Massive Cadet build run!

[saiteron]

hey all! i run an e-commerce Eurorack and synth shop / spare-bedroom based module factory called Teleos Modular. up until this point i’ve been building and selling only audio-based modules - over 100 modules built successfully so far, most of them this year! - but starting very soon i’ll be building a huge run of LZX Cadet modules - 10 of each for a total of 100. in fact, much to my wallet’s chagrin i’ve already got most of the boards and parts right here in front of me! however, as these are reaching the end of their product lifecycle it seemed like a now-or-never kind of thing so here we are.

while you better believe i’ll be keeping a handful of these cool toys for myself (possibly a full 84hp Cadet system as outlined on the LZX site), i plan on selling most of them once they’re done. i’ve been lurking here for a bit (and occasionally commenting or participating - i recently submitted a short contribution to the fireworks challenge) and i know many of you are the DIY type, but for those of you that want some Cadets and just don’t feel capable of sourcing the parts and building them yourself, this is your chance!

this is going to be a lengthy process, full of trials and tribulations (and waiting at least a month for the remaining parts to arrive from Thonk) but in the end there should be a ton of Cadets to go around. if this process goes well i plan to do a similar run of Castle series modules once i’m done with these!

and now for the dual points of this post:

1. if you’re interested in buying one or more Cadets, let me know! i’ll be happy to set up a waitlist and if you’re on it i’ll reach out to you first. i posted this same thing on the Facebook LZX Video Synth Community group and will have a shared list between the two with first-come-first-served. due to my limited financial resources (of which a significant portion are tied up by this project), if you’re not ready or able to buy when the units are built then i’ll need to go down the list, and if any units are left after the waitlist is exhausted they will be available to the general public for purchase. i intend to build as many of these as possible before the end of August (that’s when i go back to my day-job as a professor), though some parts may not come in until September if postal delays like i’ve seen in recent days continue. if after all units are sold there is still demand i may try to source more parts to continue building them though with the Cadets being discontinued there’s a limit to what’s possible for sure. tl;dr send a message here or via e-mail at teleosmodular@gmail.com if you’re interested!

2. would anyone be interested in live stream(s) of the build process? i’m mostly self-taught and much more of a builder than an electrician so don’t expect any crazy insights or anything - just a dude building a bunch of modules and bopping along to some tunes while staying open to questions and comments and discussions and whatnot. maybe i’ll even do some shout outs to folks on the waitlist and/or anyone who donates to the cause i’ll be the first to admit i’m not much of a streamer but it seems like it could be fun and a friend of mine is kinda egging me on here so if you’re interested in watching a build stream (or ten) let me know!

---

and to go ahead and answer a likely question - i am not interested in selling full kits. the idea of sitting there counting out parts to pack kits bores me so… if you really REALLY want to buy a full kit i’ll sell one for the same price as i’d sell the built module. seriously - if you wanna build one just go ahead and source the parts yourself! it will take a bit of extra time and effort but the Cadet BOMs are much easier to read and work with than many BOMs i’ve seen so it’s really not that bad…

and ONE MORE THING - i just saw the “Cadet modding” thread… i’d be down to give some of those mods a shot on select units. could be cool to get more super-Cadets out in the wild!

[jnoble]

Sounds fun. I built about 50 Cadets and Sandin IP modules a couple of summers ago, some for sale. They go pretty quickly, and all worked perfectly the very first time I fired them up–there are few gotchas with these modules, though the correct switches can be expensive and a little hard to source.

[saiteron]

thanks for the heads up! i THINK i’ve got all the right parts… will definitely be spending the next few days making sure and sorting out any replacements with Mouser before it gets too late to do so.

[saiteron]

quick project update - parts shipped from Thonk earlier this week and i just got word from LZX regarding the Cadet I kits i’ve been waiting on which should be shipping soon as well. i’ll start building with what i’ve got this coming week and might try a livestream or two so stay tuned!

[saiteron]

exciting update - parts just arrived from Thonk! now the only thing i’m waiting on is headers for sync cables (just realized i got the wrong part, so gotta get the right one), which means…

Cadet construction can begin!!!
i’ll spend the rest of this week prepping for the builds (sorting parts, calculating unit costs and prices, etc.) and start building next week. i’m going to aim to blast through as much construction as possible next week, so with any luck i’ll be able to start fulfilling orders by the first week of August! i haven’t seen a ton of interest in livestreams but i’ll probably give one a shot anyways, assuming no major technical difficulties arise. time and date will be announced (likely with fairly short notice) once i figure it out but assume it will be sometime early next week during morning/afternoon EST hours. a few more bits of info to answer any questions that might come up:

• prices are still up in the air but will definitely match or beat what’s listed on ModularGrid for these. aside from a few minor blunders i’ve hit all my targets so most of these should end up around $150 with a few at $100-120-ish and only two over $150. been having some issues wrangling the numbers but i’m really going to try to work all this out today.
• if you’re on the waitlist and were anticipating these becoming available in mid-August and might not have funds available to purchase before then, don’t panic - you will still get first dibs. any Cadets that have not been accounted for will be made available once they’re built, but all Cadets assigned to people on the waitlist will be held until Aug. 15th if required. if not bought / accounted for by then they will be made available for public purchase.
• if and when these become available to the public, they will likely be listed at a higher price than what i’ll announce here. why? i sell on Reverb which has fees (which are about to increase, starting Aug. 4th) and fees take away from what i earn, so the prices will go up to offset that a bit. prices announced here will still be valid for direct sales.
• if you buy 5 or more Cadets i’ll throw in a 14-pin sync cable for free! otherwise i’ll sell them at the same price as the LZX sync cables ($19). they’ll each have a few sync output headers and a daisy-chain header at the end for linking multiple sync cables together.

think that’s everything for now. stay tuned and don’t hesitate to message with any questions!

[saiteron]

got prices sorted. as mentioned above all are at or below prices found on ModularGrid* with only one exception - Cadet VI Fader - and that’s cause i had to buy most of the PCB/panel sets from Thonk instead of LZX.

Cadet I - $160
Cadet II - $200
Cadet III - $150
Cadet IV - $150
Cadet V - $110
Cadet VI - $130
Cadet VII - $150
Cadet VIII - $150
Cadet IX - $150
Cadet X - $120

that makes one full set $1470 but if you buy them all together i’ll drop the price to $1400 and throw in a sync cable as well. prices include insured shipping within CONUS and i’ll ship worldwide at cost to the buyer.

if you’re already on the waitlist and have told me which Cadets you’re interested in i will reach out with a quote for your order soon!

*ok technically most of these are $1 higher than on ModularGrid cuz i’m not a fan of the “prices ending in 9” thing. if the $1/module is make or break for you then we can work it out.

[saiteron]

build day no. 1 complete! Cadet VI Fader is now built and ready to ship.

now that some modules are ready to ship, here’s the plan:

• if you want ONLY Cadet VI Fader, i can ship starting tomorrow (Monday, 7/27). price is $130 shipped within CONUS as listed above.
• if you want Cadet VI Fader and other Cadets as well, you have two options:
  • if you’re patient - wait until your full order is built. it will all ship together once fully paid for.
  • if you’re impatient - i’m happy to ship each Cadet to you individually for $5 extra per module.

please do not tell me you only want Cadet VI if you’re also planning on getting other things - while i can ship individually it will make it easier for me to get funding together for future build projects (and believe me, i’m already working on the next project) if you can bide your time while i build your full order (plus you’ll get a free sync cable with any larger order). please and thanks!

for those of you not waitlisted - there are plenty of Cadet VIs not yet accounted for so at this point if you want one feel free to reach out! otherwise i’ll be listing the spares on Reverb within a few days.

[saiteron]

a few quick updates:

build day two is complete! Cadet VI Fader and Cadet VII Processor are now fully built and pending testing.

now that i’ve got a few build days done i’m doing a live stream of a full build run this coming Saturday, August 1st starting at approximately 10 AM EST on my Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/teleosmodular . the goal will be to complete a full set of modules in a single day and have a little time at the end of the day to jam around with the new toy. i’m thinking Cadet X Multiplier will be a good one but may change my mind as the week progresses. these builds have taken me ALL DAY so if you have any questions or comments or just wanna see me doing boring, tedious and repetitive tasks over and over on a fairly large scale, you can pop in pretty much any time from 10 AM to 8 PM (estimated) to check it out. i’ll keep the live stream vid up for 14 days after streaming and i’ll even trim a cool highlight or two out (or at least the little jam sesh at the end) to live on there permanently.

hope to see some of you in the stream on Saturday!

[saiteron]

it’s been a while… feels like it’s time for another project update!

Cadet building is really coming along now! this morning i finished up the Cadet I Sync Generators and pulled parts for the next build, Cadet III Video Input, which starts tomorrow. as of this point i’ve built 63 Cadet modules and that number should be closer to 75 by the end of the week. Cadets that are built and ready to ship include:

Cadet I Sync Generator
Cadet VI Fader
Cadet VII Processor
Cadet VIII Hard Key
Cadet IX VCO
Cadet X Multiplier

if you’re waiting on an order that includes only the Cadets listed above and i haven’t reached out to you yet, please send me a message or e-mail and remind me! would love to get more of these Cadets out and into the world

if you weren’t on the waitlist and are interested in any of the above - except Cadet IX VCO and Cadet X Multiplier which are sold out/fully waitlisted - feel free to reach out and request a quote! all built modules will ship within 24 hrs of receipt of payment (or on the next weekday if paid over the weekend). also - due to high demand and a bit of luck getting some spare PCB/panel sets, i’m building a handful of extra Cadet IX VCOs and Cadet IV Ramp Generators beyond the initial run of 10. not sure when i’ll get to the second batch of VCOs as i’ll need to order parts but there will be at least a few extras to go around, so if you want to be waitlisted for round two of either let me know.

one more thing - if you missed the Cadet X build live stream you still have a few days to catch all 8-ish hours of it at twitch.tv/teleosmodular ! after 8/14 only the highlights will remain.

stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of the Cadet build series - i expect to be fully finished with the first round of builds within the next two weeks!

[saiteron]

PROJECT COMPLETE(-ish)!

it’s been a fairly long road to get here but i’ve finally done it - all the Cadets i originally set out to build are now complete. that’s ten of each Cadet (except Cadet V, which i’m building to order due to the variety of available versions) plus a few extras i picked up along the way. thanks to all you folks who offered support in any form and to those of you who have already purchased Cadets and helped me fund an expansion of my rapidly-growing Expedition collection. i’d say i’m ready for a break from building but there are still a few stragglers left, including a run of 8x Cadet IX VCO with tempco resistors for audio use. at this point all but three waitlisted orders have been fulfilled, so what that means for you, dear reader, is that pretty much any remaining Cadets are up for grabs. here’s a list of what’s currently available (with prices for reference):

Cadet I - $160 - 3+ available
Cadet II - $200 - 3+ available
Cadet III - $150 - 3+ available
Cadet IV - $150 - 3+ available
Cadet V - $110 - 3+ available, built to order
Cadet VI - $130 - only two left!
Cadet VII - $150 - one available now, more late Sep.
Cadet VIII - $150 - one available now, more late Sep.
Cadet IX - $160 - w/tempco resistor for increased stability/use as audio osc. three available, SHIPS BY 9/7
Cadet X - $120 - only one left!

re: Cadet V - i previously said there were 3 versions of Cadet V available but after digging in the forum i found that there are actually 4! these include:

• +/-5V to 0-1V - for using audio oscillators/bipolar modulators with your video synth
• 0-1V to +/-5V - for using video oscillators as audio oscillators/bipolar modulators in your audio synth
• 0-5V to 0-1V - for using envelopes/unipolar modulation sources with your video synth
• 0-1V to 0-5V - for using video sources as envelopes/unipolar modulators in your audio synth

honestly the first two versions should probably cover most signal conversion needs (these are the conversion circuits available in a Bridge, i believe) but when you place an order for a Cadet V you can take your pick.

also happy to trade Cadets +/- $$$ towards certain Visionary, Expedition cough cough especially Marble Index cough and Orion series modules as desired.

also possibly worth mentioning - i have a BPMC Fluxus (not Fluxus Duo - Fluxus standalone desktop thing) available for sale/trade as well! DM if you’re interested

if for some reason you thought you were waitlisted and still haven’t heard back from me re: an order you asked about, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP! i want to make sure everyone that wants these things gets them.

so now that all that’s through… what’s next? is this the end? do i just disappear without a trace? heck no. now’s the fun part - PLAYING with these dang things. despite references on ModularGrid and Thonk to a “Cadet-21” system i don’t see any videos on YouTube or elsewhere of such a system in action, so i’m holding onto enough Cadets to build one (more like a Cadet-24 system, actually) and plan on making a few videos of such a thing in action. probably more jammy, less technical vids as i’m still a baby video synthesist and will likely have a lot more fun patching until something cool happens than trying to scratch my head and explain what’s going on, but we’ll see. i still have to build the second batch of Cadet IX VCOs before my system is complete so vids will likely come sometime later in September and after they’ve been made i’ll probably dismantle the system and make some more Cadet VII, VIII and possibly VI, IX and X available.

ok but WHAT THEN? in the short term i’ll be going back to audio land to build some requested modules from the Teletype/Telex series (TXi, TXo, TXb, TXn) and finish up some Tesseract Modular builds i have on the bench. hoping to keep the video toys coming as well with a handful of Syntonie VU and CBV builds as well as the Visual Cortex expander. looking even further forward (probably no sooner than winter 2020) i hope to build a similar run (10x ea.) of the LZX Castle series modules, so if you’re interested in any/all of those please let me know ASAP so i can add you to the new waitlist!

thanks again and hope everyone is enjoying the Cadets

[saiteron]

9/25/20 STOCK UPDATE

VCOs are now sold out! might make more stock of some of the others that are in short supply available later this year but for many of these this is all that’s left. still have plenty of materials for sync cables and still shipping one free with any order of 5 cadets or more. also happy to make single 14-pin sync cables in any length up to 12" for $5 shipped with any Cadet purchase if you only need to connect one VCO, Ramp Generator or RGB Encoder to a sync source.

Cadet I - $160 - 5 available
Cadet II - $200 - 4 available
Cadet III - $150 -3 available
Cadet IV - $150 - 5 available
Cadet V - $110 - 1 available! built to order but will usually ship next day
Cadet VI - $130 - 1 available!
Cadet VII - $150 - 2 available
Cadet VIII - $150 - 2 available
Cadet IX - $160 - SOLD OUT
Cadet X - $120 - SOLD OUT

[saiteron]

11/20/20 IT’S CLEARANCE SALE TIME

finally reaching the last handful of most of these and it’s Black Friday-ish so figure why not. from now until 12/1/20:

• take 10% off any individual Cadets
• take an extra 5% off (total 15% off) if you buy 4 or more
• take ANOTHER 5% off (total 20% off) if you buy a full set of 8!

and i’ll still throw in a free 14-pin sync cable with any order of 4 or more. that puts base pricing (including shipping within CONUS) at:

Cadet I - $144
Cadet II - $180
Cadet III - $135
Cadet IV - $135
Cadet V - $99
Cadet VI - $117
Cadet VII - $135
Cadet VIII - $135
14-pin sync cable - $18

i’ve also got a few spare Syntonie and ReverseLandfill builds available. send a PM for availability/pricing or check my Reverb shop at teleosmodular.com (but please buy direct if you wanna save; the prices there are inflated to cover Reverb fees). i’ll be implementing similar sales on Cadets in my Reverb shop starting on Monday so consider this a little head start. save a few bucks while helping propel me on fund the next project - a run of LZX Castles!

[Fallinggirl]

Hey there SC buddy. I can vouch for Teleos. He’s a standup guy. Buy from him.

[Fallinggirl]

I’m assuming these are all sold or do you have any left?

[saiteron]

mostly sold at this point - have a few left, pretty sure 2x Cadet IV Ramp Generator, 1x Cadet VI Fader, 1x Cadet VII Processor and a few unbuilt Cadet V Scalers. just placed the order for the rest of the parts for a big build run of LZX Castles so those should be coming soon

[Fallinggirl]

Thanks so much. I just got these.

[Nightmaneuver]

Its an old thread. But is it possible to get any more of these?

[saiteron]

hey! unfortunately i am mostly sold out. i have one Cadet VII Processor left but honestly if you can afford the price difference it’s better to get a Proc from LZX at this point. i do have a bunch of Castles & other LZX-compatible modules in stock though - you can check out my current listings here.

Teleos Modular | Reverb

[wednesdayayay]

voxeljunkie on the discord has some DIY builds for sale currently if these aren’t available anymore

here is a link to the discord if you aren’t on there

Join the lzxindustries Discord Server!

[wednesdayayay]

I’ve been thinking about picking up some of those visible signals 1vr modules to use with a couple joysticks I bought off eBay

I’d love to have more joystick controls in the system!