www.megadrum.info

I am new here and incredibly intrigued by the idea of having one of these, BUT, I am too new at this. I've tried researching electronics in books, forums, anything I can get my hands on, but it's just not sinking in. I don't think that side of my brain is as excited as the other side! Can I BEG someone to make a STEP BY STEP tutorial on how to make one of these units? An Atmega32 for Dummies course, so to speak?

I already have most of the parts to do this since I got way ahead of myself and bought them without knowing anything about this stuff. Please help. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want one of these.

Please, anyone?

Hi gdubs,

The sad thing is that MegaDrum is not something you buy in the shop with an instruction on how to assemble it. MegaDrum is DIY.
At the same time MegaDrum is NOT about general DIY stuff as I don't cover/explain any topics on "how to solder", "how to make PCB", "how to drill", "how to measure voltages", "how to check for continuity/shortcuts" - there a lot of sites on Internet where these are covered in great detail. Google is your friend here. As far as I can judge, almost all required info on how to build MegaDrum, provided you have general DIY knowledge, is present on the website. If someone bump into something particular which is not clear from my "docs" on the website, they ask question on this forum. But bear in mind, it is very hard to answer questions like "I don't understand anything, tell me everything".

Having said that, if someone can come up a step-by-step guide, please do so here in the forum. If this guide turns out to be useful, I'll publish it on the website.
I myself regularly deal with things which I don't understand at all in the beginning. It never happened to me that just after reading a "step-by-step" guide I would understand everything straight away. It still required some research. If I would, it just meant I already had had some prior knowledge.

Most important, don't despair, it is not rocket science and I'm sure with some time and reading/searching around you'll find yourself that MegaDrum is quite simple to build:)

If you are really disparate about building MegaDrum, the best way to do it is to find someone local with some DIY electronics skills and have him/her? build it for you.

Thanks for the reply. I will probably have to go the route of getting some help from someone.

I just want to understand it, mostly because there are a lot of other projects that I would love to tackle, like FX pedals, basic maintainence, equipment mods, and anything else that I come across in the future.

It sounds like my best bet is to probably take a few classes. However, getting involved in DIY projects is mostly because I am trying to save a few bucks. Paying someone to teach me how to do it, negates, saving money on the project. What can I say? I'm a cheap-a$$!

Well, it's either money or time... Or a really good friend:)

youtube is also a great resource for you especially for soldering. I would suggest getting an all-in-one kit from synthex and then just soldering it all together. I'm actually going to start building my kit after I order a few more parts so I may look into making a guide. Or maybe someone else will. Good luck with your own build. =)