See general assembly instructions
The only non-standard part of this module is the screen. The screen module is intended to bolt to the faceplate and then be connected to the PCB with wires. If your screen comes without pin headers pre-soldered, then it is easy to just solder seven lengths of insulated wire connecting the screen directly to the board. If your screen came with pin headers already installed, you could try to de-solder them, but it is probably easier to use a set of jumper wires wires with a female end. I cut the wires in half, strip the bare end and solder it to the board, then just plug the female ends into the screen. But look out for loose connections. If you get weird visual artifacts on the screen, it is probably because one of the wires is not seated correctly. You may want to use a dab of hot glue to keep everything in place. I find it is easiest to have the wires coming out of the back side of the PCB and looping around to plug into the screen.
Keep in mind that the display modules come from a third party and are not well standardized. They may not line up perfectly with the faceplate. It should fit well enough, but if your screen doesn’t line up you can attach it to the faceplate with hot glue.
The pins on the screen might also be labelled differently than the PCB. Refer to this guide to SPI protocol signal names to make sure you connect the right pins.
Most parts are available on Tayda (cart link, quick-order CSV).
See general components notes for more info about acquiring parts.
| Board | Reference | Part | Value | Source | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | R1-R8 | Resistor | 1kΩ | Tayda | Determines output impedance. Any value is fine. | |
| Front | R9-R16 | Resistor | 5kΩ-10kΩ | Tayda | Determines LED brightness. You may want to use a different value if you have different LEDs. A lower value means less resistance and brighter LEDs | |
| Front | D1-D8 | LED | 3mm | Tayda | Any standard 3mm LED will work here. | |
| Front | SW1 | Rotary Encoder | EC11 series | Tayda, Amazon | ||
| 🔴 | Front | SW2 | Push button | D6R30 F1 LFS | DigiKey | Make sure to line up the flat side of the button with the silkscreen on the PCB. This button could be replaced by a simple “6mm tactile switch” like this with a cap on it, but you may need to adjust the faceplate hole size. |
| 🔴 | Front | Screen | OLED display | SSD1306 SPI | ebay | The underlying display controller is the SSD1306. There are many ebay/amazon sellers that make modules based on it. Make sure to get one that uses the SPI protocol (6 or 7 total pins) instead of the I2C protocol (4 pins). The pins may be labelled differently or be in a different order on different modules. Just connect them to the corresponding holes on the PCB. The module also may or may not contain a 7th RESET pin. Either way should be fine. Different modules may also vary in the layout of their mounting holes. The faceplate is designed for a 23.5mmx24mm bolt pattern, which seems to be common, but it could be easily modified to fit a different screen. You can connect the screen to the PCB by soldering each wire individually or by soldering on some kind of 7-pin plug. |
| Front | J1-J8 | 3.5mm Jack | THONKICONN (a.k.a PJ398SM or PJ301M-12) | Tayda, Thonk | ||
| Front | J9-J11 | Pin headers | 1x4, 1x4, 1x11 | Tayda (Male, Female), Amazon | Solder the two boards directly together using the male headers or make them detachable using a male/female pair. | |
| Back | C1 | Capacitor | - | Optional additional power supply noise filtering capacitor | ||
| Back | C2 | Capacitor | 10uF | Tayda | Power supply noise filtering capacitor | |
| Back | A1 | Arduino Nano | v3.0 | Tayda, ebay | ||
| Back | J9-J11 | Pin headers | 1x4, 1x4, 1x11 | Match corresponding headers on front PCB | ||
| Back | J12 | IDC connector | 2x8 | Tayda | Eurorack power header. Can use two rows of male pin headers or a shrouded connector (recommended). | |
| Back | J13 | - | - | Not used. Expansion points for future features | ||
| 🔴 | Front | - | Mounting bolts | 2 M2x8mm, 2 M2x16mm, 6 nuts | McMaster-Carr | Used to attatch the screen to the faceplate. The two longer bolts can pass through to the PCB using additional nuts to hold everything together more firmly. |
🔴 = Missing from Tayda BOM