fallenturtle

One of my goals was to try to use actual keys (from a VIC20 because I like the font) for the buttons. My issue right now is trying to figure out how to best pull this off. There's a board with the key contacts on it that attaches to the underside (close up view: https://goo.gl/photos/JnDrftzzgjEwrkT8A) and my plan is to either figure out a way to re-purpose this, or use it as a guide to create a new board to attach instead. For the encoders I founds some that are 12.5mm wide which is what I measure the cavities on the underside of hard plastic piece the keys attach to (https://goo.gl/photos/awgEwEAYyVNNRWwEA and https://goo.gl/photos/zgrzzuY3Q82vJuf88). In a perfect world I might be able to wedge them in, but I suspect I might have to do some light dremmeling to make it work. I'll need to cut out holes in various parts of the key contact board for these as well as the LCD. What I'm hung up on is figuring out the best way to add switches for the key plunger to hit. The plungers end with a carbon pad on a rubbery flexible membrane. So I guess my goal is to find switches that don't require so much actuation force that it pierces the membrane. Worse case scenario I figure I can remove the rubber membrane and glue little hard discs to the ends of the plungers, but I'm thinking if I can pull off using the flexible membrane that will actually be less wear on the switches. The challenge to that is trying to figure out how to best mount the switches and line them up with the keys. On the other hand, I'm wonder if I can actually cut the traces on the original contact board and re-purpose the in place contacts to trigger button signals instead. Anyone know what sorts of components I might need to do that? I'm assuming I can't just direct wire them to the mb-6582. Keys just for trying things, not in correct order: https://goo.gl/photos/1HNUwZq9eGMGJAyk7 Somehow with my year of looking at different midibox sid creations, I missed this guy until yesterday, who did something very similar to what I'm planning except I'm not doing a matrix and plan to have my knobs in the keyboard area:

I'm trying to decide between https://www.arrow.com/en/products/4606x-101-103lf/bourns and https://www.arrow.com/en/products/csc06a0110k0gpa/vishay for the DIN module resistor networks for the MB-6582 (Resistors R30 to R39). The difference is the Temperature Range at Derated Power and the price. The ones that are 9 cents have a temp (C) range at derated power of 70 to 125 vs one's that are 39 cents at 25 to 150. Does it matter or can I get the cheaper ones? Thanks.

There are certainly parts of me that like the idea of going to PacTec route, but there are also some reasons that have me leaning towards the 64C case route. Part of it is nostalgia and part of it is stubbornness because I've already spent money on a couple of 64C cases to get the parts I need (want). There's also the simple control surface vs the complete... I'm leaning towards the simple because of limited space due to me because of how I'm hoping to design it (I want to mount the CS so that its coming up through the keyboard openings instead of covering and also I purchased an old VIC-20 that I'm going to cannibalize the keys from (its got the "Microgramma Extended" key caps that I adore). Of course I could also add some knobs elsewhere too. I've seen some nice looking mods people have done with C64s that are designed to use MSSIAH (and thus need the keyboard in tact). If its not obvious I'm more of a designer than an engineer... which can lead to trouble. :)

I don't suppose its as easy as just changing some values in that file and recompiling, is it? I think I might need to reconsider what I want in a control surface... if I aim too high I might not ever complete this. As much as I'd like to have some built in knobs to tweak stuff, the truth is that I won't be using a device in live stand-alone playing position, I plan to use it with my DAW and thus a lot of things can be controlled via my PC (and I also have an external midi controller with its own knobs I could map). If I decided just to use the Minimum Control Surface with the MB6582, would I still need to edit the code?

Oi, maybe I should stick to modular after all. Most of my coding capabilities are limited to web tech.

Thank you for the advice. I'm going to go with the MB-6582 and hopefully since the 64c case is a little longer than the breadbins I won't have to cut the board. Regarding the code, does the software see the MB-6582 board and make assumptions on the CS or does it just view the board has a collection of modules? I wonder if Modularaddict will start selling programmed PIC chips like SmashTV did or if I'll need to buy/build a programmer.

I've finished building a basic single 6581, Core8, with display, midi i/o, and audio out and now I want to go bigger. At this point I'm thing I'm going to go with a stereo pair of 6581s and a stereo pair of 8580s but I can't decide if I should continue with my modular approach and get another core8 board and 3 more SID boards or if I should instead ditch what I've done so far and go with a MB6585 board. Here are some factors at play: I want to build this inside a 64C case (I already have one) I like the idea of the extra control surfaces that are part of the MB6582 but since the pre-designed control surface board is designed for a PacTec case it won't work with my 64C case, so I'll need to figure something out on my own, but based on the pictures here http://ucapps.de/index.html?page=midibox_sid.html I assume its possible (though I realize that's C64 case and not the 64C case.) I don't care that much about the matrix, so I'm considering leaving that off with the hopes that i might be able to design a control surface small enough that mounts on the under side of the top of the case and pokes up through the keyboard and Fkey holes. I'm not a electronics engineer, the MB-6582 looks little overwhelming, but I figured I got as far as building the above mentioned basic set so hopefully I can handle it and learn as I go along. If possible I'd like to stick with my 2 line display If possible I'd like to continue using 15V power adapter instead of using a C64 power supply. Thoughts and opinions appreciated. Thanks.

I've currently got up and running a single 6582 SID+Core powered by a 15V 1amp AC/DC adapter (in the US). If/when SmashTV gets in more SID boards I'm hoping to expand to another 6582 slaved off the original and an 8580 with its own Core. So two core boards and 3 SID boards (and possibly a 4th SID board and 8580 if I want to go stereo on the 8580, but right now I'm just planning for the 3 SID chips I have on hand.) I'm assuming I need more power than my current supply can put out, but I'm confused on which direction to go for a power source. From what I've read I should stay away from the original C64 PSUs. I saw some guides on building them, but they seem more complicated than building the SID and CORE modules. I saw this switching power supply on Mouser for $16 which has a 12V out and a separate 5V out. http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/260/RD-35-SPEC-806287.pdf Would that work with 5V for the cores and 12V for the SIDs (with I guess some sort of resistor to step down the 12V to 9V for the 8580(s)? Thanks

I hope when he retires he plans to release the board plans to the community so others can get them printed.

Does anyone know if Last Ninja 2 uses any special techniques that won't work asid64?

I tried my other 6581 chip and the results seem to be the same. Is this an issue with ASID player not being able to recreate certain programing techniques?

So there were some tracks that sounded fine and others that had this issue with voice 2 as well. Voice 2 seems fine though when I use it via the Ctrl application.

Though for some reason Last Ninja 2's 2nd voice isn't playing. Commando I think is fine though, so I guess its that one song. Edit: Actually it seems to be fine at first and then the volume moves around, eventually getting really quiet though if you cancel out the other voices it can be heard faintly.

Nevermind, finally got it to work by finding ASID XP to download: https://www.elektron.se/support/?connection=x-sidstation#resources

I'm editing this thread now that I've learned that the SID player is part of the MIDIbox SID app... so I guess I need to troubleshoot why I can't get any .sid files to playback. I'm running Windows 7 64bit. I've tried sidplayer and sidplayer2 with the hardsid.dll in the same folder. Sidplayer lets me select Device 0 but when I play back the file it doesn't seem that anything is getting to the MBSID (MBSIDV2) device. The display continue to show the general Lead patch. With sidplayer2 the hardsid option is completely grayed out and can't be selected. Any thoughts to what piece of the puzzle I'm missing? I feel foolish for posting this, but for the life of me I can't track down the actual hex file/app for "MBHP_SID player" to upload into the MIDIbox SID like this guy is running:

I don't recall this from my youth when using an actual C64... is it just that I wasn't able to amplify it enough back then or were there software tricks used to silence it?

Hi all, so I finally got my MIDIbox SID playing notes yesterday, which was quite exciting, but I did notice that when I pressed a key, after KEY OFF I could still hear the note, albeit much quieter. Here's some video I shot with the issue: Is this what http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid_manual_ki.html is referring to when it says "oscillators are not completely silent once a note has been played"? And when it says its a bug, does that mean all SID 6580 chips do it, or that its random? Note: I haven't connected Audio In to ground, but I assuming not doing that results in noise or a hum and not notes.

I'm trying to find this exact same answer... I wish I could still see the JPG.

Things are going well with my Midibox SID construction... I've finished the CORE board and I'm loading up the SID board, but I've gotten to the point where I"m looking more into how I'm going to wire up things. I have questions and google and search on this forum aren't helping me find answers (not that they aren't there, but I'm having trouble finding them). Anyway, here it goes: LCD Wiring: While both the CORE4d and my LCD use a 16(2x8) pin connector the pin mapping is completely different. I'm wondering what's the best/easiest method for rerouting the wires in the ribbon cable... My thought was either simply cut the cable in half, separate the individual wires, connect the correct wires to each other, solder, and heat shrink them. While the colors repeat twice, the ribbon wires are color coded, so that will help make that less a headache I think. The alternative I though of was to use additional connectors and headers on a piece of stripboard and do the remapping on the board, essentially creating a little conversion board. Buttons Connections: I haven't found a wiring diagram to explain which buttons connect to which pins on the SmashTV DIN board but I did find the assignments in the software code, so I figured I'll create a chart for others in the future who have this question. I do wonder if there is a best practice or something for how to wire up all the ground pins. Do I chain them in someway? MIDI Connector wires: For the 3 wires needed for each of these I thought I might butcher an old floppy drive ribbon cable into 3 wire strips. The gauge of this wire is pretty small, will that be an issue with the MIDI signal? Audio Connector wires: Do I need a specific gauge and/or shielded cable for these connections? Thanks!

Sorry to post in a old thread, but I like that look with the c64 keys... may I ask how you installed and wired them?

I've tried searching these forums and Google in general and I haven't found any significant or clear examples of what you can do with audio input... Is the fact that there don't seem to be any examples of folks running a mic or a guitar into the SID evidence that it doesn't work that well if at all? If there aren't any good applications of using the audio in to manipulate external audio I might skip it and just set up a feedback knob.

I wonder if Wilba would allow someone else to start manufacturing and selling these kits if he doesn't want to anymore.

I'm looking for a sammichSID or Midibox v2 either built, kits, or most of a kit. FWIW, I live in San Francisco, CA USA. Thanks.

I'd love to have one based on the MB6582 but now that I've seen how much it would costs for the panels combined with the unknown situation regarding the boards, I'm thinking I might want to stick with the original modular design. I compose from a DAW and never perform live, so if I want to keep my costs down I think it might make sense for me to build one without a control surface. As for the PIC programming I might try to get them from mikes-elektronikseite.de.

who? smashtv? I got the sense that the MB6582 boards aren't available anymore.