I’ve spent the weekend off and on working on another PCB revision to WaveBoy. The next revision will use purple PCBs to make the front panel. Not many people will see it (unless folks have transluscent cases, like my acrylic ones) but it’ll help identify the board revision.
Folks that have already purchased the Pre-Release, worry not! This version doesn’t add any features though I will have to keep multiple versions of the firmware around between the revisions, though that’s no big deal.
The main change is switching up the right encoder wiring to use pin 0 instead of pin 13 for one of the encoder pins. Pin 13 is used by an on board LED on the ItsyBitsy which has to be removed for the encoder to work properly. This update avoids that extra step which makes assembly easier but doesn’t otherwise change the functionality.
Otherwise it’s minor updates: The SD card slot has been moved over so the card is easier to remove. The protection diodes are moved to the opposite side for using a keyed connector for Europower and I cleaned up a bit of a layout. After the pre-release (I have one PCB left), I will probably settle on the yellow/blue OLED displays as well as I can get those in bulk.
I plan on doing a medium run of 50 PCBs which, along with looking at some alternative suppliers, should keep the module cost lower. To say I’m a boutique Eurorack store is perhaps an understatement so while this thing would be much cheaper if I were able to make thousands, as much as I love my quirkly little module, I don’t see it getting anywhere near that adoption. If it does, that’s a great problem to solve for another day. But that does mean the cost of the module probably won’t move too much.