I sent out PMs to everbody on the list.
I don't have the SMD resistors yet, so if you need presoldered boards you will have to wait a bit longer, sorry.
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Update September 15: Prototype boards are in, Build Doc (beta) is online.
I will order boards later this day.
If you haven't made your order yet, please do it now so I can estimate the number of boards needed.
Here's the link to the build doc:https://www.dropbox.com/s/vs2s30a8m0nr09y/Cable%20Tester%20Build%20Doc%200.9b.pdf?dl=0
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Hey guys,
I had a few patch cables failing on me in the past and I thought it would be nice to have a small circuit to test them. I'm doing my own eurorack power cables so it would also be nice if I could easily check them, too.
So here's what I came up with:
It's two cable testers in one.
You can check patch cables and power cables (10-pin as well as 16-pin).
There's an LED for each line, so that's two for the patch cables and 16 for the power cables. If there's continuity between the right pins, the particular LED lights up.
16 LEDs for the power cables means that you can check each line individually, in case there are single broken cables in the ribbon. Of course you wouldn't notice that if you plug it in, because the module would work anyway but if you have one broken cable on +12V for example, that would double the resistance. We don't want that, so that's why this is checking each line individually.
Also the polarity of the LEDs is inverted on every second pin so you can see if there's a short between cables or if the ribbon is the wrong way around. This also shows you when you have the ribbon shifted one pin on a 16-pin to 10-pin cable, which also happend to me a few times.
There are 18 0805 SMD resistors on the back of the board as series resistors for the LEDs.
The whole circuit can be powered either by your eurorack PSU (there's a dedicated 10-pin connector for that on the back of the board, to make sure the cable doesn't get in the way of the cables you're testing) or any other voltage source between about 7.5V and 15V. If you want to use higher voltages, I would add a heatsink on the voltage regulator.
I'm using a Mutable Instruments Module Tester, which works great.
I'm just leaving this information here, in case anybody is interested in a PCB.
I have ordered a few prototype boards already so I could sell my spares, assuming that it all works as expected.
If there's more interest, I could do a bigger run of PCBs later.
I'm also open for any suggestions to make this better than it is!
Cheers
Prices:
7 Eur per PCB
3 Eur for presoldered SMD resistors
Shipping costs:
2 Eur inside germany
4 Eur worldwide
Order list:
(Ranking) Name: [number of PCBs] [SMD presoldered]
Red name = paid
Green name = shipped
Early bird (shipped)
spneca: [4] [0]
frozenkore: [1] [0]
ClausF: [1] [1]
Zaibach: [1] [0]
woodster: [1] [0]
float32: [1] [0]
Regular Pre-Order (waiting for boards, will probably ship in early october)
Reality Checkpoint: [1] [1]
latigid on: [?] [?]
setsun8: [1] [0]
qfactor: [1] [1 x 220R]
insula: [?] [?]
Brad: [1] [1 x 220R]
sonicwarrior: [1] [0]
andrewradtke: [1] [0]
pld: [1] [0]
SoundPool: [1] [0]
shabax: [1] [0]
spotta: [1] [0]
komyta: [1] [1]
colorbars: [3] [3]
Morbid: [2] [0]
Altitude909: [1] [0]
bezier: [1] [0]
Crashlander42: [1] [0]
smcumber: [1] [1]
deesee: [?] [?]
drip.feed: [1] [1]
cereyanlimusiki: [1] [0]
SmartBits: [1] [1 x 220R]
windspirit: [2] [0]
jamsk: [1] [0]
jaidee: [1] [0]
tekzon: [1] [1]
designator: [1] [1]
jh0n: [1] [0]
glacial23: [1] [0]
KNYST: [1] [1]
oscarthesquirrel: [1] [1 x 220R]
audiohawk: [1] [1]
Randy: [2] [2]
Anechoic: [1] [1]
antf4rm: [1] [0]
meatbeatz: [1] [1]
caillou: [1] [1]
nat601: [1] [0]
synchromesh: [1] [1]
hamildad: [2] [2]
bens: [1] [0]
synthetek:[1] [0]
DJBRUTAL: [1] [0]
necrobious: [2] [0]
sixty_n: [1] [1]
fluffymuff: [1] [1]
prscrptn: [2] [2]
duff:[1] [1 x 220R]
wotwot:[2] [0]
LektroiD:[1] [0]
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