Hello and thank you for building the Macropod Variable Bandwidth VCF DIY kit. We hope you will find its
tones most pleasing!
Technical Specifications (Eurorack standard)
Width: 10hp
Depth: 25mm
Peak Current Draw: 52mA @ +12V, 54mA @ -12V
Assembly Instructions:
1. Install surface mount components on the rear of the PCB. We recommend using No-Clean liquid flux
on the board before applying quality solder paste such as Chip-Quik SMD291SNL, tweezing components
onto the board, and reflowing with a hot air station or oven. However, the size of these components
(0805) means they can likely be hand-soldered by anyone with reasonable soldering experience.
2. Solder rear through-hole parts: Resonance trimmer and Eurorack power header.
3. Insert all frontal hardware and the LED into the other side of the PCB, but do not solder these parts
yet. Note that with all LEDs, the square pin indicates the LED’s cathode, or short leg.
4. Fit the Macropod panel over all the hardware, making sure that nothing slips out of place.
5. While holding the PCB securely against the panel with hardware sandwiched in between, hand-tighten
nuts around the 3 metal-shaft pots and 13 Thonkiconn jacks.
6. With the PCB facing up and panel facing down, double check that all hardware is properly seated in the
appropriate PCB holes. If it is, position the front LED so it sits in the front panel hole and solder one leg.
Double check that it is poking through the appropriate front panel hole, then solder the other leg. Once the
LED is set up, solder the three metal shaft potentiometers and 13 Thonkiconn jacks in place, but do not
solder the three plastic-shaft attenuverter pots yet.
7. Once all other hardware is secured, solder the two plastic potentiometers using the following method:
-Solder one leg of one pot
-Check to see if the pot is mounted in such a way that it does not touch the panel when turned
-If it isn’t, use a finger to adjust the pot’s position while heating the one soldered pad
-Once the pot is not touching the panel, solder the second leg, double check and solder the pins
-Repeat for other two potentiometers
8. Double check your work. Make sure all SMT components have properly flowed and that all hardware is
properly soldered to the PCB. If everything looks good…
8. Plug in your Macropod. Patch audio into either Audio Input (don’t forget to turn Input A up) and listen to
each audio input, adjusting the Frequency and Bandwidth settings to ensure audio will pass. There should
be no “unusual” behavior from any output apart from VBW B, which will effectively mute with a quiet audio
output and may contain audible power supply noise at some settings.
