Re: Paia Electronic Kits etc.

[Bret <echoplex@yahoo.com>]

--- PA5CALIO@aol.com wrote:
> Hey Everyone,
> I recently started checking out Paia's stuff (www.paia.com) ...
> 1) How difficult are these things to put together.... I have very
>little experience.  
pascalABIDOR,

Can you solder?  That is the fundamental skill you must master before
you can expect to build an electronic kit that will work, and be
reliable.  Soldering is not hard.  You just need to learn the process
of how to prepare and connect the parts to be soldered, how to heat the
parts properly, to apply the solder, and how to visually inspect the
joint in order to be confident of the conection.  

If you can't solder, ask and I can give you some help, via direct email
(off levnet).  You can practise soldering on old junk electronics.

> Will this be impossible for me?
Not if you learn the proper skills, and can follow written directions. 
You will need to learn to identify resistors, capacitors, inductors,
transistors, etc.  Pictures with identification are typically in the
instructions.

If you need to debug a problem (which is inevitable), you should learn
to read schematics and learn the basic circuit operation principles
like 'How does it work?', 'What does each part do?' or conversly 'Where
are the parts that do this particular function?'

> 2) Are there places where I can get these kits for cheaper than paia?
>  I jsut 
> started looking and haven't been really successful.  Paia appears to
> offer 
> teh cheapest modular synth kit and their effects kits seem pretty
> cheap too.  

I don't know of such kits other than paia for the synth and effects
stuff.  

I built a couple of 70's paia kits (phlanger, programable drummer) and
have seen other paia kits (tubehead, compressor, reverb) built by
friends over the past 20+ years.  All of them worked ok, but did not
have very robust physical construction.  Some of them were rather noisy
(in the audio circuit path), but given the vintage of the parts/designs
(70-80's), that may be par for the course.

The paia kits I bought also were outdated technology rapidly (bucket
brigade analog flanger, simple programable 'drum' machine with pong
like sounds), but again given the vintage that's how it happened in the
late 70's and early 80's.  Once digital delay devices and sampled
sounds were possible my 'phlanger' and drum box kits were obsolete.    

I thought the kits were ok, but certainly not state of the art
performance or construction for the time.

If there are cheaper kits, I would not buy them.  I would doubt their
performance, documentation and support.

Paia kits work, are documented well and come with good technical
support, but their low cost obviously limits the hardware and design
options, and therefor performance.

> Thanks a lot every one!
> -pascalABIDOR

good luck,
bret


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/