µo_C SE

Eurorack Module
TD-OCSE-B
Designed by Daniel & Michael Gilbert of Tall Dog
Electronics in Western Massachusettstall-dog.com | uoc-se.com
Based on the Ornament & Crime module designed byPatrick Dowling, mxmxmx, and Tim Churches
ornament-and-cri.me
Main board manufactured by Worthington Assembly via
CircuitHub in South Deerfield, MA
worthingtonassembly.com
circuithub.com
Display manufactured by PCBWay in Hangzhou, China
pcbway.com
Assembled at Rust Temple in Easthampton, MA
rusttemple.today

cbna
Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Source materials are available on GitHub
github.com/loglow/uo_C_SE

Contents

2

About................................................................................................ 3
Included Parts............................................................................... 3
History.............................................................................................. 4
Warranty......................................................................................... 5
Overview......................................................................................... 6
Manual Scope................................................................................ 6
List of Apps..................................................................................... 7Startup............................................................................................. 8App Selection................................................................................ 9Save Settings...............................................................................10Reset Settings.............................................................................10General Operation.....................................................................11Scales & Tunings........................................................................13Inputs & Outputs........................................................................14Firmware Update.......................................................................16Documentation..........................................................................17
Hardware License......................................................................17
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0..........................................................................18
Support..........................................................................................19
Who We Are..................................................................................19

About3

Ornament & Crime (aka o_C) is a multi-purpose modulein which a generic set of inputs and outputs areprovided. A textual OLED display is used to permit there-mapping of these inputs and outputs via a numberof different apps which can be selected on-the-fly.
This redesigned µo_C SE (Special Edition) is a newrevision of o_C that miniaturizes the module from 14HP
to 8HP and redesigns its front panel layout.
µo_C SE remains fully compatible with future upstreamo_C firmware upgrades and any other alternate
firmwares that are compliant with the standard
Ornament & Crime design.

Included Partsµo_C SE includes a standard 16-pin to 10-pin Eurorack
power cable and two sets of mounting screws for racks/
enclosures with either M2.5 or M3 threads.
The TD-OCSE-B/B variant has a matte black front panel
with gold markings made from FR-4 (glass-reinforcedepoxy laminate) material. The included mounting
screws are black.
The TD-OCSE-B/S variant has a satin silver front panel
with black markings made from anodized aluminummaterial via the Metalphoto process. The included
mounting screws are silver.

History

4

The original o_C schematic was designed by Patrick
Dowling (aka pld), Max Stadler (aka mxmxmx), and Tim
Churches (aka bennelong.bicyclist) and released undera CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-sa/4.0) license.
o_C is described as “a post-capitalist product of
the sharing economy,” and as such, it is neither
manufactured nor sold by a single entity. It is available
in its original incarnation as a 14HP Eurorack modulefrom various sources and individuals.
It should be noted that the original o_C boards andpanels were released under a more permissive CC BY-SA
license. However, because µo_C SE is derived from theoriginal o_C schematic, it retains the non-commercial
licensing terms of its upstream counterpart.
Sources:●● ornament-and-cri.me/buy-it●● ornament-and-cri.me/licensing●● ornament-and-cri.me/schematicWarranty

5This product is covered under warranty for one year
following the date of purchase as indicated on theoriginal sales receipt. This warranty covers any defectin the manufacturing of this product. This warranty
does not cover any damage or malfunction caused
by incorrect use—such as, but not limited to, power
cables connected backwards, excessive voltage levels,
exposure to extreme temperature or moisture levels,
physical damage due to impact, or any aftermarket
physical or electrical modifications or repairs.
This warranty covers either repair or replacement,
at our sole discretion. This repair or replacement issubject to verification of the defect or malfunction andproof of purchase as confirmed by showing the model
number on an original dated sales receipt. Shippingand handling fees are to be paid for by the customer.
Please contact support@tall-dog.com for a return
authorization prior to shipping anything to us. Please
understand that we will not be able to service units
under warranty that have been modified or previously
repaired by the customer or a third party.

Overview

6The original o_C module was designed to perform asingle function: a digital, quantising version of theclassic analogue shift register (ASR).
There is still a quantising ASR (analogue shift register)function in the current Ornament & Crime firmware,
now named CopierMaschine, but several other apps
have been added, including quantisers, sequencers,LFOs, random/chaotic CV generators, and so on.
These apps are selectable on-the-fly, without having toreboot the module or toggle the power.

Manual Scope
This manual goes on to cover the basic operation of theµo_C SE module, but it does not go into detail about
each one of the individual apps, or how to use them.
Fortunately, there’s excellent, in-depth documentationfor each and every app available at the official
Ornament & Crime website, which is located here:
ornament-and-cri.me/user-manual-v1_3
Note: The µo_C SE front panel layout is somewhat
different from the one pictured in the document
referenced above. For more information, please see thediagrams in the Inputs & Outputs section on pages 14
and 15 of this manual.

List of Apps7●● CopierMaschine — quantising digital emulation of afour stage analogue shift register (ASR)●● Harrington 1200 — neo-Riemannian Tonnetz
transformations of triadic chords●● Automatonnetz — Tonnetz transforms combinedwith a “vector” sequencer●● Quantermain — quad pitch quantiser for externalvoltages●● Meta-Q — dual-channel quantiser with scale andnote mask sequencing●● Quadraturia — wavetable quadrature LFO (lowfrequency oscillator)●● Low-rents — dual Lorenz and Rössler (strangeattractor) modulation generator●● Piqued — quad voltage-controlled envelope
generator●● Sequins — dual-channel 4-track step sequencer●● Dialectic Ping Pong — quad bouncing ball envelope
generator●● Viznutcracker, sweet! — quad “byte beat” equation
generator●● Acid Curds — chord quantiser and chord
progression sequencer●● References — specific reference voltage output andother utility functions

Startup

8

Immediately after power-on, the startup phase isindicated by a line at the bottom of the display which
progressively shrinks right-to-left over several seconds.
By default, following the startup phase, the moduleboots into the last app from which settings were saved,
unless one of the two encoders is being held downwhen the startup phase ends:●● Left encoder (P1) — enter calibration mode●● Right encoder (P2) — enter the app selection menuYour µo_C SE module has already been calibrated at thefactory using precision voltage sources and meters, so
no further calibration steps should be necessary before
you begin to use it.
Calibration mode is explained in detail at:
ornament-and-cri.me/calibration

App Selection9The app selection menu can be reached either when themodule is first powered on (by holding P2 during startup)or during normal use by depressing the right encoder (P2)for two seconds or longer (this is considered a long press)
and then releasing it.
The controls within the app selection menu are:●● Rotate the right encoder (P2) to highlight an app.
●● Press the right encoder (P2) to use the selected app.
●● Press the UP button (the upper button between thetwo encoders) to toggle encoder acceleration on andoff. There will be no visual indication of this change.
Encoder acceleration increases the amount by whichvalues are incremented or decremented on each
encoder rotational click when you are rapidly spinningthe encoder to edit values within an app.
This speeds up sweeping across the full range of values,
while still retaining full precision when moving theencoder slowly.

Save Settings

10

You must manually save the state of the module if you
want your settings to be preserved between reboots.
Your settings will not be automatically saved!
To save the current state, enter the app selection menu
(long press P2 and release) and then long press P2
again (for a second time). This will save the module’s
state and also make the currently highlighted app thedefault app to load the next time the module is turned
on. You’ll see a brief confirmation animation as soon as
the save occurs.
The current settings for all apps are saved each time
you save the settings by doing this, not just the settings
for the currently selected app.
The operation of the module is briefly paused while
the settings are being saved. You may need to takethis pause into account if you’re in a live performancesetting. Operation only pauses during a save, but notwhen switching from one app to another.

Reset Settings
To reset the app settings to their default state, push
the UP and DOWN buttons simultaneously during thestartup phase. This won’t reset calibration data.

General Operation

11

Each app has two display pages: a settings mode anda screensaver mode. Apps will drop into screensaver
mode after a set period of inactivity (meaning no userinteraction). This timeout period can be changed
via the calibration menu, but the default timeout is
10 seconds. You can also long press the UP button(hold for at least 2 seconds) to manually invoke thescreensaver mode.
The module functions the same regardless of whether
settings are displayed or the screensaver is displayed.
When the screensaver is displayed, clicking or rotating
either of the two encoders (P1 or P2) or pressing theUP or DOWN buttons will immediately bring up thesettings display.
In settings mode, for most apps, the right encoder(P2) is used to scroll up and down the list of available
settings. Press on the right encoder (P2) to toggle edit
mode, indicated by one or two small up/down triangles
next to the setting. Rotate the right encoder (P2) whilein edit mode to increase or decrease the relevant
setting. Press again on the right encoder (P2) to leave
edit mode.

General Operation Cont’d12

In multi-channel apps, the left encoder (P1) selects
which of the four channel’s settings are currently
displayed (A, B, C or D). All channels remain activein the background at all times, even while editing
values for a different channel. Also, the channel can bechanged while editing a value, making it easy to edit
the same setting on each of the four channels.
In non-multi-channel apps, the left encoder (P1) is used
to set a root note or a transposition, or to set frequency
or rate, or to select a scale. Its exact behavior is noted in
the documentation for each individual app.
The two buttons below the display and between theencoders (the UP and DOWN buttons) either transpose
notes up or down an octave, or increase or decrease
frequency or speed in steps of 32. There are a few
exceptions to this in certain apps, which are noted in
the respective app-specific documentation.

Scales & Tunings

13The Ornament & Crime module comes with over 100
predefined scales, plus four user-defined scales which
can be edited directly through the user interface via thescale editor.
For details about using the scale editor, please see theapp-specific documentation for the Quantermain app:ornament-and-cri.me/user-manual-v1_3/#activenote-scale-mask-and-scale-editing
For more information about custom scales, see:ornament-and-cri.me/custom-scales
For a list of all the predefined scales, see:ornament-and-cri.me/predefined_scales
Many of the predefined scales are microtonal, whichmeans that they have more than 12 notes per octave,or they are subsets of tunings with more than 12 notes
per octave.
Scales with up to 16 notes per octave are supported.
However, those 16 notes are arbitrary and themselves
can be subsets of scales with many more than 16 notes
per octave.

Inputs & Outputs

14

There are four trigger (TRIG) inputs, four control
voltage (CV) inputs, and four output (OUT) channels.
Within the app documentation, these inputs andoutputs are referred to as:●● Trigger inputs — TR1, TR2, TR3, and TR4●● Control voltage Inputs — CV1, CV2, CV3, and CV4●● Output channels — A, B, C, and D
The arrangement of these jacks on the µo_C SE module
is as follows:

TR1

CV1

A

TR2

CV2

B

TR3

CV3C

TR4CV4D

Inputs & Outputs Cont’d15

The original 14HP version of the Ornament & Crime
module has a slightly different panel layout, and assuch, the online documentation diagrams the inputsand outputs according to their original layout.
While reading the online app-specific documentation,please make a note of the differences in jack layout
between the original 14HP module and the µo_C SEmodule.
The original jack layout, as it appears in the online appspecific documentation, is as follows:

TR1

TR2

TR3TR4A

B

CV1

CV2

CV3CV4C

DFirmware Update

16Note: Updating the firmware (on an already calibratedmodule) doesn’t require re-calibration. The calibration
values are not overwritten when you install newversions of the firmware.
1. Download, install, and run the Teensy Loader application
from: pjrc.com/teensy/loader.html
2. Download the detectMK20.hex file from: goo.gl/sqWZht
3. Download or compile a HEX file of the version of the firmwarethat you want to install. Official firmware releases areavailable at: github.com/mxmxmx/O_C/releases
4. Connect a Micro USB cable from the Teensy 3.2 (on the backof the µo_C SE module) to your computer. The Teensy should
not be removed from its socket on the module.
5. Provide standard Eurorack power to the µo_C SE module.
6. In the Teensy Loader application, select Operation >Automatic Mode and verify that a check appears next to it.
7. Select File > Open HEX File and choose the downloaded
detectMK20.hex file.
8. Press the tactile button on the Teensy board once. A progress
bar will appear briefly while the board is programmed. Verify
that the orange LED on the Teensy blinks on and off.
9. Select File > Open HEX File and choose the firmware file.
10. Press the tactile button on the Teensy board once. A progress
bar will appear briefly while the board is programmed. The
module should now boot with the newly installed firmware.
11. Disconnect the cables. The firmware update is complete.

Documentation

17

Much of the information in this manual was created by
mxmxmx, Patrick Dowling, and Tim Churches and is notlicensed under any open-source or Creative Commonslicense, and therefore third parties are not permitted tocopy or re-publish the material. It is used here because
permission was granted by the original authors.
Modifications and additions to this material werecreated by Tall Dog and, for the sake of simplicity, havealso not been released under any particular license.
As such, please do not copy or redistribute thematerial in this manual without explicit written
permission from the original copyright holders.

Hardware License
The design and hardware of the µo_C SE module
itself is released under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
in accordance with the upstream source material.
Permission for commercial use of this material by
Tall Dog Electronics has been explicitly granted by thecopyright holders. Under the terms of this license,
third parties are not permitted to use this material
commercially without prior written permission.
However, this material may be used, modified, orshared freely for non-commercial purposes.
For an overview of the implications and terms of thislicense, please read the following page.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

18

This is a human-readable summary of (and not asubstitute for) the license, which can be found at
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode

You are free to:●● Share — copy and redistribute the material in any
medium or format.
●● Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon thematerial.

Under the following terms:●● Attribution — You must give appropriate credit,
provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes
were made. You may do so in any reasonable
manner, but not in any way that suggests thelicensor endorses you or your use.
●● NonCommercial — You may not use the material forcommercial purposes.
●● ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon
the material, you must distribute your contributions
under the same license as the original.
●● No additional restrictions — You may not apply
legal terms or technological measures that legally
restrict others from doing anything the licensepermits.

Support19For all support inquiries, please send an email tosupport@tall-dog.com

Who We Are
Tall Dog Electronics is located in the Pioneer Valley
region of Western Massachusetts. Tall Dog has primarily
focused on producing a variety of breakout boards for
the Teensy microprocessor development platform andconducts the majority of its business via the Tindie
marketplace. Tall Dog released their first Eurorack
module, µBraids SE, in late 2017.
Michael Gilbert is a composer, recording artist, andteacher of electronic music, for over 40 years. Hismusic is a creative mix of electronic, jazz, world, andcontemporary classical idioms, and is available on 9
albums of original work as Michael William Gilbert. Themusic has featured Adam Holzman, Mark Walker, Peter
Kaukonen, David Moss, and Tony Vacca. He has also
designed and built electronic music equipment, using
it in his own studio and making it available to othermusicians.
Daniel Gilbert is a designer and engineer with abackground in film, photography, and animation. After
graduating from Hampshire College he spent the nextseveral years working in the Los Angeles film industry.
He now resides in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where
he designs, builds, and distributes Tall Dog products.

µo_C SE User Manual
Revised 2019-05-17
Documentation © mxmxmx, Patrick Dowling and Tim Churches