@inlandscenic You should not connect the buttons to ground, but rather to the common line shared with the POTs, so that when a key is pressed it will still wake up the PO. Please refer to http://hackingthepo.weebly.com, it also explains how the LEDs work.
Thanks @punji, that’s really helpful. I’d hoped I could connect LEDs to one of the large contacts around each button but it sounds like that won’t work. Still, big buttons and pots will be fun.
Very interesting site, I see I got the pot value wrong in my post above! 5k not 50k!
What does the Play LED pad do?
The Play LED pad is connected to the LED for the “Play” key. I’m not sure why TE added that.
Just out of curiosity, I checked the vias under the “1” key and, as I guessed, they are connected to the corresponding LED. That would still not be easy to hack because those vias are very small, and I’m not sure you could drive two LEDs in parallel, but that is how I would try it.
@punji - love your work at Hacking the PO, thanks
Have you checked / mapped the vias behind the push buttons? Also what do you find best for exposing the vias - sandpaper or are you using a solvent or something else, cheers
I explored a bit more and it seems not all LEDs are mapped to the vias…
I use a dremel with the smallest dental drill. You have to be very careful to remove the soldermask only from the very top of the via, not the ground planed surrounding it, otherwise you risk shorting it in case you try to solder a wire there.
Wow those via are tiny! I don’t think I could drill them even with my big magnifier!
The PO-12 retrigger values are x1, x2, x3, x4, x6 and x8. That is the reason why the 24816 display icons are not used.
Are the 16 horizontal lines located at the very bottom of the screen? They are shown as on/off in images, but in reality, I can’t seem to get them to disappear. They suggest muting to me…
@hudson As indicated in the PO-12 DISPLAY section at http://hackingthepo.weebly.com, those dashes are part of the background icons and cannot be turned on/off independently.
sexcuse me but could you be so kind enough to answear this simple question , can i use the pocket operators INPUT for line in purposes (filtering ,distortioning,etc) ?
like using the FX on the line input? no i don’t think it works that way.
For better or worse the knobs always stay on whatever value they’re set. For worse: changing BPM without sync. For BETTER: You can write a parameter to full on, full off or anywhere in between. Turn on write mode and set param to 0. Turn off write mode and set param to full. Hit write button and jiggle knob.
Using my Sub I found that with a completely clear pattern, using the keyoo styles will record notes automatically, then allowing you to add notes that get affected.
For the PO-12, the clothespin trick is equally awesome on the FX when youre running a pattern chain, for adding fills that will be deleted when the pattern comes around again.
PROTIP: Just get all 3. I thought I would be happy with rhythm and sub but a couple days in and I’m already aching to add factory to the mix because the two I have already gel so well.
I’ve had the PO28 for a month or so. For the 12 and the 20 today. Amazed at how much LOUDER they both are, both via inbuilt speaker, and line-out / phones. So much so that I think I might have a faulty until in my 28.
Anyone else notice the encoders can lose their accuracy? Ie. Having trouble setting a note or bpm because it’s fluctuating between settings without touching it?
Rly impressed with the out of the box quality of the 12 and 28. I think I might like them both more than the 28, but then again it might just be the novelty of something new.
Not sure if mentioned already but to restore factory patterns. Hold write + pattern while installing the batteries. Just tested with PO-28, works.
However after I did it Again my speaker stopped working, headphones ok though. Hope I didn’t break it.