I happen to have a fully functional Syntakt PCB board (without the controls board nor the enclosure and the screen). My idea is to use it as a computer controlled unit.
The problem is that overbridge isn’t activated by default so if I plug the board to my computer, nothing will happen, and of course, I cannot activate it on the unit without the screen and the controls.
Does anyone have an idea of how I can do this? Or any other idea about how to use this PCB?
If you think it’s functional, then see if Elektron will pay return postage to test it for their supplies
It may as well be put to good use
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It is functional. I could try what you say, but I was excited about having the possibility to use it without the control, and maybe turn into a polyphonic synth using all the voices at the same time.
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It may be possible to hook it to a functioning syntakt for long enough to change those settings to allow OB to work once it’s standing alone. It also may not be able to do any of that at all, I don’t know. But I can’t imagine any other way of doing what you’re asking.
Ok I see. I will try to put the PCB inside the Syntakt, activate OB, then removing it and connect it. I will update as soon as I mut my hands on this screwdriver!
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[x] pics or it didn’t happen
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Do you have a knowledgeable person making any modifications for you? How much more do you want to pay over retail Syntakt prices to have a hacked-together Syntakt that can only do what a Syntakt does?
I’m not sure what your end-goal is beyond having a Syntakt for less money, so knowing what the “this” is and how much you want to invest in a learning experiment will help guide the “how”.
Is your goal to buy a PSU and just use it exposed on your desk via OB, assuming the USB port is presoldered?
If I understand that correctly and you’re engaging in minimal viable for that, you may need to solder on the button-switches first so you can navigate to go through the menus sightlessly.
I think the real test here is determining whether or not the device will run the system without the header board. No clue for Syntakt, but especially in the case of Digitone II and Digitakt II sharing the same PCB, I would speculate that something additional is going on there that gives a check. Overbridge in theory gives you controls over a desktop display, but I think it doesn’t fully span all system controls last I checked, so will be limited anyway.
I am also fairly certain that Syntakt shipped with Overbridge mode as the default option in the system menu. An easier test of whether or not it is functional without the header board is seeing if it is identified in Transfer, if you are certain as you claim that it is not in Overbridge mode. Share results though for science or whatever.
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Yeah, the daughterboard may be required for it to pass whatever power-on self tests in the first place without failing out at an error you still couldn’t access directly.
I wonder if these debug messages might be available via serial over USB, but knowing what error #s mean would be another thing entirely.
One could always look into the embedded platform and see what functionality is expected.
Probably should be. Otherwise anyone could ping support for a replacement board (at cost below MSRP of the assembled unit) and then attempt to use it as a second unit. Other good reasons for such a decision would be deterrent to thieves, bad actors reverse engineering, etc.
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