Anyone give me tips on a future DIY build?

[Voltor07]

I took apart my Farfisa organ today to part it out, and discovered that there are three broken traces on one of the main boards. Rather than try to fix it, or get a new board printed (yeah right) I saved all the flawless keys (which were immediately taken by my neighbor for $50) and all the circuit boards. I converted the case into a permanent, multi purpose workbench. What I want to know is, what are some good DIY uses for the frequency divider chips? I would really like to incorporate them into a project, seeing as how rare they are these days. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[thealien666]

Build yourself a Polymoog clone maybe? hehehe.

[jeepo]

I have a wurli that is likely about to undergo a similar process as it does't work and I'm not sure where that capacitor I smelled last time I turned it on is. The organ is really big, smells funny and some of those boards may be cooler in a smaller box, like putting the drum tone board into a drum machine. If you find something interesting to do with the divider chip I will be interested to hear about it. Maybe an additive synthesizer? Or frequency divider module?

[EricK]

You sold the keys....I would have suggested turning it into a unique Midi Controller ala the guy from the band Mathcamp.

[Voltor07]

You sold the keys....I would have suggested turning it into a unique Midi Controller ala the guy from the band Mathcamp.

That would have required keeping the keyboard in the case, and the keyboard itself weighed 20 pounds, and only 30 keys were pristine. Most of them were discolored, had cigarette burns, or had been glued back together. The case and legs adds another 30 pounds. The whole thing with circuitry and power supply weighs 70 pounds. That would have made a heavy MIDI controller. I found a home for the contacts and bussbars today. Sold them for $40 to a guy who is using them to replace the ones in his FAST 5. I appreciate everyone's answers thus far. I DEFINITELY want to do something with the drum tone board.

Frequency divider module...I like it! Also, if anyone knows anything about voltage requirements for any of the boards it would be greatly appreciated. There are ropes of cables and wires going every which way, and no labeling of any kind. Schematics for this thing are expensive and few. Also, if anyone can lend me their Italian Rosetta Stone software so I can read the ones I have found, that would be great.

[jeepo]

The nice thing about my wurli is that the things which are labled (mostly voltage requrements and ESD warnings) are in english, though I assume that +15V probaby looks similar in Italian I also have a yammaha organ which is much older (I didn't see a single ic in there, the closest things to ic's are what appear to be discrete opamps. I'm not sure how anything is labled in the yammaha (I hope it's not Japanese), and all the circuit boards look like some kind of cardboard.

[Voltor07]

The boards in the Farfisa are fiberglass. I know the Japanese used Bakelite and phenolic boards in the 60's and through parts of the 70's, but what you describe sounds like Masonite. Never heard of nor seen a Masonite circuit board. I'll go through the boards on Monday and see if I can trace anything.