Monday, April 18, 2022

Serge Patch Quick Reference


[Post updated Nov 2022] I've assembled a rather large work-in-progress Serge Patch Quick Reference, and I'm pleased to share it here (permanently linked off to the right under Patching Tips).

I mined the notes and patch suggestions from various sources, including the old Yahoo! Serge group and the Quad Slope forum (many thanks to cebec for capturing them before they disappeared). Other sources include the original Egres site (no longer updated but archived here at Rex's suggestion), Ken Stone's Serge site (RIP?), the current Serge Discord server (requires invite), as well as my own research and patch spelunking. And of course the venerable Serge manuals from the 1970s and 1980s.

I started with John Papiewski's well-known "SSG Hijinx" wizardry write-ups from the old Egres site. As I went through his patch suggestions, I saw that many of the functions he described can be patched up on other Serge modules besides the SSG. The spreadsheet greatly expanded from there.

The result is a patching and function lookup tool for the Serge system. My aim has been to keep the details concise, but occasionally in the Notes I've provided more information, particularly to provide insights I've found nowhere else. I've also tried to keep these patches as "atomic" as possible, in that they aim to provide a very specific function using as few modules as possible. There are many cases where one must rely on supporting modules, which sometimes complicated deciding which function block to specify in column B, but in those cases I specified the function block I considered to be the focus of the patch.

The behaviors described in these patches are from my own direct observations using eyes, ears and oscilloscope. There are a couple exceptions. My Serge is currently comprised of STS (Hartland) M-boats and a pair of THC 'Homebuilt' panels, so if you have a Serge from the 1970s or 1980s, or a modern DIY or non-STS system, you might get different results. Hopefully the information here will at least point you in the right direction.

Feel free to send questions, ideas for additions, corrections, etc. via the Comments.

ty hodson