Yeah SMD soldering is no issue. I guess I’ll go Google for a Fates PCB then
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I do smd with hakko and chisel smd tip + 0.3/0.5mm solder wire.
Key is flux.
Easier than what you can think.
Check some YouTube videos, as Forest said, TH become a pain once you get used to SMD.
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yeah I suppose once you understood the physics that flux make the wire suck onto the pins … still afraid … those tiny pins … my bad eyesight 
Stereo optical microscope
actually own one … yeah … gotta try it.
I guess the 2nd most annoying part of doing such DIY projects is the sourcing of the parts. Really not fond of doing that work. People from the US have it pretty comfy with all those suppliers where you can paste in the part list and hit the buy button
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Yeah the parting was already annoying, the supply chain issue hit and now it’s like… ergh
Mouser ship worldwide with free shipping… (I’m in the UK and use them very regularly). I also use Farnell and RS. Bitsbox are handy for small orders. Soundtronics are good for esoteric ics. In the UK we also have Thonk…
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Yeah, I’m in the UK too - I just meant AWOL dac chips and the like!
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seems like the part list is top secret for the ARC clone … was lucky to find the PCB! But man … this project seems to be a high tear one … why would you recommend this (I know you are like the king of DIY … so I forgive you since you forgot like a few decades ago how difficult such projects are for noobs )
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they got some arc pcbs at pusherman also at the bottom of my projects drawer >.< Monome Arc Clone pcb set (4 Rings) – Pusherman
yeah found that one … hardly … no other part list though …or even a tiny hint!
I’m really sorry - didnt mean to come across as anything but helpful - it’s really not crazy hard compared to the norns shield - there are no TSSOP parts for a start… it’s just a bit more soldering but pretty straight forward! (If you havent done any SMT before I definitely wouldnt recommend either of them at all !!! But if you’ve built the shield it’s not that much harder…)
There’s a really detailed BOM on the github page with all the mouser part numbers that you can upload in mouser’s bom-creator… doesnt get much easier than that 
If you google you can find lots of detailed write ups from people who have built it…
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ah… BOM is the keyword… not one word about this in the readme.md thanks!!
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Also - download the free version of eagle - you can export BOMs from there as well (it’s really common to embed parts and, often, mouser, farnell and reichelt part numbers in the schematic to, when you export the bom, you generate a parts list you can upload to those suppliers). When you’ve downloaded eagle it’s much easier to build the designs with eagle open on your laptop for locating where parts go…
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there goes the rabbit hole Eagle… next stop getting degree in electronic engineering to learn how to read those eagle files – I am macOS only. Googling eagle … they got baught by autodesk? Because they try to sell me their Fusion360 Eagle software
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Bill Of Materials = BOM = List of Parts
It’s a list of all the parts you will need to make something.
For manufacturing it will include all types of materials, which is where the term came from - you’ll write them all down on a bill, including quantities for each and specifics like part numbers or performance requirements.
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Yes - owned by Autodesk. You can still use if for free though…
To be honest, these days, you could really cheaply get the pcbs assembled at jlcpcb if you didnt want to solder them…
(I even use their pcba service for prototypes if I want to turn things around quickly… it can cost as little as $35 for 5 pcbs assembled if you use their basic inventory. If you panelise the pcbs and join up with four others you could have them assembled for very very little… extended parts can add up…). The encoders are pretty expensive for the Arc…
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anybody in for having them built in china? 
the bourns encoders weren’t even listed in mouser. This seems to be a pretty time consuming thing … but if the guys in China would do the hard work of sourcing I would say … cool! I’d even pay more than 35€ per finished PCB - but I feel there would
still be loooooots of complicated work / sourcing / milling / drilling / printing / finishing. Stuff you might need 5 min for will be 5 days to weeks for me probably
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Norns Shields are back in stock … just ordered one after ordering yesterday a DIY shield from eBay haha … also added a Grid to the shopping list <3
new ones are with Raspberry Pi 4b! Exciting
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I ordered one as well. I already have a Shield but it’s the older design, which has fairly noisy io. This newest one is a third iteration, which has the improved sound of the second, as well as slightly louder outputs. I love my Norns, especially with a midi mapped uc4, but the noise issue was always a bit of a letdown. I’m so happy that it’s been fixed!
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