ok, so i've been given the Partner 15 unit from an old
Farfisa, with a very decent set of schems. there are 2
boards in there, apparently one for the voice board,
featuring 5 or 6 analogue percussion voices (including
the exotic sounding 'bongo'...), and the other for the
preset rhythm sequencer, some kind of chorder and 'bass
modulator', as well as some cassette device it had, perhaps
for an early form of direct to disk recording!
all seems in reasonably good order, all cable looms intact,
with a pinout header that appears on the diagrams.
so i'm thinking initially that the voice board could separated
off as a gate trig sound module. i've started separating the
cable looms, labelling them and taking photos for reference,
and it looks possible. (also wonder if a sequencer with presets
could be usable ??)
but i don't know yet how to power this up/what it needs.
anyone into this? i can post schems and photos (if someone
can point me to a decent free way of uploading/keeping
images online)
Farfisa Partner 15 project
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- KVRAF
- 16836 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
Post the schems, I'd love to chat with you about that and I think some others would as well. FYI: I once reverse engineered a voice board for a farfisa portable so that our keyboard player would have something to play.
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- KVRAF
- 16836 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
Jeez, I have no idea what a free image service is. Weebly would allow you to create a quick drag and drop website with all the pics, or even blogspot. That way you could gather details of the project in one place.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 3706 posts since 13 Jun, 2004
uh dunno, i'll have to do the research..image shack, isnt it?
any-way...here's a zip with the schemz and photos, so let's get
this rolling!
https://www.box.com/s/6ps851rmm8r1fqt0yf03
(farfisa15.zip)
first of all, i need a way to power it, and see if i can get some
triggers to the voices, suss out where the audio mix out is.
eventually, it would be nice to have indiv' outs, but wired to a
mix out if not in use (insert-type mono jacks).
you'll see the voice circuits are only a few components each, so
you may find it simple to clone. no idea what the result will be
like. would also be good to find the point to insert pots at, and
any useful additions.
i'd better go off and find out how i can post photos here, like
everyone else seems to manage to...
any-way...here's a zip with the schemz and photos, so let's get
this rolling!
https://www.box.com/s/6ps851rmm8r1fqt0yf03
(farfisa15.zip)
first of all, i need a way to power it, and see if i can get some
triggers to the voices, suss out where the audio mix out is.
eventually, it would be nice to have indiv' outs, but wired to a
mix out if not in use (insert-type mono jacks).
you'll see the voice circuits are only a few components each, so
you may find it simple to clone. no idea what the result will be
like. would also be good to find the point to insert pots at, and
any useful additions.
i'd better go off and find out how i can post photos here, like
everyone else seems to manage to...
-
- KVRAF
- 16836 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
At first glance it looks like the voice board just takes 12v.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 3706 posts since 13 Jun, 2004
yeah, there was a post-it stuck to the docs that said 12v.
there are some other voltages on some pages, but could refer
to the other sections. what's the policy on amps here? go for
good capacity? eg 1.5-2A?
i'm going to poll some knowledge on this on another site too.
need to figure out the next stage/session.
there are some other voltages on some pages, but could refer
to the other sections. what's the policy on amps here? go for
good capacity? eg 1.5-2A?
i'm going to poll some knowledge on this on another site too.
need to figure out the next stage/session.
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- KVRAF
- 16836 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
If you are pulling the digital stuff off and just powering the analog board you can probably get by with much less than two amps, probably a few hundred mA. That said, you can probably pick up a 12V 1A wall wart from the goodwill for peanuts.mztk wrote:yeah, there was a post-it stuck to the docs that said 12v.
there are some other voltages on some pages, but could refer
to the other sections. what's the policy on amps here? go for
good capacity? eg 1.5-2A?
i'm going to poll some knowledge on this on another site too.
need to figure out the next stage/session.
There were other voltages, e.g. the 5v line, but from what I saw, they were derived as either regulated or unregulated from the 12v line.
I have three old units like this myself, I've thought about putting them in their own case from time to time but, in general, find the simple sounds aren't that interesting for the work involved. I have one from an parted out hammond from the 70s as well as a couple that are complete and were sold as side units. Of course, the old rhythms aren't all that interesting. For a bit of effort one could make them more interesting, perhaps, by replacing the clock with something a bit more interesting.