This synth was only available as a DIY project from E&MM (Electronics and Music Maker) Magazine in 1981. The pcb.s and front panel were available to purchase along with component kits from Maplin (excluding the CEM chips). The CEM chips were purchased separately. So when you find one of these things it is the thick end of 40 years old.
I built one of these when first published, it worked, but like many things, it was not completely finished in a case. Recently I was asked to get a non-working example back up and running. I have to say that it did not look as pristine as the image above and as these were all home built the build quality varied significantly. So while I was repairing one for a customer I thought I would get mine out of storage and get the two of them working at the same time. I still had the original construction guide, although I did manage to find it online as a PDF.
Over the next “how ever many it takes” posts I will provide an insight into getting this thing back as good as new. for the customers unit I have a limited repair budget. For my own I will need to decide what it’s future is regarding the spend.