Messages

1

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Preenfm 3 - New build - Screen white

« on: September 03, 2021, 07:00:51 AM »

Hi Xavier, thank you for responding! It did indeed turn out to be a broken TFT. Ardi at Van Daal was very kind and refunded me a credit for the screen, and I purchased one from Amazon that fixed the problem.

For those interested, I bought the "WayinTop" (love those names!) brand screen; it was $2 cheaper and includes a bunch of test cables as well for some reason. It _does_ have the touch screen and chip, so the piece of acrylic included in Van Daal's kit no longer fits (it is a distinct layer on top of the TFT), but since this is a layer that is intended for contact I'm not going to worry about this. (I believe Xavier says something to this effect on the wiki page about TFT boards.)

Overall this was a very satisfying and interesting build; it is clear that a lot of experience has gone into this design and I am really happy that people are making and sharing projects like this with the world. I loved the PreenFM2 and am really excited with the upgrades on the PreenFM3. The 6 voices and separate output jacks in particular should make this a versatile multi-timbral instrument.

2

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Preenfm 3 - New build - Screen white

« on: August 28, 2021, 03:57:41 PM »

Hey folks,

I'm going to piggy back on this discussion because I'm also having a screen issue, although not quite the same as the others described. I just assembled my PreenFM3 kit from Van Daal electronics. The instructions are a little sparse -- for instance, I didn't catch the first time through that the black jumpers need to be attached while doing the audio and midi ports and had to partially disassemble it when when I realized that -- but I was more or less able to make sense of it and get through the build. Additionally there is mention of the screen PCB having a "known issue with the SD card slot", which makes no sense, but I went ahead and added some extra solder on the SD card connections anyway.

I followed Xavier's instructions for flashing the bootloader and firmware from Linux, and everything seemed to go smoothly; when I turned the unit on, the LEDs came on and so did the screen. However, the image on the screen is quite terrible, horizontal white lines across it and a big blacked out section at the bottom. The picture DOES respond when I turn the encoders (the highlighted item on the right moves up and down), so I'm assuming that overall the software and hardware are functional, but the unit is totally unusable with the screen like this.

I've attached a picture of the screen (sorry about the refresh sync problems -- what I see is white horizontal lines). Does anybody have any idea about whether this is due to bad connections, bad software, or a bad TFT?

Thank you Xavier for yet another amazing design, I am so looking for to actually using it!

3

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Re: Feature request: init patch

« on: June 02, 2020, 08:49:13 AM »

Yes good idea, but I don't know how to add that in the menu.

Workaround :
What you can do is to create a bank ("A_Init") with first letters so that it shows first in the bank list.
Then in this bank a "Init" preset where you put the one you want as Init.
You can then find it and load it easily.

That works, and is how the Yamaha DX I owned did it; there was always a patch called "Init".

4

preenfm2 and preenfm3 / Feature request: init patch

« on: May 31, 2020, 08:28:17 PM »

First off, I love the PreenFM2. It is an incredibly versatile instrument, has a really clean interface for its size (once you learn it), and given all of the work that Xavier continues to put into, form factor, USB capability, etc...amazing. I'm putting together a set of patches that I hope to post here sometime soon.

One thing that I'd love for developing patches is just a basic "init patch" setting in the menu somewhere, similar to how "Rand" works but with everything zeroed out, ie:

- algo: 1
- operators: just op 1 as a sine wave, others are None
- all of the modulation matrices turned to 0
- IM settings are normalized (to 1.0 I think)
- etc

Does this already exist? I haven't found it in the settings or manual. I know it sounds boring, but I think that it'd be a nice compliment to the Rand setting.

Thank you again for an amazing instrument!