Results

I won't lie, it was quite a long project, 9 months or so. It would have been quicker without all the code and electronics mistakes in between, but hey, that's is part of learning of course.

I got there though, and finished in time for the May 2005 deadline date. With all the documentation/dissertation that went with it too also being in fine quality I was over the moon to get a first class result and actually end up with something that I was going to use, daily, afterwards!

The intial look and feel of the product was a bit poor to start off with though - cosmetics was last on my list. But during the summer of 2005 after graduating and taking some time out before job hunting, I improved some of the code, and cosmetics.

During this rebuild, I also re-built the power supply (again!), finished the support for all 8 channels (at the time, it was only stereo), added a balanced line output for my subwoofer project, and I also added a phono preamp after discovery vinyl during my days of leisere :D

This is the final result:

Result without the cover on (yes, it is a bit absurd):

Looking from the back, from here you can see the 9-pin serial connection, all the inputs and outputs, subwoofer XLR output, phase and volume, and mains in/out:

For those who want to see the preamp during those uni years, I have one taken in January 2005:

This was in the early stages of it life, and if I recall correctly, it was actually working! The whole thing was early days though it half the functions were not complete, like saving its state, RS232 comms. Notice the different 'mainboard', which had loudness at the time (later scraped), different power supply and only one PIC processor.

UPDATE June 2007: To this day, my preamp is still serving me well. It has been to and from uni and also worked thoughout my working life so far!

However, a rebuild is now being planned - and components have been purchased, with the plan being so far to use a PIC18F4455 microprocessor that contains a massive (in comparison!) 24K program memory, USB support and speeds of up to 48MHz.

A new language will be used, known as Boost C, and I have the full version ready for use and hope to write much more optimised, responsive code with also support for remote control operation, and USB. I'll also be using a more standard LCD, but one that is blue!

PC operation will remain, and be vastly improved. This comes at the time of the .NET 3.0 release, so I shall be demonstrating the use of XAML and the WPF (windows presentation framework).