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[electri-fire]

hard to find those  (elenco) kits...discontinued.


however, i did find this...similar?

http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/html/AMERIKIT-AK-900-ELECTRONIC-KEYBOARD-KIT-non-solder-version-1075.html

Yes. It's the the same . The Zener diode D1 would keep the voltage to the circuit limited to 4.7V

[electri-fire]

On pitchbend:

Quote:
I found two resistors for pitch- clock......is that correct? or is it just one that is really usable?

Both R11 and R12 influence pitch. Higher resistance lowers the pitch. Putting a potmeter in parallel to either resistor can only lower the resistance, so you need to REMOVE a resistor and replace it with a pot.  I've had good range with 1.5M pots, but I forgot wich resistor I replaced.

Another factor in pitch is the 0.1uF capacitor C9. Higher capacitor value lowers pitch. So if you don't have high value potmeters (they tend to be more expensive) you can replace it with , ermm... like 1uF?

Quote:
one of the resistors works like a LFP-depth for the vibrato! nice!

Oh cool! That would be the 510K R10.
You must mean LFO though, not LPF. (nitpicking remark, sorry).
But what does it do exactly?  Vibrato depth, that is varying the range of pitch wobble?  Or does it do vibrato speed? (I would prefer that)

quote:
the other one is for pitch (clock).....but I want to have it going much much lower. I tried a 2 M potmeter, but even then it don't have the range I want.
high is ok, but for extreme low pitches I need maybe 100 M pots...is that normal?

Well no, 2M should do ok.  Did you insert the pot  (prefered method), that is replace a resistor?
Or did you connect to the pitch resistor on one side and to a point elsewhere , like ground? That could explain it.

 quote:
  ....can I just try all connections (including the contact-points of the black IC-blob)
without any danger ? or do I have to be very carefull with the IC? Can I  kill the keyboard easy?

It's pretty sturdy, but you can eventually kill it. Not easy but with higher voltage the circuit slowly deteriorates. Considering the 4.7 Zener diode D1 limiting voltage to the IC I think it wants that voltage. I've been relentlessly at it for days on end with the unlimited battery voltage. First effects are kind of cool, slightly frying the chip enhances it's low-fi gritty character. Sweeeet!  Untill you take it too far.
Tip: get yourself a set of alligator clipped wires. Cut off one side, solder a 1k resistor to that end.  Result: Safer bend probe.
 
 
 

[noystoise]

http://manuals.elenco.com/manuals/ak-900.pdf

THANK YOU!!! this is sooo excellent. most of the hin-hongs i've come across are the black blob type and they dont have 4 outputs for the rhythm section, just one. i have one that does have the chip that i have been saving. this manual will make it so much easier. so do they still sell that kit? has anyone here tried ordering it?

[electri-fire]

http://manuals.elenco.com/manuals/ak-900.pdf

THANK YOU!!! this is sooo excellent. /..../  so do they still sell that kit? has anyone here tried ordering it?

I have to credit  ne7 (http://ne7.untergrund.net/) for posting the link to the elenco manual, I was just quoting.  And yes, excellent it is. Much easier than figuring it out yourself and documenting your findings with the opened crappy keyboard on your lap, wires and pots dangling around. Arghh....

 Especially the small ones like that kit version are a bitch to bend, mechanically that is. With the switches and sliders falling out, I needed to solder temporary jumpers or replace with hardware switches  if I recall well, before I could do some proper bending action. It's been a while since I did one.

[/quote] so do they still sell that kit? has anyone here tried ordering it? [/quote]

Now quoting jamiewoody : 
http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/html/AMERIKIT-AK-900-ELECTRONIC-KEYBOARD-KIT-non-solder-version-1075.html

You have to register , but I think you can still order these.  I won't, I have two spares left.  In decent big casings, hehehe... 

[heat00hunter]

Amazing video: http://vimeo.com/3356981

[Gleix]

Amazing video: http://vimeo.com/3356981

That's mine :]

Thank you.

[jamiewoody]

were the hinghon keyboards originally made by elenco?

i have some elenco breadboards and such, they seem to be good quality.

i am thinking about taking my hinghon apart again. i wonder if i were to build a wood box, similar to the one casper built (as well as many others by now!) for the sk1! my hing hon now sports a patch bay pitch knobs, switches for this and that...and i dont think i have even begun to exhaust the monster inside of this thing!

part of the reason i want to do a box for this, well, it seems that electronically i have been making some cool things, yet the outside ends up looking like a trainwreck! lol! so i need to make them into more of a "commercially viable product" (yuck yuck!).

[SebbeK]

I recently got one of those myself. But the buttons are very weird. Especially the keyboard. It's like it laggs. When i press down a key it laggs out lots of notes instead of one. I have opened it up but the keyboard don't seem to miss any screws or anything...

[jamiewoody]

yeah, i hate those cheap sensor switches...at one time i  thought of replacing them with toggles...i think some around here did that. not a bad idea! one of the cool glitches on the kb is when two voices are on at once!

[SebbeK]

I guess I'll rehouse it then, and try to find another keyboard...

[kloroplaster]

Breakbeatnazi: Any chance you might elaborate on what you've done here? I'm very interested in that modulation pot and how you do video out? Great work!

I've got a CX-500 but guess it could be done on this one as well

[heat00hunter]

Hi, i want to post my schematic!!
It's my firt shema be cool with me  


EDIT:And the big size:

http://www.cannibalcaniche.com/forum/download.php?id=8449
Bye

Osica

[epicentre]

I love it! Very helpful 

[jamiewoody]

like i said before, tightening the screws on the box seems to help, otherwise the sensors do not hit.

or, in you prefer i speak pirate, "batten down yer hatches! shiver me timbers, matey!" ;-)

[jamiewoody]

i'm not sure what happened, but i had a happy accident! ; ;-)

it had been a month or so since i had turned on my hing hon keyboard. it was not working all that well, so i decided to change the batteries. unfortunately, the batteries were not sealed, so i took a chance and replaced them with some  i use for testing things.

i changed the batteries and it WENT CRAZY! i mean, i pressed a key and it started glitching like crazy, just sequencing weird ramdom noise! it was beautiful!

so, of course, i recorded this instead of taking it apart to attempt to troubleshoot it! ;-)

so, when i do "fix it", i think i will play around some.maybe i can control this chaos!!!

i would love to build this into a home made box...but, since the operation of this seems to be contingent to the case being tightly sealed, that may be hard.