MOTM

--- In motm@egroups.com, "Nathan Hunsicker" <nate@e...> wrote:
> Since the price between the screens already made up and the screens
> yet 
> to be made is minimal, do you think there is a chance that the
> drilling 
> guides could be added to the 3 panels currently missing guides? 
Also, 
> does anyone else want to see front mounted midi jacks on the 
> expressionist breakout panel? I'm looking to enclose the back of my 
> rack and have all connections accessable from the front

In regards to drilling: the first screen was designed to be used with 
a metal plate drilling guide that I had made up. The first panels 
made were predrilled before screening. This caused the printer some 
problems, so we have switched to the drill guides for the new screen 
designs. I may be able to offer to drill the panels without drill 
guides after screening, this one time - provided we don't have 
hundreds of panels on that screen! In the future, it may be 
economically feasible to make a new screen with drill guides, but not 
this time, since it costs around $80 to burn and mount a new screen.

RE the Expressionist: just mounting the MIDI jacks on the front panel 
doesn't allow you to close up the back of the unit. You still have to 
hook up 8 CV and 8 Gate cables from the Expressionist unit's output 
jacks. There is no space for those on the front panel, nor would you 
want them there. A breakout panel typically brings all connections in 
from the remote unit from behind the panel, and presents the 
connections on the front panel. That is what I have done. My panel 
terminates inside the cabinet to a heavy duty multipin connector, 
which mates to another connector with 2 8 conductor snakes mounted, 
plus the sync connections. The connector mounts to the back of the 
cabinet, the snake plugs in and runs to a remote rack where the 
Expressionist sits.

You could easily bring the MIDI connections to the front panel with 
the others, I'm just pointing out that you'll have either a back 
panel multiconnector, or cords dangling out the back.

Since this DIY module has several possibilities, I'll probably put up 
a web page talking about it. There are at least 3 ways you could 
build it electrically - Full output buffers and LEDs as I have done, 
no output buffers, just transistor drivers for the LEDs, or totally 
passive, leaving off the LEDs and wiring cables directly to the jacks.

Moe