Let's Design and Build a (mostly) Digital Theremin!

Great work !

Are you sure that users will want to disassemble such a clean and nicely presented kit to put it in another enclosure ? 
Maybe the corrugated plastic should be somehow degradable over time to encourage some creativity. LOL!

"Are you sure that users will want to disassemble such a clean and nicely presented kit to put it in another enclosure ?" - Mr_Dham

I'm guessing some kits will never find their way out of the cardboard box, so might as well make it somewhat durable.  There's enough room around the edges of the corrugated plastic panel for one mount it on a frame made of 1x4 sticks and a thin plywood back.  Or make a proper box with removable lid and mount the panel on an inner lip.  I was going to cut off the lower right corner of the panel for cable access, but decided against it just in case someone wanted to use the panel as-is.  The Bollamin is really light weight, and I find that to be a rather attractive attribute.

I'm guessing some kits will never find their way out of the cardboard box, so might as well make it somewhat durable. 

Yes, I was just kidding with my biodegradable plastic, but it's very good to have a kit working out of the box !

All my Theremins are kits (Theremax, Open Theremin) and I know that it took time to find an apropriate box for them.
So, it's very nice to have a solution to play and experiment during this time.

"Yes, I was just kidding with my biodegradable plastic, but it's very good to have a kit working out of the box !" - Mr_Dham

Oh, I know, good joke!  :-)

"All my Theremins are kits (Theremax, Open Theremin) and I know that it took time to find an apropriate box for them.  So, it's very nice to have a solution to play and experiment during this time."

I'll post updated OpenSCAD ZIP file shortly.  There are AFE clamps (via a build switch) that hold the boxes in the other horizontal direction which might come in handy for some arrangements (though it would require a deeper enclosure than the current clamps).  The latest logo plates and other new stuff are in there too, as well as the template options.

I guess in a way I'm also trying to make it possible to keep it in kit form for however long as it takes to experiment with antennas and other ergonomics - really important stuff IMO.  Jeff (ContraDude) bought an inexpensive short boom mike stand for the Bollamin that he and I can recommend (I don't recall the brand though).  A mount like that gives you a lot of versatility in positioning it.

Release (???) Software Load

Two recent functional additions needed some experimenting & mental marinating time. 

The first is the so called "sculpture mode".  The knob is now labeled "Auto" and it is on the SYSTEM UI page.  The knob range is [0:99].  Auto[0] disables the mode; Auto[x] cycles through x voice presets [0:x-1] with a pitch hysteresis range of [A0:A2].  Auto[1] is slightly special in that it only uses preset 0 (as expected) but doesn't reload it.  To use this mode, one sets Auto to however many voices one wants to cycle through (the sequence starting at preset 0), performs and ACAL, and walks away from the D-Lev.  The null points will be rather quickly and automatically float to a pitch of A0 and the volume to -48dB.  Moving closer will cause the null adaption rate to dramatically lower, so one can interact with the unit without too noticeable of a droop in pitch and volume during the interaction.  If one gets close enough for the pitch to reach A2 then preset cycling is armed.  If one then moves away until the pitch drops below A0 the voice preset will increment.  Auto[1] is also generally useful for observing any electrical interference in the room via the pitch circle LEDs.

The second is a new "Trak" knob on the P_FIELD UI page that controls the pitch field operating point 8th order low-pass filtering. Trak[0] give a fixed bandwidth of 120Hz (this is the same as the volume field filtering).  Trak[1] causes the filter to track at least 1 octave below the oscillator pitch with [12Hz:120Hz] limits.  Usually you want more filtering (i.e. a lower filter cutoff frequency) in the pitch far field and at lower oscillator frequencies, but sometimes you might want to defeat the tracking if you're doing super abrupt pitch changes from zero.  I can perceive the difference if I'm really paying attention and doing the fastest hand flick I can physically perform, but otherwise the two modes (tracking and fixed) should generally be transparent to the user, and the knob is more of a "completist" type thing for folks to have some control over the process.

I also (rashly - sorry Jeff!) reversed the sense of the "Vrev" knob on the V_FIELD UI page and renamed it to "Trad" (for "traditional").  Trad[0] gives closer = louder; Trad[1] gives farther = louder.  Now the D-Lev just needs a "Mdrn" (for "modern") knob somewhere to compete with the Claravox! ;-)  Gotta somehow be multi-modal these days in order to run with the big dogs, maybe I should introduce some volume leakage for Trad[1]...

Buzz Saw

I'm massaging the presets for the kits.  This one is fun:

https://d-lev.com/audio/2021-10-30_buzz_saw.mp3

Just the resonator, no formants or filters or outboard reverb or anything.

==============

New Stuff

Just posted the latest D-Lev manual, along with the latest quick reference, librarian, and OpenSCAD files:

https://d-lev.com/support.html

Rock Of Ages

Roger's amazing female voice preset with (a bit too much?) room sound from the resonator: [MP3]

Good voice presets really pull you in and make you want to play expressively.

Hi, 
I'm new to this forum and new to the theremin.  I've read through some of this thread and visited dewster's website.  This is an exciting project!  What I'd love to know is when a kit might be available, and the details of ordering one.  Thanks!

D-Lev World Industries Factory Tour

The production floor (literally!) where our highly skilled production worker assembles the kits.

The testing station where our highly skilled technician pumps FPGAs, loads software, and assigns presets to the kits.

The warehouse, where the finished kits wait impatiently for our highly skilled loading dock worker to ship them 'round the world.  Watch out for the fork truck, he gets a little crazy on that thing, especially after his lunch break.

“D-Lev World Industries?!?” LOL! Go get ‘em! Take on Big Tech and put ‘em out of business! Hahaha!! Go get ‘em!