panda DIY

octava 319 mod

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 11:18:47 -0500

there are some pretty heavy mods you can do to an octava 319. i did some with my keychain swiss army knife, and some pliers.

so first i took off the basket. i was heading for those plastic things over the diaphram. gonna take them off.

i had to unscrew the wire from the center to get the front thing off. but that was no problem. just be carefull you don't stab the diaphram.

added some felt to the white, flat, hard plastic..

then i torn out the inside layer of metal mesh, and the round top.
and put the basket back on. simple!

new ICs

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:27:05 -0500

so i got all new ICs.. and i appear to have at least 1 dead VCA. so i ordered more of those.
i appear to have a dead channel. and no compression. though i can't find anything wrong. of coarse other then no sound or compression. the one channel is clean though. and i do have gain & bypass control. so i'm hoping once i have all working ICs. it might just work. but im sure thats a pipe dream.

update?

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:41:41 -0500

incase someone has been reading this. there has been no updates. cause i've been sorta stuck. but! finally found the problem.
of coarse a solder bridge, witch was creating an open circuit. without a way to test ICs. other then switching them. i think i've damaged or killed all of my ICs.. and maybe 1 VCA in the process.. so! i need to get more. one i get them. and pop them in. technically, this thing should work. here's hoping! if thats the case. i will post a bunch and go through what i now know.
fingers seriously crossed.

everything in place

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 22:25:54 -0500

so everything is in place. and it doesn't work. only audio through 1 channel. the controls do nothing. amazingly, i learned that a friend of mine is actually [or was?] an electrical engineer! so, we're gonna get this puppy smokin'. i am going to write in more detail about specific connections later once it IS working. since maybe they are some of the problems. i have been smokin' through fuse's though. so i reccomend getting a stack of them.. radio shack should have them. thats where i got them.

here are all the ICs and VCAs in place.

and of coarse my new [in the mail today] edgewise meter from mouser.

wiring

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:27:06 -0500

so i got wire today and went to work. i am still missing the power supply. i won't get it untill monday. so no big rush i guess. though i did most of it today.

one thing that slowed me down was how to make these connectors. they were on the parts list. but i guess i could have just soldered the wire to the board. but these made it easier to change. if i need to. i didn't have a proper crimping tool to put the ends on the wire [that then go into, and snap into place in the plastic thing there]. so i ended up just using my needle nose, and then some solder cause the wire was easily pulling out. the twisted cable in the wire is my ground out to my XLR connectors. there is only one hole for both left and right inputs [or outputs] so i just sort made this way up.

switches on the PCBs

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:21:52 -0500

so i looked and looked, and couldn't figure out how to orient the switches on the PCB board. finally groupDIY came to the rescue. and in words i don't really understand, told me that they can be mounted anyway. something to do with the kind of switches they are. it doesn't make a difference.

populated

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 03:27:20 -0500

i couldn't stop working..

lets do this!

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 23:41:48 -0500

re: subject
time to stop thinking, and start doing!.

after a evening and night of soldering.

parts II [back order] no more!

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:28:28 -0500

so way ahead of time. my back ordered parts came to me on saturday. so i can get to stuffing. well i could have before. but i wanted to make sure i had all the parts.. and orginized and all that. i'm prone to start working, and not stopping until something goes wrong. got some more tools today. just some cutters though, and wire strippers, no need for photo i think today.

VCAs

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 13:29:07 -0500

so an important part of this comp is the VCAs. as its a "VCA compressor". its based on VCAs that are not made anymore. DBX 202's. after reading about other peoples build's, and allot of message boards.

i decided to go with some THAT VCAs ["THAT" being the brand"]. i got some THAT2180LB-U's. these are "pre-trimmed". honestly i don't really know what that means. but i believe it will make my life easier.

i got them from the only place i could find them.. from Profusion europe.

parts III

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 18:03:13 -0500

got more parts today from Mouser. yeah. i still have to sort them out. make sure everything is there.. almost there though.. all the small parts in. now i just need to get the VCA and power supply.. and in theory i could build it up to working point. oh right, my back order parts. =\
need some cable too. anyways, i should start stuffing those boards with what i've got..

new tools

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 23:28:47 -0500

since the only real electrical tool i had was an old 15 watt iron from college. i thought i needed to upgrade. so i got a new ajustable iron. and digital multimeters.. next i need some various cutters.

parts II [back order]

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:09:10 -0500

so it appears some of my parts are on back order. in attempt to figure out more. i emailed digi-key. and "d'oh"

"B/O FOR W04GDI-ND IS DUE APPROX NOV 28, AN79L12-ND IS DUE APPROX DEC 8, &
67-1155-ND IS DUE APPROX DEC 2."

all caps? but more importantly.. dec 8th! mouser is also out of stock on this item. so i doubt then i will have it done before the holidays.

if you have any of these in spare. please let me know. i will buy them off you asap.

parts II [digi-key]

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 17:10:22 -0500

got some parts today from digi-key. i still have to go through them all. make sure i got everything. oh how exciting!

great Gssl site

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:24:11 -0500

i just found this site, where someone did what i'm trying to do! great site.

The making of a GSSL compressor clone