.sequentix.com/build/old/p3-build.htm>.  Thanks for leaving these up :)  Are these the best to use?  

I have a parts list (3 pages) with my boards.

I'm in the process of sourcing parts in the US, probably using mouser and/or allied.

Some questions:

1) Are these build instructions pretty up to date, are there gotchas I should be aware of.
2) There a bit of discussion about PLED displays using the Hitachi controller.  Is this still the way to go?  Did people come to a concensus as to the "best" part to go with?
3) The software I have is probably pretty achaic, is there a way to update the part I have, if not is there still a source for this part (or is the firmware available somewhere for burning a new part?)
4) are there any "problem" parts that have gone out of production
5) I remember some discussion around getting front panels made.  Is there a file for this, for the version of the boards I have.
6) which parts are best socketed?  I tend to socket stuff partly because my soldering is ok to good, but I feel less anxious about damaging parts.  At very least I will socket the main processor/eeprom or whatever it is.  I've built an evenfall minimodular and around 10 blacet modules without problems, so this should be OK if I spread it out over a few evenings.
7) is there a user manual for the original software version or for any updates I might find.
8) Does anyone in the US have any recommendations about switches to use, are the Maplin switches sill available?

Thanks and apologies if these questions have been asked over the years.  I lost touch with the group (I stayed subscribed but turned off emails for a few years).  

And feel free to go tell me to search the archives if this is taking too much bandwidth :)

I'm really looking forward to getting this together.  Kids seem to be a time warp, eh?

All the best

and THANK YOU!!

Nick



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