See below my email to Paia today. Wouldn't it be good if they would sell a PCB for connecting an Arduino to the Fatman directly? This would be the easiest possible way for Arduino users to make a great analog synth with the minimum of fuss!
Dear Paia,
I recently built up a Fatman kit I had in a drawer for many years.
As I wanted some more features, I decided to update it to a more modern controller that I could program in C.
The result is the FatDuino, a Fatman controlled by an Arduino - an open source controller based on AVR Atmel. The Arduino is very popular with hobbyists.
I thought to show you this as it might be interesting for you. It would be very easy to design a daughterboard ("shield" in Arduino language) to connect the Arduino into the socket for the 8031. You can see my equivalent wiring with a ribbon cable in the videos on YouTube - linked to by my site:
There also a Excel worksheet with a table of the necessary connections. And of course the embedded code is there too.
There is a lot of interest by Arduino users to make a synth, but most people lack the analog design skils to make something as capable as the Fatman. So a simple PCB to to connect Arduino to the 8031 socket could stimulate new sales of the Fatman kit. If you sold an upgrade kit, which allowed your existing custmers to upgrade to Arduino control via a new PCB, then you could get new business from old sales too!
Just an idea.
NibblerNibbles