Moog Music Forum

Hello everbody,

I am new here in the forum and I hope that everone excuse me when i ask a question which is already answered. I am very interested in cloning a Moog 960 Sequential Controller. I had the schematics of the controller from the Service manual, I ordered some of the old stuff but I really want to have one or more pictures of the PCB's from the upper side and from the solder side. Can anyone provide me with this information ? That whould be a big help.

Thanks a lot in advance

Greetings from the cold old germany


Cheers

Bernhard

You could save a bunch of time and just get a synthesizers.com Q960. Clone of the 960.

I know, but nevertheless I want to recreate (or at least try to recreate) these stuff by my own.
But for that I kindly ask if someone have some pictures from the PCBs

Just Me wrote:You could save a bunch of time and just get a synthesizers.com Q960. Clone of the 960.

At $800+ for a Q960, he's going to save a lot of money by doing it himself. But it is going to take a lot of efforts and time, I'll grant you that!

thealien666 wrote:

Just Me wrote:You could save a bunch of time and just get a synthesizers.com Q960. Clone of the 960.

At $800+ for a Q960, he's going to save a lot of money by doing it himself. But it is going to take a lot of efforts and time, I'll grant you that!

Yes, if you go with cheap pots, knobs, swtiches, and jacks. I count 25 pots, 12 rotary switches, 12 pushbuttons, 9 lamps, and 26 jacks. For good quality parts, especially if you want to match the Moog look, you're probably around $350-$400 just for that. If you go cheap, you could probably cut that in half. Plus the faceplate, circuit-board, and parts.

Or you could go with the Moon Modular 569 clone+ - http://www.lunar-experience.com/569.html , but that's about $1500

Considering all the rare and obsolete parts, making a 960 clone would be very difficult unless you redesigned it substantially.
This is what Synthesizers.com did.

But especially difficult is building something from schematics and photos alone.
One really needs an original 960 in front of them for comparing not only how it was built, but also to judge if your clone is working as it should.
In the end, it might be better to buy a Synths.com unit.

If you're a purist and must pursue the original design, at least a synths.com 960 would provide a finished front panel with all controls in place.
It would be a great starting point.
I have some of those original 960 DTL/RTL ICs, but strongly recommend against making a new design using them.
I feel they're better to provide to someone with a broken real 960, than for DIY purposes.

Whatever route you take, I wish you good luck.
K

I have an OLD Texas Instruments databook - bound hardcover - with those DTL/RTL parts

MC wrote:I have an OLD Texas Instruments databook - bound hardcover - with those DTL/RTL parts

You're old!!

Most of the 960s I've seen have had Motorolas in them.
Are there TI equivalents?
Some are just common gate packages.

MC wrote:I have an OLD Texas Instruments databook - bound hardcover - with those DTL/RTL parts

Kevin Lightner wrote:

MC wrote:I have an OLD Texas Instruments databook - bound hardcover - with those DTL/RTL parts

You're old!!

Most of the 960s I've seen have had Motorolas in them.
Are there TI equivalents?
Some are just common gate packages.

I have several Motorolla and TI logic gate IC's and they are interchangable, more often than not. Got a bunch of them in a box of NOS on E-bay. Actually, I've found the Motorolla chips to be more sensitive to voltage change than the TI's. I can create a NAND circuit with the TI's and use carbon resistors operating at +/-10%, wheras the Motorolla chip in that same circuit needs 2% resistors in order to function properly.

Kevin Lightner wrote:

MC wrote:I have an OLD Texas Instruments databook - bound hardcover - with those DTL/RTL parts

You're old!!

Nah, just resourceful... found this databook at work. They were closing out the library and people were invited to take whatever they wanted. Also got a 1960s TI Transistor Circuit Design manual from there, loaded with info. Got a 1963 GE Transistor design book at another place I used to work (it may be pre-Silicon but most of it is still relevant).

Most of the 960s I've seen have had Motorolas in them.
Are there TI equivalents?
Some are just common gate packages.

It does have a cross reference of old Motorola logic (MC9xx) to TI TTL parts. Did you know that Signetics made a logic family called DCL? What *IS* in this TI book are discrete trannys and diodes, DTL, TTL, SNG, TMS (pre-4xxx MOS logic), REALLY low density 128bit (NOT kB) static RAM, and linear oddballs like log converters. This is a 1971 edition and RTL was old hat by then.

I have collected a few photos of the 960 from the internet in the past months. They mostly show the component side and are not sufficient for redesign the PCBs exactly; maybe you already found them as well.
If you think this could be of some help, I will be happy to share.

Greetings from unusually snowy and cold Italy

L

Hello dombedos. It whould be very, very nice, if you share your pictures. Any picture is welcome.

greeting from the also cold and snowy germany (but not so unusual in February as it is in Italy )

Here's a pic I made for the trim locations on an original 960 just in case anyone needs it:

http://www.synthfool.com/moog960trimlocations.jpg

(It is whitened out to conserve toner when printing.)

Hi Kevin, thank you very much for posting the link. That's a beginning

btw. how many PCBs does the controller have. 3? One in the middle and one on the right and one on the left side. Am I right?

Bernhard

OK, Bernhard, please drop your e-mail address (in a private massage if you don't like to publish it) and I will send them.

L