Kniferide wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 1:41 am

thecr4ne wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2024 4:47 pm
Not sure what you mean by "open"

I mean plays nice with daws and other applications. Like is there any kind of software mixer router that say, a Reaper or Cubase or Pro Tools (barrrf) can utilize. I know these are sort of engineered for a proprietary console system. Not sure how "open" the system is outside of that ecosystem.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how nicely they'll play in that sense. I'm sure if you had FU money and could design a system from scratch you could get it to do whatever you want, but since I'm a cheapskate who stumbled upon this, I imagine my experience will be less ideal. I got in contact with a guy who originally spec'ed one of these units who seems eager and willing to help me out as far as he can. Will report with any progress.

thecr4ne wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 3:53 pm

Kniferide wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 1:41 am

thecr4ne wrote: Tue Oct 08, 2024 4:47 pm
Not sure what you mean by "open"

I mean plays nice with daws and other applications. Like is there any kind of software mixer router that say, a Reaper or Cubase or Pro Tools (barrrf) can utilize. I know these are sort of engineered for a proprietary console system. Not sure how "open" the system is outside of that ecosystem.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how nicely they'll play in that sense. I'm sure if you had FU money and could design a system from scratch you could get it to do whatever you want, but since I'm a cheapskate who stumbled upon this, I imagine my experience will be less ideal. I got in contact with a guy who originally spec'ed one of these units who seems eager and willing to help me out as far as he can. Will report with any progress.

Well I'm mega intrigued so keep us updated.

Yeah I wanna hear all about that beast

Nate Dort wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2023 3:20 pm Because I only have 4 motor vehicles taking up three garage spaces right now, and I need more projects, we’re heading to South Dakota at the end of the month to pick up a mostly-complete 1917 Dort (might be 1918 based on the serial number), another 1920? parts donor frame/engine/most-of-a-front-body, and a large pile of loose parts, including a completely rebuilt original Lycoming K engine. We’ll bum around the black hills for few days with the kids, then trailer the car back behind a box truck.

I’ve talked to the seller on the phone a few times. He apparently has long COVID symptoms and can’t work on them anymore.

I paid the same amount for my partially complete 1921 Dort two years ago (I blew up the engine in that one last year), so this seems like a pretty good deal. I think I can easily frankenstein one nice car out of all this stuff and the stuff I already have.

Now I’m on the hunt for a storage unit or maybe a garage space I can rent long-term to do all of this work.

I've probably got 300 hours into this thing over the past 13 months, but it's finally running again. Turns out it's a 1920 Dort Model 15. The entire engine and drivetrain has been disassembled and refurbished. No interior yet, so I'm sitting on a milk crate temporarily. The goal was to get it running before my kids Trunk-or-Treat event at their school next week. I'm going to fill it up with skeletons.

I've got a long build thread going over at the AACA forums: https://forums.aaca.org/topic/402966-a- ... 1920-1921/

That car rules

Nate Dort wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2024 9:37 pm

Build a Dragula

Update on the Stagetec Nexus system. I've been trying to find a way to re-configure things myself, but nobody is forthcoming with information. For what this hardware costs the software side of things should be much less annoying. That said, for what I paid, I shouldn't be complaining. I'll have to pay for a new config once I get all the hardware I need and decide how I want it all laid out. I have a lead on a MADI card which would get me pretty much where I want to be.

In the meantime, I snagged a Euphonix FC726 format converter for $150. It'll do 56 AES/EBU Ins/Outs to MADI (among other things). My third Nexus unit has Mic input cards (they convert mic level to digital with no analog Pre stage. Pretty cool) so I soldered some RJ45 to DB25 AES/EBU cables to connect the AES outs from that unit to the FC726.

So I've got mic into the Stagetec, AES/EBU out to the Euphonix, and Madi out from the Euphonix to my SSL MADIXtreme PCIe card (via an SSL Madi optical/coax converter). I had to fight with drivers a bit for the MADIXtreme card, but I got it sorted out. I've now got signal flowing in and out of my DAW. 128 Channels both ways at 48kHz, 64 at 96kHz.

Now I need to solder up a bunch of db25 to XLR cables to get all the AES in and out of the euphonix. On that note, is it worth giving a shit about XLR quality for AES?EBU? I've got a bunch of neutrik xlrs, but I'd rather save those for analog connections.

GK 700RB-II:



Borked, cheap on reverb. Powered up, but never came out of protection mode.

Found the fan circuit was burned up, and the fan was toast. Both +15 and -15 V rails were dead. Replaced the LM317 and LM337 there, and replaced the transistors and thermal sensor in the fan circuit. Dropped in a new fan. Rail voltages looked good, but still wouldn't come out of protection. Found that the 555 timer in the protection circuit was cooked, so I replaced that and got the protection circuit functioning normally.

Still wasn't getting any audio, so I pulled the preamp board and found that every opamp was bad, some to the point of exploding.



Replaced them all with sockets and new TLE2072 opamps. It would pass audio at that point, but was oscillating for about 10 seconds at startup. Traced the oscillation to the +15 V rail. Replaced the LM317 again, because it was reading as having a partial short internally and that fixed it. I think I winged it the first time when I tried to power up the damaged preamp board. I ended up replacing most of the 'lytic caps on the preamp as well, as I think they probably saw excessive voltage at some point during the original failure.

I kinda hate working on these, because all of the power amp transistors are sandwiched under the heatsink and you have to remove 20 screws to get access.

Damn, what a mess.

Nice work on the car!