SamIAm Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 As some may know, I recently experienced a fire in my home. Very little survived the inferno, my EffektLada unit did not go unscathed! Pre-Fire Post-Fire I am going to strip down the HR Giger-esque remains and see if the guts are still working. But first a description of the unit. EffektLada A Raspberry Pi based multi F/X unit. It runs the open source MOD ecosystem software created by Mod for their Dwarf & Duo X units. A Pi4 is a little more powerful than the heart of the Mod Dwarf, so even tho it is running Pi OS (A general purpose operating system) it should still deliver comparable (or even slightly better) performance. Hardware Main core is a Raspberry Pi 4b with 8Gb RAM (A 4Gb should work well, I happened to have an 8Gb I could repurpose). (Cost apx £75) Audio card is a HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC Pro (Cost apx £55) There are also various interconnects and jack sockets. The housing is a custom 3D design/print. Software The foundation is Pi OS, a linux operating system specifically for the Pi. This is tweaked in a variety of ways (more later) to optimise it for real time management of audio. The magic is performed using Mod Host & Mod UI, which are both part of the Mod ecosystem. There is a similar system already in existence (And it heavily influenced EffektLada) called Patchbox OS, it runs a modified version of the Mod software called Modep. I configured EffektLada is a similar fashion, but with two key differences It uses a more recent version of Pi OS. It directly uses the Mod HOST and Mod UI software from Mod (Modep is a fork of these) so that it is possible to easily take advantage of improvements & bug fixes that Mod develop. As well as using EffektLada for FX processing (There are apx 600+ high quality plugins for it, think of these as a library of pedals from which you can construct a pedalboard ... all for free!) I intend to use MIDI, with a keyboard (and later some planned custom built MIDI controllers) to allow the generation of drum backing, sound effects and other bits and bobs for our gigs; given I'm already wired up with my bass rig, it makes sense to wrap this up in the one unit. The unit pictured was the first generation prototype, totally operated by its web interface. The rebuild will incorporate some foot switches and a small display to allow for on the fly switching amongst various patches/settings. I've started the delicate task of trying to extricate the innards of the melted unit and will post up more details with pix when I can. If the Pi is "baked" then this diary will have a long hiatus, PIs are nearly impossible to come by (Except at insane prices) in the aftermath of the chip supply chain issues following Covid. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 I think I have a Pi knocking about somewhere. No idea what generation or spec it is, but if I can find it and it's suitable then it's yours. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 Given that the mark 1 is just a black (orange, kind of crispy) box, if it works why not leave it as is and use it? You may start a trend for melty stompboxes... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted September 4, 2022 Author Share Posted September 4, 2022 Just now, Si600 said: Given that the mark 1 is just a black (orange, kind of crispy) box, if it works why not leave it as is and use it? You may start a trend for melty stompboxes... I like your thinking! However, the jack sockets are plastic and deformed in the heat of the fire, I also need another case that can house the foot-switches and display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cato Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 I've got nothing useful to contribute, just very happy to see you doing another build. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 8 hours ago, Si600 said: melty stompboxes The challenge for the week is to get that phrase into a work or social conversation this week. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Richard R said: The challenge for the week is to get that phrase into a work or social conversation this week. Even bigger challenge for me, I live in Germany so it won't make any sense to anyone Edited September 4, 2022 by Si600 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 What's the translation? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz39 Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 1 minute ago, Richard R said: What's the translation? Melty Stompboxen. But louder and pointier. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 20 minutes ago, Richard R said: What's the translation? Schmelzende Stompboxen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 23 minutes ago, Si600 said: Schmelzende Stompboxen Fabulous. I shall try to get that into a conversation 😁 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 And so it began ... Note the soot stains on the parts of the housing lying by the hacksaw, these are the inside surfaces illustrating how much smoke got into the case! After removing the bottom of the housing, the Pi came out no problem. Further nibbling away at the housing and the audio card was nearly ready to come out. The interconnects were next (and this picture shows why the top of the case had such a funky topology) I cleaned up the Pi & audio card using alcohol and a cotton bud, trying to get as much as the residue off as I could. The Pi uses a micro SD card as its "disk drive", this appeared intact and running all of the diagnostics on it from a linux computer, no errors were reported ... a hopeful sign! I powered on the Pi, the usual boot up sequence of the LEDs occurred ... a really hopeful sign. The Pi uses a micro HDMI port for display and I don't have one of those adapters any more so I'm not sure if it actually started up OK. I was unable to find it on the list of WiFi networks when I did a scan; I thought it was last configured to act as a WiFi access point so I could connect to it in the absence of any other WiFi system, possibilities are: It may not have started up correctly. I may not have configured the WiFi the way I thought I had. The WiFi electronics may be fried. I think I can pick up the necessary adapter cheaply whcih will allow me to connect the Pi to a monitor/keyboard/mouse and check out the problem, hopefully it is 2. Next step (if it works) will be to attach the audio card, see if it is recognised and then try to hook up some in and out jacks to see if it will process any sound. I'm visiting my makerspace (With it's Aladdins cave of equipment and components) later today so will have a chance to try that there . S'manth x 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted September 6, 2022 Author Share Posted September 6, 2022 (edited) Much to my delight (and to my surprise!) when I hooked the Pi+Audio board up to a monitor I saw this: The two lit LEDs on top and the text on the screen indicate it has successfully started up and initalised the audio card! S'manth does a little dance of happiness! Now to play hide & seek for some jack sockets ... S'manth xx Edited September 6, 2022 by Smanth 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 I am, frankly, amazed! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si600 Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 (edited) Schmelzende Stompboxen gehen weiter Edited September 6, 2022 by Si600 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3below Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 (edited) 28 minutes ago, Si600 said: Schmelzende Stompboxen gehen weiter Schmelzende Stompboxen - what a great name for a band Edited September 6, 2022 by 3below 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted September 11, 2022 Author Share Posted September 11, 2022 (edited) TL;DR I’ve stopped work on this project. The Mod platform is rather amazing, the fact it is OSS is a major factor. I recently became aware that Moddevices are not some super conglomerate raking in piles of dosh, but are one the verge of collapse, with many employees deferring salary to try to keep things afloat. it seems wrong to me to benefit from their hard work when they are not, and so I am shelving Effektlada. One day I hope to be able to purchase one of their Dwarf units (Think HX Stomp on steroids) but for now … S’manth x Edited September 11, 2022 by Smanth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted September 11, 2022 Share Posted September 11, 2022 It's worth reading the MOD Devices forum on their current situation. They have collapsed but are looking to get investment to be able to purchase everything from the liquidator and keep going. You could always go Zynthian instead - https://zynthian.org/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted September 12, 2022 Author Share Posted September 12, 2022 (edited) 9 hours ago, tauzero said: It's worth reading the MOD Devices forum on their current situation. They have collapsed but are looking to get investment to be able to purchase everything from the liquidator and keep going. You could always go Zynthian instead - https://zynthian.org/ Yes, I'm following the Mod forum closely ... I wish I was in a position to help financially (by either purchasing a Dwarf or investing) but I'm not. I have offered my technical abilities to help in any way they may find useful as I believe their Dwarf and the Mod ecosystem are fantastic! Zynthian is an amazing unit and it helped shape the way I was building EffektLada (Ditto the Patchbox OS and PiStomp Core systems). The thing is that all of these are using Modep ... a slightly dated modified fork of the Mod OSS software (EffektLada was using the most recent official version and so provide better capabilities) and I would not feel right about using that for the reasons I shared before. However, I am proceeding with a Stompbox project, it is using Zoom processors to apply the effects ... I've started a new build diary for it Stompz - A Zoom compatable programmable midi stomp controller S'manth x Edited September 12, 2022 by Smanth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorris Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 Just becoming aware of this company / products this info on current commercial status https://forum.moddevices.com/t/mod-reboot-we-made-it/8484 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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