Monome Build

This weekend my monome fever continued as I worked on putting together the monome kit that I recently purchased (link to previous post about monome madness). I spent over six hours soldering numerous components as dictated by the instructions from the monome website. I am happy to report that I made good progress, though I encountered issues when trying to set up the ribbon cable.

All-in-all I soldered 64 miniscule diodes and small LEDs, and several hundred other pins from chips, resistors, and capacitors. This was by far the most soldering I have ever done. I have to admit the experience was somewhat zen like. I have definitely taken my soldering skills to a whole new level. Here are some pictures from the build.



For the most part I did not encounter any issues, aside from the ribbon cable problem mentioned above. The problem is that I broke two connectors in my failed attempts to connect the ribbon cable. Therefore, I need to find two new connectors, and learn how to use them, in order to get my monome to work. I was silly to think that this would be the easiest part of the build process.

In preparation for this project I purchased a soldering machine from Radio Shack. I am really happy with my decision to get this iron - the standard tip was ideal for the type of work I was carrying out, it has a nice fine point. Since it is manufactured by Madell I can easily purchase new tips online.

More updates to come later this week and early next week, after I am able to get some new ribbon cable.