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UPDATE November 2020: USPS shipping is back to pre-pandemic service levels. We hope to add DHL Express as an option for international shipments soon. All orders ship from our Lab in 1-3 business days.
By Jove, you may be right! Thank you! We are currently shipping software v2.4.3, but this bug likely persists in that version as well. I will incorporate this fix into v2.4.4. We are having some trouble supporting our nifty Updater App, so distribution of future updates will probably be via download direct from the product page. Sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of developments. And thank you!
Glen
UPDATE September 2020: Shipping is improving but still slower and less-well documented than in pre-pandemic days. I believe we have actually lost Zero shipments. Some have taken 4 months to reach Europe; some have been sent back due to minor address errors; none have been lost.
“Breaking” news!! Break the Machine will soon be stocking the VPM-1 standard kit. Please let them know about your interest.
OK, the built units are nominally sold out,but I think I have a floor model or B unit I can fix you up with. I will contact you directly.
One thing to check regarding No MIDI Out. This kit has two nearly identical 16-pin ICs. If they are installed in the wrong locaction or wrong orientation, the MIDI out will not work and the display will go funky. When the PCB is upright, with the row of pots at the bottom, the two ICs are to the left of the display with the divots pointing down, toward the pots. The IC on the left is labelled CD4050BE and the one on the right is SN74HC595N. Humor me and verify these are installed correctly.Kulu, your Altura MkII is repaired and headed home! This turned out to be a QC issue with installation of the far left, Data Far knob, which frankly got worse when you tried to replace the knob yourself. 😉 We have installed a new knob yet again, and we had to jump a couple of connections where the PCB pads were damaged beyond use. So sorry for the delay. Your Altura Theremin is ready to wave!
Is the LFO light blinging 2-4-2 … 2-4-2 .. ? This is a service easter egg: when you power up with the bypass switch depressed, the pedal starts in a calibration mode, and the LFO light flashes out the software version; in this case, v2.4.2.
This suggests that your footswitch may be shorted to ground, that is, the pedal thinks it is depresses (closed) all the time. Double check the wiring of that switch, or even disconnect it for a moment to test.
Beyond that, I must defer to Brach, the technical guru, who is out at the moment on maternity leave. I will ask him to check in with this thread when available.Glen
Mac, you are on the trail! First let me mention that it was an oversight that we failed to post a response to this thread: we talk with Ian a lot, mostly off line, and I overlooked this post. Mac, each key has a different capacitance influenced by its size, shape, and position on the PCB. The resistors were selected after some theoretical analysis and LOTS of empirical trial-and-error. Plus the whole system is influenced by its environment: temperature, humidity, and how dry your skin is! So we have found the following tend to stabilize the keyboard:
- Touch one finger not to a resistor or the battery, but ANYWHERE on the PCB outside the 13 keys.
Experiment with a wall-wart power supply instead of battery, and earbuds or other external speakers instead of the (sketchy) on board speaker.
Lick your fingers before playing!
Adjust that E resistor down to a lower value.
Playing with the MIDI IN jack, controlling the Macchiato with an external control keyboard or sequencer, bypasses the capacitive touch keyboard all together and performs with no instability.Regarding a metal case: Not such a good idea. The metal itself, if it contacts the PCB at any point, will affect the capacitance of the whole system. However, one user had great success adding an additional ground plane to the bottom-inside of the cabinet. I think he used a piece of heavy aluminum foil (copper would be MUCH better) and a little wire that he connected to ground at the center of the board, possibly using the center standoff screw. This gave him good stable performance. He found he had to isolate the foil from the five screws in the cabinet bottom; otherwise, when he held the synth in his hand, touching any screw would throw it off again!!
Glen
Kulu, so sorry we did not respond sooner. Holidays, you know. Yes of course, we will keep an eye out for your shipment and we will take care of you.
- Touch one finger not to a resistor or the battery, but ANYWHERE on the PCB outside the 13 keys.
