I decided to build the new version of the Doboz TSNM, the MK II. Just received it in the mail the other day. There are two versions of this. One is surface mount and the other is through hole.
Touch Sensing Not Memory (TSNM) is a touch controller for modular synths. It has many modes and uses. It can act as Keyboard, Arpeggiator, and Sequencer. It has a built in quantizer, portamento, and vibrato. TSNM can use an external or built in clock. There are many other features and options built in.
The touch pads are “pressure” sensitive. Really they are capacitive sensors and are detecting how much skin contact you are making with the control surfaces. There are 12 pads and you can program and assign notes to each pad. I like this feature because it allows you to create a custom keyboard any piece of music.
I opted for the through hole version. It comes as two PCBs and two buttons. Note, the PCB comes with a surface mount DAC chip pre soldered. You’ll need to order the rest of the parts yourself.
At the time I wrote this Teensy 3.2 was very difficult if not impossible to source. You might take this into consideration before ordering.
The through hole version uses footprints for 1/8 watt resistors. You can use 1/4 watt if you stand them up.
Parts are relatively easy to find but, some are specialized. For example it requires some 0.1% 15 ppm resistors. The specialized parts are available through Mouser.
The quality of the boards is great. Not having to source solder the tiny DAC makes this very easy to assemble. This new version is 2hp smaller and has two more touch plates than the previous version.
To be continued…
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