TK.

Hi Yarek, I've no experiences with 1x16 displays, therefore I don't know, if this is the normal behaviour or not. But I can confirm, that if the black blocks are displayed only at the left half, that the LCD characters are propably organized like described above (first 8 characters: first line, following 8 characters: second line), and that this is not caused by a connection error. Without changing the firmware at many places (I cannot tell you exactly, at how many... it's a lot of effort), there is no way to use such a LCD - a 1x16 layout was never taken into account Best Regards, Thorsten.

I think it's better to use polarized caps Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Marcel, link to the layout: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_aout_lc_v1.brd link to orderlist: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_aout_lc_orderlist.txt Yes, the SHX8 board can be used, but there is currently not firmware which supports this combination. And I'm sure that it won't be possible with MBSID or MBFM, but it will be supported by MB64 and MBCV (sooner or later...) Best Regards, Thorsten.

My own MBLC is powered by a cheap switched PSU (5 EUR). after two years of usage it still works great without failures. See also http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_lc/midibox_ng_switching_psu.pdf Best Regards, Thorsten.

The timecode will also be displayed on LCD (in display page #1) - this allows you to check, if Cubase supports this feature. Best Regards, Thorsten.

The PCB: Best Regards, Thorsten.

These are the MIDIbox SID and SEQ made by Julian. Check also his website, where you can find some other SDIY stuff and especially some nice 8bit tunes! :) -> http://www.monome.de

Zu den Encoder-Problemen: vielleicht hilft es schon, wenn Du in mios_tables.inc "MIOS_ENC_MODE_DETENTED" statt "MIOS_ENC_MODE_DETENTED2" eintraegst Ausserdem kann man noch am CS_MENU_ENC_SPEED_VALUE wert in main.src drehen, doch ich wuerde erstmal versuchen, den geeigneten Encoder-Typ herauszufinden. Und noch ein tip: Ich weiss nicht, warum das passieren sollte (evtl. sendet Dein Host Sequencer ein Program Change?), doch wenn es erstmal passiert ist, brauchst Du nicht in das CFG zu gehen. Selektiere einfach beide SIDs gleichzeitig (SID1 druecekn, SID2 druecken, SID2 loslassen, SID1 loslassen), und waehle den Patch direkt auf der Hauptseite an - diese Moeglichkeit klappt uebrigens mit saemtlichen Parameteraenderungen direkt am Control Surface, was im Stereobetrieb sehr angenehm ist :) Gruss, Thorsten.

Hi Knuf, thanks a lot for this input! It seems, that the output impedance of your PC gameport is so high, that the Rx signal level doesn't reach the required TTL low level. I've modified mbhp_midi_gameport.gif (propably you have to push the reload button of your browser to see the change). It's now recommented to remove this resistor, or to replace it by 100k to ensure that MIDI In doesn't get invalid data if the core is not connected to the gameport Best Regards, Thorsten.

should work, but it provides only 8kbyte. All applications which feature BankStick functions always expect at least 32kbyte, but if you are planning to program your own application, this shouldn't be a problem for you Best Regards, Thorsten.

there is only one thing which can cause such an effect, and thats the "brown out reset" unit, which restarts the chip (or holds it in reset state) so long Vdd is less than the selected voltage level. The Bvdd level was ca. 2V before MIOS V1.8, and it is ca. 4.45..4.83V with MIOS V1.8 So, if your PIC is running with MIOS V1.8, there is a high chance that if the PSU is not strong enough, a short voltage drop will cause the reset, and that then the circuit remains in this state due to higher power consumption. I activated this protection mechanism for a good reason, because once the voltage drops below 4.5V, there is a high propability that the BankSticks will be formated unintendionally - therefore a PSU problem cannot be fixed by releasing the protection, but it must be fixed by improving the power connections (or by using a better PSU) A simple way to check if this assumption is the reason for the failure: disable the backlight of your LCD. If this doesn't help, remove also the DOUT module. Is the MBSID running stable under these conditions? Best Regards, Thorsten.

The reason why I recommented to disable interrupts some postings ago was, to find out if a problem is caused by a programming error or not. If you've programmed everything properly (no resource conflicts), this is not required, and debouncing alone helps. The delayed caused by 5 NOPs is not enough, I guess that you need a delay which waits for at least one mS, better 10 mS A proper way to realize such a delay is the use of timers... but I don't have the time to explain you the details, I'm sure that there are informative application notes at the microchip.com website, which explain all the basics! Best Regards, Thorsten.

Could it be, that you forgot to mount the 1k pull-up resistor (R2)? Best Regards, Thorsten.

yes, debouncing is a must, when buttons are connected directly to IO pins and used to trigger events. Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, regardless if the application is running or not, you are always able to overwrite it with the first level bootstrap loader, which is active 2 seconds after power-on. So, just switch off/on the power supply, and start the transfer immediately. This will help. Another point: I would suggest the use of MIOS Studio, where you don't need to change the device ID manually Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi Jan, there are a lot of tips, just search in the forum for "interconnection test" and "interconnection_test" Best Regards, Thorsten.

Please disconnect them all when measuring the voltages - so long the MF module is not controlled by the core, the 74HC595 drive the faders into random directions (or not... or anything randomly happens) Best Regards, Thorsten.

The schematic doesn't show pull-ups at Port B, since this port provides internal pull-ups Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, no, this isn't normal. Sounds, like there is a short circuit somewhere at the board? Are all ICs and connections to motors/core module removed when you are doing this test? Best Regards, Thorsten.

I don't think, that this chip is available. Without datasheet it's difficult to ensure this. Best Regards, Thorsten.

I'm interested! Thanks for the hint, that guitar distortion units are not qualified for synths, I didn't know this - but after I noticed, how difficult it is to find adequate settings for the Reaktor based distorted filter, I believe this! Best Regards, Thorsten.

Finally the JDM replacement is officially released: http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp_burner.html This PIC programmer is not so easy to build compared to the JDM, but it should work much more reliable with newer PC hardware due to the external voltage source. Another advantage is, that the P18 programming software is more up-to-date than IC-Prog, all relevant PIC18F derivatives which will be used in future (PIC18F452, PIC18F4520, PIC18F4620, PIC18F4550) are supported. Sidenote for Newbies: this statement can be found at many places of my website, but I will mention it again to avoid confusion: this module is directed to people who buy blank PIC devices directly from a shop or distributor, and who want to program the MIOS bootstrap loader, or any other firmware into the PIC. If you only plan to build a small number of MIOS based projects, I strongly suggest you to get use of the perfect and inexpensive programming service of Mike or SmashTV! Best Regards, Thorsten.

Hi, today I made some experiments with the CEM3378 again, this time I added a virtual "distorted filter" and a delay module (both are part of the NI Reaktor library)... ...in order to get the typical distorted TB303 sound. Here the result - build your own oppinion, if this sounds like a TB303 or not ;-) http://www.midibox.org/midibox_sid/mbsid_demo12.mp3 (*) I'm wondering if anybody can suggest DIY schematics of analog disturtion units Best Regards, Thorsten. (*) the bassline is inspired from Stember_Rudolf/Logical.sid of the HVSC library

Very nice project and especially a very good documentation! I wished, more people would publish their modifications in this way :) Best Regards, Thorsten. P.S.: moved to the news section - the project deserved it

If somebody wants to try this, here a quick-start: with JSynthLib load the TB303 init patch from the patches/midibox_sid_tb303.patchlib file edit the wavetable sequence: first row *always* controls the accent, gate and slide Accent: bit 0-3 (the right digit) - controls sustain of VCA OSC1, if value >= 8, the note will be accented, which means, note will be played louder (due to the higher sustain value), decay of ENV1/ENV2 will be decreased (for filter, which is normaly only assigned to ENV1), and resonance will be slightly higher. In difference to the original TB303, the VCA sustain has 16 possible values (0...F), but normaly switching between 6 (=no accent) and C (=accent) is enough Gate: bit 4 (if 1, note will be played) Slide: bit 5 (if 1, current note will be hold until next note, portamento will be activated) Examples: 16: plays common note without accent 1C: plays accented note 0C: plays no note, but accent will be set (which means: ENV1/ENV2 decay decreased - nice effects are possible with large envelopes) 36: note will be played with activated slide 3C: note + slide + accent 26: note not played, but slide activated - means: the current note will be the starting point for the slide to the next note, but the current note won't be played (this is something which is very hard to control via MIDI, and which makes TB303 sequencers so special!) Second row defines the note (see also CC# assignment). assigned to OSC1 by default (which is enough for the typical TB303 sound), but can also be assigned to other oscillators, or to all three at the same time Third row: free for use. You can control any CC - or you could play different notes on another oscillator, which results into a very SID like sound. Try also ringmodulation and oscillator synchronization (note that for ringmodulation the triangle waveform must be selected, and that for osc synchronization one oscillator should be heavily detuned) Most important sound parameters: Waveform - Saw/Pulse of course. Pulsewidth should be about 70 for typical TB303 sound, with pulsewidth modulation it sounds more SID like CutOff and Resonance: of course ;-) The range of the cutoff parameter is optimized to the TB303 typical range (I compared this with diversal TB303 emulators) ENV1: most important element to control the sound characteristic depth behaves different in TB303 mode (-> "EnvMod") - the Envelope is only positive (= added to Modulation Target), and the "gain range" goes from 0-127 Attack: normaly not available on a TB303, but can produce great effects Decay: very important - just tweak it during the sequence is played Sustain: should be used to control the CutOff offset Curve: assigned to Decay, try different Curve and Decay values Tip: set CutOff to 0, Resonance to max, start a simple sequence, and change following parameters during runtime: ENV1 Depth, Decay, Curve - change also from Pulse to Saw wave, and back to Pulse Start to change the notes in Wavetable Row #2, and change the Slide/Gate/Sustain in Row #1 Hint for advanced users - for MIDI clock synchronization with a host sequencer the "MIDI Sync: Wavetable/Arp." flag must be set, and the wavetable rate should be set to maximum (127) This is all what I can give you within 10 minutes - any open questions? ;-) Best Regards, Thorsten.