Bartron

morning, i want to ask if theres anybody building a midibox sid in the near of karlsruhe. i'm working on the minimal setup for over a year now and it still won't work. I got a lot of questions...i'm shure i will get an answer in the forum as well...but for me it would be easier to speak with someone real. i made the experience that working on such a hard project makes more fun doing it together. if anyone wants to join or contact i would be happy. thx. bartron

Thanks TK for your quick answer. I tried both applications. The testtone and the interconnection over mios. No success. MIOS gave me the following messages: [32863.305] MBSID Interconnection Test [32863.316] ========================== [32863.332] Please play a note on any MIDI channel. [32863.365] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32870.548] Pin 'A3 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32874.586] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32875.794] Pin 'D0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32882.042] Pin 'A1 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32882.907] Pin 'D6 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.354] Pin 'D6 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.507] Pin 'D5 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.539] Pin 'D4 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.572] Pin 'D3 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.605] Pin 'A4 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.637] Pin 'A3 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.671] Pin 'A2 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.703] Pin 'A1 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.736] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.769] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.822] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.907] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32884.979] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.051] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.171] Pin 'A0 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.197] Pin 'CS#' of SID chip set to 0V, remaining digital pins set to 0V as well. [32885.260] Pin 'D6 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.323] Pin 'D5 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.355] Pin 'D3 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.406] Pin 'D1 ' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) [32885.515] Pin 'RES#' of SID chip set to 5V, remaining digital pins set to 0V (exception: CS# set to 5V) What exactly does this mean? I think nothing too good. I will try another SID Module the next days. Or another chip. Besides: Turning on the Contrast-Poti didn't affect the LCD. Lights are on, nothing else matters. I will try another LCD these days. THX a lot.

Hello Guys, it's been a while since I was in the forum and since I picked up my soldering iron....but in the last days I resumed this project. I still try to get the minimal setup working. With no success. But I'm stepped forward and managed to build a working PSU. Although I wasn't able to build the mbhp_8xsid_c64_psu_optimized.pdf, I build the following (mbhp_sid_c64_psu.pdf) from the midiboxSidV2 Walktrough. I measured the voltages on the IC's and it was fine. I connected everything like described in the pdf and my midiinterface is telling me that: Operating System: MIOS8 Board: MBHP_CORE or similar Core Family: PIC18F Bootloader is up & running! I uploaded the 8580 hex file and tried to play some notes on the keyboard. nothing. My Lcd which I connected by the instruction of Jim Henry (building_a_midibox_lcd_cable) got it's backlights on but nothing else. Turning on the Potis at the core has no effect. I'm kinda clueless. What would be the next logical step. Please help!!! Thanks

Hi there, I got a problem building my SID Module. I put all the parts together which I get from Mike and measured the Voltage on the IC's. Although I used a 7809 voltage regulator I get 12,5 Volts on pin 28 and 14 of the IC 1. I used an old PCU from a cannibalized C64 and modified like described in this pdf: mbhp_4xsid_c64_psu_optimized.pdf Had anyone else a problem like this or any idea what went wrong? Thx bartron

Hello, take a look on Mikes webpage. http://www.mikes-elektronikseite.de/mshop_deutsch/ I bought my stuff in his shop. See ya

Ok I ordered a new MIDI Interface which is on the whitelist. It's the M-audio Midisport 2x2. I will get it in the next few days I hope. Until then I can't do that much. I will solder the SID Modules and stuff. Thank you Moo for the link. The new MIOS Studio is working much better as the one under wine. I use Xubuntu and I don't have no problems with it till now. I don't like Wine either. But sometimes.....you know. I let you know what happened when I tried it with the new interface.

Morning guys, well I did connect the midi in with the out and vice versa. I made a Screenshot of what MIOS Studio is telling me. It's in the attachement. Ok, it could be that the LCD is connected in a wrong way. I mean I did it Jim Henry's howto-Pdf from 2004. Maybe I did something wrong. Is there a way to check if MIOS is running without using the LCD. A command or something that shows that the core is answering and operating? to m00dawg: where can I find the option to disable automatic upload speeds and set a delay after each SysEx message in MIOS Studio? I'm using it under Linux with WINE and there wasn't any setup menu available. I'll keep trying. Thanks.

Hey, thanks for this fast answer. I tried the tip with the potis. But all I did was changing the brightness of the black bars. So there are definitely black bars on my display. And I tried to reload my MIOS 1.9g. This worked. Again. It should be on the PIC now. Is it normal that after this step the black bars are still there? In which state should they disappear? I will manage to get another Midi-Device. Although my Cable isn't on the black list I think this will be better to erase the errors. Another question: If I got an preburned PIC from Mike, does this mean that a bootloader is on it or the MIOS operating System? I'm not sure. Well, enough questions for today. Thanks a lot for everything. Nice forum by the way. All the work you guys do is awesome. Bartron

Hi there, I'm new in this forum and I don't know if it's the right place to ask this question. If it's not please tell me. I'm trying to build a Midibox SID minimal Setup and I'm confronted with the following problems: I build the core with Mike's preburned PIC18F4685 and I connected it via Midi to my Computer. I ran Mios studio and tried to upload the MIOS. I uploaded mios_v1_9g_pic18f4685.hex but the LCDisplay still shows black bars. I don't know if this is normal. Then I tried to upload setup_8580.hex but the upload process was interrupted and following error was shown: Error #11 midi-in overrun It could be that the Midi-USB Cable is not best fitting. I'm now bidding on the steinberg midex 8 midi interface. It's on the whitelist. Maybe this is part of the problem. Anyway. I would be thankful if somebody could give me an advice if I'm on the right way. It's very complex for a n00b. Thanks a lot. Bartron