Novation Supernova II & Nova II - 24 Voice Expansion Project

[shadowmask]

I've been toying with the idea of recreating the Novation Supernova II & Nova II SIIEX24 24 Voice Expansion Board.

Here is a photo of the original board:


These rarely show up for sale, and if they do the sellers are asking crazy money.

There are two models of these boards - the 12 Voice and 24 Voice.
The 12 Voice card is basically the same as the 24 voice except there are 3 DSPs and support components missing.

Presently I'm estimating the re-created 24 voice card would be around £180.
Would any Supernova II users be interested in a 24 Voice expansion at that price?

As a side project I could offer an upgrade service to expand the 12 Voice card to 24 voices for around £80.

Brian

[Alex E]

Duuuude. This would be an AWESOME project. I'd be totally interested.

[shadowmask]

I've got as far as identifying all the components. The big hurdle is getting my hands on one of these boards for a week or two to take measurements and to probe it out. I did have the board in the photo in my hands a few weeks back and could have used it but it was on a customer's mainboard so I couldn't delay the return of it.

Brian

[Alex E]

Best of luck on your project!! Someone cloned the voice expansion boards for the Q/XT a while ago. Not sure if they're still in production but hey, they figured it out!

[shadowmask]

A Supernova II owner has kindly agreed to send me his 12-Voice card to study so this can go ahead

Brian

[shadowmask]

I've started a blog about this project. Please see the Wordpress article below:

https://blog.sector101.co.uk/2019/06/19 ... n-project/

Brian

[shadowmask]

I've updated the blog with more recent events. Next step is to get the PCBs made

Brian

[shadowmask]

Update:

First PCB built & tested:
https://blog.sector101.co.uk/2019/06/19 ... n-project/





Brian

[Alex E]

I dont have my SNII anymore but I'm VERY impressed with how quickly you were able to put this together! Good work man.

[shadowmask]

Thanks I was pretty much at it for the past two months doing tweaks here and there, and finally made the board bigger to help dissipate the heat better. My own SNII Rack now gets 48 voices

[shadowmask]

These are now available:
https://www.sector101.co.uk/siiex24.html

The installation manual (PDF) is available here:
https://app.box.com/s/vyaq0unop84s87p80rjzdrs6k78i6ejf

Brian