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Hi good people, some of you may have seen and joined the talk over at the old Axoloti forum, then when it died the Akso forum, then when that one went silent the Lines forum, then finally here on Modwiggler, a haven of liberty for open source DIY hardware projects.
Anyway, during the last few years I have been designing a hardware replacement for the discontinued (MIA?) Axoloti Core board.
Around here is the relevant discussion in the Lines thread "Axoloti Core & Derivatives", starting about halfway in the thread. Or check some images ofthe latest prototypes via ksoloti.axo on Insta.
Edit: PCB mockup via Altium365 here. This is useful for locating GPIO and their functions, confirming general dimensions, cross-checking with the schematic etc. (Note that this has been auto-converted from Kicad so the fonts and labels are a bit out of shape).
In short, Ksoloti aims for maximum compatibility with the original Axoloti, but with some layout changes and added features.
Apart from the differing layout, the two main hardware differences to the original Axoloti are that Ksoloti does not have any audio and MIDI jacks, and that the MIDI in circuit is optionally soldered on the bottom side of the board (but can preferably be placed on a shield/parent board).
But the Ksoloti has more pins broken out to headers than the original: apart from more GPIO, the two USB ports, USB power/VBUS logic, raw UART/MIDI and SD card pins are also available, which should encourage and make it easier to create respective shields or parent boards.
The board has been designed to be very thin (the tallest components are probably the USB Type-C jacks, pin headers aside), and to fit parallel behind a 12hp Eurorack panel.
There are two matching "shields" in the works, one a desktop FX box called Gills, comparable with previous Axoloti shields (like Hohum Lab Axocontrol etc.) but more comprehensive and expandable. Gills is basically ready to be turned into kits.
The other shield is a 20-22hp Eurorack module offering plenty of voltage control, front-panel access to USB and SD card, and exploiting most of the Core's features. It is currently 75% finished.
As to the original creator's consent and license, so far I was not able to get in contact with Johannes Taelman (apparently no one is able to). Someone suggested I'd go traditional, actually call the university where he supposedly teaches and ask them to put me through to him (quote: "do you remember phones?").
The license is GPL and allows commercial reuse, but more important to me, and the reason I have been reluctant to publish anything sensitive, is that Johannes is not reachable. Some interpret his silence as tacit agreement though I do not agree. Though Johannes did write in a forum post years ago that he'd be okay or happy with someone taking their own spin on, or "clone", the hardware. Which again does not mean much either. For what it's worth, my plan is to keep the license exactly the same like Axoloti.
Despite the "original creator" dilemma The Ksoloti Core board itself has gone through five prototypes, has been tested by a few Axoloti veterans by now, a first major batch has been put into production, and the Core will soon be available at a certain SynthDIY shop that rhymes with monk.
The Core will probably be around 75 EUR excl. VAT.
) I recommend one there if space allows, since the 5 pin jacks see a lot of stress when plugging and unplugging them. It could save a lot of potential repair requests in the future!
