Faced with a variety of alternatives to resolve the shouty potentiometer, I opted for the simplest and least invasive first. Wrap a loop of wire around the exposed cable, and attach both ends to GND.
Result: silence.
I’ve no idea why the interference chose this wire and not the other two, but I’ll put that down to magic.
This weekend has been given over to wiring up the pedalboard and expression shoes. It should also have been given over to cutting the grass, but that wasn’t nearly as interesting although it may have proved less frustrating.
The first vexation came when I connected the pedal MIDI nerve to the MIDI central nervous system and plugged that into the laptop to sniff the MIDI messages. The first seven pedals were fine, but the eighth was silent. The next seven were also fine, and the eighth was silent. This pattern was repeated a third time, and then the last eight notes were completely mute. Nary a message issued forth. This was the cue for much poking and prodding with a multimeter, discussions with people who are more knowledgable than I about such matters, an email to Roman at midi-hardware.com, and much stomping around in a foul temper by me. Roman replied with an obvious question: was the PDS module correctly seated on the header pins of the REED32 module? ‘What?’ I asked myself. ‘What a ridiculous question. Of course it is. I’m not stupid.’ Still wearing my stompy boots, off I went to check again before penning a scornful reply.
<pause>
The PDS module was not correctly seated: in fact it was out by a pin. Correcting this embarrassing error proved that the pedals were, in fact, all working perfectly. Somewhat chastened, I spent about half an hour crawling around on the floor with a hot soldering iron in one hand, wiring the pots up to the cable. That was fun. Then back to testing, to discover that, while the first and third (swell and solo) shoes work perfectly, the middle (choir) shoe is generating spurious messages on average once every fifteen seconds. I think that this is down to interference, and I have to try and wrap some additional earth wires around the bare wiper wires tomorrow, which will hopefully solve the problem. If it doesn’t, it has been suggested to me by a beermat that some cat 5 network cable would be even better and have superior shielding ability over such a short (1 metre) run of cable. That’s plan B.
Today’s photographs are the fully wired expression shoes from behind, and the organ console with the pedalboard attached, possibly for the first time in several years. Dewi thought I was photographing him, and wouldn’t stay out of the way.
Once the problem of the interference is solved, I’m somewhat at a loss to proceed further, until I get some hardwood to fill in the gaps on either side of the keyboard, or the toe pistons – both of which David is currently working on.
I may have to cut the grass after all.
Without much comment, anyway. This is what the console looks like at the moment. It is perfectly organised, and I know the location and purpose of everything on it. Compulsively tidy viewers may wish to look away now.
Once upon a time, I may have made a joke involving “Jake the Peg”. Those were innocent days.
It has been a productive week.
The expression shoes are now in the console, and everything is secure. The first photo show one of the new pots in its flange and waiting to be secured to the shoe, and the second shows the rear view of the console, with the shoes and side panels fitted and secured.
The only (forgive me) potential fly in this ointment is that I have not properly tested the pots. To do this properly, I need to assemble the MIDI control centre in the correct place, so that the shielded cable to the pots is as short as possible. I have received Dire Warnings about this cable being too long, as it may cause errors in the Voltage transmission from the pots to the MIDI module. So that’s next week’s job.
Meanwhile, David (of Norwich Organs fame) has received the toe piston mouldings. He is currently thinking about things, and will attack them with a saw in due course. Rather him than me.
In house-related news, I have – with the assistance of lovely neighbours – smashed up three sheds. I think we deserve an award for how neatly the skip was packed. Next week, the tree surgeon cometh. Hopefully he will pronounce the oak at the bottom of the garden to be sound and safe.
Oh yes, and I managed to step on a nail when taking the dogs for a walk. In the middle of woodland. Which is unfair: I didn’t do this once when we were smashing sheds to bits. Hello, tetanus shot and course of strong antibiotics. Ouch.
I am not a worker of wood. On top of that, I don’t really have the tools or the space for doing fine work. Nevertheless, I did my best and it is not too bad. At some point I might re-visit the re-shaping of the knee-board, but not in the forseeable future. It’s done, and it works. Unless you crawl under the organ and look closely at the mitres, you will not see how badly they are cut. Grr. Anyway, here’s the finished product, front and back.
I have secured the holes left by the speakers, using plastic grilles which are usually employed for fixing pond filters. If I inadvertently stick my foot through the fabric, this reduces the risk of me getting electrocuted. I have re-fitted the square box (right of the rightmost picture), since I have discovered that it is essential to the structural integrity of the console. Fortunately I kept the bits. I’m a great keeper of bits, me. David would be proud.
It felt… satisfying… to finally be putting things together again after such a long period without any major progress. I can now turn once more to matters electronic. Next on the Great Big List is to fit the new pots to the expression shoes, and then fit the shoes back in their hole.
I also need to measure the right-hand moulding, to shorten it by two pistons, making allowance for the enlarged hole. At least one, if not two, of these pistons should fit easily on the left-hand moulding. My plan is to do the measuring next week, and then drop the mouldings off at David’s front door so that he can get to work on them with far more skill than I can manage. He’s more-or-less on the way to the supermarket so I can do this when I go shopping, thereby avoiding an unnecessary journey.
I also have a skip arriving next week, so that I can remove the three rotting sheds in my garden. I have a lump hammer and a crowbar. And gin – for medicinal purposes.
I am not, for one moment, suggesting that the current strict rules on isolation should be ignored. Far from it: as someone who lives with a medical condition that puts me in an “at risk” category, the current pandemic is causing me more than a little worry. The only truly effective method to halt a virus in its tracks is to remove its access to hosts, which means that – if governments around the world are sensible (hah!) – the quarantine and distancing protocols should remain in place for several weeks, even months, to come. I’m slightly concerned by Spain’s decision to relax some of the restrictions: I hope this decision has been taken on the basis of sound evidence, and that it won’t turn out to have been too soon.
But on the other hand, my plans are frustrated on many fronts. I need to do some work on the bathroom of the new house, but a plumber needs to work some magic first. I need to redecorate the bedroom (I have Plans), but I need the services of an electrician before I can start. And then there is the organ.
Fortunately, I have been able to get hold of some of the items I need to make progress. Presumably there are small businesses still operating out of people’s garages and sheds, and still able to sell on eBay and Amazon. I’ve received some excellent wood stain and some headless nails, and am expecting to receive some right-angle hardwood moulding, brown wax, and varnish, later this week. I have cut and stained a nice piece of hardwood (supplied by David) that will be attached to the lip of the expression shoes base board once it has been waxed and varnished. I think I will be able to match the colour of the console almost exactly.
Once I’ve stained, finished and fitted the moulding around the hole in the knee board, I will be able to re-fit it and then affix the expression shoes. It’s time to start putting things back together.
I also bought some new socks, which pleased me greatly. I have embraced middle-age.
And so, before another shoe-related pun escapes from my fingers, I must bring an end to this two-part series by offering part four for your consideration.
Here are the three shoes firmly affixed to the base board. You may observe that the rubber on the swell shoe (the left) is slightly different to the other two. This is because shut up.
And the view from the rear. Note that the new sibling has three pots rather than one. I’m not sure why this is the case, although they were all wired up when I received it (it came from a Norwich Organs console, so I will ask David when I see him). I will only be wiring up a single pot, since the interface only has space for three – one on each shoe. In any case, I could always attach the pot to multiple actions in Hauptwerk, should the need arise.
I will dust off the bottoms of the shoes before putting them into the console. But that is a job for this weekend.
I think they probably have their own schedules when I’m out at work, and the fact that I’m here all day at the moment is putting them to an inconvenience. I am trying to cause the least amount of fuss by spending the day hunched over my desk in the corner and not drawing attention to myself, but they are clearly displeased.
Here follows the rather short third part of the two-part series on the expression shoes.
On the left is the finished base board for the expression shoes on the right. On the right are the expression shoes to be affixed to the base board on the left.
And here are the choir and solo expression shoes installed on the board. To my vexation, the solo shoe is off-centre by about a quarter of a degree, which means that when both the choir and the solo shoes are closed, the gap between them is very slightly – but noticeably – crooked. However, I am hoping that once they are in their black box behind the kneeboard, this will not be noticeable. Now, if I can only do something to erase the memory of the imperfection from my own mind…
I have to do a little bit more work on the swell shoe, which has come from a different organ. I hope to get it installed tomorrow, and then at the weekend I will have a look at installing it in the console.
The Helldesk finally sorted out my remote access today, so I have mostly been a productive work-unit. Nevertheless I did find time to do a little work on the expression shoes. Here is the base plate, with all the drilling done. Note that this is upside down – the bottoms of the shoes themselves are attached from underneath the base plate, and the countersunk holes ensure that it will still sit flush when attached to the console.
And now for something squishy. The front edge of the base plate will be sort-of visible when the expression shoes are attached. The front of the original plate had a strip of veneer to make itself presentable, but this replacement is just ordinary coarse ply. Clearly something must be done. I have thought briefly about this and decided that since I will be painting the top of the base plate with blackboard matt to make it neutral, it will not be a big job to simply paint the exposed edge of the plate as well. Here is the edge, with polyfilla liberally worked into it. I will sand it down on Saturday, prior to giving it a couple of coats of paint, and all will be well.
Tune in soon for part three of this exciting two-part series!
This is part one of a two-part post. As I am presently self isolating, and waiting for the No Help Whatsoever Desk to resolve my problems connecting to the corporate network from home, I thought I would do a little bit of work on the organ. There are a limited number of jobs remaining which I am capable of doing alone, and refitting the expression shoes is one of them.
As you can see, there are currently two of them, which once controlled the swell and choir divisions of the old organ. This is insufficient for my grandiose needs, and I have obtained a third for the solo division.
The shoes are mounted on a board and spaced according to the RCO specification. The job thus far has been to remove the shoes and use the board as a template for a larger replacement:
That done, I have drilled holes for the two shoes, and marked out where the holes need to be drilled for their newly-adopted sibling:
Oops! I flipped the board on the way to the workbench, and ended up drilling them on the wrong side. Not to worry, David sized the board exactly, and when the holes are drilled for the third shoe, they will align as they are supposed to. That is a job for tomorrow, if I still don’t get access to the corporate network.