Just found this thread since I've been "Away" watching college basketball since Nov. I have one of the last Spectrasonics 1020 consoles built by Auditronics, it's actually branded Auditronics on the fotofoil. It's the 3-band EQ with 101 cards. The sad part is that the previous owner pretty much butchered the wiring harness and removed the 16x4 monitor section. Lots of work to do on it.
My aim has been to repackage it as a 18x2 mixer with switchable direct outs per channel. I have had some of the same issues others here said, one being ditching the long fader in favor of a rotary pot and the cue pot seems like the logical place for it. Since I'm only going to use the pot for mic gain when tracking and basically a summing box for 16 channels of PT when mixing, a log throw fader is not really necessary.
I gave Jerry Puckett, the chief design engineer at Auditronics one of my modules a year or so ago to get the pinouts for the modules, I just have not got back with him, we've talked, just not about this. I also found out that the output transformers for the console were in the outboard patchbay that was located in matching rack, it is not to be found thanks to the previous owner. Any actual documentation would be a help if possible.
We have came up with a solution that my engineering buddy had already done which is a small circuit board which mounts on a XLR panel jack. It uses OPA134 opamps which takes a balanced/unbalanced input at -10 to +4 and drives a +4 balanced 600 ohm output, gain trim built on the board. We will use these for the direct outs. The 2 mix will be something similar to a API summing solution using his custom opamps or whatever good is available off the shelf.
My biggest problem is having a place to work on this monster. My wife has been pressing me to get the frame out of the storage building and she suggested we do that this weekend. Since I will be putting it into a smaller frame/layout I might just remove all the motherboards with the amp connectors for the modules, the extrusion for building the smaller frame and chucking the rest into the weeds. This is not a project I look forward to, but It's a board I really want.
I originally owned this console when it was pulled from Sound Techniques in Dallas, TX, but we where 16 track at the time and when I went 24 track I had to get something bigger (I actually had the original Stax blue & yellow formica console which I gutted for modules to extend this thing to 24 channels and chucked the frame. It didn't work out very well. I know, don't yell at me. I've yelled at myself enough. LOL). Anyhow a year and a half back (it was my birthday I do remember) I was discussing this console with a friend on Gearslutz that was familiar with it and I stated that I wished I had it back. Later that week I got a call out of the blue that the console was going to the dump and if I wanted it I could come pick it up. The modules are all in excellent shape sans the aforementioned wiring harnesses and I also got a couple of boxes of Spectrasonics cards, a lot of them new in the bag. Later...