MATRIXSYNTH: Custom Black Sid Station with VFD


Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Custom Black Sid Station with VFD

via Mark Setrakian
"I recently finished a couple more VFD conversions that I think you will like. A while back I installed a VFD in my Sidstation. It turned out well, but there was something about the black display that didn't look right against the aluminum face plate. So I took the case to my anodizer, stripped it, buffed it, and black anodized it. Then I recreated the panel graphics in a CAD program and laser etched the design into the aluminum. It looks OK in pictures, but in person it's very nice; the display is gorgeous and the panel graphics are razor sharp. To be clear, this is not an official Sidstation Ninja. It still has the stock color LEDs and the Ninja logo at the bottom is my own addition. In the background is my black face MKS-80, which also has a VFD.

For those who are interested, I used Newhaven displays in the Sidstation and the MKS-80, and Noritake displays in the Sequential instruments. The difference is that the Sequential units use an underline cursor, which Noritake directly supports, and the Sid and MKS don't. The Noritake display will work in the Sid, but the graphics won't display properly."

Note Mark also brought us the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS with Flourescent Display and the Sequential Circuits Studio 440 with Vacuum Fluorescent Display.

3 comments:

  1. Where can I learn more???
    I wish to replace the one in my mks80 too!

    Rob.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Newhaven display I used is available from mouser.com, part number 763-116SD-161SDBR1. Installing in the MKS-80 was not easy, I had to do some machining to the inner frame to make room for it. Worth the effort, though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Mark, thanks for your blog. I'm considering doing this mod to my MKS80. My screen died sometime ago and would love to hear this beast come back to life. If you could give any tips or info it would be most appreciated.

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

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