I’m happy to announce that the VC expander is finally ready to ship! Here is the deal:
What you get for a fully built module (85€):
VC Expander tested and working with aluminium panel, its 4hp and has a max consumption of 60mhA (all built modules will be ALU panel only). skiff friendly
standard eurorack power cable
a 2x3 ribbon cable to connect the expander to your VC
a 2x3 header to solder in your VC
2 x screws + plastic washer.
Chose one the options:
1 built and tested VC Expander with aluminium panel, cables and header 85€
PCB + Aluminium panel only 20€
PCB + PCB panel only 15€
Shipping costs for built modules
EU Signed 15€ (12€ shipping + box + handling), shipping price is for 1 module
USA Signed 17€ (15€ shipping + box + handling), shipping price is for 1 module
Shipping cost for pcb+panel only, I’ll ask on post office but its probably like 10€.
Payment is via paypal only with goods and services that means we will absorb the 3% PP fees for you, the reason for this is that I want any of you feel confortable ordering, we need to cover minimum costs of building and delivering the module/pcb to you.
The earnings go to the T37 team to fund more projects and local DIY Workshops in Madrid and EU. We are a small group of friends that love to build, learn, hack and teach others to DIY sound, video and art projects.
Disclaimers:
I’ve been testing the expander for a lot of hours now, and it has a small bleed ONLY when you use hard-edge shapes (i.e squarewaves) and its barely noticeable.
The ribbon cable that goes from the VC to the expander is super short to reduce bleed (any unshielded cable with a signal will act as an antena that is capable of receive transient and other noise source related to the length of the cable). This means that your expander will need to sit right next to your VC. You can DIY a longer cable but its likely that bleed is increased.
The expander supports daisy chain, that means you could have x2 or x3 expanders with a single VC, at the cost of some small bleed that is noticeable when using hard edge shapes/signals.
Built modules will be shipped in strict order.
If you are ordering PCBs only please consider supporting us, PCBs are super cheap but what you are paying (15€ or 20€) will help us to collect the invested money on R&D and testing for them. If you are ordering multiple PCBs please contact me, or just wait until I realese the files/gerbers and order your own PCBs that will be the cheapest if you want multiple PCB for you/friends.
To order please use the following Google Form, the reason of using Google forms is that if you have a Google account you can comeback and change any details you write (shipping address, name, number of modules etc), and this is more easy for use. We don’t want to publish an spreadsheet/excel and expose your personal data to scammers or NSA :). If you have problems using the form or don’t have a Google account just send me PM via forum or FB (I’m based in Spain).
How all of this should work.
place your order on the forms (4th NOV to 17th NOV)
on the Nov 10th I expect to do order of some components I’m missing, and start building shipping modules on 14th-15th
I’ll ask you to send me the paypal when your module is built and ready to ship.
The module will be shipped signed, and tracking number will be provided.
Please ask me anything that is not clear or I forgot to mention.
One thing I wanted to comment about the panels of all your modules, I had a error on my side about the correct size of the Panels (height) and they were all 2 mm taller than expected, that means they won’t fit on any cases (check the black mid panel on the following pic, panels on the sides are taller).
So I had to hand cut/drill them to fit the eurorack standard, they are not “perfect” as you would expect from other Eurorack designers only in this regard, the rest of things (that are important to me) like the no-big scrateches on the panel, legends on the panel or the holes are perfectly aligned, So if you notice its not perfectly straight(square/rightangle) is because of this, if you think thats not acceptable let me know if you want to cancel or any other propposal its just ping me. Just wanted to be honest with all ya but can’t afford to order another batch of panels (I’m on a very tight budget… thats why this is cheap module).
Yeah its 10€ shipping costs for x 2 sets, just sent you an email.
btw. I’ll publish Mouser BOM (purchase link) and other parts you need to get from Thonk (EU) or ModularAddict (US) that are not available on Mouser like pots, knobs and right-angle jacks.
Just an update for this, first batch has been fully shipped, also all the pcb+panel sets we just finished building second batch just need some opamps to put them and test them, so probably we can ship second (and last) batch next week I’ll ping you all in the list.
just got my expander in the mail! Now on to the scary part… I do have a decent basic soldering iron but I’ve never done any real DIY stuff involving a circuit board
Really excited, expander is going to be SOOO helpful.