Good afternoon, video folk.  This past week were happy to celebrate validation of the analog circuitry on the Chromagnon Core RevF board -- and we're close to fully integrating the changes into RevG.  In both hardware and software design, there are different categories of releases and versions -- major versions, minor versions, and bugfix versions.  RevF was a major overhaul of our previous hardware approach, which combined what was 3 previous assemblies into a single board.  For that reason, it required several weeks of intense work, and a complete reroute of the board design.  RevG on the other hand is a minor revision -- it's purpose is to resolve any design issues present in the RevF board, like parts value changes, CAD footprint problems,...

Hello, Chromagnonites. It's been another productive week validating the Chromagnon Core assembly. The video output is looking good (see below), but it required some complex rework to get there.   Crossed wires There are only a couple more validation steps left. For next week I hope that testing is complete and that the core board is revised and ready for production. From that point, we can move into preparing the injection mold order for the enclosure and designing a rear finishing panel, which will include legending for Chromagnon's rear connectors and switches.This week we also finished preparing CAD files for another one of this quarter's projects, which is a prototype EuroRack case design and power busboard.  Here's a render of the work in progress....

Hello friends, It's nice and sunny here in SE Portland. This week was another steady week of Chromagnon testing and firmware updates for the new core assembly, with a few foibles.  (My trusty lab laptop needs a new power jack installed.) Last week we ended the Chromagnon Core RevF verification process -- testing that all circuits are passing signal and the embedded system is communicating with all of its peripherals. This week we entered the validation process -- that is, testing that all functions are working as desired.  To do that, I compare the model for the design, represented by a software simulation, against the measured output of each circuit (using my oscilloscope and other testing tools.)    Part of the challenge of designing complex...

Hello Chromagnonfolk, We had a busy week here, catching up on activities after being iced in last week. I spent most of the week reviewing the Chromagnon Core PCB RevF, and am relieved to report the assembly has passed everything in the 42-step test plan I mentioned in the last blog post. The full assembly is looking much slimmer now, with this new board -- something that will allow Chromagnon to easily fit in more EuroRack cases. Power consumption is sitting just under 1.5 Amps on +12V input, so we recommend using it with the included 12V DC adapter. Next week I hope to show off some more videos of Chromagnon's output and transition to working on other pre-production deliverables...

Hello visual artists and Chromagnonites -- this week has been a bit crazy.  Here in Portland we have all been iced into our homes since the holiday on Monday, so the typical workshop crew is working abroad.  We've focused that on getting ahead on content creation for new videos and social media posts -- a project that is going well and should buy us some free days in February.  I'm thankful everyone in the shop also has systems at home, or else this would not have been possible.On the Chromagnon front, we reached a firmware milestone this week, with the updates to account for pin mapping changes in the latest board revision. That clears the way for the rest of the hardware review.  The...

Howdy Chromagnon-folk. It's Friday and the week has been productive at LZX HQ. We're expecting snow over this upcoming holiday weekend here in southeast Portland. The best news of the week was the early arrival of our Chromagnon Core PCB's latest revision, as well as a test board for its four quadrant multiplier sub-circuit. After scrambling to get a few parts here faster than we expected we'd need them, we began assembly and testing on Wednesday. I was planning to talk about the Chromagnon conceptually this week, but since we reached this early milestone we'll save that topic for the future -- instead let's dig into the hardware itself. Now begins the long list of tests and measurements involved in...

We’ve had a great start to the year here in the workshop. You wrote a lot of questions since the last update, so this post will be focused on answering all of them.

Lars gives a rundown of the Chromagnon Core PCB design and outlines how the year will begin at LZX.

Lars outlines the list of milestones accomplished at LZX Industries during 2023.

Lars provides a development update on the Chromagnon video synthesizer.