It's Saturday, 9 AM, two days until the deadline. Oxford is grey and murky. I'm psyching myself up for the final push, watching the Battlebots final while I wait for the clock to tick round to a reasonable hour to use power tools on a weekend.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've battled against my limited woodworking skills to build a plywood case for my synth, upcycled from an old bookcase I found abandoned on my street. Here's what it looks like at the moment:

The modules are now supported by an angled shelf, and (once I have built front panels for them) will be held in place by thumb screws, screwed into threaded inserts both above and below.

The keyboard is now also in place. There was no real need for a keyboard for this project, and most people would have simply added a MIDI input instead, but I wanted a standalone instrument that I could play with minimal setup, so I looked for ways to include a keyboard. I settled on repurposing the plastic keys from a cheap toy keyboard, positioning each key over a tactile button and routing the 32 keys through four multiplexers to reduce the number of Teensy pins required. I could have gone further and reduced the keys to just one pin, but I was doing okay for pin availability and was also worried about latency, so settled for four.

I've also added USB and audio jacks on the back of the synth. Top tip: whenever possible, avoid square holes. Maybe there's a good way to cut square holes in a way that isn't messy and/or slow, but I certainly haven't found it yet.

Anyway, here's my ambitious plan for the final weekend of the project:

• Drill holes in the module front panels to accommodate the sockets and potentiometers
• Assemble the modules and test each one
• Add a toggle switch to choose between monophonic and polyphonic modes, and adjust the code accordingly
• Cut remaining wooden parts: main front panel, keyboard circuit cover panel, angled panel beneath the modules
• Attach the remaining wooden parts
• Spend some time playing the synth, adjust the code if required
• Plan composition video (some ideas already, excited about this!)
• Record composition video, edit and upload
• Update/create Fritzing diagrams
• Draw exploded diagram (or similar) of project
• Do super-detailed write-up of project on Hackaday
• If I have time, disassemble and reassemble project on camera for time lapse video
• Sleep